Good morning dear esteemed readers! Here is today’s summary from Nigerian Newspapers:

1. Ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, will today, Tuesday, begin the defence of their allocations in the 2025 budget estimates. According to the timeline of the budget process, the first set of MDAs will go before the Senate and the House of Representatives joint committees.

2. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, NCDC, declared yesterday that Nigeria is not at risk yet of the Human Metapneumovirus, HMPV infection. In China, thousands of people, especially children, have been hospitalised due to the infection.

3. There was a fierce battle at the weekend between troops of Operation Hadin Kai and terrorists of the Islamic State West Africa Province, ISWAP. The terrorists reportedly ambushed the troops in Sabon Gari, Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State, leading to a two-hour gun battle.

4. Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, Mr Peter Obi, has said that his New Year message on the state of the nation under the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu government has led to threats against his life and family. Obi said this on Monday in a series of tweets on his X handle. The former Anambra State governor said he had received all sorts of messages, including threats to his life and that of those around him.

5. Two persons were killed in a suspected bomb explosion that occurred yesterday at an Islamiyya school located at Kuchibiyu community in the Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja. Two other persons who were injured were said to have been rushed to Kubwa General Hospital.

6. The Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, is on the heels of some suspected vandals allegedly responsible for stealing sewage manhole covers in Abuja. Mr Lere Olayinka, media aide to the FCT Minister, Mr Nyesom Wike, confirmed this in a statement. This is even as the FCT Police paraded about 50 suspects arrested in connection to the vandalized infrastructures.

7. The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has announced a remittance of over N6bn to the coffers of the Nigerian government in 2024. According to the board’s weekly bulletin released on Monday by its Public Communication Advisor, Dr Fabian Benjamin, JAMB generated a total income of N22,996,653,265.25 in 2024, out of which N6,034,605,510.69 was remitted to the government.

8. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission says it dismissed 27 of its officers last year for misconduct and fraudulent activities. The anti-graft agency also said it was investigating “a trending $400,000 claim of a yet-to-be-identified supposed staff of the EFCC against a Sectional Head.”

9. The Anambra State Police Command said it arrested two brothers for allegedly killing and burying their brother in a shallow grave in their compound in Oko community, Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra State. The state Commissioner for Police, Nnaghe Itam, disclosed this during a press briefing at the command’s headquarters in Awka, on Monday.

10. No fewer than four persons have been killed in a clash involving some suspected rival cult groups in Owo, the headquarters of Owo Local Government Area of Ondo State, on Monday. It was gathered that the victims included a yet-to-be-identified woman and her baby who were reportedly hit by stray bullets of the suspected cultists. The other two victims were allegedly shot during the clash.

©CDA News