The Federal Government has said the governments of the Republics of Benin and Niger have not addressed the issues that led to the closure of Nigeria’s border with both countries.

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed stated this after he led a Federal Government delegation to assess the Seme border in Lagos on Monday.

According to Mohammed, the large volume of goods seized from illegal immigrants by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and other security agencies in the last two weeks has shown that the Benin and Niger Republic governments have not been able to stop the flow of the exportation of prohibited goods from their countries to Nigeria.

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, has threatened to jail the Director General of the Department of State Services, DSS, Yusuf Bichi, over his refusal to release convener of the #RevolutionNow Movement, Omoyele Sowore and Olawale Bakare, an activist.

The judge, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, gave the warning after she had previously issued a notice of consequences of disobedience of court order, also known as form 48 on the DSS.

The DSS arrested Sowore on August 3, and he has been in their custody in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, since then, despite being granted bail twice.

The activist and his co-defendant are standing trial on seven counts, including accusation of planning to topple a democratically-elected government in the country.

President Muhammadu Buhari has called on judicial officers to work towards the creation of special courts to assist in the speedy administration and dispensation of justice in the country.

Speaking in Abuja at the opening ceremony of the 2019 biennial All Nigeria Judges Conference of Superior Courts, President Buhari advised the conference to deliberate on efficient structure creation for the proposed Special Crimes Courts and the urgent designation of existing courts as Special Courts with competent and credible judicial officers in order to remove administrative bottlenecks in the judicial process.

The President said he was not unaware of the challenges facing the judiciary, over which he has had discussions with the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad.

The Senate may amend the proposed death penalty clause in the Hate Speech Bill before it.

Sponsor of the bill, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, made this known in a statement in Abuja.

The Deputy Chief Whip in the Senate assured that the death penalty proposed in the bill would be amended by the Senate when it is subjected to legislative input at the National Assembly.

Abdullahi, who represents Niger North Senatorial District, said that the controversial bill, which passed first reading on November 12, would undergo some fine-tuning to ensure that the clauses contained in its provisions to be passed into law, reflected the views of Nigerians.

But a rights activist, Deji Adeyanju is one Nigerian who believes the bill is a waste of time.