The Supreme Court of Nigeria was told yesterday that there was no governance in Rivers State when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared emergency rule on the state.

President Tinubu said the Supreme Court had earlier confirmed it in one of its judgments, adding that the proclamation got the backing of the National Assembly.

According to the President, the Executive and the State House of Assembly were mired in conflict with many suits.

Tinubu made the submissions in a joint affidavit filed on May 20 at the Supreme Court by the Senior Special Assistant to the President of the State House, and the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mr. Taiye Hussain Oloyede.

The affidavit was for the President, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), Rivers State Administrator, Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas and the suspended Governor Similayi Fubara.

The affidavit was in response to another application before the apex court seeking to nullify the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State.

The latest suit was filed by Yirabari Israel Nulong, Nengim Ikpoemugh Royal and Gracious Eyoh-Sifumbukho.

The presidential aide, who admitted that he was conversant with the case, said the President acted to prevent anarchy in the state.

Nigerian boxers have expressed outrage over the continued delay in repatriating the remains of Oluwasegun Olanrewaju from Ghana, 50 days after the fighter’s tragic death following a bout at the Bukom Arena.

The development comes two days after a seven-member committee submitted its final report on the circumstances surrounding Olanrewaju’s death to Ghanaian Minister for Sport and Recreation, Kofi Adams.

Read Also: Wife of late Nigerian boxer, Segun ‘Success’ Olanrewaju says nobody cared until his death…

There was no clear timeline for the return of the boxer’s body to his grieving family.

“It just feels like the sports minister does not care about Nigerian boxers, as if we are nothing to them,” professional boxer Taiwo Esepo was quoted to have said in a report by THE PUNCH.

“Because just imagine a Nigerian boxer went out to go and fight and something like this happened, but they are not fighting for the parents so definitely, something is going on.

“Why can’t our authorities sue them? Why can’t they fight for us? This can happen to anyone tomorrow and all these can’t make any Nigerian boxer happy.”

Olanrewaju, popularly known as “Success”, collapsed during a bout against Ghanaian boxer Jon Mbanugu at the Trust Sports Emporium Boxing Arena at Bukoum on March 29 and was later pronounced dead at the Korle-Bu Hospital.

UBO Champion Idowu Rasheed, who had previously fought Olanrewaju, shared his distress over the situation.

“He is someone I have fought before and so this really hurt me to the core. When he died, I felt I would quit boxing but I had to come back because this is my profession and way of feeding myself and my family,” Rasheed said.

“And now, we still haven’t seen his body. They said he is dead and they haven’t brought his body for this long and that is not right at all. If he is dead, they should let the family see him and bury him so they can move on. His family and wife need to see him and bury him.”

NBBofC secretary general Remi Aboderin told our correspondent that a meeting was held on Monday but provided no definitive update on when the boxer’s remains would be repatriated.

Commonwealth Games medalist Abdul-Afeez Osoba also expressed his dismay at the prolonged situation.

“I am not even that close to him but I can’t imagine it would have taken this long,” Osoba said.

“I want to believe the NBBofC are on it and discussing with the Ghana Boxing Authority but according to even my religion as a Muslim, he should have been buried immediately. It is not a good thing even for the family and they cannot be happy.”

The Conclave

AFC Wimbledon midfielder Sam Hutchinson revealed he had a heart attack during the game where his goal later sealed a League Two play-off place.

The 35-year-old has undergone surgery to place a stent in a blocked artery after he fell ill following his side’s 1-0 win at Grimsby on May 2.

Hutchinson, whose career began at Chelsea, had a heart attack in the sixth minute but went on to play the full 90 minutes at Blundell Park, scoring the 53rd-minute winner.

It was only on the journey home that his symptoms worsened, leading him to have heart surgery.

‘I was experiencing a lot of pain,’ he told the club website. ‘I got on the coach after the game, the adrenaline wore off and I started having more pains in my chest. From there we made a pit stop in Nottingham.

‘We went into the hospital and they essentially told me I’d had a heart attack. I was in there for five days having tests done.

‘A branch of an artery was blocked 75 per cent – I had an angiogram and had a stent put in by a specialist in London who was unbelievable. I’m on the road to recovery now.’

The Dons made it through to Monday’s play-off final against Walsall, where Hutchinson will take a watching brief.

However, he is already back running and is expecting to resume his career.

‘I broke down when they told me in the hospital because playing football is all I ever want to do,’ he said. ‘I didn’t care that I had a heart attack, I’m not really like that.

‘It happened in the sixth minute of the game, I carried on and played the full 90. The specialist in London has told me there’s no problem with playing football again, so I’m happy.’

He added: ‘I ran (on Monday), believe it or not. A lot of people say things slow down but I feel really good. I’m going to crack on and come back bigger and stronger.

‘I am absolutely devastated I can’t play on Monday. I genuinely think I could play. It would be dangerous but I could play. I would love to, I’m not going to.’

Daily Mail

Illinois’ prominent Chicago Sun-Times newspaper has confirmed that a summer reading list, which included several recommendations for books that don’t exist, was created using artificial intelligence by a freelancer who worked with one of their content partners.

Social media posts began to circulate on Tuesday criticizing the paper for allegedly using the AI software ChatGPT to generate an article with book recommendations for the upcoming summer season called “Summer reading list for 2025”. As such chatbots are known to make up information, a phenomenon often referred to as “AI hallucination”, the article contains several fake titles attached to real authors.

“I went into my library’s database of Chicago area newspapers to confirm this isn’t fake, and it’s not,” a post on Bluesky by Book Riot editor Kelly Jensen says. “Why the hell are you using ChatGPT to make up book titles? You used to have a books staff. Absolutely no fact checking?”

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• Claims lawsuit delaying 40,000 underage candidates’ results 

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has announced a fresh round of mop-up examinations to accommodate the over 5.6 per cent of candidates who missed the just-concluded 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.

JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, made the disclosure on Wednesday during a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja, stating that the initiative will cover all affected candidates, regardless of the reason for their absence.

He said, “This time, we are creating a new mop-up. Even those who missed the earlier exam due to absence will get another opportunity.

“It’s not extraordinary. In any serious system, when students miss an exam, they’re allowed to make up—provided there’s no abuse.”

Oloyede emphasised that the UTME is a placement test, not a measure of intelligence or academic potential. “Its purpose is to rank candidates for limited admission slots, not to test how smart someone is,” he clarified.

Addressing growing criticism and conspiracy theories about the examination process, Oloyede firmly rejected claims of ethnic bias or administrative incompetence.

He stated, “I take responsibility, not because I failed, but because that’s leadership.

“I didn’t even realise people viewed issues around me through ethnic lenses. We must rise above such profiling.”

Oloyede also praised both candidates and staff for their resilience amid logistical difficulties.

“We had limited space. We knew if we wasted more time grieving the challenges, students would lose their opportunity,” he said.

The special mop-up exam will be scheduled soon, and JAMB says it remains committed to transparency and fairness in admissions.

JAMB also disclosed that it could not release the results of over 40,000 underage candidates who wrote the 2025 UTME until the Court of Appeal gives its verdict.

The statement came in response to public outcry over the release of the 2025 UTME results and the withholding of the results of over 40,000 underage candidates.

JAMB had, in February 2025, appealed a ruling by the Delta State High Court, which barred it from enforcing its policy mandating a minimum admission age of 16 years, pending the hearing and determination of a suit filed against the board.

In July 2024, the immediate-past minister for education, Prof Tahir Mamman, set 18 as the minimum age for admission; his successor, Dr Tunji Alausa, reversed the policy to cap the admission age at a minimum of 16 years.

JAMB, however, said exceptionally brilliant candidates below 16 years could sit for its UTME.

A lawyer, John Aikpokpo-Martins, took JAMB to court, arguing that JAMB’s restriction of university admissions to candidates aged 16 and above violated sections 18(1) and 42 of the 1999 Constitution.

Justice Anthony O. Akpovi, in his ruling, declared the policy unconstitutional, adding that it discriminated against qualified candidates solely based on age, denying them equal educational opportunities.

The JAMB’s directive of October 16, 2024, which mandated tertiary institutions to admit only candidates who turn 16 by August 31, 2025, was also declared null and void.

The court ordered universities and JAMB to admit all qualified candidates who meet the requirements, regardless of their date of birth.

An injunction was granted, preventing JAMB and all universities from enforcing any age-related restrictions on admissions.

Speaking with our correspondent in Abuja, the Head of Protocol and Public Relations, JAMB, Dr Fabian Benjamin, said, “We appealed the ruling. The release of the result is subject to the appeal court ruling.”

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education and Examination Bodies has apologised to Nigerians over the technical issues that marred the conduct of the 2025 UTME, attributing the glitches to human error rather than a system failure.

Speaking to journalists on Tuesday at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja, the Chairman of the Committee, Oboku Oforji, explained that preliminary investigations into the issue had revealed that the problem was caused by human negligence, contrary to the earlier claim by JAMB that it was a technical malfunction.

Recall that on May 9, JAMB released the results of the 2025 UTME, which showed that over 78 per cent of candidates scored below 200 out of the total 400 obtainable points. The poor performance had sparked public outrage and calls for accountability from stakeholders across the country.

In response, the House of Representatives, on May 15, passed a resolution to investigate the alleged technical failure that affected the conduct of the examination.

Addressing the issue, Oforji said, “We sincerely apologise on behalf of the examination body to all Nigerians. The committee recognises the courage and sincerity of the JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, for accepting the fault on behalf of his team and apologising to the parents, candidates, and the nation in general. However, these human errors were avoidable because they resulted from negligence within JAMB.”

He praised the commitment of Nigerian students, who despite the challenges, remain eager to pursue their academic dreams for a better future.

“The committee also appreciates the eagerness and determination of Nigerian students in pursuing their education to improve the future of our country,” he added.

Oforji, however, maintained that despite the regrettable errors, JAMB’s operational consistency throughout the entire examination process—from registration to result release—should not be overlooked. He noted that the Board’s efforts to maintain structure and order in the face of mounting pressure from candidates and their families had been commendable.

The Committee Chairman concluded by calling for an “independent and thorough investigation” into the circumstances surrounding the errors, stating that his committee had proposed a series of reforms to the examination body to ensure such incidents do not recur.