President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will this weekend travel to Rome at the invitation of the newly elected head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV, to attend the historic inaugural mass of the new Pontiff.

The solemn ceremony, which marks the formal beginning of the Papacy of Pope Leo XIV, will take place on Sunday, May 18, at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City.

The event is expected to draw Heads of State, diplomats, religious leaders and dignitaries from around the world.

Tinubu will depart Abuja on Saturday, May 17, and is scheduled to return to Nigeria on Tuesday, May 20.

According to a statement on Thursday by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga, the invitation to President Tinubu was conveyed through Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State.

In the message, Pope Leo XIV emphasised the symbolic significance of the Nigerian leader’s presence at “this moment of particular importance for the Catholic Church and the world afflicted by many tensions and conflicts.”

The Pontiff added a personal note, recalling his time in Nigeria: “Your great nation is particularly dear to me as I worked in the Apostolic Nunciature in Lagos during the 1980s.”

Tinubu’s delegation includes a mix of government officials and senior Catholic clergy, underscoring Nigeria’s religious and diplomatic ties with the Vatican.

Among those accompanying the President are the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu; Archbishop Lucius Ugorji of Owerri, who is also the President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria; Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja; Archbishop Alfred Martins of Lagos; and Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto Diocese.

The Vatican Conclave of Cardinals elected Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, 27 days after the passing of Pope Francis on April 21.

A seasoned theologian and Vatican administrator, the new Pope is expected to steer the Church through complex global challenges, including geopolitical tensions, migration, poverty, and religious extremism.

Nigeria, home to one of Africa’s largest Catholic populations, has long maintained close diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

Tinubu’s participation in the Papal inauguration not only affirms this relationship but also signals Nigeria’s engagement with global efforts for peace, dialogue, and religious harmony.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has said it would reschedule 379,997 candidates affected by technical glitches in the five states of the South East and Lagos to retake the Unified Tertiary and Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, made this known in an ongoing press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday.

He said, “206,610 in 65 centres were affected in Lagos and 92 centres in the Owerri zone comprising 173,387 candidates in the five states of the South East were affected.”

Oloyede, who took responsibility for what he described as a “sabotage” of the 2025 UTME, said the affected candidates will start getting text messages from the Board starting Thursday.

He added, “The affected candidates will start getting text messages for rescheduling starting from tomorrow.

“I apologise, I take full responsibility.”

Of the 1.9 million candidates who sat the UTME, over 1.5 million reportedly scored below 200 out of the maximum 400 marks, raising concerns across the education sector.

Justice James Kolawole Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit instituted against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu challenging the removal of Danladi Yakubu Umar as Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).

The suit was struck out by the judge following its withdrawal by the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs: Community Rescue Initiative, Toro Concerned Citizens of a Relief Foundation, and an Abuja-based lawyer, Comrade Nasir Bala, had jointly instituted the suit against President Tinubu, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), Senate President Godswill Akpabio, and six others.

It will be recalled that the Senate, in November, asked President Tinubu to sack Danladi Umar as CCT Chairman over allegations of corruption and misconduct.

The upper chamber adopted the resolution during a plenary session after Senate President Godswill Akpabio put it to a vote, and a majority of the senators supported it.

The resolution was passed in accordance with the provisions of Section 157(1) of the Nigerian Constitution, which stipulates that two-thirds of the Senate’s membership can advise the President to remove the CCT Chairman.

However, in the suit, the plaintiffs sought to restrain the Clerk of the National Assembly from transmitting the resolutions of the Senate and House of Representatives to the President, and to halt any attempt by the Executive to act on the resolution purportedly removing Justice Umar from office.

At the resumed hearing of the matter on Tuesday, counsel to the plaintiffs informed the court of their decision to discontinue the case.

He stated that a formal notice of withdrawal had already been filed and brought to the court’s attention.

Justice Omotosho consequently dismissed the case on the ground that the parties had already joined issues with one another.

The plaintiffs had earlier argued that the National Assembly acted in breach of constitutional provisions, particularly Section 157(1), Section 22(3) of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, and relevant paragraphs of the 1999 Constitution, in recommending Umar’s removal.