These are the stories that drove the conversation today:

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) says it will on Monday kick off its campaign ahead of the February 16,2019 Presidential election in the ancient city of Sokoto, North-West Nigeria, with a commitment to focus on issues of governance.

According to the Director, Media and Publicity of the Presidential Campaign Council,  Kola Ologbondiyan, the campaign will engage the electorate on fundamental challenges affecting the nation as spelt out in the policy document of the party’s Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

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The All Progressives Congress (APC ) has described as amusing, the latest utterances of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman, Uche Secondus calling on the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Yakubu Mahmoud and the Inspector General of Police, Idris Ibrahim to resign on account of the PDP’s baseless suspicions ahead of the 2019 General Elections.

National Publicity Secretary of the party,  Lanre Issa-Onilu who disclosed this in a statement in Abuja, said that it had become apparent that the PDP in a bid to hide their inadequacies and undesirability as elections approaches has chosen to populate the public space with unfounded allegations, while asking relevant government agencies to monitor the activities of the party whose recent utterances it (the APC) says are a red flag.

“This latest outburst is yet another reminder of how the PDP government serially abused state institutions in the pursuit of selfish political and economic interests. PDP is now being haunted by its sordid past and the ruinous party is now scampering from its own shadow,” the statement added.

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The Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has deployed 2,000 more police personnel to the North East to fight Boko Haram terrorists under the Operation Lafiya Dole of the Nigerian Army.

As contained in a statement released on Sunday in Abuja by Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, the deployment of the police personnel consistent with Section 4 of the Police Act and Regulations, was purely for military duties and in addition to the officers already in Borno State, noting that the recently deployed security operatives comprise personnel of the Police Mobile Force (PMF) and Counter Terrorism Units (CTU), as well as those of the Force and the Sniffer Dog Sections.

“The deployment is also to support the strength of the military to defeat the Boko Haram insurgency,” he added.

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Similarly, the Nigerian Army on Sunday challenged its Special Forces to prove that they have better training and tactics than terrorists by making a difference in the ongoing counter-terrorism operations in the North East.

Addressing the Armed Forces Special Forces and Army Strike Group deployed in the North-East on Sunday, Chief of Army of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, who gave the charge warned the troops against exhibiting cowardice, stressing that the terrorists must no longer be allowed the freedom to move about and commit heinous crime and escape.

“We are better trained, better equipped. We know tactics better than them and what is remaining for us is to dominate everywhere and dominate our areas of responsibilities. We must dominate the whole of the North-East,’’ he added.

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Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA) and the Independent Petroleum Products Importers (IPPIs) have given the federal government a seven-day ultimatum to settle outstanding debts totalling N800 billion, failing which depots would cease operation across the country.

Speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday, Patrick Etim, Legal Adviser to IPPI, said that banks have taken over investments and assets of oil marketers over unpaid debts, adding that “the only way to salvage the situation is for government to pay the oil marketers the outstanding debts through cash option instead of promissory note being proposed.

Executive Secretary of DAPPMA, Olufemi Adewole, who also confirmed the seven-day ultimatum notice, said that the oil marketers on November 28 served the ultimatum letter on the Debt Management Office (DMO), Minister of Finance, Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream, Department of State Services (DSS) and Minister of State, Petroleum Resources.

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