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Tag: Inec

  • Update: INEC resumes collation of Rivers gov election results

    The Independent National Electoral Commission on Tuesday resumed the collation of results of the Rivers State governorship election.

    Port Harcourt LGA:
    PDP ===== 40, 197
    AAC===== 11, 866
    Ikwerre LGA:
    PDP==== 14, 938
    AAC==== 5, 660
    Andoni LGA:
    PDP==== 92, 056
    AAC==== 5, 335
    Oyibo LGA:
    AAC=== 32, 026
    PDP=== 8,652
    Eleme LGA:
    PDP=== 9,560
    AAC====2,748

     

    Rivers state Governorship  Election Result  Collation Exercise for the 17 LGAs accepted by INEC continues:
    Opobo/Nkoro LGA:
    PDP===6,314
    AAC===3, 888
    Bonny LGA:
    PDP=== 10, 551
    AAC=== 3, 046
    Okrika LGA:
    PDP=== 25, 572
    AAC=== 3, 803
    AKuku-Toru LGA:
    AAC ===36, 661
    PDP === 25, 765
    Omuma LGA:
    PDP=== 15,792
    AAC===1, 853

  • CODER decries high voter apathy

    THE Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms (CODER) has decried the apathy that characterised the general election, saying the national average of voter turnout was 34 per cent.

    CODER said its data sugggested the problem was more prevalent in urban centres, particularly among the elite.

    The organisation spoke in Lagos yesterday while presenting its Observer Field Report for the 2019 elections.

    Executive Director/Chair Transition Committee Dr. Wunmi Bewaji, who read out the report, linked the development with a number of factors, including the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC’s) failure to develop and enhance its human capital.

    It also identified lack of access to weak and vulnerable groups, such as the aged, the sick, disabled and illiterates, as well as what he described as the growing phenomenon of ‘judicialisation’ of the country’s democracy.

    Bewaji said the data was alarming, with millions of uncollected Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) at INEC offices nationwide.

    He said: “To safeguard our democracy, there is the need to explore voters’ pre-registration and incentivisation of franchise with the introduction of a Voter Participation Certificate (VPC) with attendant benefits and consequences. For example, possession of a valid VPC could be made a criteria for employment/promotion in the civil service, for postgraduate admissions, participation in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), to obtain drivers’ licence, international passports, for registration of companies etc.”

    The CODER director said “the location of polling stations, haphazard placement of voting materials, self-accreditation etc. all add up to disenfranchise many, especially the aged, the sick, disabled and illiterates,”

    He enjoined the commission to make access and ease of voting a priority to prevent voter apathy and disenfranchisement of eligible voters.

    Read also: Rivers: INEC to resume collation of of March 9 elections results

    CODER decried the reckless and rampant use of fake news by political gladiators.

    “Deliberate and shameless attempts were made by some political actors to destroy …INEC, the Army, the Police and our security agencies … Adequate security arrangements made for the protection of lives and property were demonised as militarisation. Few cases of security breach were exaggerated… to portray the elections as being marred by violence.”

    To curb the development, he called for punishment of persons and organisations involved in the creation and distribution of fake news.

    The report said the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Fourth Republic should be used to amend the constitution, to enshrine democracy as one of the fundamental human rights.

    In spite of the above shortcomings that characterized the 2019 general elections, CODER insists that it was free, fair and credible.

  • Anambra polls: Court orders investigation, prosecution of senator-elect, returning officer

    A FEDERAL High Court sitting in Anambra has ordered the investigation and prosecution of senator-elect, Ifeanyi Ubah of the Young Progressives party (YPP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC’s) Returning Officer.

    The order followed the application of an order of Mandamus brought by Chris Uba of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), in suit No, FHC /AWK /CS/29/2019 before Hon Justice I B Gafai, yesterday in Awka, Anambra State.

    The court also ordered INEC to, within 14 days, conduct or cause investigation into the criminal allegations of the applicant.

    Again, “where it considers it inexpedient to prosecute through its legal officers, consider at its liberty, the appointment of the applicant’s solicitors in this suit for the purpose of such prosecution.”

    Other reliefs being sought by Uba, include:

    Order of Mandamus compelling the 1st  Respondent (INEC) to prosecute the 2nd  Respondent (Prof M N Umenweke -Returning Officer) for the offence of delivering or causing to be delivered to the 3rd Respondent a false declaration of result/return to the effect that he won the election to the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to represent Anambra South senatorial District in the senate even as he knew that the said election was still inconclusive.

    A further Order of Mandamus compelling the Respondents to prosecute the 2nd  and 3rd  Respondents for announcing or publishing a false result to the effect that the 3rd  Respondent had won the election held on the said 23/2/2019 even when they both knew that the said election was inconclusive and from which no genuine result had thereby been generated.

    Alternatively, and where it be in expedient or impossible for the 1st Respondent to undertake the prosecution, an Order of Mandamus compelling her to issue out an authority to any Counsel in the law firm of the Applicant to undertake the prosecution on the 1st Respondent’s behalf.

  • The shame of Zamfara’s zig-zag

    The old squirrel, according to an ancient Edo riddle, habitually sips from the gourd of iniquities. His lineage is forbidden from eating the palm kernel near its warren. But out of ancestral curse, the duplicitous mammal soon finds himself in an abominable web. Not only is he caught mating a neighbour’s maiden, he, forever triggered by opium-fueled phallus, is also found romancing her menopausal mother. Shattered by the unthinkable tale and another shock discovery of the infernal powder, his much-besotted psychedelic bride flees abroad with a broken heart.

    Then, the wrinkled squirrel is left to gnash his scanty teeth smeared with opium, more in mortal dread of his darkest secret being uncovered by the entire community.

    It will hardly be difficult to recognize the sepulchral footprints of the proverbial squirrel in the political farce currently unfolding in Zamfara State. Taboo committed by a few evil men have brought dark plaques to the acclaimed “Home of Agricultural Products”.  The fruit of a seed sown in ethical quicksand is surely fated to be bitter indeed.

    Now, just like the fabled squirrel, the ruling APC in Zamfara increasingly faces the prospects of losing its bride – power, by default. At least, going by the Appeal Court judgement of last week voiding the candidature of all its candidates in the March 9 polls in one fell swoop.

    Indeed, no clairvoyance was needed to foretell the sorry outcome of last week. The story we heard originally was that no valid primaries held in Zamfara ab initio. Afraid of democracy even though masquerading as democrat, Governor Abdulaziz Yari wanted the process of producing the candidate to be by affirmation – a euphemism for imposition.

    His arch-rival, Kabiru Marafa, chair of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), preferred direct primaries. Enter a stalemate. When Yari, who had already built a reputation as an absentee governor, later brought a list to INEC the commission understandably refused to accept it not only on the grounds that no valid primaries held, but also that the deadline for its submission had already lapsed.

    So, when a counter-narrative later surfaced barely a week to the March 9 polls that the embattled Governor Yari’s anointed would vie for Zamfara governorship on the strength of a sudden curious judgement by a Zamfara court, many were left wondering whether it was Yari’s widely televised threat to ensure those initially standing in his way at the national secretariat of the ruling party end up in body bags or the power of the now ubiquitous dollars that did the magic.

    But let no one lose sight of where precisely the rain began to beat Zamfara in the present circumstance. The bungled primaries of last October by the ruling party actually set off the wider circus where courts in Gusau, Abuja and Sokoto later found themselves fabricating and issuing conflicting orders eventuating in last week’s political novelty in which the supposed “winner by landslide” of the March 9 governorship polls will, alas, not be handed the trophy – the certificate of return.

    Overall, the political mess Zamfara now presents underscores partly the failure of party leadership. When his presidential campaign train stopped in Gusau on February 11, President Muhammadu Buhari had expressed the confidence that the crisis would be resolved before the election. But apparently, the usually aloof PMB underestimated the magnitude of the problem or over-trusted the competence of his underlings to fix things.

    Following a judgement on February 13 by the Sokoto Division of the Court of Appeal dismissing one of the appeals on the ground that the appellant had filed an application of withdrawal, the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, entered what would seem a last-minute, self-serving order by asking INEC to postpone the elections in Zamfara (originally scheduled to begin on February 16).

    On the whole, we will never know how much dollars exchanged hands under the table over the Zamfara ticket such that those who ought, to tell the truth, became tongue-tied.

    However, Zamfara is not the only state where the party self-destructed following what appears the collapse of moral authority by the party leadership. The ghost also haunted Imo. In Bauchi, the oxygen mask wangled from the fortuitous “inconclusivity” declared by INEC on March 9 turned out to be grossly inadequate to save APC from being asphyxiated by its own self-contradictions in last week’s re-run.

    The same virus of dollars is easily cited as one of the reasons the party lost Adamawa. Exasperated beyond self-restraint by the shenanigans that transpired in her own home state, the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, dismissed it as a bazaar quite unprecedented in scale and obscenity.

    To begin with, it is a big shame that a certified political leper could be shepherding APC in Zamfara. In saner climes, Yari’s voice should not be heard in this season at all. He is certainly leaving Zamfara worse than he met it in 2011. Even by elementary development indicators like access to portable water, basic education and primary healthcare, the state has remained at the nadir. To say nothing about widespread insecurity with bandits’ murderous siege unabating; such that even the governor himself was sufficiently shaken enough to infamously offer to vacate power recently if that would appease the marauding murderers.

    Neither is there any redeeming feature at personal level. Yari’s garment is undoubtedly soiled indelibly from what a court of competent jurisdiction declared the primitive looting of the state exchequer. In 2017 for example, it was established that a princely sum of N500m looted from Zamfara’s share of the Paris Fund refund was used to offset Yari’s personal loan obtained from First Generation Mortgage Bank Limited.

    Apart from that, an Abuja Federal High Court ordered an interim forfeiture of another $500,000 looted from the Paris refund earlier made by the Federal Government to states as part of a creative measure to bail them out of financial difficulty. Apart from First Generation Mortgage Bank Limited, the name of the other conduit linked to Yari in the pillage was Gosh Projects Limited.

    To be sure, let it however be stressed that the excoriation of Yari’s leadership deficit here is not to make a case for his rival, Marafa, who seems to betray a carnal desperation for power. From experience, desperate politicians are not to be trusted. If the true motivation is service, you don’t begin to act or sound as though your life depended on being elected into power.

    In what evoked the memory of the biblical claimant to the disputed baby before King Solomon’s court, Marafa, by action, did not seem to care if APC was completely decapitated in Zamfara. Like the vulgar “mother” before King Solomon, Marafa had begun to gloat over APC’s defenestration before the curious judgement restating the party few days to the elections. He seems too obsessed with the governor’s perch that he was willing to bury his party and state if the prize eluded him.

    Now, unless the Supreme Court ruled otherwise, the door is already left ajar technically for the runner-up in the March 9 polls (PDP) to simply approach the court for a consequential order to be declared winner of the elections in place of the feuding APC.

    A classic example of a self-inflicted perdition by political prodigals.

     

     

    ‘Buhari, please fish out the greedy emperor’

    The story of a greedy emperor you mentioned in your “Buhari, governors and state debauchery” article on Tuesday is disturbing. Does Kemi (Adeosun) replacing NOI (Ngozi Okonjo Iwuala) tell us who?

    07034994311

    Great piece, Louis. The big question, though, is how do you make this work? Another is: who controls the cash – federal or state? If it’s state, then they, the “Emperors”, as you called them, will still hold the yam and the knife? You know what that means. Nothing changes. The bazaar going on in Abuja is one of the ignoble legacies of the PDP started by the crude narcissist called OBJ.  It’s a “deal” between executive banditry and legislative gravy hunters.

    Olu: 08033013591

    Reading your column of March 26 really left me with serious anger. I hope President Muhammadu Buhari read the piece or his attention was drawn to it by relevant aides. The scale of sleaze is just mind-boggling. You mean one greedy governor took big loan in dollars from an international money-lender and diverted it to black market with the connivance of a bank Managing Director and the proceeds used to import foreign “Ashewo” (harlots) or laundered to buy mighty houses in Florida and Dubai? And the former governor is today walking freely in Nigeria? This is one looting too many. It is a clarion call on NGOs and civil society organizations to take over this advocacy. On behalf of the poor masses of Nigeria, I call on President Buhari to direct the relevant security agencies to fish out the heartless rogue and use him as scapegoat in the renewed fight against graft and those who connived with him in the financial secotor because that kind of money could not have been diverted and laundered abroad without their connivance.

    Alhaji Isa Mohammed, Abuja.

  • Our grounds of appeal, by Oyetola, APC

    Osun State Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have appealed the Tribunal’s judgment which nullified their victory. ERIC IKHILAE examines the grounds.

    It was a divided house on March 22 when the three-man panel of the Osun State Governorship Election Tribunal disagreed on how to resolve the dispute over the September 22, 2018 inconclusive election. The poll was concluded with a rerun on September 27, 2018 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    Two members upheld the petition filed against the election; its chairman dismissed it for being unmeritorious.

    The majority upheld the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate Senator Ademola Adeleke.

    Justices Peter Obiorah and Adegboye Gbolagunte gave the majority decision, which replaced Oyetola and APC with Adeleke and PDP as winners of the election, on two main grounds.

    The first, according to Justices Obiorah and Gbolagunte, was that the petitioners established irregularities to prove substantial non-compliance with Electoral Act in 17 out of the 3010 polling units in which election was conducted in the state.

    They proceeded to cancel the results from the 17 polling units, deducted the cancelled results from the scores of the APC and PDP and declared Adeleke the eventual winner.

    Read also: UPDATED Osun gov, Oyetola asks Appeal Court to reverse tribunal’s decision

    The second reason for upholding the petition, both judges said, was that the petitioners proved that the Returning Officer, who cancelled the election in seven polling units (in four Local Governments where the rerun election held on September 27, 2018), lacked such powers to cancel election and order a rerun.

    They proceeded to void the rerun election, deducted votes from the 17 polling units, which they had cancelled from both parties’ scores and declared Adeleke and PDP winners.

    But in his dissenting judgment/minority decision, tribunal Chairman, Justice Muhammad Sirajo held otherwise.

    He dismissed the petition by Adeleke and PDP on the grounds that the petitioners failed to prove their claims.

    Oyetola and the APC, on March 26 and 27, lodged separate notices of appeal before the Court of Appeal in Abuja.

    On March 26, Wole Olanipekun (SAN) led a team of lawyers to file Oyetola’s 39-ground notice of appeal, while Akin Olujinmi (SAN), on March 27, led the legal team of the APC to file the party’s notice of appeal of 25 grounds.

    The appeal grounds

    The appellants, in their notices of appeal, ripped the majority judgment apart, insisting that “it is perverse, replete with contradictions and against the weight of evidence.”

    They are praying the Court of Appeal to uphold their appeals, set aside the majority judgment and dismiss the October 16, 2018 petition by Adeleke and the PDP.

    Oyetola and the APC said they were contesting the entire majority judgment, except where it held that it lacked jurisdiction to set aside the INEC Guidelines used for the election; that the allegation of over voting was not proved; that the petitioners did not prove voided votes, and other parts of the judgment where it agreed with their arguments.

    They queried the validity of the judgment, which was authored and delivered by Justice Obiorah, who they noted, did not participate in all the sittings of the tribunal during trial.

    The appellants are of the view that the entire of the majority judgment is a nullity, because it was written and delivered by Justice Obiorah “who did not participate in all the proceedings of the tribunal and who was not present when all the witnesses gave evidence.”

    They noted that Justice Obiorah was absent on February 6, 2019  when the respondents witnesses (RWs) 12 and 13 – Ayoola Soji and Oladejo Kazeem – testified and tendered exhibits, which the tribunal admitted in evidence.

    The appellants are contending that, having not attended the tribunal’s siting on February 6, 2019, Justice Obiorah did not see the two witnesses and was unable to examine their demeanour, as required, and therefore, it was unlawful for the judge to have authored a judgment in which he reviewed the evidence given by the witnesses.

    In the notice of appeal filed by Olanipekun, it was contended that: “The writing of and or the participation of the Honourable Justice P. C. Obiorah in the writing of the judgment of the lower tribunal of 22nd March 2019 and delivery of same, vitiates the entire judgment.”

    Oyetola and the APC faulted the decision of the tribunal, in the majority judgment, to declare the rerun election unlawful and proceeded to set it aside.

    They also faulted the tribunal’s finding that the respondents did not deny the claim by the petitions, through PW74, that the Returning Officer cancelled election in the seven polling units and ordered a rerun.

    The appellants said: “The first and third respondents (INEC and APC), in their pleadings, did not admit that it was the Returning Officer that cancelled the result of the election in the seven polling units, but rather, that it was the 1st respondent that cancelled the election in the seven units as distinct from the units’ results.

    “Indeed, as pleaded at paragraphs 24, 25, 27 and 29 of the petition, it was the 1st respondent that cancelled the election in the seven units for the reasons alleged by the petitioners.

    “The tribunal ought to have held the petitioners bound by their pleadings that it was the 1st respondent that cancelled the election in the units and the fact that the 3rd respondent also pleaded that it was the 1sy respondent that cancelled the election in the units.”

    They argued that even if it was any of the electoral officials that announced the cancellation and rerun election, in law, they acted as INEC’s agents of the fst respondent (INEC).

    The appellants noted that the petitioners did not only fail to tender results from the seven polling units to support their claim that election actually held in the polling units and the results were cancelled;  they also failed to exhibit the votes scored  by the parties that participated in the election, if actually their was an election.

    Oyetayo and APC argued that, rather than holding against the petitioners, for not supplying the necessary evidence, the tribunal wrongly relied on the evidence of PW74, which it had earlier expunged from the record for being hearsay.

    They argued that, in the absence of vital evidence, “the tribunal ought to have held that the petitioners did not make out the case that there was any election in the seven polling units and that the Returning Officer cancelled the results of the election in the seven units.”

    Appellants fault voiding of results

    The appellants equally faulted the reason for which the tribunal voided the results in 17 polling units, in relation to the election held on September 22, 2018.

    They argued that the tribunal did not only contradict itself, it exceeded its powers in engaging in the computation of votes by the disputing parties and proceeding to declare a winner based on its computed figures.

    The appellants also faulted the finding of the tribunal in pages 193 and 196 of the majority judgment, where it said: “It is our considered opinion that the non-recording of the columns in the result sheets, which we regard as the check-list or control columns, is an act of non-compliance with the Electoral Act.

    “The argument of the respondents that the non-compliance did not affect the result of the parties, because the petitioners’ witnesses testified that they have no quarrel with the scores credited to the parties, is not tenable. Thus is because a party does not have to quarrel with the scores of an election in order to establish electoral malpractices

    “The effect of our finding on the non-recording of the necessary columns in the identified EC8C forms means that the votes from the affected 17 polling units are invalid. The votes are: APC 2,029 and PDP 1,246.”

    To the appellants the tribunal, by the above quoted findings, did not only engage in doublespeak, but also betrayed the many contradictions inherent in its reasoning.

    They argued that, as against the tribunal’s position, the essence of an election petition is to challenge the scores of the party that won.

    Oyetola and the APC  queried the merit of the tribunal’s finding that the non-filling of some portions of forms EC8A in 17 out of 3010 polling units, where election was held through out the state, amounted to substantial non-compliance.

    They argued that since all the petitioners’ witnesses agreed that the non-filling of the forms EC8A did not affect the scores of parties at the election, it was wrong for the tribunal to have held otherwise.

    According to them, “the tribunal erred in law and acted without or in excess of jurisdiction when it set up it own table to collate and deduct results of 17 polling units on alleged non-filling of columns of EC8A in spite of evidence of petitioners witnesses, all admitting that the non-filling of the columns did not affect the result of the election.”

    They added that the tribunal’s decision to decide the petition in respect of an election held in over 3000 polling units on alleged non-filling of columns in 17 units is misconceived and amounted to a wrongful exercise of judicial power.

    ‘Tribunal acted outside powers’

    The appellants argued that the tribunal acted ultra vires (outside) its powers when it held that the rerun election of September 27 was illegal, without taking into account the Supreme Court’s decision in Faleke v. INEC (2016) 18 NWLR part 1543 at page 61 as it relates to INEC’s powers to order a rerun election.

    They noted that the tribunal contradicted itself in its conclusion, in page 191 of the majority judgment, when it said the information omitted in the Forms EC8A in relation to the 17 polling units, were essential to proving over-voting, when it earlier held that over voting could not be proved without voters’ register.

    The appellants argued that, having earlier found that accreditation is not done on Form EC8A and that same (accreditation) cannot be proved without voters’ register, the tribunal was without jurisdiction to overrule itself.

    They accused the tribunal of acting without jurisdiction when it “embarked on deducting the votes of parties and declaring its own winner in the name of imaginary non-compliance of failure to fill columns of forms EC8A which has no effect whatsoever, on the result of the election, thereby arriving at a decision that is null and void.

    “The tribunal has no power to make deductions in votes and declare its owner winner not being a Collation or Returning Officer. The decision of the tribunal is not supported by law and evidence on record.”

    The appellants also faulted the tribunal for allegedly amending the petitioners’ claims and proceeding to grant reliefs not sought by them.

    For instance, they noted that the petitioners claimed to have won the September 22, 2018 election and sought to be declared so, but the tribunal based its decision to uphold the petition and set aside the return of the appellants on the basis of allegation of non-compliance with the Electoral Act, in relation to the September 22 governorship election.

    The appellants equally noted that nowhere in the entire petition did Adeleke and the PDP complain about non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act in relation to the September 22, 2018 election.

    They added that the only ground, in the petition, alleging non-compliance with the provision of the Electoral Act was in relation to the rerun election held on September 27, 2018.

    The appellants argued that the tribunal was wrong to have declared Adeleke winner of the election, held on September 22 and 27, 2018 on ground of non-compliance rather than ordering a rerun election.

    They noted that, not only did the decision disenfranchise the electorate in the affected polling units, it breached the provision of Section 140(2) of the Electoral Act.

    The appellants argued that having admitted to have benefited from INEC’s alleged non-compliance with the Electoral Act by not filling some portions of the Forms EC8A and asked that the results from those polling units be cancelled, the petitioners could not have asked the tribunal to declare them winners of the same elections.

    Faulting the tribunal’s cancellation of election in the 17 poling units, the appellants added: “The lower tribunal wrongly disenfranchised the electorate in the said polling units after casting their votes and without any challenge to the scores generated from the voting exercise.”

    The appellants contended that the tribunal was in error when it held that the petition was not statute barred having been filed outside the stipulated 21 days after the election was held.

    The particulars of errors, the appellants noted, exist in the fact that while the petitioners’ claims were directed strictly at the election of September 22, 2018, they did not file their petition until October 16, 2018.

    They noted that the petitioners’ contention was that the election had been concluded as at September 22, 2018 and that they ought to have been declared winner of the election.

    The appellants further noted that Adeleke and the PDP “did not reckon with and in fact, denounced and rejected the rerun election held on 27th September 2018 and sought an order to invalidate the rerun election.

    “Based on the foregoing, it was wrong for the tribunal to hold that the petition was not statute barred as at the time it was filed on 16th October 2018.”

    The appellants are praying the Court of Appeal to dismiss the petition by Adeleke and PDP for being unmeritorious and set aside the majority decision of the tribunal, which they argued, “is against the weight of evidence.”

  • April 5 for ruling on PDP’s joinder application

    A Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has adjourned till April 5, judgment on whether or not the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will be allowed to join a suit by the governorship candidate of Social Democratic Party (SDP), Precious Elekima, against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    Elekima is protesting his exclusion from the alleged pre-result collation suspension meeting between INEC and other parties that participated in the March 9 elections.

    He prayed the court to invite INEC to explain why he and his party were excluded from the meeting.

    The candidate is also asking the court to make an interlocutory order stopping INEC from further action on the process pending the determination of the substantive suit before it.

    PDP, at the last sitting, indicated interest to be joined in the suit, filing applications.

    The party said it fielded candidates’ governorship and legislative elections, and so will be affected by the judgment.

    Read also: Obasanjo to PDP: purge yourselves of bad eggs ahead of 2023

    But the plaintiff opposed PDP’s application, insisting that the matter is against INEC and so nothing concerns any other party.

    Justice Henry Oshoma, however, adjourned till yesterday for hearing.

    At the resumed sitting yesterday, PDP’s lawyer Mark Agwu urged the court to dismiss SDP’s rejection of PDP’s request to join, insisting that the outcome of the matter will affect the party.

    SDP, however, maintained its ground that the suit had nothing to do with who wins the elections, but is only concerned that the election was postponed by INEC by the exercise of its power on section 16 of the electoral act.

    “The plaintiffs are only seeking a fair hearing in the matter they brought before the court, and no form of allegation was made against the party seeking to join, for which its attention will be required in the suit,” Agwu submitted.

    Justice Oshoma, in his judgment, said: “Having listened to the argument and counter argument from both parties, I have decided to adjourn the matter till April 5 for ruling.”

  • Ogun: Tribunal directs INEC to grant Akinlade, APM access to election materials

    THE Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, yesterday directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to grant the candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Adekunle Akinlade and his party, access to the documents used for conduct of March 9 governorship election.

    Justice Chinwe Onyeabor-led three-man panel gave the order at its inaugural sitting, following a motion ex parte brought before it by Akinlade and APM.

    The governorship candidate and APM are challenging the victory of Prince Dapo Abiodun and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), designated as second and third respondents in the petition.

    In arguing the application, counsel for the petitioners, Mamman Osuman, SAN, who appeared with Ahmed Raji, SAN, told the tribunal that the order being sought was necessary to allow the applicants access to the electoral documents used during the election “with a view to maintaining the petition already filed before the tribunal”.

    Osuman argued further that the application was filed pursuant to Section 151, sub-section 1 and 2 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).

    Read also: Ogun gets new Police Commissioner

    Among other prayers sought were: “An order directing the 1st Respondent to forthwith grant access to the Petitioners/Applicants and their solicitors, agents, experts and other staff to inspect, photocopy, scan, pay for and obtain certified copies of all documents used by the 1st Respondent for the conduct of the Ogun State Governorship Election held on March 9, 2019, for the purpose of instituting and maintaining Election Petition; the said documents being the ones contained in the schedule attached to the Supporting Affidavit to this application;

    “An order allowing/permitting the petitioners/applicants (for the purpose of instituting and maintaining an election petition) to inspect, scan, photocopy, pay for and obtain certified copies of the electoral documents contained in the schedule attached to the application, same being the documents that are in the custody of and were used by the 1st Respondent in the conduct of the governorship election that took place in Ogun State on March 9, 2019.

    “An order directing the 1st Respondent to promptly abide by the orders of this court, made in the terms of the Ex parte application.”

  • ‘Wike plotting to overturn our victory’

    National Chairman of the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) Razak Eyiowuawi has alerted to plans by Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike to overturn the victory of the party’s House of Assembly candidate for Gokana state constituency, Gumba Gbabara.

    Eyiowuawi warned that any attempt to tamper with the result would be resisted.

    A statement yesterday by Eyiowuawi said: “It has been brought to our notice that River State Governor Nyesom Wike is trying to bribe officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) handling the collation of already declared results where PPN won the state Assembly election.

    “PPN, hereby, warns that it is time Governor Wike and his cohorts are called to order and allow INEC do the needful by declaring our candidate winner.”

    PPN Rivers State Chairman Stanley Worlu, in a petition to the Police Commissioner yesterday, said: “From the resolution of INEC’s National Collation Committee Report on the suspended River State election, it has come to our notice that Gokama Local Government is among the councils claims elections did not hold.

    “To the best of our knowledge, this is not correct, as election held in all the wards in Gokama, and unit results announced by the presiding officers. Copies of the results are with INEC and the police.

    “We, therefore, request the Commissioner for Police to make the available copies of Gokama Council governorship and House of Assembly election results for collation.”

  • NCC resumes Do Not Disturb directive

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says it has resumed the direction to Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) on Do-Not-Disturb (DND), after a temporary suspension.

    The Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sideline of the 87th Edition of the Telecom Consumer Parliament (TCP) on Monday in Lagos.

    The DND 2442 code gives subscribers the freedom to choose what messages to receive from the various networks.

    Danbatta said that the suspension was for a period of time which elapsed after the elections, hence, the need to resume implementation.

    ”The DND is back, the suspension was for a period of time, and it is to ensure that everyone without distinction of gender, ethnicity, or political persuasion, exercises their franchise, by voting.

    ”We do not want any Nigerian to be disenfranchised, that is why that measure was deliberately put in place, after reaching an understanding between INEC and NCC.

    ”It was put in place, it has worked very well, as I personally got a message from INEC, urging me to go out and exercise my franchise.

    ”’So that measure has served the purpose for which it was intended and now the DND is back,” he said.

    He said that the regulatory body would continue to strictly monitor the activities of the MNOs, on compliance to the directive.

    NAN reports that in February, NCC suspended its direction on DND in order to enable the MNOs disseminate specific information on voter education on behalf of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). (NAN)

  • Rivers: INEC to resume collation of of March 9 elections results

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will resume the collation of election results as planned, it was learnt.

    The commission last week fixed 2nd to 5th of April for resumption of collation of results of the last governorship and state Assembly elections.

    INEC also noted that election had been concluded in 21 state constituencies and fixed 13th April 2019 should there be any need for supplementary election.

    The collation of the results for the election held on March 9 was suspended due to violence allegedly carried out by soldiers and armed thugs. Consequently, the Commission set up a Fact-Finding Committee that visited Rivers State and submitted its report which revealed that while election could not hold in a few areas, it was successfully concluded in others with the declaration of winners in 21 state constituencies. Collation was ongoing at the time of the suspension of the process.

    Announcing the outlined activities and timeline to resolve the electoral logjam in Rivers State, INEC National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said the commission will on 30th March 2019 have a meeting with critical actors in the state after which the headquarters of the commission will release a guideline for the continuation of the process.

    Read also: 2019 general elections was free, fair – CODER

    The meeting, however, turned rancorous as stakeholders exchanged hot words, which threw up fears that the exercise might be affected.

    But the Commission said yesterday that it will resume the collation of results despite calls for the fresh election and rancorous stakeholders meeting at the weekend.

    The Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman of the Commission Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi said rachour among political parties during a stakeholders’ meeting before any major election is a common phenomenon.

    Oyekanmi, therefore, said whatever might have transpired during the stakeholders meeting in Rivers at the weekend was not enough to alter INEC timeline to conclude the election in the state.

    He said, “Regardless of their drama, however, the Commission will go ahead with its schedule of activities for the resumption of collation and conduct of supplementary elections where necessary in Rivers State.”

    He added that whatever position taken by the parties at the stakeholders meeting will absolutely not have any impact on the plan of the commission.

    He stressed, ” It does not change anything. The Commission will go ahead with its plan.”

    Oyekanmi explained further that “Rancour among political parties during a stakeholders’ meeting before any major election is a common phenomenon. At most of this type of meeting the Commission organized before any of the governorship election the conducted over the last 3 years, it has been the same story. Political parties regrettably bring their bitter differences to the meeting, but this is very unfortunate. They need to show maturity and stop this unnecessary bickering that will lead them nowhere.”

    Speaking on the call for withdrawal of Mrs May Agbamuche Mbu, INEC National Commissioner who chaired the stakeholders meeting in the absent of Chairman of the Commission, Okoye said that INEC will not abdicate its constitutional and statutory responsibility and create a constitutional crisis.

    He stressed that the “Commission is determined to conclude the collation of results for State Assembly and Governorship elections in Rivers State. The Commission is courageously following its timetable and schedule of activities outlined for the conclusion of the collation and electoral process in Rivers State.

    The process of collation and conclusion of the process is transparent and painstaking. All the critical stakeholders in the electoral process are involved in the process leading to the final collation of results. It is the constitutional and statutory responsibility and mandate of the Commission to organize and superintend elections.

    It is the responsibility of the Commission to collate and announce the results of elections and the Commission does not share this responsibility with anyone, body, institution or agency. The Commission will conclude the collation of results before pulling out of Rivers State. The resolve of the Commission is to transparently collate the results and announce the results.

    The Commission is the regulator of political parties and sets the parameters for the conclusion of the process based on the law and the constitution. The Commission will not abdicate its constitutional and statutory responsibility and create a constitutional crisis. ”

    On the staged walked out by some governorship candidates in the polls under the umbrella of Coalition of Governorship candidates, Okoye said “Each Political Party is a legal entity registered by the Commission in accordance with the constitution and the Electoral Act, 2010(as amended).

    The Commission did not register any Political Party known as Coalition of Governorship Candidates and does not deal with any coalition. The Commission extended invitation for the stakeholders meeting to registered political parties and they attended the stakeholders meeting in that capacity.

    All the candidates in the election filed their nominations under the banner and platform of their respective parties. Our plea is that all the candidates and political parties should cooperate with the Commission for the expeditious conclusion of the collation process. Although protests and walkouts are part of the democratic process, it should be employed in a manner that serves the national interest.”

    On Zamfara state, he said “the issue of the electoral fortune of the APC in Zamfara State is before the Supreme Court of Nigeria. The Commission is a law-abiding institution and will prefer to wait for the decision of the Supreme Court on the matter. The Commission will not make any comment that will prejudice the due determination of the suit in the Supreme Court.”