Here are the stories you should be monitoring today:

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, has ordered the Rivers State Commander of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (F-SARS), Mr. Akin Fakorede, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), to sue the Rivers State Government for libellous publications against him.

Fakorede, had earlier made a request for authorisation, addressed to IGP, passed through the commissioner and dated May 15, seeking permission to institute legal action, seeking an injunction against the continuous publication of false advertisements against him on the front and inside pages of major national dailies in the country.

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Three housewives were abducted  and a 12 year old child reportedly sustained gunshot wounds in an attack by armed bandits on Maganda village, Birnin Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State in the early hours of Sunday.

According to reports, the armed bandits arrived in the middle of the night “around 1.30 am to attack the village” and started shooting sporadically before entering the house  of  Alhaji Adamu Nakwalla in search of him, and abducted his wives when they could not find him. One of the wives was however released with a telephone number to contact them.

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The House of Representatives has said that a clean copy of the 2018 budget will be sent to President Muhammadu Buhari within this week.

The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Abdulrazak Namdas, said in Abuja on Sunday that by Wednesday this week, the budget would have been sent to the President explaining that the Senate and House Conference Committees to meet and harmonise the differences in the document.

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Amnesty International (AI) has advised the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) to seek justice for  Ibrahim Zakzaky, its leader, and members held in detention by the Kaduna state government, outside the Nigerian judiciary.

AI country director, Osai Ojigho, who spoke in an interview on ‘The Osasu Show’ asked the group not to relent until it exhausts all options available to it to seek redress including the African Commission on People’s and Human Rights as well as the ECOWAS Court of Justice.

Ojigho also advised the group to look for help from other organisations other than “faith-based” ones like human right actors, the Nigerian Bar Association, urging them not to relent on protests if they feel their rights are being violated.

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The  Corruption and Financial Crime Cases Trial Monitoring Committee (COTRIMCO) has identified reasons for slow pace of corruption cases in courts.

The facts are poor prosecution, absence of counsel for parties in Court, reliance on irrelevant documentary evidence, multiplicity of charges, non-adherence to Court rules and procedures, retirement and transfer of Judges, re-assignment of cases to start de-novo, amendment of charges after commencement of trial, and cumbersome record transmission process to the Court of Appeal amongst others as some of the factors militating against speedy disposal of corruption cases.

These facts are contained in the interim report presented by the Hon. Justice Suleiman Galadima (Rtd.) led-committee at the 86th Meeting of the National Judicial Council.

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And stories around the world:

United States President, Donald Trump demanded Sunday that the Justice Department investigate whether his presidential campaign was “infiltrated” or spied on for political purposes, prompting it to announce it would look into those issues.

“I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes – and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!” Trump tweeted. (AFP)

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Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has won re-election to another six-year term, in a vote marred by an opposition boycott and claims of vote-rigging.

In an election that saw just 46% of the electorate turn out to vote and with more than 90% of the votes counted, Mr Maduro, 55, had 67.7% – 5.8 million votes – National Electoral Council chief, Tibisay Lucena announced. Mr Falcón won 21.2% – 1.8 million votes – she said.

The main opposition candidate, Henri Falcón, however rejected the result soon after the polls closed. (BBC)

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The Philippines has expressed “serious concerns” over the presence of China’s strategic bombers in the disputed South China Sea and its foreign ministry has taken “appropriate diplomatic action”, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said on Monday.

Roque said “the Philippines could not independently verify the presence of Chinese bombers in the South China Sea,” but Filipino lawmakers have criticized President Rodrigo Duterte for not confronting China in preference for his attempts to win China’s friendship, despite a favorable ruling Manila received over the disputed waterway from an arbitration court in the Hague in 2016. (Reuters)

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The police in India say they have successfully extracted 106 cocaine capsules from a woman who was allegedly trying to smuggle the drugs into the country.

The 25-year-old foreign national was arrested at the international airport in the capital Delhi on 14 May after a tip-off, police said.

She is reported to have spent the past week at a hospital where she was given laxatives to recover the cocaine estimated to be worth 50 million rupees ($734, 160; £546,568).

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Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick of Texas has said arming more teachers could help tackle gunmen targeting students if there were “four to five guns to one.”

Mr Patrick, a Republican, who was speaking two days after 10 people were killed at the Santa Fe High School, which had an armed guard said the best way to stop a gunman was with a gun. “But even better than that is four to five guns to one,” he told CNN.

He had previously said schools had “too many entrances and too many exits” and their design should be reconsidered.