Index to Nigerian Newspapers

The Nigeria Labour Congress and sister unions on Thursday, vowed to take action against the Imo State governor of Governor Hope Uzodimma, following the brutalisation of NLC President, Joe Ajaero, in Owerri, the Imo State capital on Wednesday. This was as Uzodimma, while reacting to the Wednesday crisis on Thursday, accused the NLC President, who is an indigene of Imo State, of meddling in the state's politics. The governor accused the leader of trying to blackmail his government over non-payment of salaries, insisting that all Imo workers have been paid their due wages. The PUNCH reports that Ajaero was brutalised by policemen in Owerri, the Imo State capital on Wednesday when he went to mobilise workers for a strike. The NLC accused the state government of masterminding the attack on Ajaero, who was injured and hospitalised. But Uzodimma, on Thursday, refuted the claim while speaking to State House Correspondents in Abuja after meeting with President Bola Tinubu to receive the APC flag as the ruling party's governorship candidate for Imo State. Meanwhile, the Imo State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba, on Thursday, said that those accusing the state government of having hands in Ajaero's travails were mischief makers. But the NLC, on Thursday, vowed to take action following the brutalisation of its national president, Ajaero. The union also noted that a decision would be taken following a meeting of all its organs.

The Supreme Court, on Thursday, ended the 171-day legal tussle to nullify the election of President Bola Tinubu with the rejection of the election appeals filed by the Peoples Democratic Party standard bearer, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Labour Party. Atiku and Obi's appeals commenced on May 8 and were concluded on Thursday, October 26, with the Supreme Court effectively ending their dreams of overturning Tinubu's election victory. In the lead judgment delivered by the Chairman of the seven-man panel, Justice Inyang Okoro, the apex court refused to consider the academic records of the President obtained from the Chicago State University, which Atiku sought to tender as fresh evidence to prove his allegation of certificate forgery against the ex-Lagos State governor. The other justices on the panel-Uwani Aji, Mohammed Garba, Ibrahim Saulawa, Adamu Jauro, Abubakar Tijjani, and Emmanuel Agim, agreed with the lead judgment dismissing Atiku and Obi's appeals. An elated Tinubu welcomed the Supreme Court verdict and sought the support of Nigerians, promising to exceed expectations in service delivery in the remaining years of his administration.

The Federal Government has said it will demand damages from Process & Industrial Developments Limited, which lost its $11bn arbitration award against Nigeria on Monday in the United Kingdom. The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, told The PUNCH: "There will be further hearing by the United Kingdom court on the heels of this judgment to determine costs payable by P&ID and other others in the matter". The Business and Property Court in London had on Monday halted the enforcement of the P&ID $11bn award against Nigeria in a case marked CL-2019-000752. In the judgment delivered by Justice Robert Knowles, it was held that the process through which P&ID secured a 2010 contract to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River State, was fraudulent. The AGF attributed Nigeria's victory in the $11bn lawsuit to close a collaboration by agencies of the Federal Government. President Bola Tinubu also expressed excitement over the verdict, saying it liberated the country from unjust economic malpractice. Tinubu commended the Nigerian legal team and acknowledged the roles of the Federal Ministry of Justice and the office of the AGF in defending the country's interest in the case.