The African Democratic Congress presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar has said he will reopen Nigeria’s land borders if elected president in the next year general election.

Atiku made the pledge while addressing supporters in a video circulating online and shared by ADC chieftain, Dele Momodu, on Friday.

Atiku said that the closure of Nigeria’s borders with neighbouring countries had negatively affected transborder trade and contributed to unemployment among young people.

“The Northern states is bordering Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Benin Republic. And you close all those borders. All our young men who are doing trading between these countries, they carry goods across, they do this and that, all what we call transborder trade is a legitimate business,” Atiku said.

He said many young people who previously operated businesses with capital running into millions of naira had been forced out of business following the border closures.“All the upcoming young men and women who used to have a capital of 10 million, 20 million, and they were employing two, three other people, and then all of them went bankrupt and unemployed. How can there be security?” he asked.

The Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has urged judges to consider the overall impact of their judgments on the polity and national development.

Governor Fubara gave the charge while declaring open the 66th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Port Harcourt.

Fubara noted that law and order, including national development, were closely linked to the quality of justice delivered by the courts.

He charged judges to ensure that truth prevailed at all times, irrespective of the status, influence or social affiliations of parties appearing before them.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed reports that it withdrew its list of members of the 2027 presidential campaign council, describing the reports as rumours.

Felix Morka, national publicity secretary of the APC, made the clarification in a statement to media houses this morning.

Morka said the party had not withdrawn the list, adding that any decision to alter it would be formally communicated by the APC.

“Those reports are rumours,” Morka said.

He added that any changes to the campaign council list would be officially announced by the party