Category: Lead

Legal icon Wole Olanipekun and 49 other lawyers have offered to defend the victory of President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Presidential Election Tribunal.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and one-time President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) is leading the team of legal giants.

The lawyers are waiting to be served with the petitions of the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi.

Both opposition candidates have registered their displeasure with the declaration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate as winner of the February 25 poll.

Tinubu got 8, 794,726 votes to beat Atiku and Obi to the second and third positions with 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 scores respectively.

But the first and second runners-up have sought leave of the tribunal to inspect some election materials used for the poll.

Members of the Tinubu legal team are to hold their preliminary meeting today in Lagos. They are to discuss some of the issues in the public domain which may be included in the petitions of the PDP and the LP.

There were indications that some PDP governors may join in the case before the tribunal to testify that the poll was free and fair in their states.

Investigations showed that some of the 50 SANs were said to have opted for free service to actualise Tinubu’s mandate.

It was learnt that a few of them joined the team based on the conviction that the presidential election was the “freest and fairest” in the country’s history with large-scale upsets.

Some of the senior lawyers in the vanguard of defending Tinubu’s mandate are a former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Akin Olujimi,  Yusuf Ali, Lateef Fagbemi, A.U. Mustapha, Ahmed Raji, Abiodun Owonikoko, Kemi Pinheiro, Niyi Akintola and H.M. Liman.

Others are: Taiwo Osipitan, Babatunde Ogala, Roland Otaru, James Onoja, Muiz Banire, Olusola Oke and a former Bauchi State Governor Mohammed Abubakar.

A source, who spoke in confidence, said: “Buoyed by patriotism and the need to protect the sanctity of the ballot, about 50 SANs have signed up to defend the mandate of Asiwaju Tinubu. The figure may be more in the next few days.

“Some of these legal giants have either not met with Tinubu or seeking any favour from him. They believe that the February 25  poll was credible and the best in the history of Nigeria.”

The source added: “In spite of the noise in the media, both Atiku and Obi have not served Tinubu and APC a copy of any petition before the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.

“But the defence team of Tinubu will meet on Tuesday (today) in Lagos ahead of allowing Atiku and Obi to get their acts together.”

Section 130 (1, 2and 3) of the Electoral Act 2022 says: “ “No election and return at any election under this Act shall be questioned in any manner other than by a petition complaining of an undue election or undue return presented to the competent tribunal or court in accordance with the provisions of the constitution or of this Act and in which the person elected or returned is joined as a party.

“In this part, ‘tribunal’ means-(a) in the case of the presidential election, the Court of Appeal; and (b) in the case of any other elections under this Act, the election tribunal established under the Constitution or by this Act.

“The election tribunals shall-(a) be constituted not later than 30 days before the election; and (b) when constituted, open their registries for business seven days before the election.”

• Atiku leads protest 

• APC PCC: it’s theatre of the absurd

• Wike dismisses action

• INEC: our allegiance is to Nigerians

The post-presidential election storm took a dramatic turn yesterday.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) marched on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Abuja to protest the alleged manipulation of the February 25 election.

But the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC PCC) described those at the protest as “jesters”.

It noted that the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who led the protest, had told the world last week that he would seek redress in court.

But Atiku said they had the right to protest even if the case was in court.

APC National Secretary, Senator Iyiola Omisore, said there was bound to be a winner and loser in an election.

To him, the protesters were sore losers.

INEC has promised to address any issues within its purview.

“If there are remedial issues to be dealt with. We are going to deal with those remedial issues,” the commission said.

Atiku and the PDP leadership are not getting any sympathy from River State Governor Nyesom Wike.

The governor said the opposition party was crying over spilt milk after it jettisoned its constitutional provision for a North-South power shift.

APC support groups will today stage a counter solidarity walk in support of the presidential election outcome.

Secretary of Support Group Coordination, Tosin Adeyanju, stated in a notice: “All support groups and party members are to converge Tuesday 7th March 2023 by 8 am at Tinubu Campaign Office on No 6 Atabara off Cario Wuse II for the onward procession to INEC in defence of our democracy and declared result of the last presidential and National Assembly elections.”

How the protest unfolded

Atiku arrived at the Legacy House, the presidential campaign headquarters of the PDP at 11 am, where he joined other PDP leaders.

They include PDP National Chairman Dr. Iyorchia Ayu and National Working Committee (NWC) members, who had gathered at the premises awaiting Atiku’s arrival.

Others were the chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) Senator Adolphus Wabara; Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal; former National Chairman Prince Uche Secondus; former Senate President Bukola Saraki; former Adamawa State Governor Boni Haruna; PDP chieftain Chief Raymond Dokpesi; former PDP National Publicity Secretary Kola Ologbondiyan; Atiku’s campaign spokesman Senator Dino Melaye, among others.

The protesters, who were dressed in black, took off at about 11.10 am, causing heavy traffic congestion around the Maitama axis.

They were received at the INEC headquarters by a team, led by the National Commissioner and Chairman of Voter Education and Publicity, Mr Festus Okoye.

Okoye received a protest letter from Dr Ayu for onward transmission to the INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu.

The letter conveyed the party’s rejection of the February 25 presidential election won by the APC candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

The PDP called for the cancellation of the presidential election and the conduct of a fresh one that it said will be acceptable to Nigerians and the international community.

Purporting to be acting on the mandate of “the Nigerian electorate”, the PDP said the outcome of the poll was unacceptable.

Other demands include the suspension of the ongoing transmission of the polling unit results to the servers.

It claimed the exercise was in complete breach of the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

The party also urged the electoral umpire to avoid a repeat of the experiences of the February 25 election in Saturday’s governorship and State Assembly elections.

It added that any attempt to manipulate the electoral process would be vehemently resisted.

The party called on Nigerians to be “co-partners in defence of our democracy, votes, the rule of law and their rights to freely choose the candidates of their choice”.

It demanded an explanation as to why INEC proceeded with the declaration of the election results “marred with irregularities against all calls to address the complaints brought to your attention before and during the collation process”.

The party added: “The PDP, together with the ordinary and aggrieved masses of our dear country, will no longer tolerate any act in defiance of our electoral processes and laws.

“We feel pained at the outcome of the February 25, 2023 election and the provocative declaration your commission made against the will of the people. 

“Sadly, this is coming at the time Nigerians were in high hopes of embracing a reformed electoral process. Please take caution in your acts to avoid destabilising our fledgling democracy.”

Addressing reporters, Atiku said: “We are protesting and we have every right to protest. 

“The fact that we are protesting doesn’t stop us from going to court. We will protest for a very long time, either every day or every other day.”

Okoye said INEC would address any of the issues raised that are within its purview.

“If there are remedial issues to be dealt with, we are going to deal with those remedial issues.

“But I want to assure you that this commission is a listening commission. This commission is a public trust and this commission belongs to the Nigerian people.

“This commission does not have any allegiance to any political party. We don’t have allegiance to any political party. We don’t have any allegiance to any candidate. 

“Our allegiance is to the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I want to thank all of you for the peaceful way this protest has been conducted.

“The commission belongs to the Nigerian people and whatever grievances there are, we will look into all those grievances. 

“If there are grievances that can be redressed, we will redress those grievances. But, I want to plead that all of us should continue to be peaceful and all of us should continue to respect the integrity of the commission and also the integrity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“I am going to hand over the protest letter to the chairman of the commission and I want to assure you that the commission will meet over this letter, look into it and address some of the issues.”

APC PCC slams PDP’s ‘theatrical display’

The APC PCC said the demonstration was a new low for the PDP leadership.

In a statement by its Director of Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, the council said the opposition took its case to the wrong place. 

It said: “INEC Headquarters is not a court where the prayers of Alhaji Atiku can be answered.

“With Atiku staging a theatre of the absurd, we fail to see how a march to INEC by a scanty crowd will provide any victory window for him and his fragmented PDP. 

“The only recourse open to Atiku after the electoral umpire declared Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the President-elect, is the Election Petition Tribunal.

“We don’t expect a former Vice President of Nigeria, a statesman and a Presidential candidate to be so jobless as to have time to disturb public peace over an electoral outcome he had already said he would challenge in court.

“We want to admonish Alhaji Atiku to respect his age and the high office of the Vice Presidency of Nigeria he once occupied. 

“He should stop being teleguided by Dino Melaye, who disclosed scandalously that N400 billion was wasted on the election, which was clear at the outset that Atiku was bound to lose.

“Atiku should avoid being misdirected by other court jesters in his party, who continued to campaign after the election, still spewing their inanities against the President-elect. They are mere comic characters in a travelling theatre group.

“No amount of theatrical display will give him succour. The honourable and lawful path to take is for Atiku to get his lawyers to plead his case in court. 

“He should stop throwing tantrums like a baby whose candy was taken away over an election he lost due to his poor judgment; mismanagement of his party and violation of the power rotational arrangement between the North and the South. 

“The PDP presidential candidate dug his own grave, in his last election and, absurdly, he is trying to rewrite the script of his utter failure.

“We wonder how Atiku and his party hoped to win when he admitted that Peter Obi, his running mate in 2019, ran away with traditional PDP votes from the Southeast and Southsouth.

“It is preposterous that while Atiku is disturbing public peace, chanting phantom electoral victory, Peter Obi is making the same claim. 

“We think both men have embarrassed themselves enough and it is time they both resolved who between them is the supposed winner that will challenge our party’s victory in court.”

The Campaign Council advised the PDP presidential candidate “to retire honourably from politics and move to his abode in Dubai”.

“At 77 in November, Atiku does not have age on his side again. 

“He has participated in his last election and hopefully, he has learnt worthy lessons, never to place his selfish interest above party and established principles in his party and the polity,” the statement added.

Omisore described the protest as an act of desperation.

Speaking at the APC national secretariat when he received a congratulatory letter to the President-elect from President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China, Omisore said: “In any contest, there must be a winner and there must be losers. So, must they win? No!

“They are just bad losers simple. Very undemocratic and they are desperate people, desperados simple.”

He thanked the Chinese government for believing in Nigeria and INEC.

“The welcome development is a signpost that the world has accepted this election and equally from the Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

“This is the testimony of the fairness, the freeness and acceptability of the election across the world,” Omisoere said.

The letter dated March 3, 2023, and personally signed by the Chinese President to Tinubu, reads: “I learned with great joy of your election as President of Nigeria, and on behalf of the Chinese Government and the Chinese people, I would like to extend to you my sincere congratulations and best wishes. 

“I am confident that, under your leadership, Nigeria will continue to make new achievements in the cause of national building and development.”

Jinping noted that Nigeria is an important strategic partner of China in Africa. 

“I attach great importance to the development of China-Nigeria relations, and stand ready to work with you to take the China-Nigeria Strategic Partnership to new heights,” he writes.

The letter was presented by the Directing Officer of the Chinese Embassy, Mr Wu Baocai, assisted by the Embassy’s Second Secretary, Mr H.E. Shurong.

• No cash at banking hall, ATM points

• Banks await CBN’s directive on old notes

Nigerians’ hope of having more access to cash was dashed yesterday.

The banks had no improvement in the cash allocation they have been getting from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) despite last Friday’s Supreme Court verdict on the recirculation of all old naira notes.

The Nation gathered that the situation was not helped by the Federal Government’s inability to get the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgment.

It was learnt that the government must obtain the CTC before it can direct the CBN to comply with the judgment.

The government’s lawyers were sighted at the Supreme Court in Abuja trying to get the CTC.  

Before the lawyers arrived at the apex court, many Nigerians who thronged commercial banks with the hope of making withdrawals left disappointed as they were not paid.

None of the banks visited by The Nation reporter in the Central Business District of Abuja and Wuse zones 2 and 3 paid the old and new naira notes through their counters and Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).

A few residents of Lagos were however lucky as they were paid old notes across the counters and ATMs. 

One of the government’s lawyers said: “The Federal Government has not enforced the judgment because it is yet to receive the CTC. There is no way the government will act on the spur of the moment.

“After obtaining the CTC, the government will isolate the order(s) of the court before directing the CBN and other statutory agencies to comply.”

The lawyer was, however, optimistic that “in the next 24 hours or 48 hours, all the parties will get a copy of the judgment.”

He added that it was “preemptive” for people to “assume that the government has not carried out the order of the court”.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers were also in the court expecting the CTC in order to determine their line action, including contempt proceeding if the judgment is not enforced.

A counsel to one of the plaintiffs said: “It is true that we are all waiting for the CTC of the judgment. 

“I think the Federal Government is only trying to be technical because the Supreme Court’s judgment was loud and clear.

“We will give them the benefit of doubt. But the government has no choice but to abide by the rule of law.

“On our part, as soon as we get the CTC, we will register it before a Federal High Court to enable us to file contempt proceedings against the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), and the CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele.

“We are on standby for contempt proceedings if the Federal Government ignores the judgment of the Supreme Court.”

In Lagos, a banker, who asked that his identity be veiled, said he could not say when the cash scarcity would abate.

“Banks don’t hoard money. If banks have the money, they will give it out,” the banker added. 

The official said in normal times, banks load each ATM with an average of N8 million.

He claimed that when he inquired from banks in two states about their cash position, he was told that 13 branches got only N16 million.

The official, who confirmed that his branch paid a few customers yesterday with the old notes, said no bank had received any directive nor cash from the CBN. 

Last week, The Nation gathered that only about N13 million was released to a Lagos bank that has over 40 branches.

But a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) source told The Nation that the apex bank was “working towards alleviating the sufferings of the people.”

He pleaded with Nigerians to give the CBN “the benefit of the doubt.”

A Lagos resident, Johnson Okanlawon, said two commercial bank branches in Iyana Ipaja did not pay the old notes across the counter but loaded their ATMs with both old and new notes.

“I sent my salesgirl to one of the banks in Iyana Ipaja to deposit old notes. The salesgirl came back to inform me that the banks had resumed payment of the old notes.  

“We have also seen customers freely buying and selling in the old notes within our axis,” Okanlawon said. 

Another resident said he was paid N20,000 in old N500 denominations across the counter by a bank in Abule-Egba 

“I was paid N20,000 in old N500 notes in the banking hall. I felt very relieved because, in the past two weeks, I never had up to N2,000 cash. In fact, I was very lucky today (yesterday),” he smiled as he walked away from the bank premises.

But checks across several bank branches in Ibeju-Lekki and Victoria Island showed that cash scarcity had yet to abate.

At the Ibeju-Lekki branch of one of the banks, officials told customers that they had no cash to pay.  

“We do not have the cash to pay anybody. We only attend to customers carrying out intra- and interbank transfers, and activation of ATM cards,” one of the bank workers said.

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike yesterday blamed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, for the failure of the party to win the presidential election.

The governor believes the party’s misfortune was a consequence of ignoring the warnings of the G5 governors, who called for equity, justice and fairness before the poll.

Wike insisted that it was too early to forget that the fate that befell the PDP was avoidable if its leadership had heeded many appeals and demands for equity.

Wike spoke at Okomoko Community Field while inaugurating the Chokocho-Igbodo Road in Etche Local Government Area.

The governor said it was fair that the presidency had returned to the South because the North was completing its eight years at the presidency.

He said: “Our constitution says in Section 7 (3) (c) that there shall be the rotation of public offices; of appointive and elective. 

“You took the chairmanship of the party. You took the presidential candidate slot of the party and we came to you, saying this is against the spirit of our constitution.

“Give us back the chairmanship, you said no, that you must have it all because you have won. I said ‘be careful’ then, and nobody wants to remember all those things when we were shouting.”

Wike said while others were demonstrating against the outcome of the presidential election, he was in Rivers inaugurating projects and satisfying the developmental needs of the people.

The governor said he never criticised either the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi or his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, during the campaigns.

Wike said he only chose to campaign unapologetically to true lovers of Nigeria to vote for a southern presidential candidate in the spirit of equity, fairness and justice.

He said: “That is what we have argued for, that the north has had it for eight years. 

“Therefore, the South should have it for eight years. So, I am not here to persecute anybody.

“As far as I am concerned, anybody from the South is where I stand. That is what we agreed as Integrity Group that we must make sure that someone from the South emerges as the next president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

The governor insisted that he remained one of the apostles of power rotation on the principles of equity, fairness and justice.

He told the Etche people that he had no problem with anybody who voted for the LP or the APC because the outcome of the presidential election gave Nigeria a southern president.

He took a swipe at the governorship candidate of APC in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, saying he lacked the character to steer the affairs of the state.

He said: “Look at the APC candidate (Tonye Cole). He posted on social media, congratulating Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, but within one hour, he pulled it down. Is that a man? Is that character?”