The EFCC detained former Attorney-General Abubakar Malami after he reportedly failed to meet bail conditions earlier granted to him. The commission said investigations into multiple allegations are ongoing.
Malami has previously rejected accusations against him, but the agency maintains he remains in custody until he fulfils the requirements for release.
2025-12-10
Punch Newspapers
2025-12-10
Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde approved a 13th-month salary bonus for 2025 and authorised payment of some outstanding arrears for LAUTECH Teaching Hospital staff.
The move continues the administration’s worker-welfare messaging amid broader cost-of-living pressures.
Source: Punch 2025-12-08
Senate President Godswill Akpabio has challenged Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan to present evidence of her sexual harassment allegations in court. Punch reports that Akpabio’s media office argues the defamation suit was filed about three months earlier, countering claims that it was newly initiated. The statement characterises the allegations as unproven and accuses the Kogi Central senator of misleading the public by framing the legal action as a sudden response. The dispute adds another layer to the intensifying political and reputational battle playing out between both figures. Source: Punch, December 7, 2025.
The Federal Government has reportedly withdrawn Nigeria’s Presidential Boeing 737-700 Business Jet from an international sales listing after receiving offers deemed far below expectations. Sunday Punch cites senior presidency and security sources indicating that some bids were around $10 million, which officials considered inadequate for the 20-year-old aircraft. Aviation market logic mentioned in the report suggests older VIP jets attract fewer serious buyers, as high-net-worth purchasers often prefer newer airframes with stronger manufacturer support and updated bespoke interiors. Source: Punch, December 7, 2025.
Senior former officials—ex-COAS Tukur Buratai, ex-AGF Abubakar Malami, and ex-COAS Faruk Yahaya—have pushed back against allegations linking them to terrorism financiers. The Nation reports that the claims, said to have been amplified by an online publication referencing a retired officer, were described by Yahaya’s camp as false, malicious, and agenda-driven. Buratai also reportedly rejected the accusations, stating he has never been investigated or indicted for terrorism financing by any competent authority. The account suggests the officials may pursue legal redress if retractions are not issued. Source: The Nation, December 7, 2025.
A constitutional amendment proposal seeking reserved seats for women could add 156 new positions across national and state legislatures if passed and assented to. The report explains that advocates view the measure as a strategic corrective response to Nigeria’s long-standing gender imbalance in political representation. The bill’s architecture reportedly includes one reserved seat for women per state in both chambers of the National Assembly and three per state assembly, though the Senate is said to be considering an alternative model that would allocate reserved seats by geopolitical zones. Proponents insist the plan is designed to expand representation rather than displace male legislators, and may run for a defined number of election cycles as a temporary special measure, though extensions or removal of a sunset clause are also being discussed. Source: The Nation, December 7, 2025.
Not too long ago, a former senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria—no longer in office, no longer surrounded by the trappings of power—was approached by a young citizen. In response to a casual exchange, the former lawmaker, with a tone of sincerity and fatigue, uttered a deeply revealing phrase:
“May Nigeria not happen to you.”
That brief remark has reverberated beyond its moment. It wasn’t just a statement—it was a confession, an admission of how quickly the illusion of safety and privilege dissolves when public office ends. It was also a mirror held up to the very soul of Nigeria’s dysfunctional socio-political system.
This man had once been part of the machinery that ran the country. He had the power to influence budgets, pass laws, and shape policy. And yet, as soon as his tenure ended, he found himself swallowed by the same dysfunction that haunts ordinary Nigerians daily: insecurity, administrative chaos, crumbling infrastructure, and the silent indifference of the system.
If a former senator can be so brutally vulnerable, what hope is there for the average Nigerian—those who never had the benefit of title, privilege, or armed escort?
This story is not unique, but it is symbolic. It exposes a fundamental failure in our approach to governance. Public office in Nigeria is too often treated as a sanctuary from the hardship of the nation, rather than as a platform to transform that hardship. For many, leadership is reduced to a fleeting window of protection and accumulation—a time to secure wealth, enjoy prestige, and escape the daily grind of the masses.
But here’s the painful truth: that escape is temporary.
When power fades, the failing system you helped uphold comes for you too. That reality should frighten anyone in leadership who still believes that political office is about securing the moment instead of changing the system.
This is a moral reckoning. We must ask: Why should any citizen have to fear that their country might “happen” to them? Why do even our lawmakers, governors, and ministers dread the same system they once managed? Why is Nigeria a place you survive while in office, but suffer once you’re out?
Until we abandon the model of power as refuge and embrace leadership as responsibility, we will remain in this cycle. We need leaders who understand that the true measure of success is not what they gain while in power, but what they leave behind after power.
A senator should not have to plead for mercy from the same country he helped lead. And a citizen should not have to pray that their nation does not “happen” to them.
Leadership must become a legacy, not an escape.
It is time to stop using the privilege of office for pecuniary gain, and start using it to build the kind of nation we won’t have to apologize for—even after we leave office.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu, who won the presidential election held on Saturday, February 25, is facing a petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja.
However, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has requested that the court dismiss the petition. INEC attorney, Abubakar Mahmoud, argued that Tinubu had fulfilled all the legal requirements to be declared the winner of the election.
The petitioners are requesting that the court sets aside Tinubu’s victory, directs INEC to revoke the APC candidate’s certificate of return, and declares Abubakar the winner of the election.
READ ALSO: How ‘Obidients’ stage rescue mission for Peter Obi after detention by UK immigration officials
INEC maintained that Tinubu met all legal requirements to be named the election’s winner and clarified that a candidate does not need to win 25% of the vote in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to be declared the winner.
Tinubu defeated 17 other candidates in the election, scoring a total of 8,794,726 votes, while Abubakar came in second with 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi, the candidate of the Labour Party, came in third with 6,101,533 votes.
“Having scored at least one-quarter of the valid votes cast in 29 states, which is over and above the 2/3 states threshold required by the constitution, in addition to scoring the majority of the lawful votes cast at the election, the 2nd respondent was properly declared winner and returned as the president-elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” INEC noted.
INEC has stated that Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), should be declared the winner of the election as he scored the highest number of valid votes cast, as well as at least 25% of the votes cast in not less than two-thirds of the states of the federation and the country’s capital.
The commission argued that the declaration and return of Tinubu was made in accordance with the provisions of Section 134 (2) (b) of the Constitution, having scored one-quarter (25%) of the valid votes cast in 29 states, which exceeds the constitutional threshold for such a declaration.
In response to Atiku Abubakar’s petition, INEC claimed that the PDP candidate could not have been declared the victor by the tribunal due to his failure to comply with the constitutional requirement.
“The petitioners neither scored the majority of the lawful votes cast at the election nor scored not less than one-quarter of the lawful votes cast in at least two-thirds of the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, and therefore the 1st petitioner (Atiku) is not entitled to be returned as the winner of the presidential election conducted on Feb. 25,” INEC noted.
READ ALSO: Peter Obi Detained for Hours in London by Immigration Officials Over Alleged Impersonation
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has stated that the 2022 general election was conducted in accordance with the Electoral Act and was not tainted by any form of malpractice.
INEC also reiterated its commitment to holding free, fair, and credible elections by utilizing the BVAS device for electronic voter accreditation and uploading scanned copies of polling unit election results to the IRev portal.
Consequently, the commission has urged the court to reject Atiku’s petition.
Obi’s supporters, also known as Obidients, intervened to prevent Labour Party Presidential Candidate Peter Obi from spending more hours in detention over alleged impersonation.
Reports had earlier stated that Obi was detained at Heathrow Airport in London on charges of duplication, indicating that someone had been impersonating him in the UK.
Diran Onifade, spokesman for the Campaign Council, explained that Obi’s questioning was a result of the alleged offense.
READ ALSO: Peter Obi Detained for Hours in London by Immigration Officials Over Alleged Impersonation
However, the spontaneous reaction of Obi’s supporters at the airport saved him from further detention, following his return from an Easter celebration trip in London.
“He was questioned for a long time and it was very strange for a man who lived for over a decade in that country.
“Since Obi’s face was already an international frame, especially for Nigerians, Africans home, and in Diaspora who are likely to be Obidients, the people quickly raised their voices wondering why he was being delayed.
READ ALSO: Medical Doctors Draw Battle Line Over Proposed Five-Year Mandatory Practice Bill
“The immigration officials who were also taken aback at the reaction of the people were forced to reveal that Obi was being questioned for a ‘DUPLICATION offense’ meaning that someone has been impersonating him in London.
“The high implication of the offense is that the impersonator could be committing all kinds of weighty crimes and other dubious acts and it would be recorded in Obi’s name,” Onifade said.