Good morning! Here is today’s summary from Nigerian Newspapers:
1. The Presidency has denied claims that President Muhammadu Buhari may seek to amend the constitution in order to stay in office beyond 2023. The Presidency described the speculation as internet-based gossip and un-informed media commentary.
2. President Muhammadu Buhari will depart Abuja on Wednesday on a three-day State Visit to the Republic of South Africa. This is following an invitation by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
3. The Federal Government has said that trade relations between Nigeria and South Africa, including security and compensation for victims of xenophobic attacks, will be top priorities during President Muhammadu Buhari’s state visit to South Africa.
4. The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has blasted President Muhammadu Buhari, describing his Independence Day broadcast as an insult on the psyche of Nigerians. The party said the broadcast was a mockery of the nation’s integrity as an independent state. The PDP said Buhari’s speech was completely unpresidential, lacking in patriotic stance and replete with manifest inconsistencies, contradictions, paradoxes and false performance claims.
5. The Presidency on Tuesday gave reasons President Muhammadu Buhari did not keep his promise to present the 2020 budget to the National Assembly in the third week of September. It also said Buhari, who is billed for South Africa on Wednesday, would present the budget next week.
6. The Nigeria Extractive Industries and Transparency Initiative has said that the Federal Government diverted N543.63bn for Natural Resources Development to fund the Independent National Electoral Commission and budget deficits. The diverted fund was also used to fund national security, and Nigeria Armed Forces, among others.
7. A former Minister of Special Duties and Inter-governmental Affairs, and an ally of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, Kabiru Turaki (SAN), is under probe for alleged N20bn fraud. This was confirmed by a court document filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
8. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested four officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission in Zamfara State for alleged conspiracy, breach of trust and criminal diversion of ad hoc staff allowance to the tune of N84.6 million. The commission said that those grilled include the Administrative Secretary, Hassan Aliyu, Head of Operations, Hussain Jafar, State Accountant, Abdullahi Abubakar and Abdulmumin Usman
9. The All Progressives Congress National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has predicted a better future for Nigeria, saying what the country had overcome in the past had given the confidence and courage to believe that it can achieve even more. This is contained in his message to the nation on the occasion of the 59th independence anniversary.
10. Supreme Court bailiff, Ekoja Paul has accused President Muhammadu Buhari and his lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun of evading service of the apex court processes. The bailiff in the affidavit dated September 4, claimed that he was at the presidential villa in Aso Rock to serve Buhari with a notice of appeal and record of appeal filed by Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate in the last election, but that his efforts were aborted by the presidential security guards who allegedly denied him access to effect service on the president as required by law.
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