Good morning Nigeria, welcome to Naija News roundup of top newspapers headlines in Nigeria for today, Wednesday, 8th September 2021
1. Buhari Gives Service Chiefs Fresh Order Against Bandit Terrorists
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the country’s Service Chiefs to urgently deal with bandit terrorists, who are becoming a nuisance to the country.
Speaking with State House correspondents, Minister of Defense, General Bashir Magashi, said the President gave the order on Tuesday, during a security meeting with the service chiefs at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Magashi said President Buhari has directed the service chiefs to deal with bandits and Boko Haram insurgents ruthlessly and find tactics to solve the security challenges in the country.
He said the President particularly ordered the service chiefs to stop the incessant attacks and abduction of residents in the North-West and North Central.
The minister stated that the President outrightly condemned the killing of Nigerians by bandits and their reckless pronouncements to solicit attention.
2. Appointments: Buhari Has Been Fair To The South – Presidency
President Muhammadu Buhari has been fair to the South with his recent appointments, the Presidency has said.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Ajuri Ngelale, stated this on Tuesday during an appearance on Arise Television’s ‘Morning Show’.
According to Ngelale, 55 percent of the President’s appointments have gone to the South, with the South-West getting the lion share of the slot.
He stated that opposition members and critics of the President have tried as much as possible to paint with him an ethnic brush due to the fact that he comes from the North.
Ngelale added that the same people always put ethnic colouration into issues and create ethnic blackmail on developmental projects in the country.
3. Bandits Are Terrorists And Should Be Treated As Such – Akeredolu Declares
The Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu has said bandits operating in Nigeria are nothing short of terrorists and should be addressed as such.
He said the activities of these bandit terrorists have made people live in constant fear of the unknown because they feel unsafe in their own land due to the rising insecurity caused by these criminals.
The Ondo Governor, however, added that government at all levels in Nigeria must devise means to make the nation safe as this is the only way to encourage growth and development and no country grows amidst insecurity.
Akeredolu made the submissions in Akure the state capital when he received members of the Governing Board of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) led by the Chairman, Ambassador Godknows Boladie Igali in his office.
4. Imo State Govt Ignores IPOB Threat, Says It Is Ready To Receive President Buhari
The government of Imo State has declared that all is in order and plans to receive President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday are on track.
The Imo State Commissioner for Infomation, Declan Emelumba who gave the assurance on Tuesday said all necessary things are been done to receive the President safely and warmly.
Naija News reports that President Buhari is scheduled for a working visit to the southeastern state on Thursday but ahead of the planned visit, the Nnamdi Kanu-led Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has reportedly declared Thursday, September 9, 2021, as sit-at-home in Imo State.
The directive was made known in a broadcast on Monday evening by IPOB-HDOS, Mazi Chika Edoziem.
The proscribed pro-Biafra group stated that Buhari is not “welcomed into Imo State, Biafra Land on Thursday, 9th September 2021.”
But on Tuesday, Emelumba told journalists in Owerri, the state capital that all arrangements are in top gear to receive the President on Thursday.
He added that during the visit, President Buhari will commission projects executed by the administration of Governor Hope Uzodinma in Imo over the past 18 months.
5. Yoruba Nation: Why I Left Nigeria For Benin Republic – Akintoye
Leader of the Yoruba self-determination group, Ilana Omo Oodua, Prof. Banji Akintoye, has revealed the reason he left Nigeria and fled to Benin Republic.
In an interview with BBC News Yoruba on Tuesday, the Emeritus Professor said he left Nigeria due to reports that the Muhammadu Buhari government is planning to arrest and assassinate him.
Akintoye stated that some Yoruba elders advised him and Prof. Wale Adeniran to leave Nigeria to avoid getting killed.
He stated that his group has not been violent neither did it get involved in the shedding of blood, adding that his group has a strong conviction that Nigeria is not for Yorubas.
Akintoyed stated his only crime is championing the cause for the secession of the Yoruba Nation and not preaching the violent breakup of the country.
6. NJC To Investigate Three Judges Over Conflicting Court Orders
The National Judicial Council (NJC) is set to investigate three State Chief Judges over the issuance of conflicting court orders.
Naija News reports that the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, had met with seven Heads of Courts on Monday in Abuja.
The CJN met with Chief Judges of Rivers, Kebbi, Cross River, Anambra, Jigawa and Imo States over conflicting court orders emanating from their courts of co-ordinate jurisdictions.
CJN Tanko also met with the FCT chief judge separately before meeting the rest.
But in a statement on Monday by the NJC’s Director of Information, Soji Oye, said the CJN met with the seven State Chief Judges for over six hours.
7. IPOB Lawyer Heads To Court Over Nnamdi Kanu’s Health, Demand ₦5b
The presence of security agents caused tensions in Abia State, on Tuesday, as Aloy Ejimakor, a lawyer of the leader of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu, approached the court over the pro-Biafra activist’s health.
It was gathered that due to the appearance of Ejimakor at the court, security agents, which include military, police, and other agencies, had cordoned off the premises of the court.
This led to fear among residents and road users in Umuahia, the state capital.
Nnamdi Kanu’s lawyer had filed an exparte order asking the court to make an interim order of release of Kanu to attend to his health in any medical facility of his choice in Nigeria, pending the hearing of the motion, amongst other things
He asked the court for the substitution service on the motion on notice third and fourth respondents.
Ejimakor also asked that Nnamdi Kanu be returned to Kenya where he was “abducted”, and subsequently Britain his country of abode before the federal government would apply for his repatriation.
He demanded an apology from the federal government and ₦5 billion damages for the violation of his Fundamental Rights.
8. Buhari Lauds Saudi Arabia’s Sacrifices For Nigeria
President Muhammadu Buhari has stated that oil-rich Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been very kind to Nigeria by making sacrifices that enabled Nigeria earn more from crude oil sales.
Buhari said this on Tuesday while receiving the Saudi Arabian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince Faisal Bin Farhan Al-Saud, at State House, Abuja.
He said with Nigeria’s large population and infrastructural deficit, the country needed all the revenue she could get from oil, a mainstay of the economy, “and Saudi Arabia has been very kind to us, making sacrifice by reducing production to accommodate us a number of times”.
The President, in a statement issued by his spokesman, Femi Adesina, said the relationship between the two countries was very strong “and dates back in time, both at the personal and national levels.” He added that “it is long and steadfast”.
9. JAMB Preferential Treatment Making Northern Candidates Lazy, Unproductive – El-Rufai
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has accused the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) of giving preferential treatment to northern candidates but called on the organization to stop.
El-Rufai said the board usually gives a lower cut-off mark to candidates from the northern region for admission to tertiary institutions.
He however for the sake of maintaining standards in the nation’s education sector said such practice must stop and all candidates must be treated equally.
According to him, the preferential treatment has been counterproductive as it has made northerners lazy, hence the need for JAMB to stop the act.
In his view, the sense of entitlement has made such candidates less productive and unable to compete both locally and internationally.
10. Afghanistan: Taliban Names New Leader, Deputy, Others
Taliban on Tuesday named Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund as the leader of their new government in Afghanistan.
Naija News reports that this was made know by the spokesperson of the group, Zabihullah Mujahid at a press conference.
According to Mujahid, Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar will be the deputy leader.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, was declared the new acting Interior Minister.
Hassan Akhund, the new prime minister, served as deputy foreign minister from 1996 to 2001, when the group were last in power.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, the acting interior minister, is head of the militant group known as the Haqqani network who are affiliated with the Taliban and have been behind some of the deadliest attacks in the country’s two-decade-long war.
Those are the top Nigerian newspapers headlines for today. Read more Nigerian news on Naija News. See you again tomorrow.
This article was originally published on Naija News