Obidients have intensified moves to secure a presidential ticket ahead of the 2027 elections, while Lagos State faces renewed criticism over its handling of the Kudirat Abiola murder case. These, alongside other major political and legal developments, dominate today’s top stories.
2027: ADC cracks as ‘Obidients’ demand presidential ticket
Cracks are appearing in the African Democratic Congress over the presidential ambition of former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi.
Findings by Sunday PUNCH showed that the problem stemmed from the insistence of Obi’s followers, aka Obidients, that he must be considered for the presidential ticket or they walk away.
Our correspondents gathered that some ADC leaders, especially northerners displeased with what they described as the overbearing attitude of Obi’s promoters, had begun to withdraw from him.
Obi, who is one of the leaders of the opposition coalition that transformed into ADC, joined the party on December 31, 2025, in Enugu.
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Kudirat Abiola: Lagos under fire over botched murder case
Family, senior advocates and civil society organisations have lashed out at the Lagos State Government over the closure of the murder case of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola by the Supreme Court, after it was established that the state abandoned its appeal against the acquittal of Maj Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd.) for nine years.
The apex court, in a unanimous judgment delivered by a five-man panel on Thursday, ruled that the state government failed to take any legal steps to prosecute its appeal within the period granted to it, thereby effectively abandoning the case.
The ruling sparked national outrage over the unresolved assassination of the wife of the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, the late Chief MKO Abiola.
Kudirat was assassinated in Lagos on June 4, 1996, at the height of nationwide protests against the annulment of the June 12 election by the regime of the late Gen Sani Abacha.
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I met, married my husband within four months – 99-year-old first female professor, Ogunsheye
Nigeria’s first female professor and veteran librarian, Prof. Adetowun Ogunsheye, shares her childhood experience, academic career journey, and other life issues with BIODUN BUSARI
Read the full interview here
National grid collapses again, power generation drops to 24MW
The National Power Grid collapsed once again, leaving parts of the country in darkness and disrupting electricity supply to millions of households and businesses.
Checks by our correspondent revealed that electricity generation dropped sharply from over 4,500 megawatts to as low as 24 megawatts as of 1:30 pm.
All 23 power generation plants connected to the grid reportedly lost output during the incident, resulting in zero power allocation to each of the 11 electricity distribution companies.
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Second term: Fubara, Kano gov battle uncertainty
Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and his Kano State counterpart, Abba Yusuf, are facing uncertainty over their chances of securing second-term tickets in the All Progressives Congress, Sunday PUNCH has learnt.
Fubara has formally defected to the APC, while Yusuf is expected to join the ruling party anytime from now after his official resignation from the New Nigeria Peoples Party.
However, multiple sources in the APC say the governors’ return tickets are not guaranteed because powerful party leaders and entrenched political interests in Rivers and Kano states are contesting their ambitions.
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