The National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) has organised an inter-school quiz competition for secondary school students in Bauchi state.

Speaking before the commencement of the 2025 edition of the national debate on the legislature, democracy, and governance, the Director General of the NILDS, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman, said the exercise was to deepen the knowledge of legislative and democratic governance at the level of secondary school students.

According to him, it was to also inspire young Nigerians to cultivate the interest to participate in legislative governance.

He explained that enhancing the knowledge of young Nigerians in the legislature would not only foster inclusive and participatory legislature in Nigeria but would also serve as an avenue for citizen engagement in the legislative process.

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Represented by Dr. Hadiza Sa’idu, NILDS Coordinator, Sulaiman added that the quiz competition was taking place in all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

“This 10th edition of the competition is therefore the fourth time the competition is being held at the national level.

“As the 2025 NILDS National Quiz Competition is declared open, I therefore urge all competing students and their teachers to abide by the rules of the game so that the desired objectives of the competition are achieved,” he said.

Also speaking, Dr Muhammed Lawal, the state’s Commissioner for Education said that the exercise was a welcome development in the circle of education, adding that it’s a ground where students in the state could be tested among other students.

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“This will enable us to improve on the quality of our deliverance in our various schools to our teeming students across the state.

“I want them to take it upon themselves that in an engagement like this, there is no loser. You put in your best and if at the end of the day, you don’t make it up to the top, your efforts will be crowned.

“I hope this will be well covered because it will stimulate other schools to be part and perform better so that they can come up to this level as well,” said the Commissioner.

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Announcing the winner of the competition, the Chairman House Committee on Education, Bauchi State House of Assembly, Mr Nasiru Alah, declared Government Day Secondary School, Bulkachuwa as the overall winner.

He also announced Government Secondary School, Gamawa as the first runner up while Government Girls Day Secondary School, Dagauda came as the second runner up.

Other schools that participated in the competition in the state included; Fariah Foundation School, Government Secondary School Ningi, and Government Day Secondary School Rimin-Zayam.

At least 19 people have died this month of suspected alcohol poisoning in Russia’s western Leningrad region, local officials said Friday.

Incidents of mass deaths from drinking cheap home-made alcohol substitutes are not uncommon in Russia, which has been blighted by high levels of alcoholism for years.

The regional government’s press service said in a statement that “19 deaths after alcohol consumption were recorded in the Slantsy District in September.”

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It added that eight cases had so far been “laboratory-confirmed as methanol poisoning.”

Investigators said they had detained a man and a woman after prosecutors opened a criminal case to probe “the poisoning of several residents of the Slantsy District with counterfeit alcohol.”

Earlier this week, prosecutors sentenced two people to almost a decade in prison for manufacturing and selling a counterfeit cider drink that killed 50 people in 2023.

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And in 2016, more than 60 people died in Irkutsk in Siberia after drinking contraband bath oil that contained methanol.

Russia toughened its legislation after that incident, but cheap home-made spirits using alcohol substitutes remain widely available, particularly in rural areas with low standards of living and where the price of vodka is prohibitively high.

AFP

Club captain Marquinhos has joined the growing list of big-name absentees for Paris Saint-Germain after suffering a thigh issue, the European champions announced on Friday.

The 31-year-old Brazilian defender “will undergo treatment on a left thigh injury over the next few weeks”, PSG announced on their website.

The latest injury blow for Luis Enrique’s side comes in the wake of injuries to stars Joao Neves and Desire Doue, as well as recent Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele.

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PSG did not specify when Marquinhos picked up the injury, with the centre-half playing the full 90 minutes of his side’s last outing — a 1-0 defeat at arch-rivals Marseille on Monday in which Marquinhos scored an own goal.

When contacted by AFP, PSG did not immediately respond.

Bradley Barcola was, however, present at Friday’s training session ahead of PSG’s league meeting with Auxerre this weekend, after having missed the Marseille defeat due to muscle fatigue in his thigh.

PSG then next face Barcelona at home in the Champions League on Wednesday, before travelling to Lille in Ligue 1 action on October 5.

AFP