The FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, has explained his absence at the recent Council of State meeting, where Prof Joash Amupitan was nominated as Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The minister stated this during the commissioning of the Access Roads in Sector Centre B, Dakibiyu District, in Abuja on Tuesday.

Wike explained that he had directed the Minister of State, Dr Mariya Mahmoud, to represent him at the meeting, while he attended to previous engagements already put in place, describing reports that he declined to attend the meeting because his nominee for the position of INEC Chairman was ignored as “unnecessary propaganda and blackmail”.

“Sometime last week, Thursday, we had a flag off. And I told the Minister of State, FCT, to represent me at the Council of State meeting. I had already told Mr President that I would not be available because of other engagements we had already put in place. And so, the Honourable Minister of State represented the FCT in that meeting.

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“That is why we have to be careful when people carry unnecessary propaganda and blackmail. But in spite of those things, be focused; you will achieve your results. They said I did not attend because I was not happy that my own nominee was not taken,” he said.

The Minister’s comments come days after the Council of State meeting, on Thursday, October 9th, 2025, where Prof Amupitan was nominated INEC Chairman, pending his confirmation by the Senate.

Meanwhile, online media platform, Sahara Reporters, stated that rifts between the Minister and President Bola Tinubu had deepened, causing the Minister to boycott the meeting and send the Minister of State in his place.

The report also stated that Wike had allegedly reached out to other Heads of State to boycott the meeting, and reportedly pushed for Justice Abdullahi Muhammad Liman, a justice of the Court of Appeal, to be nominated and appointed as INEC Chairman.

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However, Wike insisted that he worked for President Tinubu and that his delivery of projects in the FCT had silenced the critics.

“I work for Mr President. Mr President’s judgment, as far as I’m concerned, in this country has always been how to put this country in the right perspective. Be focused. When you start delivering, the achievement will silence all critics. Today they have nothing again to say,” the Minister stated.

Wike also commended the President for providing the right leadership, which he stated was responsible for the achievements made by the FCT Administration.

“I have always said, when you have the right leadership, you can achieve the expected results. Mr President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Grand Commander of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, has shown the right leadership. People are talking about the achievements we have made. It is because we have the right leadership. When you have the right leadership, you get things right,” he said.

The Delta State Police Command has arrested two suspected drug dealers and rescued a kidnapped woman in separate operations, the force confirmed.

SP Bright Edafe, spokesperson for the command, said that operatives of the Crack Squad, acting on credible intelligence, raided a hideout in the Government Reserved Area (GRA), Effurun, in the early hours of 12 October 2025. Two suspects, Igwe Samson, 33, and Abalum Sunday, 39, were arrested.

During the operation, a search conducted on the suspects’ Sienna vehicle led to the recovery of a large cache of illicit drugs, including 450 bottles of CSP Codeine, 188 bottles of Bargadine, 208 sachets of Tramadol 100mg, 100 sachets of Tramadol 500mg, 300 sachets of Swinol, 50 sachets of Rophynol, and a bag of weeds suspected to be cannabis.

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According to the police, preliminary investigations revealed that the suspects had been in the illegal drug business for about two years, sourcing their supplies from Onitsha and transporting them mostly at night to evade security detection.

“Efforts are ongoing to apprehend other members of the syndicate, including their suppliers and buyers,” Edafe stated.

In a separate incident, operatives of the Ovian-Aladja Police Division foiled a kidnapping operation and rescued a woman who had been abducted from her home in the early hours of the same day.

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The Divisional Police Officer (DPO), CSP Friday Ekundayo, reportedly acted on a distress call received around 2:00 a.m. and immediately led his team in pursuit of the kidnappers.

The suspects were tracked to a forest along the Iyara community, where the combined pressure from police operatives forced them to abandon their victim and flee.

The woman was safely rescued and has since been reunited with her family, while efforts are ongoing to arrest the fleeing suspects.

International human rights organisation, Amnesty International Nigeria, has faulted the pardons granted by President Bola Tinubu to 175 individuals, noting that granting clemency to persons convicted of human rights crimes prevents reparations of victims.

Country Director of Amnesty International, Isa Sanusi, in a statement on Tuesday, said the association was “deeply concerned” by the pardons granted by President Tinubu, noting that the way the exercise was carried out seemed to prioritise the perpetrators, rather than access to justice and effective remedies for victims and their families.

“We are deeply concerned by the clemency and pardons granted by the government of President Bola Tinubu to some persons convicted of human rights crimes, as the pardons for these crimes prevent reparations for victims.

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“The way and manner Nigerian authorities carried out the exercise seemed to prioritise the perpetrators instead of access to justice and effective remedies for the victims and their families,” the statement partly read.

Tinubu had on Friday, October 10th, 2025, granted pardons to 175 convicted persons, including Herbert Macaulay, Ken Saro Wiwa, former Minister of the FCT in the Babangida regime, Major-General Mamman Vatsa (retd), among others.

However, controversy trailed the release of the full list of persons who received the presidential prerogative of mercy, after it was discovered that the list also included the names of convicted drug offenders, and several others jailed for various crimes, including Maryam Sanda, who was convicted in 2020 for killing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello.

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Amnesty argued that the government’s actions had the potential to undermine the rule of law, prevent the emergence of truth, and entrench impunity for human rights crimes.

Sanusi, therefore, called on the President to reconsider the pardons for those who were convicted of human rights crimes and ensure the rights of victims and their families.

“The actions of the government have the potential of undermining the rule of law, preventing the emergence of the truth, the determination of guilt or innocence by a court and reparations for victims, as well as entrenching impunity for human rights crimes.

“President Bola Tinubu should reconsider his government’s pardons for those convicted of human rights crimes and uphold and ensure the rights of the victims and their families,” he stated.