News

APC Crisis: Kyari Emerges Acting National Chairman

Published

3 years ago

July 17, 2023

Eric

The Deputy National Chairman, Senator Abubakar Kyari, (North) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has emerged as acting National Chairman of the ruling party.

This comes after Senator Abdullahi Adamu’s resignation as the party’s national chairman.

In accordance with the party’s constitution, the deputy national chairman from the zone would take over in an acting capacity if a national chairman resigned.

Kyari led some members of the National Working Committee (NWC) into a meeting currently taking place at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja amid tight security.

Kyari was accompanied by the Deputy National Chairman (South), Emma Enukwu; the National Vice Chairman (North-West); the National Vice Chairman (North-East); Salihu Mustapha; the National Vice Chairman (North Central); Issacs Kekemeke; Ejoroma Arodiogu; and the Deputy National Secretary, Barr. Festus Fuanter.

Born in Borno State on January 15, 1960, Kyari is the son of the late Brigadier Abba Kyari, a former military administrator of North Central from 1967 to 1975.

In 1986, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee Martin in the United States. He then enrolled at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1989 to pursue a master’s degree in business administration.

In 1998, Kyari was chosen to serve as a representative for the now-defunct United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP). Between 1999 until 2003, he was elected to the House of Representatives on the platform of the now-defunct All Peoples Party (APP).

He served as Commissioner in Borno State from 2003 to 2005 and 2007 to 2011. He was elected to the Senate in 2015 to represent Borno North on the APC platform. He was re-elected in 2019 and continued in office until 2022, when he was named Deputy National Chairman.

WithinNigeria

News

El-Rufai’s Son, Bello, Dumps APC, Joins ADC

Published

2 days ago

May 7, 2026

Eric

Bello El-Rufai, the son of former Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has defected from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

The speaker said Bello El-Rufai joined the ADC alongside two members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Kaduna State — Reps Umar Ajilo and Suleiman Yahaya Richifa.

He also announced the defection of Kamilu Ado, a lawmaker from Kano State, from the ADC to the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).

The Speaker also announced the resignation of Rep. Joshua Obika, representing the AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency of the Federal Capital Territory, from the APC to the NDC.

The defected members, however, cited internal crises and uncertainty within their former parties as reasons for their defections.

News

Gunmen Kill Driver, Abduct Passengers on Benin-Ore Expressway

Published

3 weeks ago

April 20, 2026

Eric

Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers have attacked a commercial bus operated by GUO Transport along the Benn-Ore expressway, killing the driver and abducting several passengers in what underscores Nigeria’s deepening insecurity on major highways.

Reports indicate that the assailants ambushed the South East-bound vehicle, opened fire on the driver, who died at the scene, and subsequently whisked away passengers to an unknown destination.

The incident is believed to have occurred along a notorious stretch of the highway linking the South-West to the South-South, long plagued by banditry and abductions.

While official confirmation from security agencies is expected, local sources and a circulating video showed that passengers might have forcefully been taken into nearby forests, a tactic commonly employed by kidnapping syndicates operating along the corridor. Similar attacks in the past have involved mass abductions, with victims later released after ransom payments.

News

Police Retirees Block Aso Rock Gate, Demand Action on Pension Scheme

Published

3 weeks ago

April 20, 2026

Eric

Some retirees of the Nigeria Police Force under the aegis of the Police Retired Officers Forum of Nigeria (PROF) have staged a protest at the Presidential Villa in Abuja demanding President Bola Tinubu sign the Police Exit Bill passed by the National Assembly in December 2025.

The bill seeks to withdraw the Nigeria Police Force from the Contributory Pension Scheme.

The protesters, under the scorching sun, walked from the Three Arms Zone in Abuja through the street in front of the Police Headquarters.

They carried placards with various inscriptions, in addition to the Nigerian flag and the flag of the Nigeria Police Force.

Led by its National Coordinator, CSP Raphael Irowainu, the protesters described the retention of the NPF in the Contributory Pension Scheme as fraudulent and illegal.

They also said the CPS is inhumane and obnoxious.

According to them, the protest seeks to prevail on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to give assent to the Police Exit Bill passed by the National Assembly on 4th December 2025 and transmitted to the President on 16th March 2026.

They said that when signed into law, the Act will totally exempt the police from what they called a “slavery and untimely death-inducing pension scheme.”

The protesters, accompanied by some of their spouses and children, also blocked Gate 8 leading into the Presidential Villa, causing obstruction to vehicular movement.

Efforts by Villa security personnel to dissuade them from the protest proved abortive as they insisted on seeing the President.

They laid their mats in front of the gate, singing songs of solidarity, while some of them lay on the floor.

As of the time of filing this report, no one from the Villa had addressed the protesters.

CSP Irowainu said that their main purpose is to prevail on President Tinubu to sign the bill exiting the Nigeria Police Force from the CPS, which he said has been passed and transmitted to him by the National Assembly.

He lamented that while other security agencies in the country such as the Army, Navy, Air Force, SSS and others have all been exited from the scheme, the police remain trapped in it.

“Our major aim here is to prevail on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to sign our bill—the bill exiting the police from the Contributory Pension Scheme—passed by the National Assembly on 4th December 2025 and transmitted to him on 16th March, 2026, into law, nothing more than that.

“The soldiers have been exited, the SSS has been exited, the Air Force has been exited, the Navy has been exited, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has been exited. The police, who are the father of them all, are trapped in this obnoxious Contributory Pension Scheme,” CSP Irowainu said.

It is not the first time retired officers are staging a protest over the CPS. In July last year, they demonstrated at the National Assembly to demand their removal from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

The demonstrators, mostly elderly, stood in the rain holding placards and chanting anti-government songs.

Some of the retired police officers also besieged the Force Headquarters in Abuja to protest against the CPS.

Addressing the protesters at the time, the then Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, said the welfare of retired police officers was being addressed, but that the exit of the Force from the Contributory Pension Scheme was not something that could be implemented immediately.

He, however, advised the leaders of the protest to refrain from spreading misinformation, stressing that the Force could not abandon its own.