Veteran Nollywood actor, Francis Duru, has passed away at the age of 57.
His family officially confirmed his death through a statement shared on his verified Instagram page in the early hours of Friday, October 23, 2026, stating that he passed away following a brief illness.
The statement read: “We, the family of Francis Duru, regret to announce his passing following a brief illness. We appreciate your prayers, love, and understanding. May his soul rest in perfect peace. Amen.”
The National President of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Alhaji Abubakar Sanusi Yakubu, also confirmed the death, writing: “Another great thespian gone… Rest in peace Francis Duru!!”
Duru, born July 27, 1969, in Cameroon to Nigerian parents from Imo State, was one of Nollywood’s most enduring faces. A Theatre Arts graduate of the University of Port Harcourt (1996), he began his career in 1989 with _Missing Mark_ and became a household name for his iconic role as Ahanna in the 1995 classic _Rattlesnake_, produced by late Amaka Igwe.
With a career spanning over three decades, he featured in classics including _Blood Money, Home in Exile, Stigma_ and _Mboputa_, which earned him Best Actor in a Leading Role (Igbo) at the 2020 Best of Nollywood Awards. He was interim president of the AGN in 2010 and was honoured as United Nations Ambassador of Peace in 2007.
His death comes just over a year after he lost his 15-year-old son, Ifeanyi, in August 2024.
Fans, colleagues, and members of the Actors Guild have taken to social media to express shock and pay tribute to the veteran actor, remembering his decades-long contributions to the Nigerian film industry.
He is survived by his wife, Adokiye, and children.
Former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, has warned that anyone who attempts to rig the 2027 general elections will face deadly consequences.
Omo-Agege, who is the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate for Delta Central Senatorial District, issued the threat on Wednesday during his campaign flag-off in Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State.
“I want to make news again: Anybody who rig election that day, we will kill him. Rig and die. If you don’t value your life, come and rig election,” he told supporters.
He said election rigging amounts to stealing the future of voters and their children.
“They are rigging your future, they are rigging the future of your children. We are waiting for them. Let them try. Rig and die. We are going to do it aura for aura. We are just looking at them,” he said.
The former Deputy Senate President between 2019 and 2023, who represented Delta Central from 2015 to 2023, also criticised the practice of telling candidates who complain about rigging to go to court, insisting voters must be allowed to determine outcomes without interference.
He alleged intimidation and attacks against his campaign, family and supporters and appealed to security agencies and the international community to monitor political activities in Delta State.
Omo-Agege defected from the APC to the NDC in May 2026. He faces APC incumbent Ede Dafinone, PDP’s AI Arhagba Ighogbedjere and 10 others in the January 2027 senatorial election.
He expressed confidence the NDC would defeat the APC in Delta State.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has held an emergency coordination meeting and expanded surveillance nationwide following the confirmation of an imported Ebola Bundibugyo case in Abuja on October 20.
The Federal Government confirmed the patient, a female who arrived from Uganda, developed symptoms on October 7 and is now in isolation. 44 close contacts have been traced for monitoring.
In response, Oyo State says it has activated surveillance units across its 33 Local Government Areas. Commissioner for Health, Dr. Oluwaserimi Ajetunmobi, said the state began preparedness since June 2026 under the One Health approach, in collaboration with the Ministries of Information, Agriculture and Environment and the Epidemiology Unit of University College Hospital, Ibadan.
Ajetunmobi said Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials on transmission, prevention and emergency contacts have been distributed to health facilities, infection prevention and control reinforced, and the Infectious Disease Centre at Olodo prepared. No confirmed case has been recorded in Oyo.
Other states on heightened alert:
-Ogun: No case as of Oct 21. 111 persons of interest from high-risk countries identified, monitored and discharged after surveillance. Public Health Emergency Operations Centre coordinating.
-Ekiti, Niger, Lagos, Kaduna: Intensified public awareness, risk communication via radio and TV, and capacity building for high-priority pathogens.
At the federal level, the Senate has called for emergency funds to stem spread and mandatory screening of all international travellers, while FAAN has placed airports on heightened alert. The US has also advised its citizens in Nigeria on precautions.
The medical academy warned Nigerians to avoid handshakes and hugs for now.
NCDC urged residents not to panic but to report sudden fever, severe headache, joint pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, fatigue, abdominal pain or unexplained bleeding. Incubation period is 2-21 days.
Oyo government advised regular handwashing, use of sanitisers and prompt reporting to health facilities rather than self-medication.
Pro-democracy activist and founding National Secretary of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Prof. Udenta O. Udenta, has proposed the establishment of a Sovereign Commission for Democratic Sustainability and National Stability to prevent the 2027 elections from plunging Nigeria into crisis.
In a statement on Tuesday, Udenta said the challenge ahead of 2027 goes beyond who emerges president, stressing that Nigeria must prioritise national unity and democratic stability over individual ambitions.
“Elections cannot, by themselves, build trust or guarantee stability,” he said. “The critical question is what becomes of the nation the day after.”
He argued that “Nigeria’s survival must matter more than the fortunes of any politician” and that “Nigeria is not temporary.”
Udenta, who declared support for Peter Obi but said the initiative would accommodate supporters of President Bola Tinubu, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde and other aspirants, said the commission should not be another committee of elders issuing communiqués that gather dust.
Composition:
He proposed the commission include the sitting president if seeking re-election, the president-elect where a new leader emerges, all certified presidential candidates, national leaders and chairmen of political parties, and presidents of the NLC, TUC, ASUU, NUJ and civil society representatives.
Key proposals:
– All presidential candidates make seven pre-election commitments, including participating in the commission regardless of outcome
– Joint appeal for calm within 72 hours of results declaration
– Winner convenes commission within 30 days, with recommendations published within 100 days
– Establishment of an 18-month Government of National Unity based on competence
– Reforms to reduce winner-takes-all presidential politics
– Restoration of high-level offices for inter-party and civil society relations
Udenta stressed the commission must not undermine INEC, the judiciary or constitutional institutions, nor become a platform for patronage, but serve as a practical forum for post-election dialogue, monitoring commitments and identifying threats to democratic legitimacy.
He also noted Nigeria has recovered multi-party democracy from the ashes of the broken PDP, and warned against pushing the country into a one-party state.
I have completed reading General Yakubu Gowon’s 881-page memoir, My Life of Duty and Allegiance. I read every page, from the opening reflections on his childhood in Daura and Wusasa to the closing chapters on his exile, his prayers, and his long twilight as an elder statesman. I read it slowly, the way a man reads a document he knows will settle something inside him, and I read it with a question burning in my chest: how was the North led into a war that consumed more than a million lives, and how was that story sold to us?
From my own understanding of those 881 pages, one conclusion stands above every other. Gowon is judging himself. He has convicted himself. He has written the indictment in his own hand, signed it with his own name, and published it for the world to see. A prosecutor becomes unnecessary here. A truth commission becomes redundant. Historians need not comb through archives in London and Lagos, because the general has laid the evidence on the table himself, chapter by chapter, page by page, and invited us to examine it.
For sixty years, the North was fed a story. We were told that the civil war was forced upon a reluctant federal government by the ambition of one man. We were told that our leaders tried to save lives, that they were pushed into war against their will, and that the starvation of Biafran children was an unfortunate necessity of a conflict we did not start. We were told that the blockade was a military measure, that the bombing of markets was collateral damage, and that the slogan “No victor, no vanquished” was a genuine embrace of reconciliation.
My Life of Duty and Allegiance was supposed to be the final word on all of that. It was supposed to be the moment when the old general, at ninety-one, would look us in the eye and tell us the truth about what he did and why he did it.
What he gave us instead is a document so riddled with internal contradictions, so burdened by demonstrable falsehoods, that it has become the very instrument of his own conviction. The North was fooled by design, and the general’s own book is the blueprint of that design.
EXHIBIT A: The Phantom Rescue and the Authorised Arrest
On page 201, Gowon presents himself as a man desperately trying to save the life of his superior, General Aguiyi-Ironsi, during the chaos of the July 29, 1966 counter-coup. He writes:
“On impulse, I called the airport at Ikeja to instruct Major Paul Dickson who oversaw the airport to send a helicopter to Ibadan to evacuate the Supreme Commander.”
It reads like a story of loyalty, a young officer trying to rescue his commander from the mutineers. The trouble is that the story collapses the moment you examine it.
Investigators have established that there was no Major Paul Dickson in the Nigerian Armed Forces on July 29, 1966. The only Paul Dickson who existed at the time was an Air Force staff sergeant whose duty involved controlling sentries at the airport, a man who could not conceivably have been handed a military rescue operation stretching across 113 kilometres of road and airspace. The hero of page 201 is a ghost, and the helicopter never left the ground.
The lie runs deeper still. While Gowon claims he was trying to save Ironsi, a documented telephone conversation from that same day reveals what he was actually doing. In Lindsay Barrett’s biography of General T.Y. Danjuma, Gowon is recorded authorising the arrest of the Supreme Commander:
Danjuma: “We want to arrest the Supreme Commander.”
Gowon: (after a long silence) “Can you do it?”
Danjuma: “We’ve got the house surrounded and sealed off Sir. We can do it.”
Gowon: (after another long pause) “Alright but please make sure there is no bloodshed.”
That silence is the most eloquent passage in the entire affair. A man weighing a decision. A man understanding precisely what he is authorising. A man giving the order and then attaching a condition to it, as though a request for restraint could cleanse what followed.
Here lies the conviction. Gowon did not try to save Ironsi. He authorised his arrest. The helicopter of page 201 was invented to distance him from the counter-coup and from the massacres of Igbo officers, civil servants, traders, and families that followed across the North. We were told the counter-coup was a spontaneous reaction to the January killings, a moment of uncontrolled fury. The general’s own record shows a calculated transfer of power, and he stood at its centre.
EXHIBIT B: The Shivering Fever and the Betrayal of Aburi
The Aburi Accord was the last real chance to stop the slide into war. Gowon signed it in Ghana in January 1967. He returned home and reneged.
In his memoir, he offers an explanation that reads as both pathetic and revealing. He says he agreed to the terms while suffering from a “shivering fever,” and he has told interviewers that he was so ill he “could not make a decision” upon returning to Nigeria.
That is a medical alibi offered in place of a political confession. The Aburi proceedings were recorded on tape. Gowon can be heard on that tape as a lucid, engaged negotiator who agreed to a confederate structure with remarkable composure. He did not sound like a man incapacitated by malaria. He sounded like a leader who signed a deal and then panicked when he returned to Lagos and met the civil servants and military advisers who feared the loss of federal power.
The consequence arrived in March 1967 as Decree No. 8, which unilaterally inserted clauses giving the Head of State veto power over the regions. That decree violated the Aburi spirit in its letter and its logic. Gowon then told the North that the Igbo were the aggressors, that they wanted to break the country, that the federal government had no choice. The truth sits in a different place entirely. He signed a peace agreement and then broke it. The war that followed came as a choice, and he made it.
We in the North were handed a narrative of reluctant duty. We were told our sons were going to the front to defend the nation. We were not told that the leaders had signed away the very arrangement that would have made the war unnecessary.
EXHIBIT C: The “Thousands” That Were Millions
Perhaps the most damning falsehood in the book is one of arithmetic. On page 467, Gowon refers to the victims of the war as “thousands who perished.”
Thousands.
The figure is a deliberate minimisation of a catastrophe. General Ibrahim Babangida, writing in his own memoir, states that over two million Biafran civilians, many of them children, died of starvation and disease alone. That figure excludes those killed by the mass bombing of civilian populations, by ground operations, and by the diseases that followed displacement.
“Thousands” is a word for a stadium. Millions is a word for a civilisation’s grief. By shrinking the dead into a footnote, Gowon attempts to erase the scale of what the blockade accomplished. The North was told that the starvation was an unfortunate side effect of military strategy. The record suggests something else: hunger was a weapon, hunger was sustained deliberately, and hunger remains the one subject the general cannot bring himself to describe with accuracy.
EXHIBIT D: The Frame-Up of Ironsi
To justify the July counter-coup and the pogroms against Igbos in the North, the narrative needed a villain. Gowon chose General Ironsi.
On pages 164 to 166, 172 to 173, and 188 to 189, Gowon paints Ironsi as a man who “must have known what was happening” during the January 1966 coup, suggesting complicity in the killings. That implication did enormous work. It told the North that the Supreme Commander was part of the plot. It told soldiers that their rage was justified. It told civilians that the Igbo community as a whole had authored the deaths of their leaders.
Then, on page 185, Gowon reverses course and exonerates the same man he had just implicated.
That reversal is a strategy rather than a slip of memory. He first planted the seed of Ironsi’s guilt to pacify the North and give cover to the violence that followed. Later, in a quieter passage, he acknowledges the truth. The order of those pages matters more than their content. Plant the accusation where it will do the most damage, then withdraw it where it will attract the least attention.
We were told Ironsi was a traitor. We were told the Igbo were the enemy. The general’s own book shows that he knew the narrative was false, and he allowed it to stand because it served his purpose.
EXHIBIT E: The Convenient Silence on the Blockade
The general’s memoir discusses the blockade as a strategic necessity, and it discusses starvation as a consequence of war. What the memoir struggles to confront is the ordinary experience of the blockade: the food that could not pass, the relief flights that were obstructed, the children who died in their mothers’ arms while the federal government argued about sovereignty.
A memoir is judged by the questions it refuses. Page after page is devoted to cabinet meetings, diplomatic missions, the mechanics of military command, and the general’s relationship with his officers. The camera lingers on the corridors of power and turns away from the compound where a mother buried her son. The North accepted that framing for two generations. A war was fought in the name of our unity, and the suffering that followed was placed at the door of the other side.
EXHIBIT F: The Lie of “No Victor, No Vanquished”
The phrase “No victor, no vanquished” has been repeated for fifty-six years as though it were a policy rather than a speech. Gowon offers it in the memoir as a statement of intent, a promise of reconciliation, a gesture of mercy from a victorious commander.
The history that followed tells a different story. The vanquished returned home to find their savings erased by the demonetisation of Biafran currency. They returned to find their properties declared abandoned and seized. They returned to a region that received a fraction of the reconstruction money spent elsewhere. They returned to a federal structure that concentrated power in the hands of the men who had won.
A phrase that promised equality became a phrase that allowed the country to move on without ever having to account for the war. The slogan served the victor. It gave the North a sense of its own generosity while the East carried the bill.
The Verdict: He Convicted Himself
I did not write this article to attack Gowon for the sake of attacking him. I wrote it because I read his book, and I could not set it down without recording what I found there.
He offers a phantom rescue to obscure his role in a coup. He offers a fever to obscure his betrayal of a peace accord. He offers “thousands” to obscure millions. He offers a frame-up to obscure the truth about the violence that consumed the North.
The North was not fooled because we are simple people. We were fooled because we trusted our leaders. We were told a story that made us feel righteous, that made us feel like victims defending our own land. The general’s own words show that the story was manufactured, and manufactured for a purpose.
The civil war ended in 1970. The lie has lasted for sixty years. It is time to end it.
A Brutal Truth From My Heart To Every Nigerian Student, Parent, Lecturer And Leader
_By Mr. Adesola Adefemi Ojuolape_
Let me tell you the bitter, naked and raw truth that nobody in government, nobody in the National Universities Commission (NUC), no Vice Chancellor and no Professor has the courage to tell you.
Most of the courses being taught in Nigeria’s universities have expired. I mean totally expired. They are dead on arrival. They died many years ago, but we are still embalming the corpse and forcing our children to carry it.
Not only have they expired, they are completely irrelevant to Nigeria’s development, irrelevant to our economy, irrelevant to our industries, irrelevant to the labour market, and totally irrelevant to the 21st-century world that is now driven by technology, skills, innovation, productivity and entrepreneurship.
They are a monumental waste of time, a waste of money, a waste of energy, a waste of mental strength and a complete waste of youthful destiny. Every year, we are producing millions of graduates, but we are not producing solutions. We are producing certificate holders, but we are not producing problem solvers. We are producing job seekers, but we are not producing job creators.
And that is why the country is sinking deeper.
THE SAD REALITY ON OUR STREETS
If we do not modernize our educational system, if we do not completely overhaul our curriculum, if we do not burn down this outdated, colonial, certificate-based, theory-only, cram-and-pour system and build a new skill-based, value-based, innovation-based, technology-driven and productivity-based system, Nigeria will never become a modern, progressive, competitive and prosperous nation.
We will continue to produce millions of frustrated, angry, depressed, confused and unemployable graduates roaming the streets of Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano with beautiful certificates inside expensive files but with zero practical skills, zero relevance, zero capacity and zero employability.
That is why you see a First Class graduate of a dead course begging for a 40,000 Naira job from a school dropout who learnt a relevant skill. That is why a graduate who spent 5 years in the university is now learning how to make cakes, how to do barbing, how to drive Uber, after graduation. The university failed him. The system betrayed him.
THE 4-YEAR WASTE VS THE 6-MONTH WISDOM
Think deeply about this painful reality:
If you study a 4-year course that will have absolutely no bearing on your future job, your future business, your future survival and your future relevance – which is the sad reality of over 60% of courses in our universities today – you are better off not wasting those 4 precious, golden, energetic years at all.
You are better off learning a relevant, powerful, highly marketable and highly profitable skill in just 6 months.
Whether it is Coding, Software Development, Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, UI/UX Design, Mobile App Development, Cloud Computing, Nursing, Medical Lab Technology, Pharmacy Technology, Solar Installation and Renewable Energy, Electrical Engineering, Plumbing, Welding, POP Installation, Tiling, Furniture Making, Fashion Design, Leather Works, Shoe Making, Digital Marketing, Copywriting, Public Relations and Advertising, Content Creation, Videography, Professional Photography, Graphics Design, Video Editing, Agribusiness, Poultry Farming, Fishery, Snail Farming, Catering, Baking, Pastries, or any serious handwork that solves real problems and puts money in your pocket daily.
Because in the 4 years you would have wasted inside the university studying an expired course that nobody needs and no company is ready to pay for, the person who went to learn a relevant skill would have already mastered it, built a solid client base, built a powerful brand, built a strong social media presence, started a thriving and profitable business, become financially stable, bought his own car, built his own house, and progressed to the level where he can now employ one of those irrelevant graduates with a big certificate as his Personal Assistant, as his Secretary, as his Front Desk Officer, as his Messenger.
That is the painful truth. That is the bitter truth. Certificate without skill is poverty in disguise. Certificate without value is frustration in uniform.
WHY ARE OUR UNIVERSITIES STILL KEEPING DEAD COURSES?
The answer is simple and shameful.
Our universities keep retaining these dead and expired courses because they bring in huge school fees and huge allocation, because they are very cheap to run, because they require no standard laboratories, no modern workshops, no modern equipment, no innovation hubs, no research grants, no industrial partnership. They just need a classroom, a chalk, a blackboard, a lecturer reading a 40-year-old note, and an outdated textbook written in 1970 by a colonial master.
And innocent students keep rushing to study them just because they want admission at all costs, just to answer “I am a graduate,” just to please their parents, just to avoid staying at home.
This is not education. This is educational fraud. This is future destruction. This is destiny manipulation. This is national suicide. We are killing the future of our children with our own hands.
A university that cannot produce employable graduates is not a university, it is a glorified secondary school. An education that cannot put food on your table is not education, it is decoration. It is a scam.
THE WAY FORWARD WHAT WE MUST DO NOW
1. FOR THE GOVERNMENT AND NUC: Scrap, merge or completely modernize all expired courses. Compel every university to have functional skill acquisition centres, tech hubs, and entrepreneurship labs. Link every course to industry. No more theory without practical.
2. FOR VICE CHANCELLORS AND LECTURERS: Stop teaching what you were taught in 1985. Upgrade yourself. Go for modern training. The world has left you behind.
3. FOR PARENTS: Stop forcing your children to study dead courses because of family pride. Ask one question before you pay that school fee: “Can this course feed my child after graduation?” If the answer is NO, you are investing in poverty.
4. FOR STUDENTS: Be wise! Stop chasing admission at all costs. It is better to stay one year at home to find a relevant course or learn a powerful skill than to waste 4 years studying a course that will make you a professional unemployed person. Your future is more important than your admission.
We must wake up! The Federal Government must wake up! The NUC must wake up! Parents must wake up! Students must wake up!
Stop studying courses that expired 20 years ago. Stop studying courses that cannot feed you in this wicked economy. Stop studying courses that will turn you into a professional job seeker, a certified beggar, and a frustrated applicant writing endless application letters that nobody will ever read.
Study what the nation needs. Study what the world needs. Study what the market needs. Study what can put food on your table, money in your pocket, and value in your hands.
The era of going to university just to be called a graduate is over. Nobody cares about your title anymore. Nobody cares about your B.A., B.Sc., or B.Ed. The world only cares about what problem you can solve and what value you can offer.
This is the era of skills. This is the era of value. This is the era of relevance. This is the era of productivity.
If your certificate cannot solve a single real-life problem, if it cannot create a job, if it cannot start a business, if it cannot attract income, then it is nothing but useless paper inside a beautiful file.
The choice is yours. Choose wisdom. Choose skill. Choose relevance.
I remain,
MR ADESOLA ADEFEMI OJUOLAPE
Author, Public Affairs Analyst & Human Capital Development Advocate
The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has shifted the unveiling and inauguration of its Presidential Campaign Council from Monday, October 20 to Monday, October 26, 2026.
The change was announced in a statement on Sunday by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Osa Director.
According to the statement, the postponement was necessitated by the tight schedule of the party’s presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, who has an important overseas engagement.
“The shift is occasioned by the very tight schedule of our Presidential Candidate, His Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi, who has a very important engagement overseas,” Director said.
The party apologised for any inconvenience caused by the shift and urged members and supporters to remain focused on securing victory for Obi and other NDC candidates.
“A New Nigeria is POssible!” the statement added.
The inauguration was initially slated to hold on October 20 alongside a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting where key decisions for the 2027 elections were to be ratified, certificates of return presented to candidates, and a unity dinner held.
National Chairman Senator Moses Cleopas had earlier explained on October 10 that the delay in constituting the council was due to consultations with Obi and his running mate, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, to ensure proper handling of appointments, including Director-General and other key roles.
The October 26 event is now expected to formalize the party’s national campaign machinery ahead of the general elections scheduled to begin in January 2027.
President Bola Tinubu has nominated six new officials for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and reappointed Dr. Bala Bila as National Commissioner representing the North-East.
The nominations were announced on Friday, October 17, 2026, by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
According to the statement, the list comprises four National Commissioners and two Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) to fill vacancies created by expiring tenures.
The new National Commissioners are:
– Prof. Mustapha Aliu (North-West) to replace Prof. Abdullahi Zuru
– Bashir Muhammed Umar (North-Central) to replace Prof. Muhammad Adamu
– Mrs. Oluwatoyin Babalola (South-West), currently the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Osun State, to replace Prof. Cornelius Ajayi whose tenure expires on October 24, 2026
The President also reappointed Dr. Bala Bila for a second term as North-East National Commissioner.
For Resident Electoral Commissioners, Tinubu nominated:
– Dr. Samuel Akinjide Akinleye, a retired permanent secretary, to represent Ekiti State
– Zahradden Basiru Sanusi from Jigawa State to replace Prof. Saidu Ahmed Babura
Onanuga said President Tinubu has urged the Senate to expedite screening and confirmation of the nominees in view of the forthcoming general elections scheduled to begin in January 2027.
The nominations come as INEC intensifies preparations for the 2027 polls, following controversies over omissions of some governorship candidates from its final list published on October 10.
Hundreds of supporters of the Kwankwasiyya Movement on Friday protested at the Kano State office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the exclusion of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) governorship candidate from the final list for the 2027 election.
The protesters, led by the party’s deputy governorship candidate, Mustapha Rabiu Kwankwaso, submitted a formal petition demanding the reinstatement of Comrade Aminu Abdussalam Gwarzo.
The protest, held on October 16, 2026, followed the publication of INEC’s final list for Kano which contains 17 governorship tickets but omitted the NDC candidate and his running mate.
Kwankwaso said the party had fulfilled all nomination requirements, describing the omission as unjust. The movement’s spokesperson, Dr. Habibu Mohammed, alleged that an INEC staff member colluded with unauthorised individuals to conceal a decision that led to substitution of some candidates, using letters bearing suspected forged signatures.
He said the group wants INEC to investigate the officer and establish how the disputed documents entered the system.
Receiving the petition, the Kano Resident Electoral Commissioner, Abdu Zango, acknowledged the complaint and assured that it would be forwarded to INEC national headquarters for consideration.
“Basically, what they came to do is to present a complaint about the omission of their candidates. INEC has made the point very clear, the reason for the omission and the fact that there is a window of appeal that has been provided up to the 24th of October,” Zango said.
He commended the protesters for presenting their grievances peacefully and urged all political groups to use established channels.
The NDC Kano omission is among several disputes INEC said it is addressing after its October 10 final list. The commission had given affected parties until October 24, 2026, to notify it in writing with an affidavit where a duly nominated candidate was omitted, in line with Section 32(2) of the Electoral Act 2026.
The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in Enugu State has confirmed the death of one of its members, Nworie Christopher, following a shooting attack on the party’s campaign office.
Christopher, who hailed from Affa in Udi Local Government Area, died from gunshot injuries sustained during an attack on Saturday, October 10, 2026.
According to the NDC, armed thugs invaded the campaign office of its governorship candidate, Sir Christian Chinyeaka Ohaa, in the Government Reserved Area (GRA), Enugu, during a gathering of supporters.
The party said the attack occurred in two phases. First at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport where thousands of members, supporters of the Obidient Movement and Kwankwasiya group had gathered to welcome Ohaa for his campaign flag-off, and later at his GRA campaign office.
The NDC alleged that the attackers operated under the protection of policemen attached to the state government and left several people injured. Despite efforts by party leadership to save him, Christopher died from his wounds.
The party also linked the incident to a pattern of attacks, including an armed attack on a ward meeting at Obuoffia in Nkanu West on September 12, 2026, where eight members reportedly sustained gunshot injuries, and the tear-gassing and brutalization of supporters at the airport.
*Ohaa Visits Family, Demands Justice*
On Tuesday, October 13, Ohaa led a delegation to the bereaved family in Affa to commiserate with them. The delegation included his running mate, Chief Frank Omeje, State Chairman Engr. Ibuchukwu Obeta, State Secretary Hon. Emmanuel Chukwujekwu Nebo, Prof. Uche Akubue, Hon. Emeke Okeke and the state women leader.
In a statement through his media aide, Hon. Sampson Ukwu, Ohaa said:
“No election is worth a single drop of a citizen’s blood. Nworie Christopher went out to support a vision for a better Enugu. Today he is gone. His twin brother is left with an empty half of his world. His family is shattered. His mother is completely heartbroken. We will not be silenced by violence. We will not be intimidated. The blood of Nworie Christopher and all our injured members cries out for justice.”
He condemned what he described as a dangerous escalation of political violence against opposition members in Enugu State.
*Reactions*
Activist Deji Adeyanju and the South-East chapter of the Kwankwaso National Network (KNN) have called on President Bola Tinubu and the Inspector-General of Police to investigate the attack and prosecute those responsible.
Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah, in a video address on October 12, ordered a thorough police investigation, saying his administration is committed to peaceful political activities. The state government denied involvement and initially said no death was recorded, while police said they are investigating reports of shooting and damage to vehicles.
No arrests have been officially announced as of press time.
