Headlines
Reappointment: Lai Mohammed Gets APC Leaders’ Nod
The Local Government Chairmen of the All Progressives Congress in Kwara South Senatorial District of Kwara State have expressed support for the reappointment of the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, into the cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari in his second term.
The party chairmen urged members of the public to dismiss the press statement by the party’s Elders’ Forum in the senatorial district which claimed that the minister didn’t deserve reappointment.
The APC leaders said the Elders’ Forum was not in existence, submitting that their claims against the minister, who is from Oro in the Ifelodun Local Government Area, should be ignored.
The APC LG chairmen, in a statement jointly signed by Mohammed Shilo Awobimpe, Chairman, Ifelodun LG; Aransiola Oyeyemi Samson, Chairman, Irepodun LG; Bamidele Ogunbayo, Chairman, Isin LG; Muhideen Shittu, Chairman, Oke Ero LG; Olawale Awelewa, Chairman, Ekiti LG; Taiye Olaniyi, Chairman, Oyun LG; and Yusuf Kehinde, Chairman, Offa LGA, urged Buhari to reappoint Mohammed.
The statement read in part, “Our attention had been drawn to a press release issued on May 22, 2019 by some elders claiming to be speaking for Kwara South APC elders. This should be disregarded in its entirety and whatever it stands for.
“We wish to state unequivocally that Alhaji Lai Mohammed, as minister, provided all the necessary apparatus required of a leader in making the APC to record a resounding victory in the last general elections.
“We know the antecedent of all individuals involved in this act as this is the only way they know in getting patronage, especially during the period of appointments.”
The Punch
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.”
