Britain is deploying fighter jets and other “assets” to the Middle East amid an escalating conflict between Iran and Israel, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Saturday.

“We are moving assets to the region, including jets, and that is for contingency support,” Starmer told reporters travelling with him on his plane to Canada for G7 talks.

The UK leader said he had spoken with both US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since Israel launched attacks on Iranian military and nuclear sites early Friday.

According to officials, dozens of people have been killed, including top army and Revolutionary Guards commanders as well as civilians.

Iran has responded with barrages of drones and missiles fired at Israel overnight Friday into Saturday.

Starmer said the situation was “fast moving” and “intense”.

“We’re having ongoing discussions with our allies all of the time, both myself and (foreign minister) David Lammy… who also spoke to the Iranians,” he said.

“Our constant message is de-escalate, and therefore everything we’re doing, all discussions we’re having are to do with de-escalation.”

The UK leader said his talk on Friday with Netanyahu had been “good and constructive” and had “included discussions about the safety and security of Israel”.

Foreign Secretary Lammy said earlier Saturday that he was “alarmed” by further strikes overnight.

“We must urgently de-escalate & prevent any further harm to civilians,” Lammy said in a post on social media, adding that he had spoken to his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi “to urge calm”.

AFP/VANGUARD NG

Tunde Bakare, the serving overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, has dismissed suggestions that his recent meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was motivated by personal interests.

Bakare, who contested the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary in 2023, visited the president last week at the State House. His visit sparked speculations about possible political alignment or appointments.

But during a sermon at his church, Bakare addressed the rumours, insisting his engagement with the president was solely driven by national interest.

“Some people still think he has gone there to settle himself. In what way have I settled myself before? What they gave me, I returned. What am I looking for?” he said,

Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Bakare said his discussion with Tinubu focused on national development and how to move the country forward.

“It’s not about just reservations. It’s about how the country will go well. My personal vision is to see a nation that works in my lifetime,” he said.

He added that he had made suggestions to the president but left the decision on whether to act on them entirely up to him.

A total of 239 teachers who were absent from their places of duty in Jigawa State have been denied salaries.

Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board, Prof. Haruna Musa, disclosed that the affected teachers had been receiving salaries and other allowances for three years, despite abandoning their teaching duties.

He revealed this on Saturday after the conclusion of a five-day training for 250 Arabic teachers organised by the board in Dutse, the state capital.

Musa said, “The actions are expected to improve teachers’ attendance and overall quality of education in the state.

“The board is committed to ensuring that teachers perform their duties diligently. More teachers would be recruited to address the shortage of teachers across the state.”

The SUBEB chairman said the training, which brought together selected teachers from the 27 local government areas in the state, aimed to equip them with skills in computer literacy and lesson planning.

He advised the teachers to maintain decent dress codes and good command of language while teaching, saying this would set good examples for the pupils

Nigerians with Portuguese golden visas may soon keep their global earnings from taxes as the Government of Portugal considers a 10-year zero-rate exemption for foreign income under its “non-habitual resident’s special tax regime,” otherwise known as the regime fiscal do Residente Não Habitual.

 The draft policy paper released on June 9 by the finance ministry would also cap Portuguese-source income taxes at a flat 20 per cent for qualifying Nigerian investors.

In addition, the government is floating a Tax Incentive for Scientific Research and Innovation—Incentivo fiscal à investigação científica e inovação—which aims to attract and retain highly qualified professionals in the fields of scientific research, investment and business development, offering similar tax incentives to those previously provided by the NHR.

Although the Portuguese parliament has yet to vote on the matter, at least 114 Nigerians who have obtained the golden visas since 2012 stand to benefit.

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Official nationality tables obtained by Sunday PUNCH from Portugal’s Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum revealed that 44 Nigerians, alongside their 77 dependents, received the visas from 2019 to April 2025.

AIMA’s monthly ARI Statistics show that filings from Nigeria have doubled each year since 2022 as naira devaluations made euro-denominated safe havens more attractive.

Globally, China leads the table with more than 5,366 golden visa approvals, followed by Brazil’s 1,229, the United States at just over 713 and Turkey (592) and South Africa (550).

Over 4,455 applicants have applied for the Portugal Golden Visa, with 2,901 applying as family and 1,554 applying as individuals.

Although Nigerians currently rank fifth among African participants behind South Africa, Angola, Egypt and Morocco, Lisbon-based analysts predict they will overtake Angola and Egypt once the tax holiday becomes law.

Portugal created the golden visa in the heat of the eurozone debt crisis in 2012. Written into Article 90-A of the Aliens Act, the programmes were meant to lure capital into the country.

According to Article 90-A, investors can earn residence by placing €500,000 in a regulated private-equity or venture fund, committing to 10 new jobs, or endowing cultural projects and buying property. 

However, Portugal’s previous socialist government scrapped the real estate route in 2023 to fight speculation in the housing market, where prices have surged to record highs.

Cardholders may spend only seven days a year on Portuguese soil and, after five years, may apply for permanent residence or citizenship once they pass a basic language test.

The programme has attracted more than €7bn into the economy, but has been criticised for the over-the-roof house prices, hence the scrapping of the property option.

Under the new proposal before parliament, a Nigerian investor who now pays up to 48 per cent on Portuguese profits and the same rate on overseas earnings remitted to Portugal would see the former drop to 20 per cent and the latter to zero for 10 years.

The tax saving alone covers the €500,000 ($572,000) investment in fewer than five fiscal years for clients earning high foreign income.

The regime fiscal do Residente Não Habitual comes two months after Spain and the Netherlands scrapped their golden visa programme due to its effect on the housing market.

An unexpected EU court ruling has also directed Malta to abolish its citizenship programme, while Ireland and Greece have either ended or tightened the rules around their golden visa or equivalent programmes.

Portugal’s Minister of the Presidency, Antonio Leitao Amaro, has said the government will not scrap its golden visa programme but make it more attractive to investors and global talent.

“There’s no plan to end it. It’s not on the table,” he said in an interview last week.

Amaro added that AIMA is working to clear a backlog of about 45,000 golden visa applications awaiting review by December 2025.

“We expect that by the end of the year, this process will be largely taken care of,” he affirmed

Some members of the National Executive Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party have said the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Umo Eno, and his Delta State counterpart, Sheriff Oborevwori, will pay for their defection in the 2027 elections.

The NEC members, including a former National Secretary of the PDP, Ibrahim Tauri, and a former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Diran Odeyemi, expressed confidence that the people of Akwa Ibom and Delta states would hold Eno and Oborevwori accountable during the elections.

Speaking exclusively to Sunday PUNCH, the PDP leaders criticised Oborevwori and Eno’s recent defection to the APC, accusing them of switching parties for personal gain.

Oborevwori joined the APC on April 24, while Eno defected to the ruling party on June 6.

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Responding to Eno’s defection, Tauri alleged that the APC-led Federal Government was employing every possible tactic to pressure PDP governors and leaders into joining their party.

He stated, “The governor is in his first tenure and wants to go for a second, so he defected. The APC-led Federal Government is using all tactics to woo or force elected officers into the APC. There are threats, inducements, intimidation, false political promises, and many other tactics.

“Most of the defectors who are in their first tenures are given assurances of automatic tickets and automatic rigging of results during the 2027 elections.. 

The governor of Akwa Ibom cannot be an exception.

“So, for me, I see him as one who is ready to sacrifice anything, including the platform that gave him the opportunity. But one thing is certain: Akwa Ibom and Delta are not like any other state in Nigeria when it comes to the PDP. I assure you that time and the good people of the states will teach the defectors a very bitter political lesson in 2027.”

Similarly, Odeyemi condemned Eno’s defection, describing it as shameful and stating that it further exposes the lack of principles among Nigerian politicians.

The former Deputy Publicity Secretary of the PDP noted that the refusal of some appointees and others to follow the governor in defecting was a clear sign that the governors would face serious political consequences in 2027.

He stated, “I think the defection has revealed to Nigerians the kind of person he is. Even in his own state, he doesn’t appear to be in control. With the number of members of the House of Assembly refusing to follow him, and the commissioners who have tendered their resignations because of his defection, it shows that the PDP remains solid in Akwa Ibom, and even in Delta State. So, bitter lessons await them in 2027.

“I want to believe that his greatest issue is the fear of the almighty federal might regarding his re-election. And it shows the kind of man he is. So it was more or less a personal decision — and perhaps he is just following the trend that others are going with.”

Odeyemi stated that many politicians, including Eno, defect because they lack genuine popularity among their constituents.

What was supposed to be a day of joy turned into heartbreak in Toro Local Government Area of Bauchi State, as a groom and two of his friends tragically lost their lives in a fatal accident just moments before his wedding ceremony.

The incident occurred on Saturday.

The deceased, SP Mustapha Garba Gumau, a senior police officer, was reportedly enroute from Gumau to Magaman-Gumau for his wedding fatiha scheduled for 10:00 am when the accident occurred around 9:00 am at Bargan Tsamiya village.

Eyewitnesses said the vehicle carrying the groom and his friends veered off the road and crashed, killing him and two others — Shuaibu Umar and Sulaiman Musa — on the spot.

Several other occupants of the vehicle were said to have sustained varying degrees of injuries.

The sudden loss has thrown the communities of Gumau and Magaman-Gumau into mourning, as what should have been a joyful union turned into a sorrowful occasion.

When contacted, the spokesman of the Bauchi Police Command , Mohammed Wakil, could not be reached as his line was unreachable.

Kenneth Okonkwo, the veteran actor and former spokesperson for the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, has accused ex-presidential candidate Peter Obi of betrayal amid ongoing internal conflicts within the party.

In a viral interview with Symfoni which started trending on Saturday, Okonkwo, who officially exited the Labour Party in February 2025, revealed that Obi went against his advice and returned to support the embattled Julius Abure-led faction of the party, despite alleged warnings.

According to him, Obi was misled by LP executives who claimed that the Independent National Electoral Commission had recognised them.

He said, “Any politician that knows what he’s doing cannot be betrayed by another. If there is anybody that betrayed the other, I can say it emphatically that Peter Obi betrayed me.

“The Julius Abure-led LP members lied to Obi that the Independent National Electoral Commission had accepted them and Obi surreptitiously went back to them but I told him: ‘Sir, you have made a public statement on integrity and even if INEC has accepted them, that is not a criterion for you to go back and start dealing with them because they have shown that they are not democratic. If you go back to them, they will destroy your political career and everything you have said about integrity will die.'”

He said that despite privately urging Obi not to align with a group he described as “undemocratic” and “agents of the government,” Okonkwo said Obi went ahead to publicly endorse them.

“I told Obi that these people had become agents in the hands of the government to destabilise him. What they did was absolutely illegal and unconstitutional, I told him that if he went back to them, I wouldn’t join him in doing so.

“Thereafter, I called all the people that were in the inner circle and told them the same thing about what Obi was trying to do. I told them he wanted to go back with the Abure people and if he did, I wouldn’t go back with him because I do not swallow back my words.

“And after saying all those things, within like 72 hours, Obi went back to Abure’s office to publicly endorse them and while he was there talking to them, one of the leaders in that executive sent me the video to mock me that the person I was fighting for against them has come to their office to endorse them. 

“It was when INEC dissociated itself from Abure that Obi came out to start acting neutral but I told him he could not be neutral and something had to be done,” he added.

The Labour Party has been embroiled in a prolonged leadership crisis, with opposing factions laying claim to the party’s national structure.

The Abure-led faction has faced allegations of financial mismanagement and anti-democratic practices, which critics say contradict the party’s reformist image.

Okonkwo, a known loyalist of Obi’s political ideology, cited these irregularities as his reason for quitting the party earlier in the year

The presidency has denied issuing the viral list of national honours containing the names of Aisha Yesufu, a human rights activist, and 35 others.

On Friday, a list showing the names of new individuals who have been purportedly awarded national honours by President Bola Tinubu was circulating on social media. 

Yesufu’s inclusion on the alleged list sparked reactions among supporters of the Tinubu administration, based on her vocal criticisms of the government.

There are 102 Nigerians on the list as recipients of the national honours as against 66 announced by President Bola Tinubu on Thursday.

However, Temitope Ajayi, senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, said the presidency has not released new names for national honours different from the ones released earlier.

“The story on a viral list of national honours featuring the name of Aisha Yesufu and others credited to the Leadership newspaper is fake news. It should be ignored,” Ajayi said in a Facebook post.

“The Presidency has not issued fresh names for national honour different from the ones in President Tinubu’s address to the joint sitting of the National Assembly yesterday.”

On Thursday, Tinubu conferred national honours on 66 individuals who played active roles in Nigeria’s struggle for democracy.

The president announced the awardees during a speech at the joint sitting of the national assembly to commemorate the June 12 Democracy Day celebration.

Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, Humphrey Nwosu, and Kudirat Abiola were posthumously recognised for their critical roles in the June 12 struggle and broader democratic movements.