These are the stories you should be monitoring today:
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has berated President Muhammadu Buhari over his comments about Nigerians migrants seeking to enter Europe illegally through the desert and the Mediterranean, during the visit of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel to Nigeria.
In a statement on Saturday by it’s spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party said the statement to the German Chancellor “that Nigerians caught up in their attempt to illegally enter Europe, are on their own, further exposes him as an insensitive leader, who cares less about the plights of his compatriots,”
“While the PDP does not, in any way, support illegal migrations, our party holds that such does not warrant incendiary statement against our citizens by no less a person than the President, who should be seeking for ways to solve the problem,” it added.
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar on Saturday disagreed with the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, on his statement that Nigeria’s problem is not “restructuring” but prudent management of her resources.
Atiku who disclosed this in a series of tweets, expressed “surprise that the Vice President would take such a position and, in particular, fail to appreciate the connection between Nigeria’s defective structure and its under performance,” adding that “it is unhelpful to reduce the construct of “Restructuring” to a geographical concept as VP Osinbajo does.”
“Restructuring is not just about the devolution of powers to the states, it is about transforming the respective roles of the federal, state and local governments to perform more efficiently in matters of territorial as well as economic governance,” he said.
The United Nations has said it will provide assistance to no fewer than 6.1 million people affected by the Boko Haram crisis in the North-East before the end of 2018.
UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Edward Kallon, stated this at a conference in New York, as he said that Nigeria was still facing a crisis of global magnitude, stressing that 10.2 million people were affected in three states in North-East Nigeria, and 7.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.
He added: “Our 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan was developed to provide assistance for 6.1 million people requiring slightly above a billion dollars in 2018,” just as the Federal Government says it has developed a $6.7bn robust plan of action for the reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement of the North-East, devastated by Boko Haram activities.
The Nigerian Army has reacted to media reports that at least 30 soldiers were killed in an attack by Boko Haram terrorists at Zari, Borno on Thursday.
Spokesman for the Theatre Command, Operation Lafiya Dole, Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu, who reacted to the report, although confirmed the attack, denied that the Army suffered casualties as he said contrary to the report, several of the terrorists were killed by the military troops and their terrorists’ equipment were captured.
“That information is not correct. Our troops deployed few kilometres away from the location, countered the attack.” Colonel Nwachukwu said.
“On our side, I’m yet to receive casualty figure on my desk, if there was any. So, I cannot confirm that we had (any) and I think it’s very untrue for anyone to (say we had that casualty figure),” he added.
The Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara before the recent defection of some APC members to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Ishola Fulani-Balogun, says he remains the chairman of the party in the state.
Balogun in disclosing this in an interview with Punch, said he has an injunction that restraining the caretaker committee chairman by the National Working Committee (NWC) Bashir Bolarinwa from parading himself as the caretaker committee chairman of the party in the state until the case is determined.
“How can you say because someone defected, all the executive members of the party have defected? I remember in Benue and Sokoto, the state governors, Samuel Ortom and Aminu Tambuwal, respectively, defected from the APC to the PDP. The executives of the party were not dissolved. So, why should it be different in Kwara State?” he said.
“For me, they are just making assumptions,” he added.
And stories from around the world:
The US military says it is cancelling $300m (£230m) in aid to Pakistan over what it calls Islamabad’s failure to take action against militant groups. (BBC)
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday there was no need to keep Canada in the North American Free Trade Agreement and warned Congress not to meddle with the trade negotiations or he would terminate the trilateral trade pact altogether. (Reuters)
A majority of Brazil’s top electoral court shot down late Friday the candidacy of popular leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the country’s upcoming presidential vote, telling the jailed former leader he cannot participate in October’s critical election. (AFP)
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed confidence in improving ties with China and said the countries’ relationship had returned to a “normal track”, in a newspaper interview published on Sunday. (Reuters)
Syria has denied reports that a series of blasts at a military airport near Damascus on Sunday were from Israeli air strikes, state media say.
The loud blasts, reported at the Mezzeh airport, were caused by an explosion at a munitions dump, Sana news agency said, citing Syrian military sources. (BBC)
Read » The Big 5: Buhari’s comment on Nigerian migrants insensitive – PDP; Atiku tackles Osinbajo in restructuring debate | More stories on YNaija
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