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Tag: Daniel Onjeh

  • Why Nigerians can’t trust David Mark as President – ex-SUG leader

    Former National President of the National Association of Nigerian Students and Senatorial aspirant for Benue South Senatorial district, Daniel Onjeh said Thursday that Nigerians should not take former Senate President, Senator Davis Mark serious in his bid to be President of the country.

    Onjeh who spoke with newsmen after obtaining his nomination form in Abuja said the former Senate President failed woefully as Senate President and can therefore not be trusted with the mandate to lead the country.

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    He said further that after serving in the hallowed chamber of the National Assembly for a long time, Mark was a monumental failure to the people of Benue South throughout his stay in the senate.

    He said: “Well, ideally it would be appropriate to support one from your home town particularly for the position of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is and exalted office every ethnic group or tribe would want to have his/her own occupy. But unfortunately in my own view, he does not deserve the support because, he has been given the responsibility before and he failed.

    “David Mark was a monumental failure to the entire Benue South people. Like they say, charity begins at home. He practically made the Senate his permanent abode. He has been there twice as an ordinary senator and twice as a sitting senate president.

    “When he was a sitting senator under Goodluck Jonathan, one would be correct to say he was a defacto- President in the Country. He had everything at his disposal to effect the change you expect to see in this nation particularly with respect with Benue South people.

    “He talked about addressing the poverty issues in the country within 2 years. He was there as a sitting senator and a defacto-president of Nigeria, and his people were living in abject poverty and deprivation and the length of his stay is not commensurate with the level of development on ground in Benue South because there no molecule of development in Benue South.

    “Infact Benue South has been completely disconnected from the federal government. The dividends of democracy which ought to have come through the same man who wants to run for election today is not there.

    “Apart from the deplorable State of Benue South, I want to talk about the security angle which he promised to address within the shortest possible time while boasting of his military background, and experience.

    “One would have expected that he brought that to bear before the Goodluck Jonathan administration to address series of security issues we had in the Country, ranging from Book Haram to Kidnapping, Herdsmen/ farmers clash that we had in Agatu, a very notorious one for that matter at the time they were in Government.

    “Agatu people were attacked at will, several lives were lost, lives were lost in Agatu than we have under this administration but that was right under the nose of the same man who is claiming to provide security for the nation who was a sitting senator.

    “People died in Agatu and we didn’t hear remark or any major statement in condemnation of the attack of Agatu people or an attempt to proffer solution to the security challenges that we had in Agatu.

    “Agatu is one of the local government areas we have in Benue South and of course, we are all aware of what transpired in the killings that took place in Agatu where several homes were destroyed and people were displaced and as I speak with you, we still have remnants of IDPs in that environment.

    “This is a man who couldn’t attend to the immediate security challenges of a zone in a State. I am not sure if he has the capacity to handle the challenges in the country.

    “He also mentioned the issue of restructuring and I think he just brought into the cliché of restructuring. Of course, it is a good thing, but he was also a sitting senator for 8years. He could have as well moved for it. So, I believe that is their usual way to hoodwink their way to the people and making them believe that they are building bridges for them where there are no rivers.

    “For Senator David Mark, perhaps he would live up to his promise if he is given the opportunity of fulfilling the promise of restructuring they same way he fulfill the promise he made to the people of Benue South people that he was going to create an Apa- State for them when he was the Senate President and indeed we all know we have an APA State in Nigeria, so we have 37 States in Nigeria.”

     

     

  • Benue: Tribunal strikes out petition against Mark

    Benue: Tribunal strikes out petition against Mark

    The Benue state election petition tribunal sitting in Makurdi, Thursday struck out the petition filed by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress’ (APC), Daniel Onjeh, against Senator David Mark of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in the re-run election.

    Delivery her judgment, Justice Chinyere Gloria Anulube said that Onjeh filed the petition after the 21 days stipulated by the constitution has elapsed.

  • Tribunal admits four exhibits against David Mark

    Tribunal admits four exhibits against David Mark

    The National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, has admitted four exhibits from the subpoenaed Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC’s) witnesses in a petition by Mr. Daniel Onjeh of the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenging the return of Senator David Mark by the INEC.

    The former Senate president was returned winner of the Benue South election held on March 28, having defeated his rival, Onjeh.

    At the resumed sitting, Mr. Yakubu Nachamada, one of the witnesses from INEC, identified five documents, which Onjeh sought to tender, but the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) counsel, Chris Alechenu, objected to the admissibility of one of them.

    He premised his rejection on the grounds that the document did not originate from the party.

    The document in contention is a letter dated July 27, authorising the INEC worker to be a witness in the suit.

    Alechenu averred that the letter could only be tendered in evidence either through the INEC chairman, the resident electoral commissioner or the writer of the letter, saying the witness was neither of them.

    “The witness is not the writer, addressee and is not even copied in the letter. So, the letter cannot be tendered through him.”

    Mr. Kenneth Ikoni, counsel to Mark, corroborated the views of the PDP counsel and urged the court to reject the admissibility of the letter.

    Onjeh’s counsel, Tunji Oso, urged the court to discountenance the objections raised by the respondents’ counsel, saying the document was relevant and sufficient to link the witness to the evidence relating to his relevance in court.

    Citing the Nigerian Weekly Law Report, page 17 (G-H), he averred that “a document linking a witness to an evidence can be tendered with or without the consent of the writer or addressee.”

    The tribunal Chairman, Justice Mosunmola Dipeolu, ruled that the document was vital to the appearance of the witness in court.

    She overruled the objections of the two lawyers and admitted the document in  evidence as Exhibit PA.

    The Card Reader Accreditation Data in respect of the election for the polling units in the senatorial district generated from the INEC website and presented in court by Nachamada was admitted in evidence.

    Another exhibit admitted in evidence was the receipt for the certification of documents.

    However, the court refused another application by Oso to tender the subpoena by the tribunal for the two witnesses from INEC to testify in court.

    Counsel to the PDP had urged the court to reject the admissibility of the order on the grounds that it was already the document of the court, stressing that the court had no need for it in evidence.

    Justice Dipeolu agreed with the respondents’ counsel and rejected the admissibility of the subpoena order in evidence.

    The case was adjourned for the continuation of trial.

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