Good morning! Here is today’s summary from Nigerian Newspapers:
1. President Muhammadu Buhari, Friday suspended the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen. Buhari consequently appointed Mr. Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed as acting CJN. Justifying his action, Buhari said he took the decision after receiving an order from the CCT following serious allegations on the CJN.
2. A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos Friday sentenced a former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Administrative Secretary in Kwara State, Mr. Christian Nwosu, and a former INEC official, Mr. Tijani Bashir, to seven years imprisonment. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned them for allegedly accepting bribe from former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke.
3. A Federal High Court in Abuja has ruled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) acted within its powers by refusing to accept the list of candidates for the next general elections from the Zamfara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In a judgment on Friday, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu said it was not the fault of INEC that the APC failed to conduct a valid primary within the period scheduled by INEC.
4. Former Governor of old Anambra State, Senator Jim Nwobodo, Friday, dumped the All Progressives Congress, APC. Nwobodo, who defected to the APC on the wake of the massive defection across the country, has rejoined his former political platform, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. He was conspicuously absent as the All Progressives Congress flagged off its presidential election campaign in the State on Thursday.
5. A former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chief Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), has blasted the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend Walter Onnoghen, as the Chief Justice of Nigeria. Buhari had on Friday suspended Onnoghen and immediately appointed Tanko Mohammed as acting CJN. Agbakoba made it clear that Buhari’s action was the most brazen assault on Nigeria’s constitutional history. He also condemned Mohammed for accepting to be sworn in as an acting CJN.
6. Similarly, Paul Usoro, President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), has slammed President Muhammad’s decision to suspend Walter Onnoghen as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN). In a statement, Usoro described Buhari’s action as an “attempted coup against the Nigerian Judiciary”. He called on Buhari to reverse the suspension and urged “the National Assembly to assert its constitutional authority and powers to stop the development.
7. Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki has described the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Walter Onoghen by President Muhammadu Buhari as a coup against democracy and a deliberate attempt to endanger our hard-won democracy. Saraki, in a statement personally signed by him, stated that the suspension was another act of desperation by President Buhari, saying the president acted outside the provision of the constitution, exercised the powers which he does not have and that this action amounted to gross misconduct.
8. The leadership of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) and Young Progressives Party (YPP), on Friday, merged to form a new coalition known as ‘The Force’. This was confirmed in a statement signed by ANN’s National Chairman, Emmanuel Dania and his YPP counterpart, Comrade Bishop Amakiri. According to both parties, ‘The Force’ is to help salvage Nigeria from those they said have held it hostage for far too long. They promised to present a consensus candidate in a couple of days.
9. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has sent a strong warning to the Federal Government that no party among the tripartite group, can unilaterally change the N30,000 national minimum wage agreed by the committee. President of NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, who briefed the media on Friday said the figure that was agreed by the tripartite committee cannot be changed, hence the Congress rejected the N27,000 included in the National Minimum Wage Bill transmitted by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly.
10. Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank has called on the international community to urgently prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to reverse the ‘’illegal and forceful suspension’’ of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Walter Onnoghen. Frank in an email sent to the United Kingdom (UK), United States of America (USA) and the European Union representatives in Nigeria, on Friday, said Buhari had set a dangerous stage for massive disobedience to law and order, saying that his action “may lead to an unfathomable chaos, anarchy and an imminent descent to a civil war in the country.”
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