These are the stories that drove the conversation today:

Former Ondo Governor, Olusegun Mimiko has on Thursday declared his intention to  run for the office of the President of Nigeria on the platform of the Labour party (LP).

Barely 24 hours after the 63-year old Mimiko, after the declaration at the party’s National Secretariat  in Abuja, the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress, the registered owner of the Labour Party denounced the declaration and rejected the hijack of the Labour Party platform at a joint news conference addressed by Ayuba Wabba, NLC President and Mrs Ebere Ifendu, the National Publicity Secretary, Labour Party.

“It is not possible for Mimiko to run under the Labour Party and we want to say no to that as Mimiko has no business as a member of Labour Party….. bringing money to buy the party or the structure will not work, we do not share in the same ideology with him. It is a party with a difference.”

The Ekiti House of Assembly on Thursday passed at plenary by a unanimous decision of 14 of its members the N10 billion supplementary budget sent to it by Governor Ayo Fayose, despite concerns by the Governor-elect Kayode Fayemi.

The opposition APC lawmakers in the house, however described the action as a “ploy’’  by the governor to and his cronies to cover up massive fraud in some Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs), alleging that the bill was backdated to Aug. 30 to give an impression that the Appropriation Committee had since been deliberating on the bill.

The News Agency of  Nigeria (NAN) reported that the Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Samuel Omotosho, said the budget was to capture unforeseen expenses of government, denying speculations that the budget was to defraud the state and alleging that the Governor-elect, also did the same a month before he left office during his first term.

There are indications that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon Yakubu Dogara, may have dumped his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige has said that organised Labour in the country were crying wolf on the issue of minimum wage where there is none, saying the National Minimum Wage Committee set by the federal government was still working within its time frame.

According to the Minister, the work of the committee, including a draft bill to be sent to the President and subsequently to the National Assembly and all other works of the committee were ready except the issue of a particular figure to be agreed upon.

He added that while it is easy for organised Labour to agree on a figure, it was not that easy for the government as it must put into economic situation in the country and the ability of the various state governors to pay the agreed figure, the Nation reports.

The Zamfara Police Command has on Thursday confirmed the death of six persons in the early hours of Wednesday in Badarawa village of Shinkafi Local Government area of the state, following an attack on the village by bandits which also left 10 persons injured.

Police Public Relations Officer, Superintendent Mohammed Shehu, who confirmed the incident to newsmen in Gusau said the Police had received a distress call from the village at about 12.15 a.m. and quickly mobilized security to the area, adding however that due to the bad terrain of the area, the bandits had fled before the arrival of the combined team of the police and soldiers on operation in the area.

Read » The Late 5: Ekiti Assembly pass ‘Fayose’s’ N10bn supplementary budget; Former Ondo Gov, Mimiko joins Presidential race | More stories on YNaija