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Council of state backs Amupitan for INEC top job
The National Council of State has endorsed the appointment of Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan, SAN, representing the North-Central region, as the incoming Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In an announcement from presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga, President Bola Tinubu put forward Amupitan’s name to succeed Professor Mahmood Yakubu, who held the role from 2015 until October 2025.
READ ALSO: Yakubu hands over to May Agbamuche as acting INEC chairman
The announcement noted that President Tinubu highlighted Amupitan as the inaugural nominee from Kogi State in the North-Central zone for this post, emphasizing his non-partisan background.
“Council members unanimously supported the nomination, with Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo describing Amupitan as a man of integrity.
“In compliance with the constitution, President Tinubu will now send Amupitan’s name to the Senate for screening,” it stated.
At 58 years old, Amupitan hails from Ayetoro Gbede in the Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State. He holds a professorship in Law at the University of Jos in Plateau State, where he also studied as a student.
His areas of expertise include Company Law, Law of Evidence, Corporate Governance, and Privatisation Law. He attained Senior Advocate of Nigeria status in September 2014. Born on April 25, 1967.
Following his early schooling at the primary and secondary levels, he pursued studies at Kwara State Polytechnic in Ilorin between 1982 and 1984, then at the University of Jos from 1984 to 1987. He qualified as a barrister in 1988.
He obtained his Master of Laws degree from the University of Jos in 1993 and completed his PhD there in 2007. His teaching career started in 1989, right after finishing his mandatory National Youth Service year at the Bauchi State Publishing Corporation in Bauchi from 1988 to 1989.
In his present role, he acts as Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Administration at the University of Jos, while simultaneously serving as Pro-Chancellor and Chair of the Governing Council at Joseph Ayo Babalola University in Osun State.
Within the University of Jos, he has previously occupied key roles such as Chairman of the Committee of Deans and Directors (2012-2014), Dean of the Faculty of Law (2008-2014), and Head of the Department of Public Law (2006-2008).
Beyond academia, Amupitan sits on the board of Integrated Dairies Limited in Vom, contributes to the Governing Council of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, and was part of the Council of Legal Education from 2008 to 2014, in addition to other responsibilities. He also served on the board of Riss Oil Limited in Abuja from 1996 to 2004.
Amupitan has penned several legal publications, including Corporate Governance: Models and Principles (2008); Documentary Evidence in Nigeria (2008); Evidence Law: Theory and Practice in Nigeria (2013); Principles of Company Law (2013); and An Introduction to the Law of Trust in Nigeria (2014).
He is wedded and father to four children.
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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