The President-Elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has canceled the customary colloquium to commemorate his birthday in favor of special prayers and a gratitude service.

Tinubu who turns 71 on Wednesday, traditionally celebrates his birthday with a colloquium.

Tunde Rahman, Tinubu’s communications adviser, said in a statement on Monday that prayers will be conducted in Lagos and other areas of the nation.

Rahman stated that the special prayers will be performed in the central mosque in each of the five divisions of the state, including the central mosque, Alausa, and Ikeja.

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“Also to receive prayers among others are President Muhammadu Buhari and first lady Aisha Buhari, president-elect, Tinubu, and his wife, senator Oluremi Tinubu, Vice-President-elect, senator Kashim Shettima, and Hajia Nana Shettima, governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, other state governors as well as members of national and state houses of assembly.

“This year, the president-elect said the date, which falls within the holy month of Ramadan, should be dedicated to prayers and seeking God’s guidance for him and the country as he prepares to take the reins of leadership,” he said.

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This would be the second year in a row that the former governor of Lagos State will make that sacrifice. In 2022, an attack on an Abuja-bound train that was headed to Kaduna caused Tinubu to postpone his colloquium.

He asserted that being happy, dancing, and having fun does not make him a senior citizen of this nation.

The National Population Commission (NPC), has said it had put up measures to guard against all forms of malpractices ahead of the forthcoming population and housing census.

The commission also stressed that citizens living away from their states of origin do not need to travel home for the purpose of the exercise.

It said people would be enumerated at their places of residence.

The spokesperson for the commission, Isiaka Yahaya said this in an interview with our correspondent on Monday.

He said,” People should stay where they are, to be counted. They are not to move to their states of origin. It is totally against the essence of the census. You have to be counted where you reside because that’s where you enjoy the social facilities like education and health, among others.

“Apart from this, when the time comes for people to be provided with infrastructure and other things you will not allow the planners to have accurate figures. People are not to move.”

On measures to check malpractices, the NPC spokesman added: “This is a de facto census. We are asking practical questions about those who are living, not those who are yet to be born. We have not trained our enumerator to count people who are not yet born. We have a system in place to guard against all the malpractices that we have envisaged.

“Also, people can only be counted in their houses.  This is to discourage people from moving from one place to another after being counted. You can only be counted in one place. There’s will nothing to lie about. When we get to your house, the enumerators would see whatever you say you have and we are not asking for the owner of the house, why will anybody lie?”

Yahaya said the commission had not finished the recruitment process for enumerators.

The Seychelles Supreme Court has remanded a Nigerian woman on conspiracy to import and traffic an illicit drug.

According to the Seychelles news agency on Monday, the 52-year-old woman is being detained after she was arrested at the Seychelles International Airport on Thursday after her arrival on an Ethiopian Airline flight.

The arrest of the woman comes from a search, discovery, and seizure of 250 grammes of what is suspected to be cocaine.

The Seychelles’ archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, has a zero-tolerance policy towards the trafficking and importation of illegal drugs. There is a maximum sentence of life in prison if found guilty.