Category Nigeria News

The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has dismissed a suit seeking to declare the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission (NCPC) and the National Hajj Commission (NAHCON) Acts as unconstitutional.

This decision affirms the legality of government-established religious commissions in the country.

Justice Akintayo Aluko held that the Applicant, Human Rights and Empowerment Project Ltd/Gte, failed to provide credible evidence that the statutes violated Sections 10 and 42 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

On October 17, 2024, the Applicant had approached the court, seeking a series of declarations and orders.

These included a declaration that the NCPC and NAHCON Acts were inconsistent with the Constitution, and an order restraining the Federal Government from funding or subsidising religious pilgrimages for Christians and Muslims.

The suit argued that such sponsorship was discriminatory against adherents of other faiths and amounted to an unconstitutional adoption of state religion.

READ ALSO: Supreme Court Upholds President’s Power To Declare Emergency Rule, Suspend Elected Officials

In its affidavit, the Applicant relied largely on newspaper reports and argued that government allocations for pilgrimages amounted to misuse of taxpayers’ funds.

The Applicant also sought to highlight alleged breaches of the fundamental right to freedom from discrimination under Section 42 of the Constitution.

During the hearing on October 9, 2025, counsel for the Applicant urged the court to hold that government sponsorship of pilgrimages breached constitutional provisions, noting that restricting funding to only Christian and Muslim pilgrims was discriminatory.

However, the 4th Respondent, NAHCON, countered that all Hajj payments were made directly by intending pilgrims through state-level Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Boards, not from public funds.

Counsel for NAHCON further submitted that the existence of the religious commissions did not amount to adopting a state religion, and that the Applicant had not shown any identifiable group of citizens whose rights were violated.

In resolving the first issue, Justice Aluko examined the provisions of Sections 10 and 42 of the Constitution. Section 10 prohibits any government from adopting a religion as a state religion, while Section 42 protects citizens from discrimination based on religion, ethnicity, or other grounds.

The court held that there was no credible evidence that either Act led to the adoption of a state religion or violated the right to freedom from discrimination.

On the second issue regarding the alleged misuse of taxpayers’ funds, the court noted that the Applicant’s own evidence indicated that the Lagos State Government had saved N4.5 billion over three years by ceasing the sponsorship of pilgrimages, redirecting the funds to infrastructure projects.

Justice Aluko emphasised that the Applicant’s reliance on newspaper publications was inadequate, describing such evidence as hearsay unless properly certified under the law.

The judgment also highlighted that declaratory reliefs require strong and convincing proof, which the Applicant failed to provide.

The court stressed that allegations without concrete evidence, particularly those relying on speculation or media reports, could not sustain a constitutional claim.

Founder and President/Chief Executive of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has raised concerns over alleged sabotage in Nigeria’s downstream oil sector.

Dangote, who spoke to journalists at a briefing on Sunday, recounted multiple ‘sabotage’ incidents at both his facility and public refineries.

The billionaire businessman lamented that organised cartels pose a “bigger threat than drug mafias.”

He cited examples at his refinery in Lekki, including the removal of spare parts from a 400-ton boiler, which he described as the largest ever built.

“If I tell you the sabotages that we went through, including some of the machine manufacturers that were on the verge of going to court, you will know what I’m saying.

“Drug mafias are actually smaller than the people who are in oil and gas. They have robbed so many people in this sector,” he added.

READ ALSO: Dangote Accuses NMDPRA CEO Farouk Of Corruption, Seeks CCB Probe

Dangote also highlighted the destruction of pipeline infrastructure across the country.

He alleged that depots from Kano to other states had been deliberately sabotaged, not damaged by natural causes.

“You are talking about sabotage, and I’m happy that you are also here in Nigeria. I don’t know if Mele Kyari [former NNPCL GCEO] is still in town, but I think you should go to his house in Maitama and ask him how many sabotages the Port Harcourt refinery repairs went through.

“He told me many times that they have had more than 100 sabotages at the refinery. You can ask him, and he will tell you. How come now, for example, all the pipelines that were built, right from the military base to date, none of them are functioning?

“The one that we have, which is from where I am from, Kano, that depot, we were not using trucks. The depots were only going to the trucks to load. Everything was piped up to that. 22 depots were built. They are all piped, all 22 depots.

“Actually, even the sediments don’t have it anymore. They have destroyed the pipes, all of them. So, if it is not sabotage, is that an earthquake? It’s not an earthquake now, because it’s sabotage. Sabotage is sabotage. So, that is what it is,” Dangote stated.

‘Lost $82m Items To Theft’

The billionaire quantified losses at his refinery to theft and sabotage.

“In this refinery, we have lost maybe $82 million of stolen items. They were actually trying to make us put massive claims on insurance. Continuously, our insurance premiums will just keep going up. Yes, there is sabotage”, he said.

Dangote described the extreme security measures at the refinery, explaining that over 2,000 security personnel were employed, more than the number of operational workers.

“People will come here with long pieces of cord cables and put [them] on their bodies to try and see how they can take it out. And we answer, ‘Okay, fine, what are you doing with it?’ It’s just sabotage,” he said.

The group CEO warned that the scale of sabotage and organised theft in the oil sector represents a serious threat to production and national economic security.

“You should ask all the people who have ever built modular refineries. I challenge any one of them to say that nothing was stolen. That’s why we have more security people than actual workers,” he said.

In October 2025, Devakumar Edwin, Vice President of Dangote Industries Limited, disclosed that the refinery had experienced 22 attempted physical sabotage incidents since commencing operations.

The company linked some of these incidents to a mass reorganisation and dismissal of about 800 workers, which had triggered a temporary strike by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).

Former U.S Army officer, Captain Bish Johnson (retd.) says there is foreign support for banditry in Nigeria.

Johnson, who spoke during an interview with Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Monday, however, said some of the sponsors may not necessarily be Nigerians.

READ ALSO: Gunmen Kill One, Abduct Pregnant Woman, Others In Kogi Church Attack

“I also believe that there are some foreign sponsors of this banditry that we see in the country where they kidnap and abduct people just to divert our attention to the abduction while they are abusing, illicitly mining our mineral resources in connivance with highly placed individuals in Nigeria.”

“Some of whom may be in the government, some retired, and some top-level government officials,” he said.

The former officer maintained that most of the security problems were syndicated operations that involved so many components, people, and elements all working together for the same purposes, which are commercial.

Johnson said that banditry, kidnapping had become a commercialised enterprise where people made a lot of fortune over the misfortune of others.

“Nigerians have always had this impression that the insecurity in the country is some kind of complicity from within the government. I have always insisted and maintained that most of the insecurity is syndicated operations that involve so many components, people, and so many elements, all of them working together for the same purposes, which are commercial reasons.

“Banditry, kidnapping has become a commercialized enterprise where people are making a lot of fortunes over the misfortune of others. Some of you are fueled by the unregulated and illicit mining of our mineral resources in the far North, and also fueled by the vulnerabilities in our borders around that sector between Niger, Chad, and northern Cameroon” he added.

He further said information or any allegation about some kind of connivance or complicity from anyone in Nigeria should be a matter of serious concern and should be thoroughly investigated.

However, we should not dismiss such accusations on the basis that it is just a terrorist that is talking or maybe that they are talking under compulsion.

US authorities on Sunday detained a person of interest in a shooting at Brown University that left two people dead and nine others wounded, the latest in a long line of school attacks across the country.

A shooter opened fire on Saturday at the elite Ivy League university in Providence, Rhode Island in a building where exams were taking place, triggering a campus lockdown and launching an hours-long hunt for the suspect.

During a press conference early Sunday, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said a “person of interest” had been detained and the shelter-in-place order lifted.

READ ALSO: What We Know About The Bondi Beach Attack

“I want to offer my profound thanks to all the hardworking men and women in law enforcement who worked through the night to be able to get us to this point,” Smiley said.

Speaking alongside him, Police Colonel Oscar Perez added authorities were “not at this point” looking for anyone else in relation to the attack.

Of the nine wounded, one is in critical condition, seven are in stable condition and one has been discharged, Smiley said.

Witness Katie Sun told the Brown Daily Herald student newspaper she was studying in a building on campus when she heard gunfire nearby. She ran to her dormitory, leaving all her belongings behind.

“It was honestly quite terrifying. The shots seemed like they were coming from where the classrooms are,” she said.

Brown University student Lydell Dyer was working in the school’s gym at the time, according to CNN.

“We had to go gather everybody, bring them up to the top floor, turn off the lights, and put down the blinds,” he told the broadcaster, saying he hid silently in the dark with 154 others.

Police released 10 seconds of footage of the suspect, seen from behind, walking briskly down a deserted street after opening fire inside a first-floor classroom.

“It is shocking and so terribly sad. I know the students here, many of whom were sheltering for many, many hours last night,” Smiley said later on CNN. “They’re all incredibly shaken up.”

Final exams scheduled for Sunday have been postponed, university officials said.

Latest mass shooting

Brown University President Christina Paxson confirmed in a letter to community members that all 11 victims were students.

“Nine members of our community who were transported to local hospitals are all students. And we lost two students to today’s devastating gun violence,” Paxson said in the letter posted to the school’s website.

The attack is the latest incident of mass shooting in a country where attempts to restrict access to firearms face political deadlock.

“This should not be normal,” Smiley said on CNN. “This should not be the case that every community needs to prepare for something like this to happen. And I certainly never thought that it would actually happen in Providence, although we were well prepared for it.”

There have been more than 300 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot.

Emergency alert

Brown, which has a student body of about 11,000, sent an emergency alert at 4:22 pm (2122 GMT) reporting “an active shooter near Barus and Holley Engineering,” which is home to the engineering and physics departments. Two exams had been scheduled at the time.

“Lock doors, silence phones and stay hidden until further notice,” the university said.

Law enforcement and first responders swarmed the scene, with local news station WPRI reporting “clothing and blood on the sidewalk.”

US President Donald Trump has been briefed on the shooting and called the incident a “terrible thing.”

“All we can do right now is pray for the victims,” he said.

A private jet operated by Flybird on Sunday made a faulty landing at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano, after its nose wheel collapsed on touchdown.

Airport sources confirmed the incident to Channels Television, noting that all 11 occupants on board the aircraft, including three crew members, were safely evacuated without any injuries.

“The aircraft experienced a nose wheel collapse while landing at MAKIA,” an airport official said. “All passengers and crew were safely evacuated, and there were no casualties recorded.”

READ ALSO: NAF Jet Crashes In Niger State, Pilots Eject Safely

Another source at the airport explained that emergency response teams were immediately deployed to the scene to secure the aircraft and ensure the safety of airport operations.

“Our rescue and firefighting personnel responded promptly in line with standard operating procedures,” the source said. “The situation was brought under control within a short time.”

The aircraft has since been cleared from the runway and moved to a designated area for repairs, allowing normal flight operations to resume at the airport.

The Ebonyi governor, Francis Nwifuru, has announced a Christmas bonus of ₦150,000 to every civil servant in the state for the 2025 festive season.

Nwifuru made the pronouncement on Sunday during a church service at the Government House Chapel in Abakaliki.

According to him, the gesture aligns with his administration’s commitment to improve the welfare of civil servants despite dwindling revenue accruing to the state in the past year.

The governor also dispelled rumours of lethargy in Vincent Agwu Nwankwo Flyover, popularly known as VANCO, a monumental infrastructural marvel of his administration.

“You cannot find any state in Nigeria that is doing such a flyover currently,” the governor said at the event.

Explaining the construction rigours inherent in the massive project that will automatically alter the ugly scenes and give the state a facelift when completed, Nwifuru decried social media contractors’ cloudy view of the project.

He maintained that his administration is taking steps to ensure the state is seen in the comity of nations with advanced and modern infrastructures.

“We are doing it not because we have money. We are doing it because we want to sign our signature in the annals of history,” the governor said.

Nwifuru said Ebonyi State desires to be referenced in the global map of good governance characterized by modern infrastructure.

READ ALSO: Ebonyi Increases Minimum Wage To ₦90,000 For State Civil Servants

In August, the governor increased the minimum wage by ₦20,000, pushing the new pay for public servants to ₦90,000.

The increment, according to the Ebonyi State Government, was with immediate effect.

It said the government’s decision to increase the minimum wage was directly tied to Nwifuru’s ‘People’s Charter of Needs Agenda’.

President Bola Tinubu, in July 2024, signed the minimum wage bill into law, days after the National Assembly passed the Minimum Wage Act of 2019.

It pushed the minimum wage from ₦30,000 to ₦70,000 and ended months of deliberations among labour unions, the private sector, and government authorities.