The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted against a bill seeking rotational presidency in the country.
During plenary presided over by the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, the lower chamber also rejected six other constitution amendment bills after they failed to scale 2nd reading.
They include: A Bill for an Act to Alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to remove from Independent National Electoral Commission, the Powers of Registration and Regulation of political Parties in Nigeria and Transfer same to the Office of the Registrar General of Political Parties and for Related Matters (HB. 2227) (Hon. Abbas Tajudeen and Hon. Francis E. Waive)
A Bill for an Act to Alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Cap. C23, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 to Provide for the Principle of Rotation of the Offices of the President and the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria among the Six Geopolitical Zones of the Country, Namely: North Central, North East, North West, South East, South South, and South West and for Related Matters (HB. 2291) (Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu)
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A Bill for an Act to Alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Cap. C23, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 to provide for Establishment, Independence, and Functions of the Office of the State Auditors-General for Local Governments and the Federal Capital Territory Area Councils, to Strengthen Fiscal Oversight, Promote Accountability and enhance Good Governance at the Grassroots and for Related Matters (HB.2288) (Hon. Julius O. Ihonvbere)
A Bill for an Act to Alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Cap. C23, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 to provide for the Number of Judges of the Federal High Court to be not less than one hundred or such other Number as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly and for Related Matters (HB.2279) (Hon. Julius O. Ihonvbere)
A Bill for an Act to Alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Cap. C23, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 to expand the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court to include Admiralty Jurisdiction, including Shipping and Navigation on the River Niger, River Benue and their effluents, and on such other Inland Waterways as may be designated by an Act of the National Assembly as International Waterways, all Federal Ports, and Carriage by Sea and for Related Matters (HB.2280) (Hon. Julius o. Ihonvbere)
A Bill for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Empower the National Judicial Council to Fix and Review, in conjunction with the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, the Salaries, Allowances, and other Emoluments of Judicial Officers and Staff of the Judiciary, and for Related Matters (HB.2281) (Hon. Julius o. Ihonvbere)
A Bill for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Create Ughelli East Local Government Area in Delta State and for Related Matters (HB.2248) (Hon. Francis Ejiroghene Waive)
The bills were initially lumped together, and put to vote as the lawmakers voted against them.
Home favourite Jasmine Paolini recovered from a set down and a 4-0 deficit in the second set to edge past Diana Shnaider and reach the Italian Open semi-finals.
The sixth seed claimed a 6-7 (1-7) 6-4 6-2 victory to become the first Italian woman to reach the last four in Rome since 2014 when her doubles partner, Sara Errani, was beaten by Serena Williams in the final.
Having won the opening set after a tie-break, Shnaider led 3-0 in the second before rain interrupted play.
Shnaider held serve to stretch her advantage to 4-0 after play resumed but Paolini, backed by the vociferous home support, won the next six games to level the match.
Paolini, who cruised to victory in the deciding set, paid testament to Errani for her influential words of encouragement during the rain delay.
“It was a good thing that it rained for five minutes. I got some coaching from Sara,” Paolini said of Errani, who was watching from the stands.
The 29-year-old will face either two-time Italian Open winner Elina Svitolina or Peyton Stearns in the last four.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ trial is in its second day at a New York City courthouse. The music mogul is currently accused of a variety of charges including including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and transportation to engage in prostitution, after being arrested in September.
He denies all allegations made against him and has had several bail pleas rejected. 12 jurors were sworn in at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse in lower Manhattan on Monday following a delay due to concerns that some of them might drop out over the weekend if the panel was finalised on Friday as originally planned.
Lawyers for the musician had requested a delay, but the prosecutors had opposed. The proposed jurors were asked if they were familiar with several celebrities who may come up during the trial.
Here, we are bringing you the live updates from the courtroom.
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The singer said she spent a “big chunk of her life” recovering from drug use and dehydration after Freak Offs.
The jury has been dismissed for their lunch break.
The singer moved to Los Angeles from New York in pursuit of love, he said.
“I moved because I was in love and wanted to be near him,” she told the court. Diddy paid her rent during her time in New York, she said, explaining that he also paid the rent for where she lived and had his own keys that he could use “whenever he wanted.”
The singer told the court that she believed she was in a monogamous relationship with Diddy but later realised they weren’t.
She told the court: “I didn’t get that he was him. he was Puff Daddy, and Puff Daddy has many women,” before explaining how she became jealous after seeing him with other women. She added: “He likes the company of women, and I had to just really learn that over time, despite what he would tell me just between us.
She told the jury that she believed the music mogul had her career “in his hands”.
Speaking from the dock, she said: “I wanted to be around Sean for the same reasons as everyone else at the time — just this exciting, entertaining, fun guy that also happened to have my career in his hands.
Once Cassie started dating the musician, she cut ties with her management firm. She later fell in love with the mogul after a trip to Miami. She told the court: “I travelled with him everywhere, I was in studios, I was just like [his] little shadow for a while.” She explained their relationship was “fun”, and it was her “first adult, real adult relationship.”
A judge has ruled that Cassie’s husband, Alex Fine, can be in the courtroom for most of the hearing – but not all of her testimony.
Judge Arun Subramanian, acting on a defence request, stated that Alex must leave when the questioning turns to the allegations that Diddy raped her in 2018.
Diddy’s lawyers claim they may use Alex as a witness later in the trial. Prosecutors argued that Fine is part of the emotional support system for Cassie, who is pregnant with their third child and should be in the courtroom when she testifies.
In open court, a lawyer for Combs asked that Cassie’s husband not be allowed in the courtroom while she testifies because he might be called as a witness.
Cassie told the court that she saw Diddy around once a month at social events in 2006.
The year after, while celebrating her 21st birthday in August 2007 in Los Angeles, she claims he kissed her in a bathroom. Addressing the court, she said: “I was just really confused at the time,” adding that she was a “young, new artist,” who “just didn’t really know the lay of the land when it came to things like that.”
Cassie said she first signed a contract with Diddy’s company, Bad Boy Records, in 2006. Prior to this, she knew Diddy was a “larger than life” entrepreneur, and she was 19 when they met.
The musician said she felt an off feeling when Diddy first proposed a ‘Freak Off’.
Speaking on the stand, she said: “I also felt a sense of responsibility. It was him sharing something like that with me. I was confused, nervous but also loved him very much and wanted to make him happy so, I knew it wasn’t something I wanted to be doing especially as regularly as it became, but again, I was just in love and wanted to make him happy.”
Taking to the stand, Combs’ ex-girlfriend told the court that she would be “frequently” assaulted.
The musician, who wore a long brown dress, claimed he would “bash on my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me.” When asked how often this happened, she responded: “Too frequently.”
She claims she endured busted lips, black eyes and knots in her forehead. Recalling the incident of Diddy assaulting her at a Los Angeles hotel, Cassie claimed they were at a “Freak Off.” She said it was a “sexual encounter called voyeurism,” during which the rapper would watch her have sex with another man.
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian told a Paris court on Tuesday she feared she would be killed by the masked men who robbed her at gunpoint of some $10 million of jewellery in her hotel room in 2016, but expressed her forgiveness despite the “trauma”.
The trial of 10 suspects has attracted huge media attention, with close to 500 reporters accredited, and crowds flocking around the courthouse on Paris’s historic Ile de la Cite hoping for a glimpse of the celebrity.
“Hi! I’m Kim Kardashian and I just want to thank everyone, especially the French authorities, for allowing me to testify today and tell my truth,” she told the packed court, wearing a black suit.
“I came to Paris for Fashion Week and Paris is always a place I love so much,” Kardashian said, giving the court her account of the night of October 2-3, 2016, when she was robbed while staying at an exclusive, discreet hotel in the centre of the city.
She was in her room — “with my best friend downstairs, my sister and my friend and my mom… all out for the night” — when she heard “stomping” up the stairs.
Then people “who I assumed were police officers because they were in uniform” entered her room, said Kardashian, who is among the world’s most followed people on Instagram and X.
“Then I heard one of the gentlemen say ‘ring’ a few times over, ‘ring’, ‘ring’ and he pointed his finger with an accent,” she said, adding that she didn’t at first “understand it was for my jewellery”.
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The man found what he was looking for: a diamond ring given to Kardashian by her then-husband, rapper Kanye West, and valued at 3.5 million euros ($3.9 million).
The attackers then began to look for more valuables, threatened Kardashian with a gun and tied her up with a zip tie, she said, visibly emotional.
“I was certain that he was going to shoot me, so I said a prayer for my family,” she said.
Asked by the presiding judge if she feared she was going to be killed, Kardashian replied: “I absolutely did. I thought I was going to die.”
She said she also feared she would be raped but the man with the gun “closed my legs and put a tape on my leg.”
Kardashian said she was “grabbed and dragged into the other room” but not hit by the men.
Their sudden appearance and the gun were, however, “absolutely terrifying”.
From comments from one of the men, “I felt that he wanted me to know that I would be OK if I just shut up”.
Those on trial are mainly men in their 60s and 70s with previous criminal records.
They have underworld nicknames like “Old Omar” and “Blue Eyes” that resemble those of old-school French bandits of 1960s and 1970s films noirs.
Sixty-eight-year-old Aomar Ait Khedache, known as “Old Omar”, has admitted to tying up Kardashian but denies being the mastermind of the robbery.
Another suspect in the dock, 71-year-old Yunice Abbas, later wrote a book about the heist.
In it he described how his bag got caught in the wheel of his escape vehicle, a bicycle, causing him to fall off and have to scramble to shove the loot back in the bag.
Khedache, who according to his lawyers is no longer able to speak due to health problems, told Kardashian that he “regrets” his actions in a letter that was read out in court. He said he had been “moved and touched by your tears”.
Kardashian, who appeared tearful during the reading, said: “I do appreciate the letter, for sure” and “I’ve always believed in the second chance.”
She added: “I forgive you for what has taken place but it does not change the emotion, the feelings, the trauma and the way my life changed.”
Kardashian has never viewed her security in the same way since the Paris robbery, she told the court.
“It changed the way that I felt safe at home,” she said, adding she now relied on up to six security guards there.
In what she called a “copycat” burglary, her house in Los Angeles was robbed a month after the Paris heist “because they heard it happened in Paris”.
The US celebrity, sometimes described as being “famous for being famous”, became well known in the early 2000s through TV reality shows, before launching fashion brands and appearing in several films.
