These are the stories you should be monitoring today:

Two honest security guards, Achi Daniel and Francis Emepueaku of Halogen Securities, who had returned a bag full of dollars and jewellery, which belonged to a Nigerian who returned from America at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja,were on Thursday rewarded with N250,000 each.

Saleh Dunoma, the Managing Director, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), who presented the cash rewards to them said that the duo’s act gave confidence and credibility to the agency’s security profiling system, adding that the duo would “forever be remembered in the annals of the industry as role models, reference points, shining lights and good ambassadors.”

“Some others may look at you and tag you stupid, but I want to assure you that by virtue of this act, you have secured seats for yourselves in the comity of those with credibility and integrity,” he told the men who have also earned the commendations of President Muhammadu Buhari and many Nigerians.

---

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday said that the opposition cannot fault the efforts his administration to better the lives of Nigerians in its three major areas of focus; security, economy and the fight against corruption.

Buhari who was speaking when he received five governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who paid him Sallah homage in Daura, Katsina said the ruling APC government had the full understanding of Nigeria’s challenges and is encouraged by the support of Nigerians in addressing them.

“In terms of security, economy and the fight against corruption, we have maintained focus. Even the opposition with all their resources cannot fault our identification of Nigeria’s priorities and the efforts being made to better them.” he added.

---

The People’s Democratic Party has described the claim by the President that opposition could see that he was doing well on the areas of his 2015 campaign promises as an admittance of failure.

National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, who disclosed this in an interview with Punch in Abuja, insisting that the President had failed in the three cardinal promises on corruption, security and the economy he made to Nigerians in 2015.

“If you claim not to be a thief, but you are surrounded by thieves, you eat with them,  open your doors for them and play with them?  Are you not supposed to be worried?

Ologbondiyan added that the President could not have sincerely claimed to have succeeded in the fight against insurgency and revamp of the economy as well.

---

Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo on Thursday said the defection of some governors and members of the All Progressives Congress was painful.

Okorocha who disclosed this in Daura, Katsina when he led other APC governors to visit President Muhammadu Buhari, explained that they had associated and related together as brothers, adding that the progressive governors wished that none of  the governors left the party.

“We had wished, and it pains us so much, All of a sudden, you don’t see one of your own; we feel it,” he said, stressing however that “(It had) no negative effect whatsoever on the APC.” 

---

Director of Strategic Communications for the President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2019 presidential campaign, Festus Keyamo (SAN), has criticised previous administrations in the country for allegedly establishing a system of sharing national resources.

Keyamo in stating this on Thursday at the inauguration of the ward and local government canvassers in Ilorin, Kwara, said Buhari with small earnings had achieved more in three years in the provision of infrastructure than what were provided by the past governments in the past 16 years that earned huge revenues.

Alleging that past presidents cared less for the masses and enabled the rich to loot the national resources to the detriment of the poor, he noted that “the social intervention programme is an indication that this government is thinking more of the poor more than the rich.”

“There is no government in the history of this country that has concentrated on the poor and vulnerable as much as this government in the last three years. No government!” he added.