Headlines
Buhari Ends London Medical Trip, Returns to Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari, on Friday night, returned to Abuja from his routine medical trip to London, the United Kingdom.
Buhari’s aircraft arrived at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport on Friday evening.
Buhari had left the country for a two-week medical trip on Sunday, March 6.
The president who was earlier scheduled to leave for London from Nairobi, Kenya, where he attended the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Environmental Programme, changed course when he returned to Abuja on Friday, March 4.
In a statement he signed on March 1, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said the President would proceed from Kenya to London for “routine medical checks that will last for a maximum of two weeks.”
He, however, left for London on March 6.
Shortly before his departure, the President affirmed that the All Progressives Congress is capable of getting its act together and conducting its national convention on March 26.
However, the Buni-led Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee underwent a purported shakeup that saw the emergence of Governor Abubakar Bello as acting Chairman.
The President who later intervened called party stakeholders, especially the Governors elected on the platforms of the APC to desist from utterances and actions that could further disunite the party ahead of the National Convention.
This came after Buhari met with the CECPC Chairman, Mai Mala Buni on Wednesday.
Following the meeting, the President, in a letter addressed to the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State, asked the governors to sheath their swords and rally behind Buni for smooth conduct of the national convention.
The President’s London trip, which lasted less than the proposed two weeks, may have been cut short due to party issues to be resolved before the convention, which holds in about a week.
The first hostages freed from Gaza under a long-awaited ceasefire agreement are back in Israel. The news sparked jubilant scenes in Tel Aviv where large crowds gathered ahead of their release.
The three freed Israeli hostages – the first of 33 to be released over the next six weeks – are Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari. They are said to be in good health and are receiving treatment at a medical center in Tel Aviv.
In exchange, 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are set to be released by Israel from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military withdrew from several locations in southern and northern Gaza after the truce began earlier on Sunday, an Israeli military official told CNN.
Displaced Gazans have started returning to their homes, while the aid trucks laden with much-needed supplies have crossed into Gaza. Here’s what we know about how the ceasefire deal will work.
Hamas, despite suffering devastating losses, is framing the Gaza ceasefire agreement as a victory for itself, and a failure for Israel.
One of Hamas’ main goals for taking some 250 people during its brazen October 7, 2023, attack on Israel was to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. As Israel pounded Gaza in response, Hamas vowed not to return the hostages until Israel withdrew its forces from the enclave, permanently ended the war, and allowed for rebuilding.
Source: CNN
The leader of UK’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has said she doesn’t want Britain to be like Nigeria that is plagued by “terrible governments.”
Speaking on Thursday at an event organised by Onward, a British think tank producing research on economic and social issues, Badenoch expressed fears that Britain may become like Nigeria if the system is not reformed.
“And why does this matter so much to me? It’s because I know what it is like to have something and then to lose it,” Badenoch told the audience.
“I don’t want Britain to lose what it has.
“I grew up in a poor country and watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer, despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation.
“I came back to the UK aged 16 with my father’s last £100 in the hope of a better life.
“So I have lived with the consequences of terrible governments that destroy lives, and I never, ever want it to happen here.”
Badenoch has been in the news of late after she dissociated herself from Nigeria, saying she has nothing to do with the Islamic northern region.
She also accused the Nigeria Police of robbing citizens instead of protecting them.
She said: “My experience with the Nigeria Police was very negative. Coming to the UK, my experience with the British Police was very positive.
“The police in Nigeria will rob us (laughter). When people say I have this bad experience with the police because I’m black, I say well…I remember the police stole my brother’s shoe and his watch.”
