In the build-up to the November 11, 2023 elections scheduled to hold in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states, the Department of State Services (DSS) has released a statement on its official X (Twitter page) on Thursday. The statement was signed by Peter Afunanya, the DSS Director of Public Relations and Strategic Communications and titled, ‘DSS Cautions Against Inflammatory Statements-Calls for Peace During the Elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa States’.

Following the call by the Nigerian labour Congress for industrial action yesterday, many top government officials, together with their armed escorts, business guests and hundreds of other Nigerians have been denied from entering the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja. As of 9.15 am a source disclosed that at the Airport entry lane down to some few kilometres, scores of vehicles carrying air passengers have gotten into a traffic jam stranded and have remained without room to manoeuvre over a distance of about four kilometres to the airport main gate.

The Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma has been declared a persona non-grata across airports in Nigeria by Nigerian aviation workers. It was also revealed that all flights from Owerri International Airport have been blacklisted due to the incident that led to assaulting the NLC President, Joe Ajaero. The directive was disclosed in a joint statement by the aviation union. These included the National Association of Aircraft Pilots And Engineers (NAAPE), the National Union Of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), and the Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP). The General-Secretaries of the union signed the statement on Wednesday, November 8. They are Umoh Ofonime, NAAPE; Frances Akinjole, ATSSSAN; Comrades Ocheme Aba, NUATE; and Abdul Rasaq Saidu, ANAP.

Organized Labour has declared a total and indefinite nationwide strike, beginning from Tuesday, November 14, 2023. The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), disclosed this following an emergency meeting in Abuja on Tuesday. At the meeting, the unions reviewed the modalities of the planned strike following the brutalization of the NLC National President, Joe Ajaero by the police in Imo State last week. The unions asked President Bola Tinubu-led government to immediately remove the police commissioner in the state and the Area Commander, among other officials, for their alleged complicity in the humiliation of Ajaero and other workers.

The Nigerian Army has said soldiers operating under 81 Division prevented a suicide attempt by one Mrs Francesca Spark, who plunged into the Lagos lagoon around 81 Division Officers’ Mess, Marina, in an attempt to take her own life.

The attention of the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Kayode Egbetokun has been beckoned on by the coalition of youth groups in Rivers State to immediately redeploy the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State Command, Nwonyi Polycarp Emeka for his alleged role in the crisis that erupted in the state last Monday. The call is the sequel to the report that some police officers threatened to kill the governor, Siminalaye Fubara, and shot at him when he went to assess the extent of damage done to the state House of Assembly chambers which got burnt on Sunday night. “We condemn the unprofessional actions of the police who aided some members of the Rivers State House of Assembly to sit outside the Chambers despite the security situation and the direct attack on the Executive Governor of Rivers State.