Newspaper Headlines: 10 things you need to know this Saturday morning

Here is today’s summary from Nigerian Newspapers:

1. While the House of Assembly election will be holding today in the 36 states of the federation, the governorship poll is holding in only 28 states. Eight other states – Osun, Ekiti, Kogi, Bayelsa, Anambra, Edo, Ondo and Imo – have off-season elections.

2. The Lagos State Police Command has said a 53-year-old woman, who was found with laminated electoral materials, is in detention. The police spokesperson, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed this on Friday.

3. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has raised an alarm over fake identity cards for security personnel on election duty. Mr. Fesus Okoye, National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee of INEC, raised the alarm in a statement on Friday night.

4. A Federal High Court in Abuja, on Friday, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to electronically transmit Saturday’s governorship and House of Assembly election results in accordance with its regulations and guidelines.

5. Musiliu Akinsanya, Lagos State Parks Management Committee Chairman, also known as MC Oluomo, has withdrawn his threat to Igbo residents in Lagos. While addressing supporters of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at a meeting on Thursday, he had threatened Igbos who would not vote for the APC to stay off polling units.

6. Civil society organizations have charged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to be above board in its handling of the governorship polls, insisting that the body should perform better than it did during the February 25 presidential election.

7. The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere has charged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that there are significant improvements during today’s governorship and Houses of Assembly polls in the areas where lapses were identified during the conduct of the presidential and National Assembly elections on Saturday February 25th of last month.

8. About 22 of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System, BVAS, in Rivers State for the Governorship and House of Assembly polls are feared missing. This was as over 6865 of the machines deployed to the state have been successfully reconfigured for Saturday’s polls. The Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Johnson Alalibo, however, told newsmen that the development would not affect the process.

9. The Court of Appeal in Abuja has dismissed an appeal by an associate of the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Abba Kyari – Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Sunday J. Ubua – in which he sought to be admitted to bail. In a judgment on Friday, a three-member panel of the appellate court held that the appeal by Ubua was without merit.

10. President Muhammadu Buhari has signed into law 16 bills seeking to amend various parts of the 1999 Constitution. The Joint Senate and House of Representatives’ Special Ad Hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution made this known on Friday.