Today's Headlines: EFCC Places Obaseki On Watch List, Villagers Flee As Gunmen Kill Many In Benue

News Source: Punch Newspapers

Former Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, is on the watch list of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, The PUNCH has learnt.

This is just as our correspondent gathered that the anti-graft agency had commenced an investigation into transactions, including contracts awarded during his tenure as the governor of Edo State.

Obaseki, who bowed out of office on November 12 after an eight-year tenure, had said the EFCC planned to arrest him soon after stepping out of office.

His successor, Monday Okpebholo, has just established a 14-member State Assets Verification Committee to investigate his tenure.

News Source: Daily Trust

Residents of several villages in Katsina-Ala and Logo local government areas of Benue State yesterday fled their homes after gunmen killed many persons during a raid.

Sources in the affected communities said at least 30 people were gunned down and many others injured.

The villages, which were invaded on Sunday and in the wee hours of yesterday, had been attacked several times by local militias in the past.

Locals said 10 bodies were recovered from different Katsina-Ala villages; while 20 deaths were recorded in Logo area bringing the total number of casualties to 30.

News Source: Punch Newspapers

Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has urged the Nigerian Army to end the alleged harassment and humiliation of travellers at military checkpoints across the state.

There were reports that travellers are often forced to disembark from their vehicles and cross checkpoints on foot, sometimes with their hands raised, while trucks conveying traders are allowed to pass freely with passengers on board.

Addressing the issue after Monday’s State Executive Council meeting held at the governor’s Nvosi country home, the Security Adviser to the Governor, McDonald Ubah, revealed that Otti has warned security agents against such practices.

News Source: Vanguard Newspapers

Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe has expressed his belief that Nigeria would have fared better if Peter Obi, the Labour Party candidate in the 2023 presidential election, had emerged victorious.

Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, Abaribe, who represents Abia South in the Senate, criticised what he described as nepotism under President Bola Tinubu’s administration, asserting that such tendencies would have been absent under an Obi presidency.

“If Peter Obi had won, you probably would have seen a better Nigeria than what we are seeing today,”

Abaribe stated. “Number one, he would not be as nepotistic as this government, he won’t, it’s not in him. That is just who we are, we feel for the other people.”

To support his claims, Abaribe questioned the President’s decision to appoint four ministers from Ogun State while many other states have just one representative, describing it as an example of entrenched favoritism.

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