Today’s Headlines: Killings: Drop your ambition now, northern Islamic clerics tell Tinubu, Trump proposes $70,000 fee for international students seeking to work in US

ABUJA: Over 1,000 northern Islamic clerics have told President Bola Tinubu to drop his 2027 re-election ambition, citing killings, kidnappings and acts of terrorism across the country, particularly in the North-West.

The demand was contained in a communique issued at the end of a national conference on “An Assessment of the State of the Nation under President Tinubu and the 2027 General Elections,” held in Kano State on Sunday.

The conference was organised by the clerics under the umbrella of “Ko Da Naka”, an organization which says it is dedicated to “the Struggle to Promote Good Governance and Community Development”, in collaboration with AFAQ Educational Foundation.

The administration of United States President Donald Trump has proposed a $70,000 fee for international students seeking to work in the country, Associated Press reports.

This development was in the latest move to restrict foreign student enrolment and employment in the country.

The Department of Homeland Security proposed the fee on Wednesday, saying schools would be required to pay it for every international student participating in the Optional Practical Training programme.

The OPT programme allows international students to work in jobs related to their fields of study during or after their education in the US.

Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has urged Nigerians to collect their Permanent Voter Cards ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Makinde made the call in a video shared on his social media accounts on Tuesday, where he displayed his PVC while urging citizens to collect theirs ahead of the polls.

In a statement accompanying the video, the governor said the Independent National Electoral Commission had confirmed that PVC collection would commence on October 9, 2026.

“INEC has confirmed that Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) collection commences on 9 October 2026. Please get your PVC so that you can participate in the 2027 election,” he said.

The Presidency on Tuesday rejected claims by The Economist that Nigerians dislike President Bola Tinubu, describing the assertion as “intellectual fraud” and insisting that the President’s economic overhaul is unstoppable.

In a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, the Presidency said the foreign publication’s position “smells of opposition and is riddled with inconsistencies.”

The statement is titled ‘Beyond the Economist Condescension: Nigeria’s Re-engineering Under Tinubu is Unstoppable.’

The Presidency argued that it had become a tired, predictable ritual for foreign publications, which it described as operating from “comfortable, insulated drawing rooms,” to view Nigeria through a cracked, distorted lens.

The Federal Capital Territory Police Command has arrested a 27-year-old woman, Precious Yohanna, over the alleged killing of her newborn baby in the Jabi area of Abuja.

The FCT Police Public Relations Officer, SP Josephine Adeh, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday, saying the arrest followed the discovery of the lifeless body of a male infant in a bush near Jabi.

According to the police, operatives received a distress call at about 10:30pm on October 4 concerning an abandoned baby in the area and immediately mobilised to the scene.

Adeh said the infant was found with deep wounds on the throat and abdomen and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where medical personnel confirmed him dead.

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