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Tag: Niger East

  • REC declares ballot papers for Niger East, North missing

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Niger State yesterday said that elections for the senatorial positions of Niger East and Niger North may not hold on Saturday as the ballot papers meant for the zone were missing.

    Prof. Samuel Egwu, Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, made the declaration while addressing newsmen in Minna.

    “The issue has been reported to the INEC’s headquarters in Abuja for urgent attention.

    “The officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria saddled with the responsibility of securing the electoral sensitive materials have gone to Abuja for the last batch of the sensitive materials for Saturday’s elections in the state, so we are waiting,” he said.

    Read also: Police to deploy air assets, sniffer dogs for polls

    Egwu said that 85 per cent of the needed facilities for the conduct of free and fair elections in the state had been provided with the non-sensitive materials already moved to various destinations across the 25 local government areas of the state.

    He said that the commission trained 23,000 ad hoc staff for the elections in the state.

    The REC also said that 2,181,400 eligible voters would participate during the general elections in the state.

     

  • INEC declares ballot papers for Niger East, North missing

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Niger State on Friday said that senatorial elections in Niger East and Niger North may postponed as the ballot papers meant for the zone are missing.

    Prof. Samuel Egwu, Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, made the declaration while interacting with newsmen in Minna.

    “The issue has been reported to the INEC’s Headquarters in Abuja for urgent attention,” he said.

    “The officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria saddled with the responsibility of securing the electoral sensitive materials have gone to Abuja for the last batch of the sensitive materials for  Saturday’s elections in the state, so we are waiting,’’ he said.

    Read also: How President Buhari, wife will vote on Saturday

    Egwu said that 85 per cent of the needed facilities for the conduct of free and fare elections in the state had been provided with the non-sensitive materials already moved to various destinations across the 25 local government areas of the state.

    He said that the commission trained 23,000 ad hoc staff for the elections in the state.

    The REC also said that 2,181,400 eligible voters would participate during the general elections in the state.

  • Niger East Senatorial Zone seeks balanced appointments

    The public service reform in Niger State which pruned the number of permanent secretaries from 54 to 25, has caused a lot of agitation, especially in Niger East Senatorial Zone where the people feel they were, unfairly, the hardest hit.

    The people of the zone have now demanded a more inclusive reform to address what they called the lopsided rationalisation in the recent public service reform. They said the redeployment of Permanent Secretaries in the state did not favour the zone, a remarkable departure from the fate of the zone in previous purges.

    Despite the protests, the state government has insisted that only technocrats will be appointed into the State Executive Council.

    The Chairman of Niger East Peoples’ Forum, Mr. George Koce, a lawyer who represents the elders, said the redistribution of Permanent Secretaries favoured Niger North and Niger South, while neglecting Niger East. Giving the statistics, Koce said before the reform, Niger South Senatorial District had 26 Permanent Secretaries, Niger East 17, Niger North 11 but after the reform, Niger South Senatorial District had 14 Permanent Secretaries, Niger East 4, Niger North 7.

    “It is clear that the redistribution of Permanent Secretaries favored Niger North and South against Niger East Senatorial Districts. Evidently, of the 25 Permanent Secretaries retained, only 4 come from Niger East Senatorial District, with one local government area in Niger South Senatorial District having 6.mRecent development in the redeployment of the Permanent Secretaries is unfair, unjust and smacks of brazen impunity. This is totally unacceptable. This smacks a delibrate agenda for the isolation of Niger East Senatorial District from the Niger state APC administration. The goodwill of the people of Niger East Senatorial District should not be taken for granted”, Koce emphasized.

    Calling on the state government to use the previous zonal political template used by previous administration to achieve a balanced representation, the spokesman for the Elders appealed that subsequent appointments and deployments should be much more rationally considered.

    He said the APC administration in Niger state must be seen to make, effect and sustain positive change based on fair play, justice and equity.

    The Chairman who lamented that all steps taken by the zone to make the state government address the issue at stake have yielded no positive response called on the state House of Assembly to address the imbalance in the recent appointment of Permanent Secretaries to safeguard future imbalance. Youths under the aegis of Gbegnu Boknu Yakwo Youth Associationý took their grievances to the Niger state government House in Minna carrying placards with inscriptions like ‘Enough is Enough’, ‘Give us the real change’, ‘We want good change’ and others. The youths who expressed dissatisfaction with the appointments said it was not in line with the principles of equity and fairness among the people of the State calling on  Governor Bello to correct the irregularities in the appointment of officers into various positions.

    The Chairman of the group, Comrade Danjuma Paiko said, “We, the people of Niger East Senatorial District (Zone B) have not been treated well despite the large number of votes gotten from the zone during the 2015 general elections. We call on the State government to as a matter of urgency consider the plight of Zone B to re-address all these anomalies before the local government elections.”

    Paiko called on the governor to reverse the apparent lopsided rationalisation.

    The government has maintained its stand that only technocrats would be appointed as the government was looking for people who will deliver quality service to the people.

    The Chief Press Secretary to the state governor, Dr. Ibraheem Dooba said, “In terms of representation, everybody will be well represented but some appointments are done to de-emphasise politics, especially that of the SSG. Only technocrats will be appointed,” he added.

     

  • Niger East: APC candidate petitions tribunal

    Niger East: APC candidate petitions tribunal

    The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Niger East Senatorial by-election, Mr David Umaru, has challenged the declaration of Dr. Shem Zagbayi Nuhu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the poll.

    Umaru is praying the National Assembly Election Tribunal sitting in Minna, the Niger State capital, to declare him winner of the by-election, “having polled majority votes”.

    Joined as respondents are 388 others, including the PDP, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) and INEC presiding officers.

    Umaru is praying the tribunal to cancel results in 378 polling units and recalculate the total result.

    He said the votes ascribed to each of the candidates were not their actual scores, but the product of “deliberate wrong entries and collation of figures made by the third respondent’s agents or officers at the polling units”.

    On September 7, INEC declared Nuhu winner of the by-election with 92,056 votes while Umaru got 87,406 votes.

    Umaru said: “If the results of the polling units affected by these non-compliance and irregularities are cancelled and deducted from the final scores of the candidates, I shall have the highest number of valid votes cast at the election, thus: APC 87,405-22,491 = 64,914  PDP 92,056-53,837 = 38,219.

    “Nuhu did not secure the majority of lawful votes and is not qualified to contest the election, having not been properly sponsored by his party (PDP) in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.”

  • ‘APC ‘ll not condone rigging in Niger East’

    ‘APC ‘ll not condone rigging in Niger East’

    The Conference of All Progressives Congress Publicity Secretaries (CAPS) has reflected on the senatorial by-election in Niger East District, alleging that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was planning to rig the poll.

    Rising from its two-day meeting in Lagos, the association said malpractices could deprive constituents their right to freely choose their representative in the Upper Chamber.

    In its communique, CAPS alleged that the election was postponed in some councils when it was discovered that the APC candidate was in early lead.

    It said: “CAPS reviewed the so-called ‘inconclusive’ senatorial election in the Niger East Senatorial Zone and observed with dismay a plethora of spurious developments. It is the right of the people of Niger East to freely choose their senator.

    “We hereby urge them and the entire people of Niger State to be vigilant and forestall the collusion between the PDP and key officials of the INEC to rob the people of their free choice of an APC candidate, which is now about to be truncated, as was done in Ekiti and Anambra states.”

    Thirty four publicity secretaries were present at the maiden meeting, which aim was to explore modalities for repositioning the party, ahead of next year’s elections. A chairman and six zonal co-ordinators were elected to run the affairs of the conference. They are the Chairman,  Joe Igbokwe; North Central Co-ordinator Mr Jonathan Vatsa; Northeast Cordinator Rev Phineas Padio; Northwest Coordinator Yahaya Bashir; Southeast Coordinator Okelo Madukaife; Southwest Cordinator)- Mr Sola Lawal; and Southsouth Coordinator Hon. Fortune Paneb

    Reflecting on the Osun State governorship , the conference hailed the people for defeating the PDP, which it described as the  party of political predators, urging the chapter to sustain the tempo in next year’s polls.

    CAPS added: “ Elections have increasingly become militarised, even to the point of deploying masked security personnel to intimidate and humiliate the electorate. Elections should be carnivals, not war rehearsals and the INEC must give flesh to its rejection of militarised elections in exchange for civil elections.

    “The recent distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) and Continuous Voter registration in some states manifested all the indices of failure. The conference advises INEC to raise its act, take firm corrective measures and stop indulging in ostrich pride, while monumental challenges lie ahead.

    “The conference calls on all stakeholders in the nation, particularly the National Assembly, to, as a matter of utmost urgency, return the recommendation of the Justice Uwais panel on electoral reforms to the front burner, particularly as it affects INEC deriving its funding on first line charge, drawn from the Federation Account and independent operatives appointed by the National Judicial Commission to guarantee some measure of independence from political interferences.”

    The association also decried the gale of impeachments instigated by the PDP, saying that it is a bad omen. While congratulating Nasarawa State Governor Tanko Al Makura for surviving the threat, it advised the House of Assembly to refrain from distracting the attention of the governor.

    It added: “In Enugu State, the PDP has thrown the instruments of governance to the swine by the governor, who instigated the impeachment of the deputy governor,  Mr Sunday Onyebuchi, for running a poultry farm, yet turning round dramatically to deploy the impeached public officer as the Deputy Director in the State Civil Service. Meanwhile, the ailing governor and impeacher-in-chief still runs a farm. Where are the standards?  Our nation must be allowed to degenerate into a mushroom society under the careless watch of the PDP.

    “The PDP, having forced an illegal impeachment on Adamawa State, is now seeking to employ every crooked machinery to return the state to the path of retrogression. The APC is however, prepared to set the people pf Adamawa free.

    “CAPS hereby demands the suspension of the ‘state of emergency’ in Adamawa State, which has the barest minimum of insurgence ,or at the least,  lift the dusk-to- dawn curfew from this week to rid the electioneering atmosphere of fear or encumbrances and pave the way for free and fair elections.”

  • INEC declares Niger East by-election inconclusive

    INEC declares Niger East by-election inconclusive

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday declared Saturday’s Niger East by-election inconclusive.

    The Returning Officer, Prof. Wole Morenikeji, said there were alleged electoral malpractices and irregularities in seven units in four local governments.

    The units are in Rafi, Shiroro, Muyan and Paikoro local governments.

    Morenikeji said a supplementary poll would hold in the affected units on Saturday, before the final result of the poll could be announced.

    But details of the results declared so far, showed that the candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Shem Zagbayi Nuhu, led with 89,634 votes, against David Umaru of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who polled 84,689 votes.

    A breakdown of the result showed that the PDP candidate won in six of the nine local governments in the senatorial district.

    Confirming the development, INEC’s Head of Information in Niger State, Mohammed Waze, said until the supplementary election is held, the winner cannot be declared.

    Waze, who spoke on the phone, said: “The Niger East by-election is inconclusive. A supplementary poll will hold on Saturday so that a winner will emerge and the final result will be released.”

    The seat became vacant on June 12, following the death of Senator Dahiru Aweisu Kuta.

  • Niger East: INEC ‘ll use customised ballot

    Niger East: INEC ‘ll use customised ballot

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will use customised ballot papers for tomorrow’s Niger East by-election, to prevent rigging.

    The National Commissioner, Dr. Chris Iyimogu, told reporters after a stakeholders’ meeting organised by the commission in Minna that each of the nine local governments in the senatorial district would have different ballot papers, for the easy detection of rigging.

    The national commissioner, who oversees the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Kwara, Kaduna and Niger states, said non- sensitive  electoral materials had arrived in the state. Sensitive materials are expected today.

    He said the commission would conduct the election as scheduled, adding that all materials left the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Minna branch yesterday for the headquarters of the nine councils to ensure an early distribution of the materials.

    His words: “The party agents took the sensitive materials from CBN Minna yesterday to the local government headquarters.

    “This is to prevent late arrival of electoral materials at polling units. We want the election to start and end as scheduled.”

    On the call by the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the removal of the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Emmanuel Onucheyo, for alleged romance with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government, Iyimogu said he was not aware of the allegation.

  • Niger East by-election: APC plans to unleash thugs, alleges PDP

    Niger East by-election: APC plans to unleash thugs, alleges PDP

    •‘Ruling party guilty’

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Niger State branch, accused yesterday the All Progressives Congress (APC) of plans  to unleash thugs on the electorate to disrupt Saturday’s Niger East by-election.

    The opposition party, however, said it was the ruling PDP, which engaged thugs since the start of the campaigns.

    APC alleged: “Thuggery is synonymous with PDP. The party has been using thugs to harass people because its candidate is unpopular.”

    The PDP Deputy Chairman, Tanko Beji, a lawyer, alleged in a statement in Minna yesterday that APC hired thugs from neighbouring states and gave them maps of the places to unleash terror in order to disrupt the election.

    He alleged that the  mission of the opposition party was “to cause confusion to either manipulate or frustrate the process.”

    The PDP chief decried the manner APC was going about the election, saying: “The planned action of the opposition party shows that it is far from being prepared for the next general elections.

    “The opposition in Niger State need to be schooled on the basic values of electoral practices. They have failed to realise that politics is not all about thuggery, blackmail or propaganda. Niger APC must understand that election is not a do-or-die affair.”

    APC Publicity Secretary Jonathan Vatsa dismissed the allegation, accusing PDP of being guilty of the allegation.

    He said APC members were law-abiding.

    “It is the ruling PDP that has money for thugs. Thuggery is synonymous with the party. It is only crying and accusing APC because its candidate is not popular. The noise is a face-saving device for the impending defeat on Saturday.

    “PDP has been using thugs to destroy the billboards of our candidate. The hoodlums are also tearing his posters. We have reported this to the security agents. The party is engaging thugs because it wants to force its unpopular candidate on the people.

    “PDP has tax payers’ money and it is using it as well as the local government funds for thuggery because its candidate is not popular,” Vatsa added.

  • Niger East: APC alleges harassment by PDP thugs

    Niger East: APC alleges harassment by PDP thugs

    All Progressives Congress (APC) in Niger State has alleged that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is using thugs to harass its members ahead of the August 30 Niger East by-election.

    State Publicity Secretary Jonathan Vatsa yesterday in Minna, cited attacks on the party’s Legal adviser Khaleal Ibrahim on Saturday by alleged agents of PDP, at Paiko.

    Vatsa said the thugs attacked and dispossessed Ibrahim of his mobile phone and stole his money.

    The APC chieftain said some of its members from Rafi local government area were on Wednesday waylaid by thugs, who inflicted injuries on them.

    He said: “We can’t be intimidated because I said the APC does not have confidence in the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC).

    “We accused the REC of collecting money from the state and the government agreed it  released N28 million to the committee set up by INEC, chaired by the REC.’’

    Vatsa said “intimidating APC members cannot deter the party because the party has a good candidate in David Umaru, we also know that as they did in other places, they will want to use the military to intimidate us,  but the people will resist intimidation.”

  • APC threatens suit over Niger East by-election

    APC threatens suit over Niger East by-election

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Niger State has threatened legal action against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should the latter insist on conducting the Niger East Senatorial by-election on the 30th of this month.

    The electoral body, through the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr. Emmanuel Onucheyo, last Friday announced a change in the date for the by-election from August 16 to 30, a development that APC and Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) kicked against.

    The two parties declared the shifting of the election as illegal and unconstitutional.

    APC’s chairman alleged that the reasons advanced by the electoral body for the shift was a deliberate plan to adequately perfect its arrangement for the rigging of the election in favour of the ruling party.

    Imam argued that INEC’s claim that its action was in line with Section 30(3) of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended could not in any way supersede Section 76 of the Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution.

    He insisted that INEC has no logistic problems as claimed.

    He said: “It is now clear that the change in date and other manipulations that is going on is the handwork of the PDP-led government, which is desperate to retain the Senatorial seat at all cost.