National Assembly proposes 74 women's seats; bandits kill 5 police, abduct 20+ across 5 states in bloody weekend
The National Assembly has proposed creating 74 additional legislative seats exclusively for women—spread across the Senate and House of Representatives—plus three reserved seats per state House of Assembly. Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele announced the move Monday as a fix for Nigeria's abysmal female representation in politics.
Meanwhile, insecurity dominated the weekend across multiple states. Suspected bandits ambushed a police convoy traveling from Sokoto to Zamfara on Sunday, killing five officers. In Niger State, gunmen abducted 14 Islamic school students and their teacher from a farm in Tungan-Bako village, Rafi LGA, on Saturday. Benue State saw six mourners kidnapped along Adoka Road in Okpokwu LGA while transporting a corpse from Kano for burial. Plateau State recorded three deaths in 24 hours: a miner killed in an illegal pit collapse in Jos East LGA, plus two killed and five injured in separate attacks on Toul and Halle communities in Mangu LGA.
On the 2027 election front, PDP's Ogun governorship candidate Oladipupo Adebutu dismissed his omission from INEC's candidate list as a "temporary distraction" while receiving 1,000+ defectors in Abeokuta Monday. The ADC South-West leadership denied crisis reports and reaffirmed support for Atiku Abubakar. The AAC in Oyo State called for opposition parties to consider boycotting the 2027 elections entirely if federal authorities cannot guarantee candidate and voter safety.
Other incidents: An amateur boxer known as KBlaq was stabbed to death during a street fight at Olodo Garage in Ibadan Sunday. A diesel storage site fire at Ndieze Nwankwo along Edibros Road in Nnewi North LGA, Anambra, left one person severely burnt and destroyed multiple tanks—police suspect arson.
With bandits operating across at least five states simultaneously and election tensions rising 18 months out, the security architecture's capacity to protect both daily life and democratic processes faces its most severe test yet.