Vice-President Kashim Shettima has said internal divisions within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) worry him more than opposition figures Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Shettima spoke on Saturday in Abuja at the unveiling of the campaign headquarters of Arewa for Asiwaju (A4A), a northern coalition supporting the re-election of President Bola Tinubu and the Vice-President.

“Honestly, I am not afraid of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). I am not afraid of a diminished Peter Obi.

“But I am more afraid of internal contradictions within our household. If we unite as a people, as a family, we will conquer,” he said.

He warned northern political leaders against supporting Tinubu’s presidential campaign while undermining APC governors seeking re-election in their states.

“There is no point in championing the cause of the presidential election and then undermining the governor in the gubernatorial election. Honestly, it will not go down well with the system,” he said.

Shettima urged party members to support APC governors, National Assembly members and the President to secure victory in the forthcoming elections.

“Let’s rally round our governors. Let’s rally round our members of the National Assembly. Let’s rally round President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and see to the victory in the next round of elections,” he added.

The Vice-President expressed confidence in the North’s support for Tinubu, saying the region had made its position clear.

“By now, I believe the North has spoken. We have spoken with a resounding voice and unmistakable conviction.

“From Adamawa to Zamfara, from Borno to Niger, we have spoken,” he said.

He also urged APC members to intensify their campaigns ahead of the polls, which he said were less than 100 days away.

On former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Shettima challenged party members to defeat him at the polls while maintaining respect.

“Go and perform. Go and defeat Baba Atiku. Defeat him respectfully,” he said.

Shettima said the APC had sufficient personnel to cover the country’s 176,845 polling units, citing the party’s 361,045 officials across ward and local government structures.

He also stressed the need for political appointees to demonstrate their electoral strength in their communities, saying he had asked the Borno State governor to account for appointees from the state down to the local government level.

“Politics is still local,” he said, adding that their performance should be assessed at their polling units, wards and local government areas.

The Vice-President said 18 of the 19 northern states were controlled by the APC. He also claimed that 15 of the 18 members of the House of Representatives elected on the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) from Kano State had defected to the APC.

Acknowledging the economic difficulties facing many Nigerians, Shettima said the administration remained conscious of the challenges confronting households.

“Every household struggling to make ends meet reminds us how much remains to be done,” he said. “We lose our hearing when applause becomes our only source of information.”

He defended Tinubu’s economic policies, claiming that the President inherited a fragile economy with foreign reserves of $3.9 billion and Ways and Means advances exceeding ₦27 trillion.

“Nigeria was on the road to Caracas. The economy was teetering on the brink of collapse. He literally saved the nation,” Shettima said.

He added that the country’s foreign reserves had risen to about $58.9 billion, describing the development as a significant improvement.

“For the North, we have absolutely nothing to fear in a Tinubu second term. He has the North at heart,” he said.

APC National Chairman, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, called for Tinubu’s re-election, citing infrastructure projects in the North, including the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano and Kano-Maiduguri highways.

Yilwatda said the two road projects covered more than 900 kilometres, arguing that they demonstrated the administration’s commitment to infrastructure development in the region.

The Director-General of A4A and former Jigawa State governor, Muhammad Badaru Abubakar, said the coalition’s campaign headquarters was located at No. 4 Port Harcourt Street, Area 11, Garki, Abuja.

Describing the building as “the biggest campaign office anywhere in the country”, Badaru said the coalition would run a disciplined, peaceful and issue-based campaign across markets, farms, campuses, mosques and churches.

The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has revealed that her investigation into an alleged $2.4 billion petrol subsidy fraud was followed by the kidnapping of her mother in 2012.

Okonjo-Iweala disclosed this in a recent interview with Bloomberg, recalling how the abductors demanded that she resign as Nigeria’s finance minister and leave the country in exchange for her mother’s freedom.

Her mother, Kamene Okonjo, was abducted from her home in Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State, in December 2012, while Okonjo-Iweala was serving as finance minister under former President Goodluck Jonathan.

According to the former minister, the investigation began after her office detected an unusual rise in claims submitted by petrol importers. She said she subsequently approached the president for approval to audit the accounts.

“So I went to the president and said, look, something is going on here. Could we audit the accounts? And he said, yes, go ahead. And we found about $2.4 billion worth of fraud. So, we refused to pay,” she said.

Okonjo-Iweala said her mother was kidnapped shortly after the decision not to pay the disputed claims. The kidnappers reportedly told her that her mother would only be released if she resigned from office and left Nigeria.

“I was told (by the kidnappers) that for her to be released, I should resign and leave the country,” she recalled.

Describing the incident as one of the most difficult experiences of her life, Okonjo-Iweala said her mother was held in a forest for five days before escaping.

“She was held in the middle of a forest, and one night she escaped. She’s still alive. She’s 96 now,” the WTO chief said.

She described the ordeal as deeply traumatic, saying she had never imagined that her parents could become targets of such violence.

“It was a terrible, terrible five-day ordeal. I think the worst in my life,” she said.

“I never dreamt my parents could ever be touched in this way, that people would be that evil,” she added.

Okonjo-Iweala also revealed that she considered resigning during the crisis but was advised by her father not to yield to the kidnappers’ demands.

According to her, her father urged her to remain resolute and continue her work rather than submit to what he regarded as blackmail.

“He said, ‘We don’t give in to blackmail’. And he said, ‘You’ve got to carry on. You’ve got to go to work’,” she recalled.

Okonjo-Iweala served as Nigeria’s finance minister from 2011 to 2015 before becoming the Director-General of the WTO in 2021.

Police operatives have arrested three men for allegedly engaging in homosexualism in Saki area of Oyo State.

The three suspects identified as Ayomide Lukeman, aged 22; Shuaib Aremu, aged 22; and Abdul-Rasheed Mufeed, aged 23 were arrested by operatives of the of the Oyo Police Command Monitoring Unit, Saki Operational Base.

DSP Olayinka Ayanlade, the spokesperson for Oyo Police Command said the arrest of the three men followed information received on 29 September 2026 concerning the alleged involvement of a group of individuals in unnatural sex conduct.

“Upon receipt of the information, the Commissioner of Police, Oyo State Command, directed the Command Monitoring Unit to verify the intelligence and take appropriate action, culminating in the arrest of three suspects,” Olayinka said.

The police spokesperson added that in the course of preliminary investigations, the suspects allegedly admitted to engaging in homosexual acts.

According to the statement, two of the suspects confessed to having had carnal knowledge of the third suspect on multiple occasions, with the latter allegedly regarded by them as their “wife.”

The Police spokesperson added that investigations are, however, ongoing to establish the full circumstances surrounding the allegations and determine whether any other individuals are connected to the matter.

“Against this backdrop, the Oyo State Police Command reiterates its commitment to conducting investigations professionally, impartially, and in accordance with the law. The Command assures the public that all necessary investigative procedures will be followed to establish the facts and ensure that appropriate action is taken based on the outcome of the investigation,” Olayinka said.

Nigeria’s Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, 2013 (SSMPA) criminalises consensual same-sex sexual activity such as homosexualism.

Offenders can be subjected to a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment.