Nigerian newspapers: 10 things you need to know this Thursday morning

1. Captain Ezekiel Bala Agaba, a former Executive Director, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) was on Wednesday sentenced to seven years imprisonment for laundering N1,541,408,666.00. Justice Ibrahim Buba of a Federal High Court in Lagos State convicted the former Executive Director of the seven counts of conversion and criminal breach of trust.

2. The Clerk of the National Assembly (CNA), Alhaji Mohammed Sani-Omolori has been sacked. Sani-Omolori was dismissed by the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) on Wednesday. The clerk was shown the exit door alongside 149 others. Secretary of NASC, Olusanya Ajakaiye was among those sacked as contained in a letter by the Commission.

3. The Clerk of the National Assembly (CNA), Alhaji Mohammed Sani-Omolori has been sacked. Sani-Omolori was dismissed by the National Assembly’s Service Commission (NASC) on Wednesday. The clerk was shown the exit door alongside 149 others. Secretary of NASC, Olusanya Ajakaiye was among those sacked as contained in a letter by the Commission.

4. The Federal Government (FG) has insisted that it is not yet safe for academic activities to resume in schools across the country. The Minister of state for education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, said this while addressing journalists at the end of the eighth virtual federal executive council meeting, on Wednesday. Nwajiuba also disclosed that WAEC is negotiating with other West African countries to look at a possible shifts in date for the 2020 WASSCE.

5. The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has explained the circumstances that led to the death of the country’s first female combat helicopter pilot, Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile. In a detailed release by the NAF’s Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, the late young officer was killed by a reversing car driven by an excited former Air Force Secondary School classmate while trying to greet her.

6. The suspended acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, has been released from detention. Magu was picked up on July 6, 2020 by officials of the Department of State Services (DSS). He spent 10 days in detention. He has now returned to his Abuja residence.

7. The six South-West states have expressed readiness to reopen schools for students to sit for the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). This was part of the resolutions reached by the state governments at the end of a virtual meeting organized by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria, DAWN Commission, in collaboration with the forum of South-West Education Commissioners, Special Advisers on Education and the State Universal Basic Education Board Chairmen on Tuesday.

8. The suspended acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, has labelled the allegations levelled against him as “nonsense” and a ‘case of dog eating dog’. Speaking after his release, he expressed shock at the allegations, which he claimed were trumped-up to tarnish his image.

9. The Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has addressed the allegations of sexual harassment against him by Joy Nunieh, a former Managing Director, Interim Management Committee, IMC, of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC. The Minister described the allegation as a cornucopia of false, malicious, and libelous giving instances where he appointed women to other high positions but had never been accused of any form of harassment.

10. The Senate on Wednesday in an adopted motion asked the Federal government to direct the setting up of a committee to review age limits into the public service in Nigeria. This followed a motion sponsored by Senator Ibrahim Gobir, who expressed concern that teeming Nigerian youths have been denied public service appointments due to age barrier.