1.
President Muhammadu Buhari has met with Gambia’s President Adama Barrow at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Nigeria played a key role in ousting former President Yahya Jammeh, who had refused to accept results of the election he lost in 2016. As The Gambia goes to the polls next year, the President pledged Nigeria’s support to Gambia in different ways possible.
2.
The UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs has voted to reclassify cannabis by removing it from a category of the world’s most dangerous drugs. The 53 member states of the Vienna-based UN agency voted 27-25, with one abstention.
3.
Heavy gunshots on Thursday rocked the old parade ground in Abuja, venue of the national convention of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). No fewer than 20 students sustained wounds from gunshots and machete after thugs loyal to a factional coordinator of the association in Zone D (Southwest) began attacking delegates.
4.
The Defence Headquarters has dismissed the claim by the Boko Haram terrorists that the recent massacre of rice farmers in Borno was retaliation for the arrest of one of them. Mr Enenche said the claim was the practice of the sect with the sole motive of instigating fear in the minds of the people to discourage them from cooperating with the security agencies.
5.
The Federal government says it is now more determined to put additional satellites in the orbit to enhance the realization of its developmental agenda for space technology. Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu said his ministry will continue to do the best it can to ensure that additional satellites are put in the orbit that will help in the direction the nation is going.
6.
Nigeria has been listed among five countries to benefit from a five year, $31.5 million Cooperative Agreement awarded to the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). In a Press release signed and made available to newsmen, USAID stated that Nigeria would receive a total of $6 million in funding.
7.
The three suspected bombers who allegedly detonated a dynamite at the church attended by Elder Wike, father of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike at Azikiwe Street in Diobu, Port Harcourt have confessed that they carried out the actions to gain prominence within the ranks of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB. The suspects said their leaders promised to give them juicy positions when Biafra is restored if they succeed in carrying out the action.
8.
The Federal High Court, Abuja, has sacked Prof. Kemebradikumo Pondei, Mr Cairo Ojougboh, Dr Joi Nunieh and others from functioning on the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC). Justice Ahmed Mohammed, in a ruling on an application by a Civil Society Organization, Forum for Accountability and Good Governance restrained them from parading themselves as Board members of the NDDC.
9.
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Thursday, urged Nigerians to hold President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC responsible for the spates of killings in different parts of the country. In a statement issued by the spokesman of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party recalled “how the APC chieftain, as opposition leaders in the APC as well the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, allegedly showed sympathy to terrorists and took steps that frustrated genuine efforts by the then PDP government to fight terrorism.”
10.
An attack by bandits in the Gwaram community, Talatan Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State has left the village head dead and eight others abducted. Zamfara State Police Command spokesperson Superintendent Shehu Mohammed said one of the abducted victims is the wife of the District head, Musa Makeri, who is also the former ward chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
