The presidency has warned Ondo State governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, not to unilaterally order herdsmen out of Ondo forests.  The governor had issued an ultimatum this week to herdsmen to vacate state forest reserves.

Presidential special assistant, Garba Shehu said the governor should not oust the herders whom he said have lived their entire lives in the state on the guise of clearing the forest reserves of criminals.  He said terrorism and crimes should be separated from ethnicity, geographical origins and religion.

In response, governor Akeredolu says only unregistered Fulani herdsmen are being asked to vacate the state’s forest reserves.

State commissioner for information and orientation, Donald Ojogo, characterized Garba Shehu’s statement as “a brazen display of emotional attachment,” which he says is inimical to the corporate existence of Nigeria.

Nigerians can breathe easy for now as the federal government extends the registration deadline for National Identification Number, NIN.

Those who have not obtained the NIN would now have until February the ninth to tidy that up and link their numbers with their sims.

The National Identification Management Commission, NIMC, had initially given yesterday, January the nineteenth, as the deadline.

The commission warns the NIN enrolment is free.

The Nigeria Center for Disease Control has confirmed thirteen hundred and one new cases of the coronavirus across the country on Tuesday, spanning twenty-two states.

Lagos gobbled up nearly half of all the new cases with five hundred fifty-one.  The Federal Capital Territory recorded 209, while Oyo posted eighty-three.  Plateau, Kaduna and Enugu had sixty-five, sixty-four and sixty-one respectively.  Eleven other states had cases in double digits. Five reported single digits.

NCDC says seven hundred and two infected persons had recovered in Lagos State, one hundred fifty-seven in the FCT, and one hundred forty-three in plateau state.

Ninety-one thousand of all cases have been discharged.