Top Nigerian Newspaper Headlines For Today, Wednesday, 12th April, 2023

Good morning Nigeria, welcome to Naija News roundup of top newspaper headlines in Nigeria for today, Wednesday, 12th April 2023

President Muhammadu Buhari has arrived in Madinah, Saudi Arabia.

Naija News had earlier reported that Buhari would be in the Middle-East country for an eight-day official visit.

Buhari’s visit to Saudi Arabia will be his’s last trip to the Kingdom as President.

The presidential aircraft conveying Buhari and some of his aides departed the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja at 9:10 a.m. on Monday.

The aircraft landed at Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz International Airport Madinah around 17:00 local time.

While in Madinah, the president would be observing the five daily prayers as well as the Taraweeh prayer at the Masjid Nabawi before departing for Makkah via Jeddah, late on Wednesday, for the lesser pilgrimage.

The Independent National Electoral Commission ((INEC) has declared that the law does not make it compulsory for it to transmit the 2023 presidential election results electronically.

INEC made the submission in response to a petition by the Action Peoples Party (APP) before the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC) in Abuja challenging the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.

The APP had approached the tribunal to challenge the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu in the February 25 election as declared by INEC on the basis that the electoral umpire failed to transmit results electronically and this contradicts the provision of the law.

The APP had alleged that INEC breached its own laws and guidelines.

But INEC, through one of its lawyers, Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), insisted that the 2023 presidential polls were free and fair, adding that the Electoral Act does not mandate the electronic transmission of results.

INEC also dismissed allegations that its officials doctored results to favour a particular political party’s candidate or that there was over-voting.

The commission explained that the online result viewing portal had some challenges on election day and became erratic at the point of collation which forced its Information and Communications Technology (ICT) team to adopt an alternative while working to rectify the problem.

A Coalition of Northern Elders has demanded the arrest of Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi by security operatives.

This is as they insisted that nothing must stop the inauguration of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as the next President of Nigeria on May 29, 2023.

The coalition at the end of its meeting tagged the ‘Convention of Arewa Elders’ held at the Arewa House in Kaduna State, accused Peter Obi and his running mate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed of making inciteful statements capable of disrupting Nigeria’s democratic system.

According to the Arewa Elders in their communique which was read by the Chairman of Gamji Heritage, Alhaji Suleiman Usman Jere shortly after the meeting, Obi engaged in a very divisive ethnoreligious campaign during the 2023 elections and has continued to make threats and promote civil disobedience after losing in the February 25 presidential election.

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has rejected any plot by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to produce the leadership of the 10th National Assembly.

He said the All Progressives Congress (APC) should be allowed to produce the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and other principal officers of the National Assembly.

Wike stated this on Tuesday, during a media chat held at his private residence at Rumueprikom, Obio-Akpor Local Government area of the state, suburb of Port Harcourt.

He pointed out that in a democracy, the majority party should be allowed to produce the Senate President, while the minority parties settle for other slots for a smooth executive and legislature relationship.

The governor said the plot will amount to a huge distraction for the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, to have the Senate President or Speaker from an opposition party, and it will also engender a lack of cooperation between the Executive and the Legislature.

Wike said the elected National Assembly members from Rivers will not support PDP’s quest to produce the Senate President, adding that such a move would also hamper good governance and ultimately lead to suffering for Nigerians.

The governor, however, disclosed that a couple of aspirants for the leadership of the national assembly have reached out to him for support.

The Spokesman for the Atiku-Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation, Daniel Bwala, has said Christians in the All Progressives Congress (APC) demanding that the Senate President must be a Christian are hypocrites.

In a series of tweets via his verified Twitter account on Tuesday, Bwala said it is shocking that Christians in APC who said the Muslim-Muslim ticket didn’t matter during the presidential campaign are now calling for a Christian Senate President.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain stated that if religion didn’t matter during the presidential campaign, it doesn’t matter now in the Senate Presidency campaign.

Bwala said it was convenient for the APC to sacrifice northern minority Christians on a platter of convenience, but it is now an Islamic agenda if a Christian does not emerge as a senate president.

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has said the former Senator, Dino Melaye, is not fit and competent to be the next Governor of Kogi State.

Naija News reports that Wike while speaking during a media chat on Tuesday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, said the Kogi governorship race is for serious-minded people.

Wike stated that the former Kogi West lawmaker is not worthy to be the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming election, warning that the party will fail if Melaye emerges as its flagbearer.

According to the governor, Melaye is an “actor” and does not have any qualities to lead the people of the North Central State.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has challenged the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to clarify the authenticity of a leaked conversation he allegedly had with a prominent Nigerian cleric, Bishop David Oyedepo.

Recall that Obi was alleged in the said leaked audio to have described the 2023 presidential election as a religious war and urged Bishop Oyedepo to help him mobilize Christian votes.

However, the former Governor of Anambra State denied the authenticity of the phone conversation and disclosed he has instructed his lawyers to take action against the news platform that first released the purported tape.

Reacting to the development, The Peoples Gazette said the leaked alleged audio conversation between Obi and Oyedepo is real, adding that it stands by its publication.

Speaking in a chat with journalists in London on Monday, Mohammed said the leaked audio rattled Nigerians because Obi was heard pleading with Oyedepo to interfere on his behalf to convince Christians that this is a religious war

The minister, however, asked the former Anambra governor Obi to clarify what he meant when he said the leaked conversation was “a fake doctored audio call.”

The Lagos State House of Assembly on Tuesday ordered the withdrawal of letters given to government appointees whose nominations should have been sent to the House for their screening and confirmation, but who took up the jobs without due process.

The House also ordered the immediate halting of salaries and remunerations enjoyed by the affected government appointees pending their appearances before the House. The Assembly further summoned three top officials over the issue.

Those summoned include the Head of Service, Hakeem Muri-Okunola, the Accountant-General of the State, Dr. Abiodun Muritala, and the state’s Commissioner for Establishment, Mrs. Ajibola Ponnle.

In a ‘Matter of Urgent Public Importance’ brought before the House by Hon. Noheem Adams, Deputy Majority Leader, the lawmakers lamented the increasing situation where supposed nominees of the governor continue to work without being screened and confirmed by the House

Speaker Mudashiru Obasa, who presided at the sitting, agreed with the lawmakers that appointments of that nature without recourse to the House amounted to infractions.

The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has tackled the embattled former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Iyorchia Ayu describing him as a politician with no electoral value.

Wike submitted that he is glad Ayu didn’t step down before the 2023 presidential election when he and others demanded his removal from office.

According to the Governor, if Ayu had stepped down then, he would have been able to boast that the PDP lost the 2023 presidential election because he was not in position.

The Rivers Governor in a chat with newsmen on Tuesday, said Ayu has nothing to offer the PDP. He added that Ayu’s stepping aside after the election has very little meaning.

A Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) Governorship aspirant for the Kogi election, Senator Dino Melaye has berated the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike for rubbishing his political ambition.

Naija News recalls that Wike, while addressing journalists in Port Harcourt on Tuesday stated that Dino does not have what it takes to be Governor of Kogi State.

Reacting to Wike’s statement, Melaye insisted that the Rivers Governor’s opinion was birthed from a personal vandetta against him.

He alleged that Wike was angry because he refused to support his presidential ambition.

The former lawmaker advised Wike to focus on how he plans on surviving after he quits the government house on May 29.

Those are the top Nigerian newspaper headlines for today. Read more Nigerian news on Naija News. See you again tomorrow.