IMO BREAKING NEWS BLOG

The Senate, on Wednesday, set up a committee to dialogue with protesting unions who broke down the National Assembly Complex first gate. The protesters in their hundreds had marched from the Unity Fountain in Abuja to the NASS Complex in demonstration against the “anti-poor” people policies of the President Bola Tinubu administration. Upon their arrival at the NASS Complex, the protesters pull down the first gate of the Complex and marched to the premises.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio immediately entered into a closed-door session with the lawmakers and upon his emergence from the meeting said the red chamber has set up a three-man committee to meet with the protesters at the National Assembly. The committee was led by Senate Chief Whip, Ali Ndume, from Borno South Senatorial District. The Senate also resolved that it will in the shortest possible time meet with the NLC and TUC leadership to find an amicable resolution to the current impasse.

Ndume alongside two other lawmakers — Senator Ireti Kingibe and Senator Tony Nwonye — later met with the protesters at the National Assembly. The Senators were seen engaging Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, Joe Ajaero; and his Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterpart, Festus Osifo. The Organised Labour including the NLC, the TUC and their affiliate unions, today, kicked off a protest in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, and other states of the Federation including Lagos, Abia, Plateau, Kaduna, Kano, Rivers, Zamfara, Katsina, Cross River, Ebonyi, Enugu, Kwara, Ogun, Imo, Ondo, and Edo. 

Tinubu had removed subsidy on petrol during his epic inauguration speech on May 29, 2023, with a litre of the petrol jumping from N184 to over N620 and food prices and general inflation galloping at an unprecedented rate.

West African military chiefs were to meet Wednesday to frame a response to the crisis in Niger, a week after the fragile country was shaken by a coup that alarmed its neighbours and prompted France, the former colonial power, to evacuate its citizens.

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) leaders on Sunday imposed trade and financial sanctions and gave the coup leaders a week to reinstate Niger’s democratically elected president or face potential use of force. ECOWAS military chiefs were to launch a three-day meeting in the Nigerian capital Abuja, coinciding with a visit to Niamey by a delegation led by former Nigerian president Abdulsalami Abubakar, sources said.

The current chair of ECOWAS is Nigeria, West Africa’s military and economic superpower. It has vowed to take a firm line against coups that have proliferated across the region since 2020, most of them the outcome of a bloody jihadist insurgency. “We are ready, and as soon as we receive the order to intervene, we will do so,” Nigeria’s chief of staff Christopher Musa said in an interview on RFI Hausa on Monday.

But junta-ruled Mali and Burkina Faso warned that any military intervention in their neighbour would be tantamount to a “declaration of war” against them. General Salifou Mody, one of the Nigerien coup leaders, arrived with a delegation in the Malian capital Bamakou on Wednesday, a senior Nigerien official and a Malian security official told AFP. They did not give further details.

Mody is a former army chief of staff who was fired by President Mohamed Bazoum in April.

Former Italy goalkeeper and World Cup winner Gianluigi Buffon has retired from football aged 45. He wrote on social media: "That's all folks. You gave me everything. I gave you everything. We did it together."

Buffon brings an end to a 28-year career that saw him lift the World Cup in 2006 along with 10 Serie A titles with Juventus and Ligue 1 with Paris St-Germain. He ends his career where it began in 1995, at Parma, now a Serie B club. Buffon, who had a deal with Parma until 2024, made 19 appearances last season as he struggled with injuries.

He began his career at Parma's academy and made his Serie A debut for the club in November 1995 before joining Juventus in 2001, where he spent most of his career, despite a stint at PSG in 2018-19.

He made a record 657 appearances in the Italian top flight and is the most-capped goalkeeper of all time with 176 appearances for Italy.

Presidential spokesman, Dele Alake, says he will support the strengthening of social media regulations if appointed Minister of Information and Culture by President Bola Tinubu. Alake, from Ekiti State, is one of the 28 ministerial nominees of Tinubu for screening. He appeared before the red chamber on the third consecutive day (Wednesday) of the exercise.

Alake was a Commissioner of Information and Strategy in Lagos State when Tinubu was governor of the state from May 1999 to May 2007. Tinubu previously appointed Alake as his spokesman and later as a ministerial nominee.

Responding to questions from lawmakers on Wednesday, Alake advocated value reorientation from the family level to the national level. “I will support serious attitudinal change if I find myself in office responsible to attitudinal change,” he told the lawmakers. “On social media regulation, there is some concern, not just here but all over the world but particularly in our environment about the pernicious nature of the social media or the effect.”

Alake said there are the positive and negative sides of the social media, however, “the downside of social media is that it is detrimental to a good and decent society”. “What I would support is the strengthening of regulations,” the nominee from Ekiti State noted.

West Africa’s regional bloc on Wednesday said a military intervention in junta-ruled Niger was “the last resort” as Nigeria cut electricity supplies to intensify pressure on the country’s coup leaders. As ex-colonial power France sent in a fifth plane to evacuate its citizens, coup leader General Abdourahamane Tiani insisted they had no reason to quit the country.

Joining the departures, the United States ordered a partial evacuation of its embassy in Niamey. West African military chiefs were meeting in Nigeria’s capital Abuja to frame a response while a delegation was in Niger for negotiations, a week after the coup that shook the fragile nation.

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) leaders on Sunday imposed trade and financial sanctions, giving the coup leaders a week to reinstate Niger’s democratically elected president or face the possible use of force. “(The) military option is the very last option on the table, the last resort, but we have to prepare for the eventuality,” said Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs, peace and security.

An ECOWAS team headed by former Nigerian leader Abdulsalami Abubakar was in Niger for talks, he added at the start of a three-day meeting of the grouping’s military chiefs in Abuja. West Africa’s pre-eminent military and economic power Nigeria, the current chair of ECOWAS, has vowed a firm line against coups that have proliferated across the region since 2020.

A source in Niger’s power company, Nigelec, said Nigeria had cut electricity to its neighbour as a result of the sanctions.

Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, depends on Nigeria for 70 percent of its power. Junta-ruled Mali and Burkina Faso have warned any military intervention in their neighbour would be tantamount to a “declaration of war” against them.

Chelsea 1-1 Borussia Dortmund: Mauricio Pochettino hopes Christopher Nkunku injury is not "big issue"

Boss Mauricio Pochettino hopes an injury suffered by striker Christopher Nkunku is not a "big issue" as Chelsea drew 1-1 with Borussia Dortmund to end their pre-season US tour undefeated. Mason Burstow scored a 90th-minute equaliser for Chelsea after Marius Wolf gave Dortmund the lead in Chicago.

£52m signing Nkunku, 25, went off in the 22nd minute after appearing to injure his knee when he was tackled. The pitch at Chicago's Soldier Field was in poor condition. Areas were patchy and worn after the stadium, home to the NFL's Chicago Bears, was used for an Ed Sheeran concert attended by 73,000 people last weekend. "The doctors are checking him," explained Pochettino, who felt the tackle which forced Nkunku off "maybe" should have resulted in a penalty.

"He had the chance to score but he feels something in his knee. "Hopefully it is not a big issue and that he can be quick with the team. We need a few days to assess him and until we get back to London it is difficult to know. "Always we take some risks because the pitch is not perfect as they are using it for different sports and that is sometimes the risk of the tour.

"I think it was a bit unlucky in the situation but we cannot complain about the pitch and to blame the pitch for why he suffered the injury. For me, it was bad luck."