The Late 5: As bloody Shi’ites protest continues for 3rd straight day; Buhari meets Wike, 3 other PDP governors behind closed doors | More stories

These are the stories that drove the conversation today:

The clash between members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) and soldiers in Abuja, on Tuesday entered the third day with at least five persons feared dead, a spokesperson for the group, Abdullahi Musa, has said.

Musa explained that the killings occurred “after they repeatedly tried to avoid military attacks” around central parts of the Federal Capital Territory. “I will just say that the people attacking us have presidential directive that is why these attacks are inevitable. We had announced that we will undertake an annual religious trek. We had also said that we will start from outside Abuja and end in Abuja,”  he told Premium Times.

Similarly, Amnesty International has blamed the government for the total outcome of the protest,  saying “fatalities as a result of soldiers use of maximum force in confrontation with IMN protesters demonstrates that the security forces were not seeking to maintain public order but to murder.”


President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday described the recent killings in Kaduna as “unacceptable,” saying Kaduna must not earn itself a new name as “home of violence.’’

Speaking during a visit to victims of the recent clashes in the state, Buhari assured that the Federal Government will take the strongest measures possible to punish perpetrators of the recurring killings in Kaduna, adding that those who were used to going scot free after such killings, must now answer for their crimes.

The president further noted that individuals and communities must respect the rights of others to live wherever they chose, worship freely and pursue lawful livelihood anywhere in this country. “We shall now hold everyone to account for these latest killings,’’ he stressed.


Meanwhile on his return from Kaduna, President Buhari met behind closed doors with four governors of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from the South-South geo-political zone at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

As reported by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN),the meeting between Governors Nyesom Wike of Rivers, Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa, Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta and Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom was not unconnected with Wednesday’s verdict by the Supreme Court on the oil-bearing states of the Niger Delta.

The judgement mandated the Federal Government to adjust the shares of the revenue accruable to the federation whenever the price of crude oil exceeded $20 per barrel.


The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has dismissed reports that it was planning to review the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol.

Spokesman of the corporation, Ndu Ughamadu, who disclosed this in a statement in Abuja, on Tuesday, said that though NNPC, since October, 2017, had been the sole importer of PMS into the country, government had no plan to review the market prices of products either upwards or downwards now.

“The Federal Government has no plan to review prices of white products either downwards or upwards,’’ he said.


Pan-Yoruba Socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has suspended the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the September 22 Osun governorship election, Senator Iyiola Omisore, having aligned with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to win the rerun election in Ife South and North Local Government Areas of  the state.

According to a communique issued at the end of the monthly meeting of the group, held in Akure, Ondo, his action was said to have gone against the position of his party, the SDP and the Afenifere, earning him the suspension for one year.

“The meeting took a decision to suspend Senator Iyiola Omisore for one year for violating Afenifere’s directive which affected the outcome of Osun election,” a chieftain of the group, Chief Korede Duyile read.


And stories from around the world:

United States President, Donald Trump has vowed to end the automatic right to citizenship for children born in the US to non-citizens, saying that he could enact the change by signing an executive order.

“We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States,” he said. “It’s ridiculous. And it has to end,” Trump said in an interview with Axios. (BBC)


Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday called on Saudi Arabia’s chief prosecutor to find out who ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and not spare “certain people” in his investigation. (AFP)


German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged on Tuesday a new development fund to tackle unemployment in Africa, a problem spurring the mass migration that has shaped her long premiership as it nears its end. (Reuters)


Australia is to expect a “very negative reaction” from Indonesia if it follows the United States by moving its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a former prime minister warned on Tuesday. (Al Jazeera)


Denmark said on Tuesday it suspected an Iranian intelligence service had tried to carry out a plot to assassinate an Iranian Arab opposition figure on its soil. (Reuters)

 

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