Author: Vincent Osuwo

A Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt has convicted and sentenced Damian Okoligwe, a 400-level undergraduate at the University of Port Harcourt, to death by hanging for the murder of his girlfriend, Justina Otuene. On October 20, 2023, Okoligwe, a UNIPORT Petrochemical Engineering student, murdered Otuene, a 300-level Biochemistry student, at his apartment in Mgbuoba, Obio-Akpor Local Government Area. He also dismembered her body, placed it in a wheelbarrow, and was about to dispose of the remnants when he was apprehended. On Friday, the trial judge, Justice Chinwe Nsirim-Nwosu, ruled that the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt the…

Datti Baba-Ahmed, a former vice-presidential candidate for the Labour Party, declared on Friday that former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi had not quit the party. Speaking to press following the party’s National Executive Council meeting in Abuja, which was attended by Independent National Electoral Commission officials, Baba-Ahmed denied allegations that Obi had abandoned the LP. “To the best of our knowledge, our brother, His Excellency Peter Obi, remains a member of the Labour Party. Nothing has changed. “If he were here now, I would have moved my seat to the left for him,” he remarked. Baba-Ahmed argued that the party…

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has launched enforcement operations against 1,095 revoked property titles in the capital’s Asokoro, Maitama, Garki, and Wuse districts. Mr. Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Public Communications and Social Media, made the announcement in Abuja on Friday. Olayinka stated that the titles were revoked due to nonpayment of ground rent, the Certificate of Ground Rent, the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) bill, penalty/violation cost, and the land use fee. He stated that the enforcement followed the expiration of the 14-day grace period on Tuesday. According to him, the owners…

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Friday struck out an appeal filed by the convicted leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, challenging alleged violations of his fundamental rights by the Federal Government. The Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) were named as respondents in the case. A three-member panel of the appellate court dismissed the case on the grounds that it had become an academic exercise, as Kanu had already been convicted and punished by the Federal High Court of Abuja. In its…

Former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami (SAN) has confirmed receiving an invitation from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, assuring Nigerians that he is willing to appear before the anti-graft agency. Malami announced this in a post on his personal Facebook page on Friday, declaring himself as a law-abiding citizen dedicated to accountability and openness in government. “This is to confirm that I have been invited by the EFCC. As a law-abiding and patriotic citizen, I hereby reaffirm my commitment to honor the invitation,” he wrote. He explained that his choice to publicly announce the…

The death toll from Hong Kong’s biggest fire in decades increased to 128 on Friday, with many still missing, as authorities reported that fire alarms in the residential estate towers had malfunctioned. Families searched hospitals and victim identification stations for their loved ones, with over 200 people still missing and 89 bodies unidentified. Flames raced swiftly across the Wang Fuk Court housing estate in the Tai Po district on Wednesday afternoon, engulfing seven of the eight high-rises and transforming the densely packed complex into an inferno. The fire was “largely extinguished” by Friday morning after blazing for more than 40…

The former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, has demanded the immediate dissolution of the Peoples Democratic Party’s Ibadan convention that produced Kabiru Tanimu Turaki as the National Chairman. Lamido made the announcement at his Kano office in front of hundreds of his political supporters, including former local government chairmen, commissioners, and other political appointees who worked under his administration in Jigawa State. The PDP bigwig argued that the tenures of the party’s Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagun, and National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu, have not expired and so remain valid till December 8, 2025. He did, however, advocate for the…

A househelp allegedly stabbed her madam’s seven-year-old child to death before killing herself on Tuesday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The murder by the househelp was reported to have occurred in the Agip Estate region of the Obio/Akpor Local Government region of the state; however, this could not be confirmed. However, on Thursday, the police confirmed the situation, calling it terrible. Grace Iringe-Koko, the state police command’s public relations officer and a superintendent of police, said the mother of the deceased seven-year-old daughter, Glory Joseph, reported the incident to the authorities. Iringe-Koko said, “On 25th November 2025, one Glory Joseph,…

The military coup on Wednesday, November 26, 2025, that swept away President Umaro Sissoco Embalo did not come as a surprise. Embalo, a retired general who camouflaged as an elected president, was a lawless leader who consistently trampled the country’s constitution under his feet. He had a sense of entitlement and a culture of impunity. In my February 9, 2024 column titled, ‘The civilian coups in Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, and ECOWAS ambivalence,’ I pointed out that “there are civilian or constitutional coups in Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, yet the regional body, the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, is pretending otherwise.…

A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, sitting in Maitama on Thursday, dismissed three subpoenaed witnesses brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, against Mr. Godwin Emefiele, former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. The court, in a ruling by Justice Hamza Muazu, ruled that the witnesses’ names were on a list of further proof of evidence that the anti-graft agency intended to submit in the case, which was dismissed on March 20. It decided that because the prosecution had already appealed the ruling, it should await the Court of Appeal’s determination on the admissibility…