Labour Party cannot win 2023 presidential election – Kwankwaso
Rabiu Kwankwaso, the former Governor of Kano State, said that the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi, cannot win the presidential election in 2023.
Kwankwaso, who is contesting the election on the platform of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), made this comment during his appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
He advised the handlers of the Peter Obi campaign to agree to an alliance that would see Obi as a running mate to him.
According to him, votes from the southeast region cannot guarantee him the presidency. He said that the support base of the Labour Party isn’t well spread, acknowledging the fact that the northwest, southwest, and northeast have overwhelming numbers that will make it extremely difficult for the party to gather the winning numbers.
He dismissed claims of him accepting to be a running mate to Obi and advised that the LP candidate should accept the vice-presidential slot offered to him by NNPP.
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Nigeria pledges support against marine plastic pollution
President Muhammadu Buhari has pledged Nigeria’s commitment to end marine plastic pollution from land-based sources and activities. He made the pledge in alliance with an international legally binding agreement reached among members at the 2022 United Nations Ocean Conference in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal.
The President also used the opportunity to congratulate the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Federal Ministry of Transportation, and all who participated in the completion process that resulted in the berthing of the first ship at Lekki Deep Seaport in Lagos.
Sharon Ikeazor, minister of state for environment, who represented the President at the event in Lisbon, said the country has taken a giant stride in ensuring the health and sustainability of the oceans, seas, and marine resources. She agreed that the president has issued a road map of national policy on plastic pollution aimed at taking care of the menace of plastic waste management.
She also informed the organisation that the president, after identifying the importance of the ocean to the Nigerian economy, has constituted a Presidential Committee on Sustainable Blue Economy.
Denmark in shock as gunman kills three at Copenhagen shopping mall
The Danish National Police Force reported that three people were killed and several more wounded in a shooting spree at Field shopping mall in Copenhagen on Sunday.
The police said that they had arrested a 22-year-old Danish man and charged him with manslaughter.
According to Aljazeera, the attack rocked Denmark at the end of an otherwise joyous week, just after it hosted the first three stages of the Tour de France.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who was reacting to the news of the attack, expressed total disbelief and disappointment that a peace-loving country like Denmark could experience such a painful act. “Denmark was hit by a cruel attack on Sunday night. Several were killed. Even more wounded. Innocent families shopping or eating out. Children, adolescents and adults,” she said.
According to Thomassen of the Copenhagen unit of the Danish National Police Force, the shooter had killed a man in his forties and two “young people,” a man and a woman. Several more were wounded, and among those were three in critical condition.
The investigation so far did not point towards a racist motive or otherwise, but this could change, he said.
Russian shelling kills six in eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, officials say
According to Reuters, six people were killed in Sloviansk on Sunday after the eastern Ukrainian city was hit by powerful shelling from Russian multiple rocket launchers (MLRS).
Vadym Lyakh, the Mayor of Sloviansk, said that the attack was the worst since the war hit the east of the country, causing nearly 15 fires in the process.
The city is in the industrial Donetsk region that Russia is trying to capture.
Another report by a senior city official, Tetiana Ihnatchenko, who is the regional administration spokeswoman for Donetsk, said that 15 people had been wounded in the attack.
Ukraine war: Australian PM visits Kyiv, pledges more military aid
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was on a surprise state visit to Ukraine, has promised to support the government of Ukraine with more military aid after witnessing first-hand the destruction of the state capital.
According to the BBC, the prime minister met with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, who gave him a tour of Bucha and Irpin to see how much damage the war has inflicted on Ukraine.
After seeing the level of damage caused, the prime minister, who was overwhelmed by emotion, pledged a total aid package worth $100 million Australian dollars. This package includes military drones and 34 additional armoured vehicles.
Added to the military aid package, Albanese also announced sanctions and travel bans on a further 16 Russian ministers and oligarchs and an end to imports of Russian gold.
