Here is today’s summary from Nigerian Newspapers:

1. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has uncovered N37,170,855,753.44 allegedly laundered in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs under former minister Sadiya Umar-Farouk. Details of the ongoing probe revealed that the money was transferred from the Federal Government’s coffers and sent to 38 different bank accounts.

2. Popular Nigerian actor, movie director and producer, Azeez Ololade Ijaduade has reportedly been shot by a trigger-happy policeman in Iperu, Ogun State. He is currently battling for his life at the Babcock University Teaching Hospital.

3. The Federal Government has instructed that Nigerians with expired passports, who are planning to return to the country to celebrate the yuletide be allowed in without any hindrance. This was contained in a letter dated 22nd December 2023 by the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Wura-Ola Adepoju, to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar.

4. The immediate past Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has rejoined his family after perfecting his bail conditions. The authorities of the Nigeria Correctional Centre, Kuje, confirmed on Saturday that Emefiele was released a little after 2pm on Friday.

5. Nigerians should expect better days in 2024 when some of the decisions taken by the Bola Tinubu Administration will have started yielding positive dividends, the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, said on Saturday. Tinubu, according to him, is focused on turning the economy around for growth, development and prosperity.

6. Goods and properties worth millions of naira were razed on Saturday midnight, following a gas explosion that rocked a market at the Council Bus Stop along Egbeda-Ikotun Road, Alimosho Local Government Area, of Lagos State. The Director of Lagos State Fire and Rescue Services, Margaret Adeseye, confirmed the incident, noting that the fire was caused by a gas cylinder leakage

7. There is palpable tension in Kano State as people are divided ahead of the Supreme Court judgment in the governorship tussle between the All Progressives Congress, APC and the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP. The polity is heating up daily. The legal battle is between Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of NNPP and the APC candidate, Dr. Nasiru Gawuna.

8. Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has called on President Bola Tinubu and other political leaders to use the festive period to seek creative measures to lift Nigerians out of the present humongous suffering and hardship. According to the NLC, Nigerians expect concrete actions with solid results instead of handouts.

9. Troops of the Joint Task Force North-West, Operation Hadarin Daji, OPHD, have rescued 52 kidnapped victims in a successful and well-coordinated operation in Isa Local Government Area of Sokoto State. In a statement on Saturday, the Army said this was in continuation of the onslaught against terrorists through a series of clearance operations in their Areas of Responsibility.

10. Anthony Joshua won his third fight of 2023 with a TKO victory over Otto Wallin in the main event of the “Day of Reckoning” card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. After securing consecutive victories over Jermaine Franklin in April and Robert Helenius with a seventh-round knockout in August, Joshua cruised to a fifth-round technical knockout win over Wallin.