Here is Sunday’s summary from Nigerian Newspapers:
1. Trouble is brewing in the Senate after the Northern Senators Forum yesterday accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio and his associates of padding the 2024 budget to the tune of N3 trillion. The forum said it would take the matter to President Bola Tinubu.
2. No fewer than 28 of the over 200 schoolchildren abducted by gunmen in Kaduna last week have escaped amid ongoing search and rescue efforts by the military for the remaining ones. Vice President Kashim Shettima flew into Kaduna yesterday to assess the situation on behalf of the federal government. He soon went into a meeting with the parents of the abductees.
3. The late Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings, Mr. Herbert Wiwge, yesterday, went home in a blaze of glory with top government functionaries, captains of industry and other eminent Nigerians paying tributes to one of Nigeria’s outstanding bankers of his generation. Many of the sympathisers were in tears.
4. The Police in Lagos State have arrested a mother for attempting to kill her sick baby, using a poisonous insecticide known as sniper. Police spokesman in the state, Benjamin Hundeyin, a Superintendent of Police, told NAN on Saturday that the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba reported the attempt to the police on Friday.
5. The Federal Government has directed health workers seeking jobs abroad to resign their appointments before leaving the country. Minister of State for Health, Tunji Alausa, made the announcement yesterday during his visit to the Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Aro, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
6. The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, has accused officials of Levant Construction Company of misbehaving on the reconstruction of the East-West Road. He threatened to terminate the contract. Umahi, a former Governor of Ebonyi State, spoke on Saturday during his inspection of the reconstruction of Sapele-Ologbo-Benin Road.
7. The threats of clampdown on bandits and terrorists abducting schoolchildren seem to have little or no effect on the terrorists as 15 pupils of an Islamiya school in Sokoto State were kidnapped in the early hours of Saturday. This comes after Thursday’s abduction of 287 schoolchildren in Kaduna State.
8. The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Mr Adewale Adeniyi, on Saturday, said that only President Bola Tinubu has the prerogative to reopen the borders in the country. He stated this during an interaction session with members of the Kongolam border community in Mai’adua Local Government Area of Katsina State.
9. Gunmen have killed a middle-age man, Danjuma Emokpaire, in his farm on Friday at Ubune-Ivbiaro community in Owan-East Local Government Area of Edo State. One of the residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the deceased was attacked by the armed men while leaving the farm after the day’s work.
10. Anambra State Police Command says it intercepted a kidnap gang on Friday and rescued four men already abducted by the “dare-devil kidnappers.” The state police spokesman, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, disclosed this in a press statement on Saturday, adding that the kidnappers were taking the victims to an unknown destination before they were intercepted.