FRESH 4RM GIM

President Buhari has appointed Mahmud Yakubu as the substantive chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC. Yakubu's appointment was approved during the council of state meeting which held at the state house today October 21st. Yakubu takes over from Amina Zakari who has been working as INEC Chairman in acting capacity since Attahiru Jega left office in June. She was appointed INEC commissioner for the North-East.

President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the sacking of Danladi Kifasi, the head of the civil service of the federation, yesterday, October 20, just two months to the expiration of his tenure. Oyo-Ita However, the update which came with immediate effect, did not come with the announcement of a new replacement announced until the early hours of today, Wednesday, October 21. The Guardian reports that 51-year-old Mrs Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita, has been named as Kifasi’s replacement. Oyo-Ita is presently the permanent secretary of the ministry of science and technology. The chartered accountant hails from Cross River and will be in the position acting as the service head.

Today is Back to the Future Day. A quick refresher: In the second film of the famous sci-fi series, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Emmett “Doc” Brown (Christopher Lloyd) made a leap in time from the 80s to the future. They “landed” on October 21, 2015. Marty and Doc saw a lot of mind-blowing things in the world of the future. Released in 1989, this movie was full of tech fantasies and predictions.

Parliament passes law to enable troops to help guard border as record number of refugees seek to pass through country. Slovenian troops will help police guard the border [AP] The Slovenian parliament has passed legislation that gives the army more power to help stem a refugee influx that increased drastically since neighbouring Hungary sealed off its border last week. Parliament members voted 66-5 early on Wednesday to allow the troops to warn, direct and temporarily restrict the movement of persons or engage in crowd control, as police normally do.

The Nigeria U-17 team, the Golden Eaglets, have maintained their impressive start at the ongoing FIFA U-17 World Cup as they turned on style early Wednesday morning to whip hosts, Chile, 5-1. Victor Osimhen and Samuel Chukwueze both scored two goals each while captain Kelechi Nwakali also added one from the penalty spot to give Nigeria a comprehensive win over the hosts who now risk an early exit from the tournament.

The Igbo Youth Movement (IYM) has said that it will continue to fight for the unity of the country and give all Nigerians a sense of belonging. Daily Post reports that this was made known during a convention organised by the movement in Enugu on Tuesday, October 20 at the Nike lake resort. Dr Alex Ekwueme, the former vice president under the administration of Shehu Shagari who was present said that the reason why he got that position was because he was an Igbo man. Ekwueme maintained that Igbos were highly respected people in Niheria and said he was able to rise to become the vice president of the country because of his descent.

The Nigerian Army on Tuesday issued a final warning to Boko Haram to surrender without further delay or face the dire consequences of their refusal to obey, Vanguard reports. Sani Usman, Acting Director, Army Public Relations released a statement that contained the warning following a security meeting between PresidentMuhammadu Buhari and the Service Chiefs at the Presidential Villa, Monday:

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) greets his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad upon his arrival for a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow. (Alexey Druzhinin/AFP/Getty Images) Embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flew to Moscow in a surprise visit on Tuesday evening, meeting one-on-one with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin at the Kremlin to discuss “the Syria situation and plans for the future,” the Kremlin announced Wednesday.

The Federal Government has disclosed how Ghana will settle the outstanding $171.5m (N33.79bn) debt owed by its Volta River Authority for gas supplied for power generation by a Nigerian company, N-Gaz. The PUNCH had reported on Tuesday that N-Gaz, the main supplier of gas to Ghana’s VRA, had given the firm up to February 2016 to clear the outstanding debt.