The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Deji Adeyanju

  • Kogi: ‘How can supreme court do this to Nigeria & democracy?’

    The judgment of the Supreme Court determining the governorship tussle involving Captain Idris Wada, Hon. James Faleke and Alhaji Yahaya Bello was surprising to say the least.

    In the judgment given on September 20, 2016, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals of Wada and Faleke and affirmed Bello as Governor of Kogi State.

    To my mind, this judgment – along with the judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Election Petition Tribunal – is bizarre and not in keeping with the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).

    One is hard pressed to avoid the conclusion that in reaching its decision the Supreme Court relied on manufactured technicalities that did damage to the letter and the spirit of our laws.

    The judgment contradicts the previous judgment of apex court in CPC v Ombugadu (2013) 18 NWLR (1385) 16; Gbileve v Addingi (2014) 16 NWLR (1433) 56; Eligwe v Okpokiri (2015) 2 NWLR (1443) 348; Jev v Iyortom (2015) 15 NWLR (1483) 484 where the provisions of Section 141 of the Electoral Act was applied to the effect that a candidate cannot be declared the winner of an election in which he did not participate in all stages of the election.

    In deciding in favour of Bello, the Supreme Court basically nullified the provisions of Section 141 of the Electoral Act and reversed itself per the judgments given in the above cited cases. The Supreme Court has basically returned to its holding in Amaechi v Omehia, which is what Section 141 was enacted to prevent.

    In deciding in favour of Bello, the Supreme Court has basically violated the principle of Separation of Powers and usurped the role of the legislature.

    It is public knowledge that Faleke wrote letters to his party withdrawing as a deputy governor candidate to Yahaya Bello. Upon the refusal of his party to write to INEC informing them of Faleke’s withdrawal, he did so directly by writing to INEC informing them of his decision to withdraw as a deputy governorship candidate to Bello.

    In reaching its decision, the Supreme Court (and indeed the lower courts) completely ignored these facts. Instead, it surprisingly held that Faleke’s withdrawal was unknown to law.

    This assertion basically allows the APC to enjoy the benefits of its wrong doing. How is this legal? How is this equitable?

    Again, one is hard pressed to avoid the conclusion that the Supreme Court deliberately disregarded the fact of Bello’s withdrawal to enable it reach a pre-determined conclusion. It does not seem legal or equitable, that a Court can acknowledge the wrong-doing of a party yet allow the party to benefit from such wrong-doing.

    While we wait for the Supreme Court to give reasons for its decision, we can only accept the reality of 3 more years on tepid, uninspiring leadership from Yahaya Bello in Kogi State.

    Under Yahaya Bello’s leadership, Kogi State is racking up debts in billions of Naira with no commensurate infrastructural or developmental gains to show for it. Despite collecting billions of Naira worth of bailout funds, the state still owes several months’ salaries. As it stands, Yahaya Bello is currently leading Nigeria down a path of indebtedness and financial ruin as similar to Osun.

    God bless Kogi State.

    Deji Adeyanju

  • ‘Supreme court must do what is right on Kogi’

    ‘Supreme court must do what is right on Kogi’

    1.    On September 20, 2016 the Supreme Court will determine one of the most brazen attempts to violate the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria when it gives its judgment in the matter of Idris Wada & Others v Yahaya Bello & Others.

    2.    The facts of this case are clear and as such do not require repetition. However, the legal issues are somewhat murky. While our laws did not envisage the scenario caused by the unfortunate death of late Prince Abubakar Audu and do not stipulate the pathway to follow to resolve the quagmire, they are very clear on what not to do in pursuit of a resolution.

    3.    In attempting to resolve the issues thrown up by late Audu’s death, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) aided by the ruling All Progressives’ Congress (APC) took the option most prejudicial to democracy in Nigeria by permitting:

    i.    The substitution of the late APC candidate with Yahaya Bello;
    ii.    Passing off votes cast for the late APC candidate as votes cast for Yahaya Bello;
    iii.    Permitting Yahaya Bello to contest for the supplementary elections without a deputy governorship candidate, and
    iv.    Issuing him a certificate of return in furtherance of (iii) above.

    4.    Without prejudice to all the legal issues relating to this appeal, two fundamental issues can be distilled from the facts, both of which form the basis of our contention that Yahaya Bello ought to have been removed from office by the Kogi State Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal.

    i.    Were the Tribunal & Court of Appeal right to have upheld the election of Yahaya Bello in light of the provision of Section 141 of the Electoral Act?

    Section 141 provides that the Tribunal or Court shall not under any circumstance declare any person winner of an election if such a person did not fully participate in all stages of the election.

    This provision of law has already been applied and upheld by the apex court in a plethora of cases. These include: CPC v Ombugadu (2013) 18 NWLR (1385) 16; Gbileve v Addingi (2014) 16 NWLR (1433) 56; Eligwe v Okpokiri (2015) 2 NWLR (1443) 348; Jev v Iyortom (2015) 15 NWLR (1483) 484.

    The interpretation given to this section was that while Courts listening to intra-party disputes could declare a person who had not participated in all stages of an election winner, an Election Petition Tribunal or the Court of Appeal sitting as a court of first instance cannot do so.

    The facts are clear and unambiguous. Yahaya Bello did not participate in the elections of November 21st, 2015 where more than 230,000 votes which were allocated to him were cast.

    When the law and the judgments cited above are applied to the facts, it is impossible to reach a conclusion that the Tribunal and the Court of Appeal erred in finding in favour of Yahaya Bello.

    ii.    Were the Tribunal and Court of Appeal right to have held that Yahaya Bello could validly contest an election without nominating a deputy?

    Section 187(1) of the Constitution provides:

    “In any election to which the foregoing provisions of this part of this Chapter relate a candidate for the office of Governor of a State SHALL NOT be deemed to have been VALIDLY nominated for such office UNLESS he nominates another candidate as his associate for his running for the office of Governor, who is to occupy the office of Deputy Governor; and that candidate shall be deemed to have been duly elected to the office of Deputy Governor if the candidate who nominated him is duly elected as Governor in accordance with the said provisions.”

    The Supreme Court has, on several occasions interpreted that use of the word “SHALL” to connote an obligation that must be observed. In this context, the wording of Section 187(1), places an obligation on a gubernatorial candidate to nominate a running mate or face the risk of not being deemed to have been validly nominated to contest for such office.

    It is well known fact that Yahaya Bello did not nominate a running mate for the supplementary election of December 5th, 2015. It is also public knowledge that the person allegedly nominated on his behalf by his party, Hon. James Abiodun Faleke, wrote a letter to INEC & APC stating that he was not running mate to Yahaya Bello. It is public knowledge that Hon. James Abiodun Faleke went further to file a law suit challenging Yahaya Bello’s emergence as Governor.

    When the law is applied to the facts, there is no escaping the conclusion that the learned Judges at the Tribunal and the Court of Appeal erred in finding in favour of Yahaya Bello.

    To highlight the very contradictory nature of these findings, answers have to be sought for the following questions:

    a.    If Hon. James Abiodun Faleke was the deputy governorship candidate of the party on the day of the supplementary why was Simon Achuba nominated, screened and sworn in as Deputy Governor?

    b.    How could Simon Achuba be nominated, screened and sworn in as Deputy Governor without a letter of resignation from Hon. James Abiodun Faleke?

    5.    In several small gatherings across the State, Yahaya Bello claims to have bought over the learned Justices of the Supreme Court. These claims are as unbelievable as they are worrisome. These claims are also a sign that having analysed the legal issues, particularly the dissenting judgments of Justices Obande Festus Ogbuinya and Tijjani Abubakar, Yahaya Bello is willing to resort to any means, legal or illegal, to win this case.

    6.     As seen here, even without giving consideration to the issues of inheriting votes cast for one candidate by the other, it is impossible to analyze the legal issues, the applicable laws and the extant facts and reach a conclusion that the provisions of our laws have been complied with in a manner that confirms Yahaya Bello to be validly nominated, elected and duly sworn in as Governor of Kogi State.

    7.    As the Apex Court of land gives judgment tomorrow, we urge the Court to uphold the sanctity of the Constitution and to stop this brazen rape of our laws and this arrogant violation of our democracy.

    8.    God bless Nigeria.

  • Edo poll: INEC, APC collaborate to rig – Adeyanju

    Edo poll: INEC, APC collaborate to rig – Adeyanju

    1. All Progressives Congress (APC) in collaboration with staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to subvert the electoral process for the September 10, 2016 gubernatorial election in Edo State.

    2.  I am aware that the plan is to ensure card reader failure in certain areas, particularly Edo North Senatorial District (Etsako West, Etsako East, Etsako Central, Owan West, Owan East & Akoko Edo) & some parts of Edo South Senatorial Districts. This would enable INEC staff in collaboration with APC members to falsify data and offer them the opportunity to rig the elections.

    3.  I am also aware that part of this plan is to subvert the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) by ensuring that INEC staff do not collate results at the polling units or post those results on the walls of the polling units as provided for by the Act, but at Ward/Local Government collation centres. This would afford the INEC staff and members of APC the opportunity to manipulate the results between the polling units and the Ward/Local Government Collation Centres.

    4.  Part of this plan is prevent e-collation officers from entering the results from the various polling units onto the INEC database immediately they are announced but to do so at the Ward/Local Government Collation centres after APC would have had the opportunity to manipulate them.

    5.  Finally, I am aware that this plan also includes INEC issuing fake result sheets to its staff at the polling unit level. The use of such result sheets would invalidate the results entered thereon & give an opportunity to APC members and colluding INEC staff to re-write the results onto original results sheets which will not reflect the reality of the number of votes cast for the candidates.

    6.  I urge the leadership of INEC to deliver free, fair and credible elections by ensuring that these plans fail. In that wise, we suggest the following simple & legal steps to ensure that the ideals of free, fair and credible elections are achieved –

    –    INEC should deploy a minimum of 5 card readers per polling unit to the 2626 polling units spread across 192 wards in the 18 LGAs of the state. We are aware that INEC owns 145,000 functional card readers. Card reader deployment in this manner would reduce incidents of card reader failure and ensure that only voters with genuine voters’ cards are permitted to vote. The implementation of such a plan would only require 13, 130 carder readers.

    – INEC should commence testing of all card readers from today – September 8, 2016 until tomorrow to ensure that only functional card readers are deployed for the elections.

    –    INEC should ensure that all its staff comply with the provisions of Sections 27(1)(a), 63 and 65 of the Electoral Act, and its operation guidelines for the elections by counting the number of valid votes cast at the various polling units and posting the results on the wall of the polling unit. Anything less than this would be resisted by our supporters across the State.

    –    INEC should ensure that its e-collation officers enter the results onto the INEC database immediately they are announced at the polling units.

    –    INEC should ensure that its staff only use original result sheets for the elections. To this end, we call on INEC to display samples of the ballot papers, result sheets and other sensitive materials to be used for the elections to enable relevant stakeholders differentiate between real and fake.

    7.  The PDP in Edo said they have made several formal attempts to meet with the INEC chairman to discuss these issues. All of those attempts have failed so far.

    8.  I believe that the implementation of these simple steps will ensure the delivery of the basic ideal of free, fair & credible elections.

    9.  God bless Nigeria.

  • New Media: PDP denies sacking Adeyanju as director

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday denied rumours of sacking its Director of New Media, Deji Adeyanju.

    Chairman of the party’s Caretaker Committee, Ahmed Makarfi, who disclosed this to an online news platform said that the leadership of the party only had issues with some ‘far-reaching statements’ distributed by Mr. Adeyanju ‘without.’

    Mr. Adeyanju was announced removed in a statement distributed by Dayo Adeyeye, the party’s publicity secretary, on Friday afternoon. The statement cited different acts of insubordination.

    Contrary to statements credited to Dayo Adeyeye, PDP’s publicity secretary announcing Adeyanju’s sack, Mr. Makarfi, in a statement, said the PDP still recognises Mr. Adeyanju and the new media department.

    However, he added the activities of the New media department would be streamlined going forward.

    “If he was employed by the last National Working Committee, then we will have no reason to remove him but to streamline his work,” Makarfi, the former governor of Kaduna State stressed.

    Recall that Makarfi is the head of an ad-hoc leadership set up by the party at its botched national convention in Port Harcourt last month.

    Mr. Adeyanju was appointed in December 2015, and had been responsible for issuing press statements on behalf of the party.
    After months of controversial statements following the party’s 2015 elections misfortune, the PDP apologised for contributing to the toxic atmosphere on social media and promied to improve on its opposition by making it more robust and constructive.

  • ‘Why I am contesting for Publicity Secretary of PDP’

    ‘Why I am contesting for Publicity Secretary of PDP’

    My name is Prince Deji Adeyanju and I have been a member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) for several years. I am a firm believer in its principles and ideals. I also believe that PDP is the only truly national party in Nigeria and is, therefore, best placed to deliver successful achievement of the collective ideals and aspirations of the Nigerian people.

    While I recognise that the party is by no means perfect, I am aware that over the years it has deepened democracy in the country and has contributed immensely to the growth and development of Nigeria as a whole.

    Following the defeat PDP suffered in the last general elections, and the zoning of the office of the National Publicity Secretary (NPS) to the North Central Region of the country, I have decided to contest for the office and a place on the National Working Committee of the party.

    I believe I possess the skills, ability and the personality to make an outstanding contribution to the task of improving the image of the party. It is for this reason that I solicit the support of all members of the party as I work to actualise this ambition.

    In return for your support, I pledge to give my best in the day to day activities of the office. I pledge to ensure that the image of the party, the protection and polishing of which is the objective of the Directorate of Publicity, will be significantly better at the end of my tenure than the way I met it. I pledge to execute my duties with exemplary discipline and dedication to duty.

    In return for your support, I pledge to bring a new way of doing things to the Publicity Secretariat of the party. I pledge to lead a revolution that will not only strengthen the faith that members and supporters have in the party, but which will also convince millions of Nigerians that as a party PDP has their best interests at heart and is the most viable vehicle with which to deliver on our collective dreams & aspirations.

    This way, together with the leadership of the party, I believe that we can make this party great again.

  • Why Nigerians must support Army

    Why Nigerians must support Army

    I just watched the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. General Tukur Buratai on Television after he visited troops in Geidam Community of Yobe State, as a result of Wednesday’s attack by Boko Haram militants who over-ran the military.

    Tn the attack, the insurgents killed 3 soldiers, carted away many weapons and ammunition abandoned by the military on the run and looted mostly food and petroleum products from the popular Wednesday market.

    I was particularly touched by the honesty of General Buratai who was obviously angry with the troops who had run away from Geidam town.

    In his words, the General said “How can you allow these criminals over-run you? How can you run away from this rag-tag and untrained criminals? You allowed them to operate here for 12hours unchallenged. You refused to come back until they withdrew.”

    On the surface, the words of COAS Buratai are very hurtful to the image of the Nigerian Army but this is the painful reality today.

    The Nigerian Army seems to be overwhelmed and demoralized.

    The image of the Nigerian Army has suffered so much damages in the eyes of Nigerians and the international community mainly because of the way they have handled the war against Boko Haram in the past 3years.

    These insurgents have repeatedly, for over 2years, embarked upon massive propaganda using social media to demonize the Nigerian Army.

    They have through so many online propaganda and campaigns portrayed our army as a weak and a cowardly army that cannot stand to fight.

    Many online media and personalities helped the insurgents to achieve their propaganda campaigns either intentionally or otherwise.

    It is important for us to know that all wars are fought both on ground, air, sea, land and in the minds of all parties involved in the war and most importantly in the psyche of the citizens. To win this war against Boko Haram, we must conquer the minds of Boko Haram with fear, win over our allies and friends by convincing them our army is capable and reliable and also boost the confidence of our troops through citizenry support since the morale of our troops are boosted when they know the citizens of their country are solidly behind them.

    The Nigerian Army and our other security agencies are our last line of defense against these barbarians since we cannot defend ourselves against their satanic attacks. If not for the efforts of the Nigerian Military and our other security agencies, these barbarians would have taken over the entire nation, enforced their barbaric and misguided religious tenets on all of us, restricted us to their false Sambisa sharia law system, forced our Sisters into sex slavery like they have done to the Chibok Girls and make us live in perpetual fear of terror.

    [quote font_size=”18″ font_style=”italic” bgcolor=”#000000″ bcolor=”#e2e2e2″]We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us.”  ― Winston S. Churchill[/quote]

    If not for the Nigerian Army and other security agencies, many Muslims and Christians across our country would not be able to go to the mosque on Fridays or the church on Sundays.

    Boko Haram seeks to destroy Christianity and Islam and do not wish any of us well, Nigerians, irrespective of religious consideration, party affiliation and tribal affinity, must realize that Boko Haram are our common enemies and not just the Nigerian Army’s.

    The Army means well and are doing their very best to protect us all despite the overwhelming odds, they need our support at all times.

    This was what the opposition party in the days of President Goodluck Jonathan was admonished with but they refused to listen. They politicized everything.

    Sadly, they politicized the attempt by the former president to list Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO); they politicized the procurement of arms to prosecute the war; they politicized appointments of service chiefs; they politicized State of Emergency in the North East; they politicized Chibok and turned it into a campaign tool against Jonathan.

    The PDP-led Federal Government and the Nigerian Army, for inexplicable reasons, chose to see issues as an appendage of the PDP rather than the federal government.

    Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, now governor of Kaduna State and many leading APC chieftains then referred to the Nigerian army as Jonathan’s army. They politicized everything as regards the fight against the deadly sect.

    At some point in time, their presidential candidate now President Muhammadu Buhari called an attack against Boko haram an attack against Northern Nigeria.

    If the political class and all Nigerians had supported the then Federal Government and our security agencies in the fight against Boko Haram, may be we would have long won the war.

    The politicization of the war against Boko Haram caused more damage than good on the whole nation. Those who saw the war against Boko Haram as an avenue for them to keep scoring needless and cheap political points in the North, sabotaged the efforts of our security agencies.

    They got the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) to issue endless press releases kicking against the ban on Boko Haram and the plan of the then FG to list Boko Haram as an FTO which was needed to get arms from our allies to effectively prosecute the war.

    And finally, when Boko Haram was listed as an FTO, they began another campaign against the army saying former Chief of Army staff, Lieutenant General Ihejirika was also a sponsor of Boko Haram and was the one supplying arms to Boko Haram on the orders of former president Jonathan.

    Their allegations were so scary and consistent that our allies became skeptical of supplying us with arms, and the United States and Israel refused selling arms to us to fight the deadly sect.

    We had to turn to Russia for help. As if that was not enough, the former governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako even did the unbelievable, accusing the FG of genocide against Northern Nigeria and suggested that federal troops were the ones dropping arms for Boko Haram with helicopters.

    Furthermore, it was Mallam El-Rufai that built a propaganda foundation which suggested that former President Jonathan was the one sponsoring Boko Haram against the North.

    He also tried to bring in the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Ex-Niger Delta Militants and others as possible sponsors of the terrorist group. El-rufai ensured he poisoned the minds of young people from the North and many of his followers on social media against the then president Jonathan by maintaining this lie. He further justified this lie when he spoke at Chatham House by presenting a table to justify his propaganda theory.

    The questions all Nigerians must now begin to ask those who refused to support the former administration of Goodluck Jonathan and our security agencies in their fight against Boko Haram then and who are suddenly supporting the Federal Government and the army now is, what has changed? Is Goodluck Jonathan still the one sponsoring Boko Haram with the help of his Niger Delta ex-militants? Is CAN still the one sponsoring Boko Haram? Explanations were offered to APC on why they should see the battle against the terrorists as a national issue rather than treated as a political one just for parochial and mundane reasons, that where national security is concerned, we must not play politics with it but they did not listen.

    They threw caution to the wind and were playing loudly to the gallery. Now see where that has gotten us to, in just 120 days of president Buhari taking over, the deadly group has killed more than 1,300 Nigerians and bombed Abuja twice.

    The message here is this, the enemy is Boko Haram, not the Federal Government, not president Buhari, and definitely not our ever caring Nigerian Army and the security agencies who daily spend their days in the heat and their nights in the cold while the rest of us spend times with families in the comfort of our homes.

    The military deserves our respect and support as they remain in the forefront in the fight against these barbarians.

     

    Deji Adeyanju is a Member of the PDP

    He writes from Abuja and can be contacted:

    Twitter: @adeyanjudeji

    Email: dejiadeyanju_1979@yahoo.co.uk

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