1. The Department of State Services (DSS) has invited former Speaker of House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Naa’ba. This followed his condemnation of President Muhammadu Buhari over insecurity in Nigeria. He had described Nigeria as a failed state. National Consultative Front spokesperson, Tanko Yunusa, announced the invitation in a statement on Saturday. He said Naa’ab will honour the DSS invitation on Monday by 12:00pm.
2. An election petition tribunal has affirmed the election of Douye Diri as the governor of Bayelsa State. The tribunal ruled that the petition filed by Owei Woniwei of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, against Diri was incompetent and lacked merit. The three-man panel led by Justice Owodunni took the decision on Saturday.
3. Nollywood actress, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, has revealed that she has been ill and has since been in isolation. The actress, who disclosed this via her Instagram account on Saturday evening, said she was getting better. Meanwhile, she did not disclose her COVID-19 status but promised to return with details.
4. Lanre Rasaq, a stalwart of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is dead. It was disclosed that he passed away on Saturday. The politician, 74, had been sick and could not attend meetings since July. Razak was member of Lagos State Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC) and an ally of APC National Leader, Bola Tinubu.
5. Lebanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Houssam Diab, has said that most Nigerians in Lebanon were not trafficked but entered the country legally. He spoke at a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, in Abuja, clarifying that the Nigerian ladies who called for help in videos were stranded because they could no longer be paid by their employees due to the global economic crisis.
6. Nigeria’s Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, has declared that there is nothing wrong in borrowing. He said what matters is that funds are invested in infrastructure rather than services or consumption. The minister insisted that Nigeria is effectively utilizing the funds it borrowed from China and elsewhere for infrastructural development and job creation.
7. The President of Nigerian Traders Union in Ghana, Mr. Chukwuemeka Nnaji, Saturday raised the alarm as Ghanaian authorities’ shut down shops owned by Nigerians in the country. Nnaji, while disclosing the development in a telephone interview with newsmen urged the Federal Government to intervene in the matter.
8. Nigeria, on Saturday, recorded 325 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases to 48,770. Only one death was recorded. Only 20 states and the FCT recorded fresh cases.
9. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Saturday donated 7.5 tonnes of medical supplies to the Nigerian Government as part of its support to the Coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria. The consignment which arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja on Saturday contained thousands of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs).
10. Former Minister of Women Affairs, Jummai Alhassan, popularly known as Mama Taraba, has declared that aside the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, there’s no other political party in Taraba State. Addressing reporters in Abuja on Saturday, Mama Taraba said the APC, a party he joined in 2015, treated her badly ahead of the 2019 election. The former lawmaker said she was disqualified from contesting the 2019 governorship election in the State without any reason.
