Today's Headlines: EDO: No restriction of movement for Saturday’s LG polls-Obaseki, Atiku condemns Coup in Gabon

Edo: No restriction of movement for Saturday’s LG polls, says Obaseki

Photo Credit: Punch

The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has said there will not be any restriction of movement ahead of the state’s Local Government Area election scheduled for Saturday, September 2, 2023.

Obaseki promised of safe passage of commuters transiting within and through the state.

He said this while briefing journalists on Thursday, after the state Security Council meeting held at the Government House, in Benin City, the state capital.

The governor, who assured the people of adequate security during the election, urged voters to come out en masse to cast their ballots for their preferred candidates. He noted that the state would be very peaceful as all security agencies would be on the ground to protect the electorate.

Atiku condemns coup in Gabon

Former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has flayed the coup d’etat which, on Wednesday, toppled the democratically elected government of President Ali Bongo.

Atiku who took to his verified X handle, (formerly known as Twitter), on Thursday, to berate the coup plotters, noted that despite its flaws, democracy remained the best form of government acceptable to the majority of the people across the world.

“The coup in Gabon stands condemned. Democracy and democratic governance have come to stay as a preferred form of government, and everything should be done to enthrone, nurture, and sustain it.

“As I suggested in the case of the Niger Republic, the Economic Community of West African States and African Union authorities should open a window of diplomatic engagement that will pave the way for the soldiers to return to the barracks.

Coup: African Union meets over Gabon’s situation

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The African Union’s Peace and Security Council said it was holding a meeting on Thursday (today) on the military coup in Gabon.

According to Al Jazeera, the leaders are looking at how to respond to officers who removed President Ali Bango and installed their own head of state in the latest of a wave of coups in West and Central Africa that regional powers have failed to reverse.

“Now – AU Peace & Security Council meets to consider the situation in Gabon,” the AU body said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

It said the meeting was being chaired by the AU commissioner for political affairs, Bankole Adeoye of Nigeria, and the current holder of the council’s rotating chair, Burundi’s Willy Nyamitwe.

The takeover ended the Bongo family’s almost six decades in power and created a new conundrum for a region that has struggled to deal with eight coups since 2020.

Nigeria’s recently elected president called it a “contagion of autocracy”.

FG to shut down Murtala Muhammed Airport, suspends contracts, concessions

Photo Credit: Vanguard

The Minister of Ation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has directed all international airlines to vacate the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, from October 1, 2023.

This became necessary, according to him, to give room for total maintenance work at the airport.

The minister disclosed this during a tour at the international airport in Lagos, where he was accompanied by the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Mr. Kabir Yusuf Mohammed.

The minister, while speaking at the sideline of the airport tour, directed the airlines and companies operating in the airport to move to the new terminal – MMIA Terminal 2.

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