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An American Christian missionary, Kevin Rideout, has been released to U.S. officials after spending over nine months in captivity in Niger.

His organization, the Charlotte-based SIM International, confirmed on Friday that Rideout is in good health and will soon be reunited with his family.

“We are grateful to confirm that our good friend and brother in Christ, Kevin Rideout, has been released after over nine months in captivity,” SIM International Director Phil Bauman told CNN in a statement.

“Kevin is in good health in the care of US officials,” the statement said, adding Rideout will soon be reunited with his family.

Rideout was abducted on October 21, 2025, from outside his home in the capital city of Niamey by three unidentified men who fled toward the western Tillaberi region—an area known for active Islamist militant groups.

Following the incident, the U.S. Embassy in Niger heightened its security protocols and warned of elevated kidnapping threats across the country.

According to reports, Rideout is currently in FBI custody, though specific details regarding his release, his exact timeline, and the identity of his captors remain undisclosed.

Niger continues to grapple with intense violence and instability driven by militant groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and Islamic State forces operating along its borders.

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Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and former Vice President of Nigeria, on Friday commended recent report by the United States Department of State highlighting concerns over fiscal transparency in Nigeria, with specific reference to the federal government’s failure to disclose revenues and expenditures.

Stating that it vindicated his position for consistently calling out President Bola for its failure to uphold the basic standards of fiscal transparency, accountability, and disclosure required in a modern democracy.

The US report, had stated that: “The government made its enacted budget and end-of-year report widely and easily accessible to the public, including online, but did not publish its executive budget proposal within a reasonable period.

“…Budget documents did not provide a substantially complete picture of the government’s revenues and expenditures, or break down expenditures to support executive offices in the budget.”

Atiku, who said the report aligned with his concerns quoted the part, where it said: “Actual revenues and expenditures did not reasonably correspond to those in the enacted budget.”

The report also carpeted the Office of the Auditor-General, for did not meeting international standards of independence and did not publish substantive reports, adding that the Tinubu-led government did not meet the minimum requirements for fiscal transparency during the period under review.

Citing the failure to provide timely, detailed, and publicly accessible information on government revenues and expenditures, as well as the absence of credible audit trails, the former VP, said the observation was on all fours with his position over the years that Nigerians were being kept in the dark about how public resources are generated and spent.

Maintain that without full disclosure of how public funds were earned and spent, Nigeria could not attract investment, fight corruption, or build public trust, Atiku, added: “Transparency is not a slogan. It is the foundation of good governance.

This report confirms what we have been saying that Nigerians deserve to know where every kobo is coming from and where it is being spent. They are our resources and not the resources of President Bola Tinubu and his family and friends.”

While stressing the importance of fiscal transparency as a key benchmark for investors, donor agencies, and credit rating firms, he argued that since the Nigerian economy also relied heavily on foreign investment and multilateral support to fund infrastructure and social programmes, publishing detailed, timely data on revenue from oil, taxes, and borrowing, and on how that money was spent, remained critical to restoring confidence amid rising debt and inflation.

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There is a heavy security presence at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office along the Gbongan-Ibadan Road in Osogbo, Osun State, as final preparations intensify for Saturday’s governorship election.

Our correspondent observed a large number of security personnel, including officers of the Nigeria Police Force, stationed within and around the INEC premises on Friday.

The deployment is part of the security arrangements being put in place ahead of the movement of election personnel and materials to the state’s 30 local government areas.
Election stakeholders, including civil society organisations, journalists and accredited observers, were also seen at the INEC office as preparations for the poll reached a critical stage.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Oluwatoyin Babalola, was also said to be holding meetings with National Commissioners and supporting Resident Electoral Commissioners from other states as final arrangements for the election were being concluded.

The governorship election is scheduled to hold across 3,763 polling units in 332 wards spread across the 30 local government areas of the state.
Meanwhile, INEC had on Thursday disclosed that 1,906,390 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), representing 81.50 per cent of the 2,339,233 registered voters in the state, had been collected ahead of the election.

INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Haruna, disclosed this in a statement.

According to him, 426,842 PVCs, representing 18.50 per cent of the total registered voters, remained uncollected and had been safely deposited with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in line with the commission’s established practice.

The commission also disclosed that some registered voters whose PVCs were damaged, defaced or lost had applied for replacement.
It said 6,101 applicants had printed downloadable copies of their replacement PVCs.

The heightened security presence at the INEC office comes amid increased preparations by security agencies and other stakeholders to ensure a peaceful and credible governorship election in the state.