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Tag: Inec

  • Oyetola, APC, INEC urge Appeal Court to uphold Osun election

    OSUN State Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have asked the Court of Appeal in Abuja to uphold the governor’s victory in the governorship election held on September 22 and 27, 2018.

    Their request was contained in three separate appeals they filed against the  majority judgment given by the Osun State Governorship Election Tribunal on March 22, 2019.

    The tribunal had, in the majority judgment, given by two of its three members upheld the petition by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the election, Senator Ademola Adeleke and voided Oyetola and APC’s victory.

    In their appeals, argued yesterday, Oyetola, the APC and INEC prayed the five-man panel of the Court of Appeal, led by Justice Jummai Sankey, to set aside the majority decision of the tribunal, uphold their appeals and dismiss the October 16, 2018 petition by Adeleke and the PDP.

    They equally urged the court to dismiss the cross-appeal filed by Adeleke, on the grounds that it is unmeritorious.

    In the appeal by Oyetola, his lawyer, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), faulted the reasons given by the tribunal in reaching the judgment appealed against, arguing that the decision was not supported by the evidence led by the petitioners.

    He urged the court to void the judgment because the judge, Justice Peter Obiorah, who wrote and delivered it, did not participate in all the proceedings of the tribunal.

    Olanipekun noted that “the judge, who did not sit, came to write the lead judgment and reviewed the evidence of February 6, 2019 proceedings, where he was absent”.

    “Adjudication is like video watching. It cannot be done by proxy. The judge cannot analyse the evidence of a witness, whose demeanour he did not observe. The judgment should be declared a nullity on this ground alone,” he said.

    Olanipekun, who said he and some named senior lawyers were at the tribunal  on February 6, 2019, faulted the argument by lawyer to Adeleke and the PDP that it was not clear from the record of proceedings, whether or not Justice Obiorah was absent on the particular day.

    He argued that the judge’s failure to sign at the end of the proceedings on February 6, 2019, was enough evidence to justify the appellant’s claim that Justice Obiorah was absent on the day in question.

    Olanipekun also faulted the tribunal’s cancellation of results in 17 polling units in the state, and noted that the petitioners did not tender any result of the election before the tribunal.

    Read also: Osun election dispute: Appeal Court fixes hearing for tomorrow

    He  argued that the tribunal went beyond its powers by annulling  results in the 17 polling units to justify the judgment it gave in favour of the petitioners.

    Lawyer to the APC, Akin Olujinmi (SAN), while arguing the party’s appeal, contended that the tribunal was wrong to have allowed the petition, which was incurably incompetent.

    “The 1st and 2nd respondents  sought to be declared winner of the election, held on September 22, 2018, which was declared inconclusive. They also asked the tribunal to void the rerun election held on September 27, 2018, because they believed it was unlawful.

    “You cannot say you should be declared a winner on the election that you said was unlawful and void,” the senior lawyer said.

    Olujinmi accused the tribunal of exceeding its jurisdiction when it engaged in amending the petitioners’ reliefs to make them grantable.

    “No tribunal has the jurisdiction to reframe, amend or formulate reliefs for the petitioners.

    “On realising that the reliefs could not be granted, they (members of the tribunal) amended the reliefs and granted it by themselves.

    “We are saying the tribunal has no power to amend a petitioner’s reliefs. The much they ought to do, on realising that the reliefs could not be granted, was to have dismissed the petition.”

    He faulted the tribunal for holding that the petitioners proved its case of non-compliance in respect of the polling units where it voided results.

    Lawyer to INEC Yusuf Ali (SAN), who argued in a similar manner, contended that the tribunal erred in its majority judgment, particularly as regards the issue of non-compliance.

    He noted that the tribunal, having found that accreditation was properly done and that all witnesses agreed that the votes scored were not affected by the omissions noted in some result sheets, ought not to have voided any results.

    Citing Section 134 (b) of the Electoral Act, Ali argued that  non-compliance means not compliance with the provision of the Act, not an act of omission on the part of INEC officials,  which are not contrary to the provision of the Act.

    Ali also argued that since the tribunal held that the petitioners did not prove over-voting and non-compliance, it ought not to have turned around to void votes in some polling units.

    On the question of why INEC did not call it witnesses at the tribunal, Ali said it was unnecessary because the petitioners did not discharge the burden of proof placed on them by the law to warrant INEC to call fresh witnesses.

    Lawyer to Adeleke and the PDP, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), faulted the three appeals and the arguments proffered by Olanipekun, Olujinmi and Ali.

    Ikpeazu argued that the tribunal was right in its decision to have declared Adeleke and his party as the winner of the election.

    He faulted the argument that Justice Obiorah did not participate in all the proceedings of the tribunal, arguing that there was no sufficient evidence to that effect.

    Ikpeazu urged the court to dismiss the three appeals and uphold the judgment of the tribunal.

    Kehinde Ogunwumiju (SAN),  who argued Adeleke’s cross-appeal, urged the court to allow his client’s appeal and reverse the portion of the judgment, where the tribunal rejected the evidence the petitioners lead in relation to six polling units.

    Ogunwumiju argued that the tribunal wrongly excluded some of its evidence, because while it called 23 witnesses to prove it’s allegation of non-compliance in 23 polling units, the tribunal only upheld 17 where it voided elections.

    Olanipekun, Olujinmi and Ali argued that the cross-appeal was incompetent on several grounds and urged the tribunal to reject it.

    At the conclusion of proceedings that lasted over eight hours, the presiding judge, Justice Sankey, said judgments would be reserved till a later date.

    She told the parties that the date of the judgment would be communicated to them by the court’s Registry.

    Other members of the court’s five-man panel are: Justices Abubakar Datti Yahaya, Ita George Mbaba, Isaiah Olufemi Akeju and Bitrus Sanga.

  • Slain Afuze DPO, others didn’t beg for their lives – Suspects

    The suspects who carried out the deadly attack on Afuze Police Division on March 13, 2019 have said the slain four police operatives did not beg for their lives.

    The attackers used improvised explosive devices to blow the police station and several vehicles were set ablaze.

    The four police officers killed in the attack were the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) Ojo Kosenami ;  a pregnant police officer, Sergeant Justina Aghomon, Inspector Sado Isaac and Corporal Glory David.

    The attackers stripped their uniforms and shot dead.

    Those paraded at the Edo Police headquarters in connection the attack were Agunu Ernest, Paul Richard, Sunday ThankGod, Sule ThankGod, George Sabastine and Agbomekhe Ayemibor.

    They were arrested after a phone they took from a fleeing staff of INEC was found on Ernest.

    Explaining their roles in the attack, Ernest said he, Paul and Sunday were arrested for stealing a motorcycle and they called one Abaga to rescue them.

    Read Also: Suspected Afuze police killers arrested

    He said he heard gunshot at night after which they were set free but he kicked against the killing of the policemen.

    Ernest said he followed them to INEC office at Afuze where he picked the phone through which he was arrested.

    “It was Baga I called to bring money to secure our bail. We were arrested for stealing a motorcycle.

    “We have spent two days at the Afuze Police Division. Richard said he has somebody we can call to rescue us from detention.

    “We called Baga and he agreed to rescue us. They came and were shooting. They broke us out and we started quarrelling with them why they killed policemen.

    “We joined them to INEC office where a vehicle was burnt. I took a phone from one of the INEC offices.

    “I was on my way home when police arrested me after searching through phone I picked at INEC office.”

    One of the boys that came with Abaga, Sule Omogbai, confessed to killing Corporal Glory.

    Sule said four of them entered the police station and were shooting sporadically after detonating an IED.

    “We removed one AK 47 and one pistol. I shot Corporal Gloria David. Abaga took others to a room where he shot them dead. They did not beg him not to kill them

    “When they released Ernest, he started quarrelling why Abaga would bring in boys to attack.

    “Those of us from Jattu left them angrily. We didn’t follow them to INEC office. We were not promised anything.”

    Richard said he was sleeping inside the police cell when he heard gunshots.

    Police Commissioner, Danmallam Abubakar, said the suspects were arrested through hi-tech intelligence.

    He said investigation into the attack was still going on.

  • INEC gets 24 hours to release Certified True Copies of results

    The Coalition of Governorship Candidates and Party Chairmen (CGCPC) in Rivers State has given the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) 24 hours to release the Certified True Copies (CTCs) of the March 9 governorship and House of Assembly election results.

    A statement by the Chairman, Warigbani Zebulun and Secretary Chibuzor Anele, said making the CTCs available would enable opposition leaders have a view for consideration and determination.

    The statement reads: “We have remained law abiding despite the unlawful collation and announcement of results, in the absence of agents of opposition parties because INEC and the police denied them access into the collation centre.

    “Several other complaints, including court actions, were ignored by INEC during the collation. This could plunge the state into crisis, but we sacrificially avoided that, even when fake results were declared by INEC’s fact-finding committee.

    “The leadership of INEC at the state and national levels should do the needful to avoid unpleasant actions that can plunge the state into crisis.

    “We are compelled to accuse INEC of an unholy alliance with Governor Nyesom Wike and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while depriving many governorship candidates and opposition parties of equal opportunities, rights and privileges.”

    CGCPC also accused INEC of dancing to the drumbeats of PDP, saying its members would rise against such moves at the expiration of the ultimatum.

  • Rivers polls: Mistakes INEC could not avert

    In this piece, Onye Imman revisits the controversial governorship and House of Assembly elections in River State and contends that the polls did not reflect the true wish of the people

    The evidence of participation in a process, school, election or professional course is the certificate. In the specific case of an election, the proof of victory is the Certificate of Return issued to the winner of an election.

    For those who watched the high political melodrama that recently happened in Rivers State, that was claimed to have ended on April 3, 2019, with the declaration of Nyesom Wike as the winner, nothing demonstrates what happened as a drama more than the certificate.

    Were the certificates issued to Wike and others so declared as winners of the controversial elections  dated March 14, 2019? Many have urged the electoral commission to clarify it.

    It has been alleged that the election, which started on March 9, was deferred to the following day, March 10 after it appeared that the candidate of the African Action Congress, Biokpomabo Awara, was in the lead in several state constituencies.

    On March 27, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC announced a new timetable for the conclusion of the election, saying it would be concluded between April 3 and 5.

    Did the commission predate the Certificates of Return? Was the commission trying to work towards the answer? This should also be clarify.

    Some have actually asked whether the chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, was aware of the complaint that tended to summarise the alleged partisanship of the commission and its officials operating in Rivers State.

    Indeed, some have alleged a close relationship between Wike and Yakubu when the governor was supervising Minister of Education when he had oversight over Yakubu who at that time was also the Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Fund, TETFUND.

    If the two of them worked well together, did it affect the poll?

    Of course, the controversies may have opened the eyes of sceptics to what characterised the general elections, but it may have been the simplest of the brutal attacks on the people of Rivers State during the elections.

    There were far more surreptitious incidents that occurred before and during the election.

    Despite his so-called bravado and defender of the cause of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and its presidential candidate, we now have reason to believe that, in desperation for a second term, that Wike acted within and outside his party to buy favour.

    One will for now not like to present the discord that occurred within his party after his sponsored presidential aspirant Aminu Waziri Tambuwal lost the party’s presidential ticket and the willingness of the Rivers State governor to sabotage his party for his self-political preservation.

    Of course, many will recall the threats against Atiku Abubakar and the distress that permeated through the PDP after Wike and his aides stormed out of the convention ground when it emerged that his choice for the presidential ticket did not win.

    That behaviour goes to underscore the willingness and capacity of a desperate person to undercut any political process that does not favour him.

    That behaviour was first seen in 2015 when, he sabotaged the established zoning pattern for the governorship of Rivers State. The poll was also characterised by violence.

    If from outside he was able to shoot his way to power, then, one could only imagine what he did when he sat on the power throne in Rivers State.

    The governorship election in Rivers State and the other elections that took place in the state were characterised by manipulations that occurred in the country with officials of INEC at the state and federal levels allegedly acting as collaborators.

    The recruitment of card-carrying PDP members as election officers was an act of partisanship. When this was revealed to the embarrassment of INEC, a promise was made to replace the PDP chieftains with non-partisan persons.

    However, despite entreaties, the Resident Electoral Officer for whatever reasons after initially promising failed to act on the issue. He went on to accept even outrageous results returned by the PDP election officers.

    If the state INEC was partisan, the clear lead of the national officers was undoubtedly an encouragement to them.

    How did the commission at the federal level show bias? INEC in Abuja removed the APC candidates’ names from their list, even before they were required to do so. The commission obeyed orders they were not party to and ignored the ones they were party to in anticipation of a Supreme Court order that would finally nail APC.

    The commission also ignored numerous complaints and petitions by the opposition and carried out the collation of the governorship and state constituency elections and announced bogus results. Where did they get the new result sheets? They even disregarded obvious violence and announced results wherever it suited them.

    The actions of INEC in the last general election in Rivers State may have appeared as a horror movie and fiction.

    Did INEC in Abuja and Port-Harcourt partner with Wike in denying the people of the state their right to choose who should govern them? Many stakeholders, of course, know that the conspiracy was more than the eye can behold, the permutations for 2023 within and outside the APC being a crucial matter. But, the truth shall always vindicate the just. Rivers shall survive the present tyranny.

  • Updated: I’m a Nigerian by birth, Atiku replies APC

    Former Vice President and candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the last presidential election, Atiku Abubakar has faulted claim by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that he is not a Nigerian by birth and was not qualified to seek to occupy the office of the President.

    Atiku said he is a Nigerian by birth and was born on 25th November, 1946 in Jada, Adamawa State by Nigerian parents and he is, therefore, a citizen of Nigeria by Birth.

    He said this in a joint reply he filed with the PDP in reaction to the response filed by the APC against their petition before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja.

    Atiku, who gave details his early life, also spoke about his working life and political career in Nigeria to support his claim that he is and has always been a Nigerian by birth.

    In the reply Atiku and the PDP argued that it was late in the day for the APC to query his qualification for the election, having not done so at the pre-election stage.

    Read also: I have always defeated Atiku, Buhari tells tribunal

    They said: “Contrary to the allegations contained in paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the 3rd respondent’s (APC’s) reply, the petitioners state that the 1st petitioner (Atiku) is a citizen of Nigeria by birth and thus qualified to vote and be voted for and returned in the election to the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, held on Saturday 23rd February, 2019 going by the relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

    “The 1st petitioner was born on 25th November, 1946 in Jada, Adamawa State by Nigerian parents and he is, therefore, a citizen of Nigeria by birth.

    “The 1st petitioner’s father, Garba Atiku Abdulkadir was a Nigerian by Birth who hailed from Wumo in present-day Sokoto State while the mother, Aisha Kande was also a Nigerian who hailed from Dutse in present-day Jigawa State.

    “The parents of the 1st Petitioner are both Fulani, a community/tribe indigenous to Nigeria.

    “The birth of the 1st petitioner in Jada, in present-day Adamawa State of Nigeria was occasioned by the movement of his paternal grandfather called Atiku who was an itinerant trader, from Wumo in present-day Sokoto State to Jada in the company of his friend, Ardo Usman.

    “That in Jada, Atiku, the grandfather of the 1st petitioner gave birth to Garba who in tum gave birth to the 1st Petitioner and named him after his own father Atiku.

    “The 1st petitioner’s mother, Aisha Kande was the grand-daughter of Inuwa Dutse who came to Jada as an itinerant trader too from Dutse in present-day Jigawa State.

    “All averments concerning Germany, British Cameroons, League of Nations and Plebiscite are false and misleading in relation to the 1st Petitioner and therefore completely irrelevant more so that the 1st Petitioner is a Nigerian by birth within the contemplation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic ofNigeria, 1999 (as amended).

    “The averments in the aforesaid paragraphs are indeed fabricated, contrived, made in bad faith and designed to embarrass the 1st petitioner.”

    The APC had, in its response to the petition by Atiku and the PDP argued that, by virtue of his not being a Nigerian by birth, Atiku was not qualified to have contested the last presidential election.

    It contended that by Section 131(a) of the Constitution, a person must be a citizen of Nigeria by birth to be qualified to contest for the office of the President of the country. It noted that Atiku was born on November 25, 1946 in Jada, now Adamawa State, then in Northern Cameroon, “and is, therefore, a citizen of Cameroon.”

    The APC said Atiku “had no right to be voted for and returned in the election to the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria held on Saturday 23th February, 2019 having regard to the clear provision of Section 131(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN) 1999 as amended, which unequivocally stipulates inter alia, that for a person to be qualified for election to the office of President, he must be a citizen of Nigeria by birth.”

    Atiku and the PDP, in their reply, also faulted the APC’s claim that the Independent National Electoral commission (INEC) did not transmit the results of the election by electronic means, by using a server.

    Continue in page 2

  • Court orders INEC to withdraw Buhari’s ex-aide Certificate–of- Return

    A Federal High Court sitting in Kano on Thursday disqualified AbdulRahman Kawu Sumaila as the elected representative of Sumaila/Takai federal constituency of Kano at the National Assembly.

     Shamsudeen Dambazau of the APC had sued INEC, APC and AbdulRahman Kawu  Sumaila challenging the recognition of AbdulRahman Kawu  Sumaila  as the APC House of Representatives candidate for Sumaila/Takai federal constituency.

    The presiding judge, Justice Lewis Allagoa ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued Sumaila, ruling he was not the duly elected as a member of the House of Representatives member for Sumaila/Takai federal constituency.

    The court declared he did not participate in the primary election.

    The plaintiff in the suit, Shamsudeen Dambazau had approached the court, praying the nullification of Sumaila’s recognition by INEC as duly elected as he never participated in the primary election of the party.

    He told the court through his Counsel, Barrister Nuraini Jimoh that AbdulRahman Kawu  Sumaila contested for Kano South Senatorial seat  at primary with Kabiru Gaya and lost the race.

    Read also: Atiku and the tale of the INEC server

    Justice Lewis Allagoa also ordered INEC to recognise Shamsudeen Dambazau as the duly elected House of Representative member representing for Sumaila/Takai federal constituency.

    Sumaila, who was represented by his Counsel, Barrister Muhammad Auwal Tofa declined to comment with journalists.

    However, Kawu popularly called Kawu Sumaila was the SSA to President Buhari on National Assembly House of Representatives Matters from 27 August 2015.

    He later resigned few months to 2019 general elections to contest for the contested federal constituency slot.

  • Atiku and the tale of the INEC server

    I have always wondered how Abubakar Atiku came to believe that he won an election that was monitored from polling booth to polling booth in Nigeria, by foreign observers, newspaper reporters, online news media , bloggers and all manner of busybodies in Nigeria and he lost by 3.9 million votes!

    I think I now have a few ideas as to why he thinks he could fool us with that funny story or why maybe he himself may believe the story. Some people took money from him and told him that they could hack the INEC server and put in figures for him. Simple.

    Atiku’s main argument in his election petition is that INEC’s server showed that he won the election by 1.6 million votes. He also gave the details of the purported results from the server. He claims that card readers were used to send the results electronically to the INEC server!

    Everyone saw just how ridiculous the figures were. Fortunately for truth, the lawyers are not good at maths. So his lawyers didn’t see from the figures that the total votes of President Buhari and Atiku added up exactly to the total number of accredited voters!

    Meaning that there were zero votes for all other candidates, zero cancelled or invalid votes in all of the polling booths all over Nigeria! This should ordinarily be enough to throw out the petition without more and show Atiku that he has been caught out in his scam or he has been scammed.

    But the PDP and Atiku are accustomed to 419 and propaganda. They now say that they will call Microsoft and Oracle (how about Google and Huawei?) to show that the INEC server actually made him the winner of the election!  How can this make any sense?

    Firstly, we were all at our polling units on Election Day. Card readers were used to verify our voters’ cards. Then we voted. Votes were counted manually (by hand in our presence) and entered into a form by the INEC officials. The forms were then signed by party agents. This is the authentic result.

    Most observers and online reports posted these results. I have not heard that anyone who was at his polling booth on Election Day saw any INEC official inputting  results on the card readers  and posting them electronically to a server!

    What Atiku and his PDP fellow travelers want to sell to us is that after the votes were counted and declared, they were then entered into the card readers and posted electronically on to the INEC server! Question is: who did the postings?

    Did the party agents see what was being posted by the INEC officials? If in fact the INEC officials secretly posted the results, how do we know if they were the same results properly counted at the polling booths?

     Or was the posting done after collation at the local government and State collation centres? If so, who saw this happen? Did the party agents see what was being posted? Everything done by INEC at the State and National Collation centres were transparent, in full view of cameras and live television. So when and why were these postings done secretly?

    READ ALSO: I got my figures from your server, Atiku tells INEC

    The truth of the matter is clear for all to see. There were no electronic posting of results from polling booths or collation centres.

    What happened could be either of the following: Atiku was tricked to believe that there was an INEC server that could be accessed or hacked to post results favorable to him. He must have paid a lot for it.

    The fake results were posted. As of Monday when Atiku was seeing the authentic results as they were brought forward by Returning Officers, Professors from different universities announcing, Atiku started to complain that the results he had were different from those being announced!

    Or perhaps, Atiku is trying to save face after a bruising defeat. He wants to cast as much doubt as possible by inventing a tale, a ridiculous tale that there is an INEC server that only he has access to and not surprisingly it contains information that he won the elections!

    The only question to ask him is how did you access the server? If you have exclusive access to it, then the integrity of the server is in doubt.   It means you could change figures as you wish!  All told this is just too silly. Dear Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, it is time to go home. Cameroun?

  • I got my figures from your server, Atiku tells INEC

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has defended his claim that he got the results of the February 23 presidential election as tendered in his petition from the server of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    Atiku was responding to INEC’s reply to the PDP candidate petition to the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT), in which he claimed the poll’s figures he submitted with his petition were authentic.

    rRead also: Buhari challenges Atiku to present his credentials

    The electoral umpire declared incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari of the Akll Progressives Congress (INEC) as the winner of the February 23 election, having polled 15,191,847 votes Atiku’s 11,262,978.

    In his 139-page petition before the PEPT, Atiku stated that from the data in INEC’s server, the true, actual and correct results showed that he (Atiku) secured a total of 18,356,732 votes to against Buhari’s 16,741,430 votes.

    The PDP presidential candidate stated that the results were from 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as there was “no report on server” about the election results from Rivers State.

  • Akpabio accuses INEC of flouting inspection order

    Senator Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom Northwest) has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of denying his legal team access to election materials.

    Chairman of the Election Petition Tribunal, Justice W.O Akanbi, on April 2, granted Senator Akpabio, the petitioner and applicant, and his agents, including forensic experts, access to inspect and copy all electoral materials used for the Akwa Ibom Northeast senatorial election.

    But Akpabio’s lawyer, Patrick Umoh, said INEC has refused to obey the tribunal order to allow them inspect and copy the materials for litigation purposes.

    Umoh accused the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mike Igini, of colluding with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to frustrate the legal team.

    He said: “We learnt that on the instruction of Igini, Akwa Ibom INEC has consistently flouted the order and has refused the agents of Senator

    Akpabio and forensic experts access to the election material. INEC has been engaging in a hide-and-seek game.

    “We also wish to inform you that we had earlier reported for the said inspection on April 11 12 and 15, but our efforts to have access to the materials and inspect same did not yield any positive result.”

    Akpabio’s lawyer said the hide-and-seek by Igini may have been to tip off the PDP and give them sufficient time to oppose the move for the inspection of the materials.

    “INEC has colluded with PDP and advised the party to file a motion on April 16, which they cited as the reason they couldn’t allow the inspection as ordered by the court,” he added.

    But INEC has said it did not deny Akpabio’s legal team access to the election materials.

    Its Head of Legal Department, Mark Chukwu, explained that the inspection which was scheduled for 11am yesterday would have been done but for a Motion on Notice obtained from court and issued to INEC by one of the parties in the election.

    Chukwu added that despite the Motion on Notice, INEC still invited the legal teams of all the political parties to inspect the materials in the strong room.

    He, however, said the inspection was not possible because of the shabby arrangement of the materials which needed to be sorted out by Electoral Officers.

    He said: “It is not true that the commission stopped Akpabio’s lawyers from inspecting electoral materials. Despite the Motion on Notice served the commission by one of the political parties, the commission still granted the legal teams of the petitioners access to the strong room to inspect the materials.

    “We, however, noticed that the electoral materials were not properly packaged for easy sorting. So we have scheduled three days for the sorting to be done by the EOs.

    “We have also invited all political parties to participate so that the exercise will be open and free to all concerned.”

  • Faulty leadership recruitment process, bane of Nigeria’s progress – Jega

    Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, on Wednesday in Kano, identified faulty leadership recruitment process, as a major factor that has retarded Nigeria’s progress for quite some time now.

    According to him, if the trend is allowed to persist, Nigerians will continue to live under the mercy of the so-called elite, whose major goal is to promote ethnic chauvinism, religious bigotry and parochial interests.

    This was the assertion  of Professor Attahiru Jega, who was the Chairman of the 15th Annual Conference of Fulbright Alumni Association (FAAN) held at Dangote Business School, Bayero University, Kano, from 16th to 18th April, 2019, with the theme: Economic Growth, Development and Security in Nigeria.”

    Professor Attahiru Jega, described the theme was apt, considering the systematic challenges of economic growth, security and development encountered by Nigeria.

    According to Jega, the theme would provide a veritable platform for generating ideas that would address these challenges.

    However, Jega expressed dismay, stressing that no matter how bright ideas and solutions are generated, they can only be addressed, if the country addresses the prevailing endemic leadership and governance crises.

    He contended that the recruitment process of leadership in Nigeria has been handed over to those, who do not have the love and interest of the Country at the expense of the masses.

    How can we have a purposeful leadership that will drive the necessary changes in Nigeria? , he queried.

    Jega, therefore, submitted that scholars, traditional rulers, civil society organizations and other key stakeholders have daunting challenges of addressing this menace, so that Nigerians would view election, as a glimmer of hope and weapon that they can use to change the bad leadership and governance in the country.

    In a keynote address, the Vice Chancellor of Kogi State University, Anyingba, Professor M.S Abdulkadir, said developing economies, like Nigeria can achieve economic growth, development and even stability, only in a socio-political and economic setting, devoid of violence, insecurity, terrorism, ethnic cleansing and so on.

    Represented by the Director of BUK Press, Professor Habu Mohammed, the VC, advocated that soldiers and policemen fighting guerrilla wars against the insurgents should be properly trained, as well as provided, with modern and sophisticated weapons.

    The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, William Stuart Syminton, who was represented by the Cultural Affairs Officer of the United States Embassy in Abuja, Mr. Sterling Tilley, said Nigeria and the United States had an age-long relationship adding that through Fulbright scholars, the United States understood popular culture and languages of Nigeria.

    Also Speaking, the FAAN President, Professor Adogba Okpaga, said the Fulbright programme is the most profound cultural and exchange programme ever instituted by the American government.

    He said the Fulbright programme, as at today had almost 300,000 people from over 140 countries in the world, with participants from both United States and other countries in the world.

    He explained that Fulbright Alumni Association held its first conference at the University of Ibadan in August 2000; and since then, it has been holding annual conferences.

    Earlier in his address, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Muhammad Yahuza Bello, welcomed the participants to Bayero University, Kano, adding that it was his fervent hope that the assembled Scholars, would rub minds and come up with strategic thinking to find solution to these intriguing questions.

    ”As a nation, what are the mistakes we have made? What are the opportunities we have lost? And what is that thing which we did not do well he queried?