Nigerian Newspapers: 10 things you need to know this Wednesday morning

Good morning! Here is today’s summary from Nigerian Newspapers:

1. The police have said they will launch a manhunt for politicians procuring Permanent Voter Cards for the purpose of rigging the 2023 general elections. This came as the Independent National Electoral Commission vowed that anyone caught buying or selling PVCs would be arrested and prosecuted, warning politicians and political parties that it would not condone any illegal acts.

2. A Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin and presided over by Justice Ibrahim Yusuf on Tuesday sentenced two students, Abdulazeez Ismail and Ajala Oluwatimileyin, to death for the murder of a 300-level undergraduate of the University of Ilorin, Blessing Olajide. Olajide was raped and killed by the duo on June 2, 2021, at her sister’s house in the Tanke area of Ilorin, Kwara State.

3. Two yet-to-be-identified hoodlums in Kafin Madaki, headquarters of Ganjuwa Local Government Area of Bauchi State, have removed one of the eyes of a 12-year-old student. It was gathered that the victim, Najib Hussaini, an indigene of Kano State, came to Kafin Madaki to acquire Quranic education.

4. Mr. Bala Wunti, chief upstream investment officer, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petrolum Company Limited (NNPC Limited), has said that the problem of oil theft has reduced owing to efforts of the government agency. In a TV interview yesterday, he outlined the measures so far implemented in curbing crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism.

5. Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, yesterday, said he has no political axe to grind with the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. He explained that the lingering crisis in the PDP, often linked to him, had to do with demand from southern stakeholders that Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, national chairman, who hails from the north relinquish his position to a southerner.

6. About 14 people and 22 cows were reportedly killed in a ghastly accident along Koko-Jega road in Kebbi State. The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Kebbi State, Nafiu Abubakar, confirmed this in a statement made available to newsmen in Birnin Kebbi, yesterday.

7. Nigerian football legend, Sunday Oliseh, yesterday, tipped Morocco to go all the way and win the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar on Sunday. The FIFA technical expert further described this tournament as the best tournament Africa has ever experienced after Morocco became the first-ever African nation to reach the semi-finals of a World Cup.

8. The House of Representatives has ordered the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and other regulatory agencies to end the lingering fuel scarcity in one week to ease the suffering of Nigerians. The order followed the adoption of motion of urgent public importance by Sa’idu Musa Abdullahi (APC, Niger) at plenary on Tuesday.

9. Senator Abdullahi Adamu, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has declared that the party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor. Adamu who declared this at the North West Presidential Campaign rally of the APC in Kaduna on Tuesday, said the flood of human beings that attended the rally showed the popularity of the party.

10. Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has asked ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar not to blame President Muhammadu Buhari for the raging insurgency. At his campaign outing in Abuja at the weekend, Atiku, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in 2023 presidential election, had expressed surprise over the continued existence of Boko Haram.