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The All Progressives Congress (APC) has emerged victorious in all the 24 chairmanship seats and 240 councillorship positions contested in Saturday’s local government elections in Gombe State.

Chairman of the Gombe State Independent Electoral Commission (GOSIEC), Abdullahi Garba Talasse, who announced the results on Saturday in Gombe, declared that the ruling party won in all the local government councils and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) where elections were conducted.

Talasse described the successful conduct of elections in the newly created LCDAs as a milestone in the state’s democratic development, noting that Gombe had expanded from 11 local government councils with 114 councillors to 24 councils and LCDAs with 240 councillors.

He said the commission worked closely with the State House of Assembly to secure the legal backing required for elections to be held in the LCDAs.

“We did not struggle for the enabling law in vain. Today, we have successfully conducted elections across the 24 councils and LCDAs, which is a significant achievement for the state,” he said.

The GOSIEC chairman attributed the poor showing of opposition parties to their limited participation in the polls.

According to him, the African Congress (AC) fielded candidates in only three chairmanship contests, while the Democratic Liberation Alliance (DLA) contested in six councils.

He added that the New Nigeria People’s Movement (NRM), Youth Party (YP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) each sponsored candidates in three chairmanship elections.

For councillorship positions, Talasse said AC contested in eight wards, while DLA, NRM, YP and ZLP each fielded candidates in 11 wards.

“That explains why some parties recorded zero votes in several areas because they did not participate across all the councils and wards,” he said.

Talasse explained that although chairmanship results were declared at the various local government collation centres, the commission considered it necessary to present a statewide summary to journalists, observers and the public.

“From the results before the commission, APC has won all the 24 chairmanship seats and all the 240 councillorship positions,” he declared.

He commended political parties, election observers, civil society organisations, security agencies and other stakeholders for contributing to the peaceful conduct of the elections.

The GOSIEC chairman also appreciated party leaders, government officials, non-governmental organisations and other guests from across the country who monitored the exercise, describing their participation as crucial to the success of the electoral process.

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Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, has attributed global warming to human greed, selfishness, and reckless exploitation of the environment, warning that such actions continue to disrupt the natural balance of the ecosystem.

Obasanjo made the remarks in Kano during an event organised in honour of former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Abubakar Mahmoud, and his Environment and Sustainability Initiative and Trust Fund.

Speaking at the event, Obasanjo acknowledged the reality and growing impact of climate change, stressing that human activities remain a major driver of global warming.

“God created our world in balance, but we, as human beings, out of selfishness and carelessness, have done more harm than good to our environment, and we need to do more in the safekeeping of our environment,” the former president said.

Obasanjo also revealed that he has personally planted more than 3.5 million trees as part of efforts to combat climate change, stressing that protecting the environment is a collective responsibility and a global public good.

The Kano State Government commended the initiative and pledged its support to ensure its sustainability.

The Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Dahiru Hashim, described the initiative as a significant step towards environmental protection and sustainable development.

“In recognition of this laudable initiative, the Kano State Government has approved the donation of 10,000 seedlings for the Mahmoud Environmental and Sustainable Trust,” Hashim said.

In his remarks, Abubakar Mahmoud said the initiative seeks to promote environmental sustainability and preserve the ecosystem for the benefit of both present and future generations.

“I started a small project that has grown into something quite formidable, providing protection to villages around and to preserving various species of plants,so what we are trying to do is to continue with this legacy,” he said.

The event attracted several dignitaries, including the vice presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Rabiu Kwankwaso, former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, officials of the Kano State Government, and other stakeholders.

Participants at the event called for deliberate and collective action to address climate change and environmental degradation.

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A newborn baby has been rescued from a fallen building 32 hours after the twin earthquakes that devastated a Venezuelan coastal city.

Video shared on social media Friday shows rescuers working under a floodlight atop collapsed masonry and bringing the infant out to applause late Friday in the hardest-hit city of La Guaira, north of the capital Caracas.

They carefully pass the baby, wrapped in a quilt, from person to person before cleaning the child gently with tissues, the video shows.

According to the user, Andreina Quintero, who published the video on social media, the baby was just 18 days old and was uninjured after being trapped for 32 hours.

The child’s mother was rescued an hour after the child.

In a follow-up video later on Friday, Quintero showed the mother in a hospital bed, with a medical worker telling her that the baby did not appear to have injuries.

The medic then suggests that the mother saved the baby by covering the child with her body or another object.

At least 920 people were killed by back-to-back earthquakes on Wednesday of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, and thousands more were injured or remain missing.

The United Nations estimated on Saturday that close to seven million people may have been impacted by the twin earthquakes in Venezuela, which have killed nearly 1,000 people and left tens of thousands missing.

The UN migration agency said it had examined available population and damage data and had determined that “up to 6.76 million people could be affected by the devastating earthquakes that struck Venezuela on 24th June”.

The projections, which include up to two million people in Caracas alone, “highlight the potentially vast humanitarian impact of the disaster,” the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) warned in a statement.

Entire buildings have crumbled in La Guaira, located to the north of Caracas, following the devastating twin tremors.