Today’s Headlines:If you attempt suicide, make sure you die–Akpabio;A deadly week in Zamfara

The Senate has passed for second reading a bill seeking to establish a national framework for suicide prevention, decriminalise attempted suicide and provide rehabilitation for survivors, despite opposition from Senate President Godswill Akpabio, who insisted that attempted suicide should still attract a jail term.

The bill, sponsored by Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong (Cross River South), seeks to address what he described as a contradiction in Nigeria’s laws.

Ekpenyong argued that while the National Mental Health Act recognises attempted suicide as a psychiatric emergency requiring treatment, Section 327 of the Criminal Code and Section 231 of the Penal Code still criminalise the act.

He said decriminalisation without accessible care would be incomplete, noting that suicide has complex causes and requires a humane, health-focused response.

Several security operatives and civilians have been killed in multiple attacks on communities in Bukkuyum, Maru and Gusau local government areas of Zamfara State in the past one week.

The incidents happened as the state battled repeated attacks by armed groups operating from forests, displacing residents, destroying livelihoods and imposing levies on communities.

The military, operating under Operation Fansan Yamma, has launched offensives against the armed groups, killing some of their members and rescuing dozens of kidnapped victims.

Recently, the Nigerian Army activated three new infantry battalions in Zamfara as part of efforts to strengthen security operations and improve rapid response to threats across the state.

Social media activist, Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, or VDM, VeryDarkMan, has warned the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, that Nigerians could rise against him if he attempts to influence the outcome of the 2027 general elections.

VeryDarkMan, in a recent video shared on Instagram, was reacting to Wike’s declaration that President Bola Tinubu would emerge victorious in the 2027 presidential election regardless of the outcome of the votes.

Reacting, VDM said, “In summary of what Wike is saying, the election will be rigged in favour of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, regardless of how the votes come out. Tinubu is just definitely going to emerge as the winner.

“You see such impunity only started during President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s regime because President Bola Ahmed Tinubu enabled intoxicated, power-intoxicated fools like Wike to talk anyhow to the Nigerian people.

The Kano State House of Assembly has called for a review of the state’s rent control law to protect tenants against arbitrary increases in house and shop rents.

The Speaker, Ismail Falgore, made the call during plenary following a motion by the member representing Takai Constituency, Musa Kachako, who raised concerns over rising rents across the state

Kachako said some landlords increased annual house rents from N100,000 to between N200,000 and N300,000, while shop rents rose from N1 million to N2 million within a year

He said the increases were putting additional financial pressure on traders, farmers and low-income earners who depend on rented accommodation and business premises for their livelihoods