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Tag: Obi

  • UPDATED: Supreme Court set date for Atiku, Obi, APM’s appeals

    UPDATED: Supreme Court set date for Atiku, Obi, APM’s appeals

    The Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing for Monday, October 23, in the appeal by Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi who were candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) in the last presidential election.

    The apex court, it was learnt, will also hear the appeal by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) on Monday.

    The Nation gathered that information to that effect has since been communicated to parties in the three appeals via hearing notices issued on October 19 by the Registry of the Supreme Court.

    Atiku/PDP, Obi/LP and the APM are, by their appeals, challenging the September 6, consolidated judgment rendered by the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) which dismissed their (Atiku/PDP, Obi/LP and the APM’s) petitions for being unmeritorious, lacking a merit and, on the grounds that the petitioners failed to prove their cases.

    They had, in the petitions, challenged the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the February 25 presidential election.

    In their 35-ground appeal, Atiku and his party want the apex court to, among others, reverse the judgment of the PEPC as it relates to their petition.

    Obi and his party also filed a 51-ground appeal, in which they are also seeking similar reliefs.

    On its part, the APM, in its 10-ground appeal, is principally, praying the apex court to void Tinubu’s election on the grounds that his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima was not validly nominated.

    The verdict, which was unanimously declared the petitions by PDP, LP, the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and their candidates as unmeritorious, lacking a merit and for failure prove their cases beyond reasonable doubt.

    In their appeal, the PDP and Atiku are contending, among others, that the judgment of the PEPC is against the weight of evidence.

    They are equally contending that the PEPC “erred in law when it refused to uphold the mandatory electronic transmission of results for confirmation and verification of final results introduced by the Electoral Act 2022 for transparency and integrity of results in accordance with the principles of the Act.”

    According to them, the Electoral Act 2022 introduced technology in the conduct of elections, particularly in the transmission and collation of results, being part of the election process easily susceptible to manipulation and compromise.

    In ground two, the appellants argued that the PEPC erred when, despite the clear provisions of enabling statutes, including the constitution, the Electoral Act 2022, the Regulations and Guidelines for the conduct of elections and the Manual for Election Officials, it still proceeded to hold that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was not meant to be used to electronically transmit or transfer the results of the polling unit direct to the collation system.

    They also faulted the PEPC for holding that the INEC Result Viewing portal (IRev) was not a collation system.

    The appellants faulted the PEPC for holding that the requirement of electronic transmission of the result of the election directly from the polling units to the INEC collation system is not a requirement of the Electoral Act, 2022.

    According to them, the PEPC erred in law when it failed to determine the case of the appellants with respect to the mandatory verifications and confirmations required before the announcement of the result of the presidential election, pursuant to Section 64(4) of the Electoral Act, 2022.

    Read Also; Report claiming 94% contested posts awaits tribunal incorrect – INEC

    They also faulted the PEPC for failing “to nullify the presidential election held on 25th February 2023 on the ground of non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 when, by evidence before the court, the 1st respondent (INEC) conducted the election based on very grave and gross misrepresentation ,contrary to the principles of the Electoral Act 2022, based on the ‘doctrine of legitimate expectation.’

    The PDP and Atiku are also praying the Supreme Court to allow their appeal, set aside the judgment of the PEPC and grant the reliefs as contained in their petition.

    Obi and the LP are, in their appeal, praying the apex court to, among others, set aside the judgment of the PEPC and grant the reliefs in the petition originally filed before the PEPC.

    They faulted the PEPC for holding that “where the dispute involves the election in as many as 895 polling units, the pleadings in this petition, which alleged electoral malpractices, non-compliance and/or offences in some polling units, many polling units or several polling units cannot be said to have met the requirements of pleadings as stipulated in Paragraph 4(1)(d) of the 1st Schedule to the Electoral Act and/or Order 13 Rules 4(1), 5 and (6)(1) of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2009.”

    They also faulted the PEPC for holding that the paragraphs of their reply to the 2nd and 3rd respondents (President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima) introduced new issues, contrary to Paragraph 16(1) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act, 2022.

    They contended that the PEPC erred in law and occasioned a grave miscarriage of justice when they held that the onus was on them (the appellants) to prove that INEC failed to comply with the mandatory requirements of Sections 73(2) of the Electoral Act, 2022 in the conduct of the presidential election.

    The appellants argued that PEPC erred in law when they held that, among others, any written statement on oath of a witness, filed outside the 21-day limitation will amount to a surreptitious amendment of the petition and a breach of paragraph 14 of the 1st Schedule to the Electoral Act, irrespective of whether the witnesses to be called are ordinary or expert witnesses, or whether they are willing or subpoenaed witnesses.

    They also contented that the PEPC “erred in law and occasioned a grave miscarriage of justice when it abdicated its primary duty of making findings on the material issue of estoppel that the appellants raised against the 1st respondent (INEC) on the electronic transmission of polling units results to the IReV.”

    According to Obi and the LP “the learned Justices of the court below erred in law and came to a perverse decision when they held that PW3, PW4, PW, PW6, PW7, PW8, PW9, PW10, PW11 and P’W13 were not witnesses of the court, but those of the appellants, who had paid fees for the issuance of the subpoena.”

    They added: “The learned trial Justices of the court below erred in law when they held that since Exhibit X2 was a copy of the European Union Election Observation Mission Nigeria 2023 Final Report, certified by the Registry of the Court of Appeal and not by the European Union Election Observation Mission, ‘which is the custodian of the original copy of the document.”

    The APM, in its appeal, is contending, among others that the PEPC erred in law “when it wrongfully waved aside the allegation that Tinubu’s running mate and Vice President, Kashim Shettima, was nominated twice for different positions by the APC, in relation to the 2023 general elections.

    The party is also contending that that it was wrong for the PEPC to dismiss its case against Tinubu’s election on the premise that it was not only incompetent, but contained pre-election issues.

    It argued that sections 131 and 142 (1) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, were inextricably linked “and neither can be confined as a pre- election matter, as these qualifications are condition precedents to being elected to the office of President.”

    “The Appellant’s petition was not one founded solely on nomination, but primarily that the 3rd respondent (Tinubu) contested the presidential election without a lawful associate running as his Vice President .

    “That the withdrawal of (Mr. Ibrahim Masari) 5th Respondent and the expiry of the 14 days permissible for changing a withdraw or dead candidate under section 33 of the Electoral Act 2022, made the 3rd Respondent’s election and return invalid.”

    The APM argued that the PEPC abandoned its duty and jurisdiction of hearing and determining the question of whether President Tinubu and Vice President Shettima were validly elected under the law, in view of provisions of section 239(1) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

  • Use part of funds Mr Ibu raised for your campaign to help him – Reno tells Obi

    Use part of funds Mr Ibu raised for your campaign to help him – Reno tells Obi

    Actor John Okafor, aka Mr Ibu, has requested financial aid from well-meaning Nigerians due to a health issue that might result in him losing his leg.

    Social commentator, Reno Omokri urged his followers “Renonuggeteers” to donate to Mr. Ibu’s account number, despite his support for Labour Party’s presidential candidate Peter Obi.

    Omokri has further urged Peter Obi to donate to the ailing actor.

    In a post on his X (formerly Twitter) page, he posted evidence of Mr Ibu endorsing and organizing fundraisers for Peter Obi.

    Read Also: Reno Omokri encourages followers to donate to Mr Ibu despite support for Peter Obi

    He wrote: ”Google it. Mr. Ibu set up a fundraiser for Peter Obi when he was healthy. Billions of Naira were raised from that fundraiser.

    “The least Peter Obi can do is use some of the billions raised from that fundraiser to help Mr. Ibu now that he has health challenges. This is not a matter of insult from you, Obidients. First, get Peter Obi to donate. You can insult me later!”

  • Atiku and Obi: certificate miracles

    Atiku and Obi: certificate miracles

    Peter G. Obi gave a press conference to ape his former master Atiku, asking about President Tinubu’s identity. But now, he has to face his own chi as a party spokesman is invoking his dead brother and a dud name. so, who is Peter Obi? The question is thrown back at him. Is he impersonating his brother, as the LP man asks, because of what is the discrepancy in the names on his NYSC and Degree certificates. It may mean nothing or everything, but this is what happens when one wants to be a purist in order to harm others. But how is it that Obi had to be an undergraduate before he qualified to get WAEC?  Same to Atiku, who had a master’s degree without a first. Both are miracle men. We don’t know what to call him. Jokoli, Sadiq or Sidiq. Even if he changed his name, we need proof. He went to Chicago to seek proof. We want one here. As lawyers say, he who comes to equity must come with clean hands, and clean names.

  • Atiku, Obi upstaging Supreme Court

    Atiku, Obi upstaging Supreme Court

    After days of hesitation, Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the February 25, 2023 election, Peter Obi, has finally picked up the gauntlet of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, by challenging President Bola Tinubu on his alleged certificate discrepancies. Alhaji Atiku had inveigled Mr Obi and the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) presidential candidate in the same election, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, into weighing in on the president’s certificate saga, encouraging them to help create a groundswell of agitation capable of undermining the presidential election outcome. Mr Kwankwaso sneered at the request and thought it beneath his dignity to engage in a futile and ignoble campaign over nothing. Mr Obi initially derided the request and suggested very grandly that he and his party were already prosecuting the matter in the courts. Mr Kwankwaso stands pat; but Mr Obi has dithered.

    On October 11, five days after the former vice president, Alhaji Atiku, solicited the unlawful involvement of his co-presidential contestants in a scheme of doubtful utility, Mr Obi has done a u-turn, embraced the Atiku plot, and addressed a world press conference of his own. Well, he differentiates his press conference by calling it an international press conference. But the objective remains the same: to delegitimise the February 25 presidential election outcome, pressure the Supreme Court into endorsing the plotters’ nebulous wishes, create an artificial stalemate, and ultimately engender a rebellion of some kind. Clearly, they have not given up. Mr Kwankwaso has sensibly dissociated himself from the campaign; but Alhaji Atiku and Mr Obi have formed a pact of steel against that election.

    Read Also: Strip Atiku of national honours, CSOs tell Tinubu

    Last week, newspapers chafed at the former vice president’s so-called world press conference that disseminated so much piffle about the president’s Chicago State University (CSU) certificate despite the school proving that President Tinubu attended their school and graduated with honours. Alhaji Atiku remained undaunted, for he remains someone never discombobulated by facts, reason, or evidence. This week, the long-suffering people of Nigeria, having been assailed by another certificate and election result denier, Mr Obi, will have the onerous responsibility of chafing at needless provocations all over again. Alhaji Atiku was original in his press conference, though a little flamboyant, self-righteous and conceited; the same could, however, not be said of Mr Obi’s. His international press conference was superfluous, and what he had to say was wistful, sophistic and vacuous.

    Hear Mr Obi: “Having followed the prolonged identity crisis that recently played out in the American Court System and the controversy surrounding the authenticity of the Chicago State University credentials of Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I must confess that I am distressed as a Nigerian…To outsiders, the entire CSU matter as well as Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s many lingering identity question marks have further worsened Nigeria’s less-than-glorious image internationally. Uninformed outsiders now see every other Nigerian as a potential fraudster, certain forger, or identity thief…”

    The gravamen of the PDP and LP candidates’ animosities is the declaration of President Tinubu as winner of the poll. Both candidates already have their petitions before the Supreme Court where they headed after their devastating losses at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC). The lower court unanimously decided they had no case, having failed woefully to provide evidence and arguments to substantiate their pleadings. As a matter of routine and to save face, both candidates have taken their complaints to the Supreme Court, but still without any evidence or material of any kind relevant to substantiating their cases. However, while Mr Obi has nothing new, let alone relevant, Alhaji Atiku seems to think that the president’s credentials which he got from CSU could be tendered as fresh evidence material to his case. Why he believes that an allegation which should routinely be tried at a lower court can be tendered and litigated at the Supreme Court, and in an election case, defies both law and common sense.

    What is obvious from the two candidates’ perambulations is that they undoubtedly know that they have no chance at the Supreme Court. They have, therefore, sought to muddy the waters by throwing red herrings all over the place and, by the agencies of their social media warriors, inciting the public into rebellion. Increasingly, the incitement has become brazen and unconscionable. The campaigns have in recent days falsely assumed that a case of forgery had been established against President Tinubu, irrespective of what Alhaji Atiku found at CSU, and that it had led to the diminution of national credibility. But their instincts tell them that going by what they have, there is no way to convince the Supreme Court to find the case in their favour. So, the only way out is insurrection, a rebellion they are determined to procure by any means. For the two leading candidates, whose educational records are also very murky, it says a lot about their leadership style and philosophy that they appear eager to countenance and even promote the collapse of Nigeria than watch someone else be president. They do not mind, in the process, to demolish the Supreme Court in order to achieve their aims.

  • Obi, LP’s petition a jamboree, Tinubu, Shettima tell Supreme Court

    Obi, LP’s petition a jamboree, Tinubu, Shettima tell Supreme Court

    President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima have said the petition filed against the outcome of the last presidential election by the Labour Party (LP) and its candidate, Peter Obi was a jamboree intended mainly for media entertainment.

    They urged the Supreme Court to reject the petition and dismiss the appeal filed by Obi and the LP against the September 6, judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) which earlier dismissed the petition for being unmeritorious.

    Tinubu and Shettima said this in the joint respondents’ brief filed by their team of lawyers, led by Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN).

    They said: “We urge the Supreme Court to dismiss this petition which, if considered from every angle, is lacking in merit, substance and good faith.

    “Be it noted that unlike previous election petitions over which this honourable court has presided (in time past) and made far-reaching pronouncements on diverse issues, including but not limited to ballot box snatching, vote buying, voters’ intimidation, interference by the military, thuggery, ballot stuffing, violence, disenfranchisement, non-recording of votes in form EC8A, which is the building block or the base of the pyramid, and such other electoral vices; this appeal arising from a dismissed petition, the main grouse of which is that, while the presidential election was peacefully conducted all over the country, and results of elections carefully and accurately recorded in the various form EC8As, some unidentified and unspecified results, even in the appellants’ brief were not uploaded electronically to the IREV portal.

    “The other very remote contention is that the 2nd respondent did not score 25 percent of the votes recorded at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    “With much respect to the appellants, the petition is more of a fishing expedition; much more of evocation of thunder without dews.

    “In short, the entire petition was nothing, but a jamboree of sort, which was prosecuted more in the media than in the courtroom, and the lower court, being a court of law and not of sentiments, dutifully threw away their petition after a painstaking consideration of same.”

    Read Also: BREAKING: Tinubu appoints 14 new heads of agencies under Trade, Industry Ministry

    They added: “We submit that the lower court (PEPC) rightly held that the appellants (Obi and LP), as petitioners before it, failed to prove their allegations of non-compliance and corrupt practices as required by law.”

    Tinubu and Shettima, who are listed as the 2nd and 3rd respondents in the appeal before the Supreme Court, argued that the PEPC was right to have struck some paragraphs of the petition and the petitioners’ replies to the respondents’ replies with which they (petitioners) had attempted to amend their case in violation of the provisional of Section 16(1)(a) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act 2022.

    They stated that the PEPC took the right decision in striking out the written statements of 10 out of the 13 witnesses called by the petitioners and expunging their evidence from the court’s records on the grounds that the statements were not filed along with the petition as required.

    On the appellants’ claim that Shettima had the double nomination, both respondents urged the court to reaffirm its earlier judgment on the issue in the case marked: SC/CV/502/2023 – Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) v. INEC & 3 others delivered on May 26, 2023.

    “In a failed attempt at distinguishing the said decision of this honourable court (in the PDP v. INEC & 3 others case), the appellants have argued that the judgment emanated from a pre-election matter and that apart from the findings on locus standi, the other points on the substance were made in the supporting judgment.

    “In all fairness to them, they have not argued that the concurring judgments are not a part of the judgment or that the facts in PDP v. INEC are any different from the facts of this case.

    “This honourable court has reiterated the binding nature of a concurring judgment in a plethora of its decisions.”

    They argued that the whole issue about Shettima’s nomination as the vice presidential candidate is entirely an intra-party issue in respect of which the PEPC  rightly held that it lacked the jurisdiction to entertain because Obi and the LP lacked the locus to validly raise.

    The 2nd and 3rd respondents described the introduction of the US forfeiture case in the petition as a failed attempt to embarrass Tinubu and urged the Supreme Court to affirm the tribunal’s finding on this issue that the petitioners failed to prove their claim.

    On the argument by Obi and the LP that INEC failed to comply with relevant laws by not transmitting results electronically, they urged the court to also affirm the well-considered position of the PEPC on this issue.

    “A major basis for appellants’ allegation of non-compliance with respect to the presidential election of the 25th February 2023, is their complaint that the results of the election were not electronically transmitted to the IREV in real time (not that it was not transmitted at all) and that the 1st respondent did not ensure that the results were collated on the IREV.

    “It was their submission before the lower court that the result ought to have been collated electronically on the IREV, and that omitting to do this automatically nullified the result of the election.

    “We respectfully submit that by all extant relevant laws, INEC has/had the prerogative to determine the mode and manner for the transmission of election results and the lower court was perfectly in order when it so held.

    “The lower court, in deciding the issue, took a painstaking consideration of the binding and unappealed judgment of the Federal High Court, per Nwite, J., in FHC/ABJ/CS/1454/2022 – Labour Party v. Independent National Electoral Commission, delivered on 23 January 2023, which was tendered before it and admitted as Exhibit X1.”

    For ease of reference, the question for determination submitted by the Labour Party in the originating summons is as follows: ‘Whether having regard to combined effect of Section 47(2), 50(2), 60(5) and 62(1)(2) and other relevant provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 the Respondent can still insist on manual collation of results in the forthcoming general election.’

    “Declaratory reliefs were subsequently sought in line with the main question for determination. After considering the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act, the Regulations and Guidelines, as well as the Manuals, the learned trial judge held as follows: ‘Now, a close reading of section 50(2) has provided for voting and transmission of results, to be done in accordance with the procedure to be determined by the commission (INEC)…’

    In praying for the court to dismiss the appeal and affirm the decision of the PEPC, which dismissed the petition by Obi and the LP, Tinubu and Shettima have a summary of how the PEPC arrived at its decision.

    “At trial, the appellants called 13 witnesses. Of the 13 witnesses, only three had their witness statements frontloaded with the petition as prescribed under and by virtue of the Electoral Act and consistent judicial authorities.

    “The other 10 witnesses, who though are not adverse witnesses, were purportedly subpoenaed and their witness statements trusted on the lower court and parties, mid-way into the proceedings.

    “These compelled the counsel for the respondents to lead a line of objections, challenging the competence of the subpoenaed witnesses.

    “The court deferred its determination of the said objections, while parties led evidence in support of their respective positions on the merit of the petition before the court. Throughout, the appellants fumed about INEC’s inability to electronically transmit and collate the results in real-time on the IREV.

    “They did not bother to show how this state of affairs had affected their votes or the election, whether substantially or otherwise.

    “In fact, they were unable to tender even a singular copy of the polling unit result given to their polling agents, in which case, to show any form of discrepancy between the collated scores and the scores entered at the respective polling units, which had been admitted by their witnesses as bearing the correct statement of affairs at the election. It is also worth stating that the appellants won the election in 12 states and the FCT.

    “Surprisingly, they challenged the results of the election in the states where they won, as well as, 12 other states won by the presidential candidate of the PDP. As stated earlier, it was the presidential candidate of the PIP that came second in the election.

    “Among the reliefs sought by the petitioners was/is that the 1st petitioner be declared the winner of the election; yet, he only won in 12 states, and scored 24 percent of the votes cast in 15 states and the FCT,

    “In delivering its judgment, the lower court expectedly struck out the vague and nebulous paragraphs of the petition, while also striking out the witness statements of the purportedly subpoenaed witnesses.

    “Instructively, however, the lower court, appreciating that it is not a court of final instance, proceeded to determine the petition on its merit, while itemizing several monumental failures of the petitioners to provide any evidence in support of their much-touted case.

    “While affirming the election and declaration of the 2nd respondent at the referenced presidential election, the lower court also found that the appellants did not prove any of their allegations on the requisite standards of proof.

    “After holding itself bound by the preceding decisions on the subject, the court also identified that contrary to the appellants’ campaign, there was nothing in the Electoral Act which subjects/subjected the validity of an election to the success or otherwise of an upload to the IREV portal, while reiterating the appellants’ own witnesses’ admission that the IREV is not a collation centre.

    “The court also laid bare the failure of the appellants who claimed to be winners of the election, to statistically demonstrate the same to the court by supplying the total number of votes from which they sought a declaration from the court.

    “In short, the entire petition was nothing but a jamboree of sorts, which was prosecuted more in the media than in the courtroom, and the lower court, being a court of law and not of sentiments, dutifully threw away their petition after a painstaking consideration of same.

    “It is against the well-considered judgment of the lower court that the appellants have brought this appeal.”

  • FULL TEXT: Lauretta Onochie knocks Obi over press conference on Tinubu

    FULL TEXT: Lauretta Onochie knocks Obi over press conference on Tinubu

    You have shamelessly just gone on national TV to call on the President of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to reveal his identity to Nigerians and the world.

    This is the most idiotic request, Nigerians have had the misfortune of hearing from one, whose advisers are people with mental health issues.

    Nigeria parades some of the most intelligent people on earth and you disrespect our intelligence in this way? Manipulation is a skill and you are unskilled when it comes to Manipulation.

    If you do not know who President Tinubu is, you have been probably locked up as a prisoner in your warped mind, or you have been living in cuckoo land.

    How can you allow yourself to be used to question the identity of a man, who has been in the limelight since his youth?

    How can you come low to the level of your gullible followers to begin this late in the day, to question the identity of a man who was checked by our security operatives and cleared twice to govern the most successful and cosmopolitan state in Nigeria, Lagos?

    If you can come on national TV, to question the identity of a man who was cleared by all our security operatives to become a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, that’s enough justification and validation for your resounding rejection at the polls in 2023.

    Read Also: Reps screen, confirm Tinubu’s nominees for NDDC

    We watched carefully, to see if a gun was pointed at you as you demand for the identity of a man who was scrutinised and cleared by the Security operatives in Nigeria to run for the highest office of the land. But there was none. You did it on your own.

    What is wrong with you?

    This is like a drowning man grasping at grass. It’s time to stop taking instructions from people who are bitter, angry, envious and who have lost their minds, years ago.

    Our Nigerian youth are more sensible than you think. You won’t be able to manipulate them into turning against their own nation. Your comrades in arms have all tried and failed. This is the only nation we all have.

    WE WILL PROTECT OUR NATION.

    Go home, Peter. You will NEVER be declared President of our great nation. Apart from the simple fact that you came a distant third, you don’t deserve to lead our nation. Your temperament and disposition are not the attributes needed to lead a diverse nation such as Nigeria. You failed Anambra. You can’t even lead the South East! Under your nose, the South East became a war zone. A once vibrant economy built on hardwork, destroyed. Lives and properties, ruined.

    Shelf your desperation. Your ambition is beyond what you deserve. It will never come to pass.

    Finally, you want to know our president’s true identity.  Well, his real name is, Nemesis Jupiter. His father Karma, is the King of Jupiter who married Nemesis’ mother from Mars. When Mr. President was 25 years old, his family came from Jupiter to swim at the Bar-beach in Lagos. They left him at the bar beach to fend for himself. So at 25, he did not go to Primary, Secondary, or any Tertiary institution. I hope you’re happy now.

    Just go home, Peter. Put your feet up and enjoy your retirement and grandchildren as I’m doing.

  • Peter Obi’s names on university certificate, NYSC different, says Arabambi

    Peter Obi’s names on university certificate, NYSC different, says Arabambi

    Abayomi Arabambi, the national publicity secretary of the Lamidi Apapa-led faction of the Labour Party (LP), has alleged a discrepancy in Peter Obi‘s credentials.

    Arabambi made the allegation during an interview on AIT on Wednesday, October 12, while reacting to Obi’s press conference on the controversy over Bola Tinubu’s Chicago State University certificate.

    He noted that he was among the people who screened Obi before the presidential primary of the party.

    According to Arabambi, the name written on Obi’s academic certificate from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), was different from the name written on the NYSC certificate of the former governor.

    Read Also: Clear doubts on CSU saga, Obi tells Tinubu

    He said: “I was part of the people who did screening for him. In the form EC9, we gave him, he wrote that he attended the University of Nigeria Nsukka and he wrote that he finished his youth service but unfortunately, in the final submission of the form he only submitted his school certificate.

    “So something is fishy and I want to say the name the school sent for mobilization was not what was written on his NYSC certificate and he knows that.

    “This destination that he is going, I don’t know what he wants to achieve. We have before the Supreme Court his own petition and the pleadings are not there, you are now calling out someone to come and reveal his true identity. For us, we don’t know the true identity of Peter Obi even in the Labour Party because everything was shrouded in secrecy at that time between him and Abure in Asaba.

    “You know we were rushing because we had just a day to do our presidential primary and that was why he was able to get away with it, but we have it on record that Obi’s name on his NYSC certificate and the one on his University of Nigeria, Nsukka certificate are different.”

  • Obi and Atiku as true sons of their fathers

    Obi and Atiku as true sons of their fathers

    The battle for the soul of Nigeria, a beautiful country of wonderful people by self-serving leaders masquerading as messiahs has always been very fierce. This is why, for those who understand the nature of our crisis of nation-building, it should not come as a surprise that six months after an election won “round and square’ by President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, a victory upheld through a unanimous pronouncement of a five-man judicial panel, Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, his defeated opponents have not only continued to heat up the polity, they appear prepared to pull the roof down over their heads. And this they are doing through propaganda, misinformation, outright lies, and de-legitimization of his government and demonization of his person with the active connivance of a section of the media managed by politicians in journalists’ borrowed robes.

    A journey through memory will show that our nation has for long been haunted by our leaders’ ideology of ‘if I cannot have it, no one else must have it’. Following the rivalry between Nnamdi Azikiwe and Tafawa Balewa over who loved Nigeria most during the constitutional crisis that followed the 1964 disputed election, both lured the military into politics in 1966. Thus, two old men who hated each other ignited the fire that was to throw our beautiful country into a 30 months civil war in which over three million Nigerian youths who had nothing against each other killed themselves.

    It was the rivalry between Emeka Ojukwu and Yakubu Gowon over who was best suited to be Head of State that sparked off the war that finally truncated our political socialisation process; just as it was the rivalry between Ibrahim Babangida who claimed there was no alternative to the Structural Adjustment Programme and Muhammadu Buhari who believed such a policy was anti-Nigeria that eventually destroyed the foundation of our economic development.

    I am sure many Nigerians still remember that it was Babangida, the evil genius and Abacha who fraudulently claimed “for our future they sacrificed their present” that annulled the most credible election in our nation’s history, institutionalized an interim contraption and incarcerated MKO Abiola, the winner of the election who later died in captivity because according to Obasanjo, their accomplice, he “was not the messiah Nigerians were waiting for”!

    Desperate Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar are therefore tarred with the same brush as Azikiwe and Balewa and other aforementioned self-proclaiming messiahs. The facts stare us all in the face.

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    Obi desperate to rule Nigeria after his two terms as governor of Anambra State on the platform APGA, jumped boat and became Atiku Abubakar’s PDP VP candidate in 2019. Sensing that the PDP rotation policy that favoured the emergence of an Igbo as PDP presidential candidate was going to be breached by Atiku, he jumped boat again, this time to the Labour Party.

    And the strategy of his witch doctors and godfathers including Pat Utomi, Charles Oputa, Akin Osuntokun, Dele Farotimi and his sponsors, Pa Edwin Clark, Ayo Adebanjo and Olusegun Obasanjo was to exploit the sentiments of his aggrieved Igbo ethnic group at home and abroad. He was also to play the religion card as he hopped from one big Pentecostal church to the other while Catholic priests in his native Anambra took it upon themselves to mobilise their congregations across town and villages.

    Their other strategies involved the use of the social media and demonisaton of the ruling APC over its choice of Muslim-Muslim ticket by Obimedia who regularly invited into their studios, Christian pastors without the spirit of Christ who were allowed to make incendiary statements.

    ‘Obimedia’ painted a picture of an invincible Obi. But while Obi won 95% of Igbo votes and about 50% of Christian votes especially in the middle belt region, he lost Muslim votes in nearly all the northern states. While of the three leading parties, Obi came a distant third, he insisted his mandate was stolen. As it was in 1964 and 1993, his unquestioning Obidients called on the military to take over while Obasanjo appealed to Buhari to stop counting of votes and institutionalise an Interim Government as he and Babangida did in 1993. When all failed, he decided to go to court to retrieve ‘his stolen mandate’.

    Meanwhile, the president-elect became target of campaign of calumny in the hands of ‘Obidients’ mob and ‘Obimedia’. From faraway USA where he was giving a lecture, Farotimi said to his audience “an indicted drug pushers was about to become president of Nigeria”. Back home on ARISE TV where he is always a toast, he, without restraint called the president names. Others that do not share Farotimi’s views did not escape his caustic tongue. “We Nigerians are shameless”, “the judiciary has ceased to be a court of law”; he has “zero trust in the capacity of the current Chief Justice of Nigeria to deliver justice’, all in the service of his Peter Obi, his messiah.

    It is not difficult to understand Atiku Abubakar’s desperation. He has come to be regarded a serial loser by Nigerians having contested for the presidency in 1993, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019. For the 2023 election, he was so desperate that he was prepared to break all rules including his party constitution which splintered PDP into ANPP, Labour Party and G-5 governors, with the first three garnering about 14m votes to the victorious APC’s  8,794,726.

    Ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar rejected former President Goodluck Jonathan’s admonition that “you, go home and rest or find something else to do, if the people you wanted to serve rejected you”. He similarly rejected the advice of Bola Tinubu, his estranged friend that he should return to Dubai from where he periodically came for election for a well-deserved rest after many heroic electoral defeats. He headed for the court where he lost.

      He decided to take his case to the Supreme Court. As part of preparation for this, he headed to Chicago University in faraway America to secure President Tinubu’s transcript and diploma. Atiku, desperate to hold onto any straw returned to Nigeria and held a press conference where he claimed Tinubu forged his diploma certificate. A section of the media without asking why a man whose transcript showed he was a first class product would forge a certificate, has continued to assault our sensibilities with Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) quoted by an online newspaper last Monday as saying “I am ashamed to see lawyers on television arguing one way or the other on the merits and demerits of the CSU matter,” while “calling out all media that tolerate the nonsense of adjudicating on TV and newspapers”.

    Obi who as importer of labour of other nations contributed to the collapse of our budding industries, the reason we have an exodus of our youths to other nations in search of greener pastures is not is tarred with the same brush as Atiku Abubakar who under Obasanjo presided over the sale of Nigeria’s total investment of $100b to PDP stalwarts for a paltry $1.5b.

    Obi and Atiku are in all respect true sons of their fathers. And as the Yoruba will say “you don’t begrudge a son for resembling his father”.  The tragedy of our country however is a section of the media that often try to mislead the public by calling a dog a monkey.

  • APC to Obi: Nigerians know their President

    APC to Obi: Nigerians know their President

    The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has lampooned the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) Peter Obi.

    The governing party in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka accused the former Anambra Governor of echoing a script allegedly authored in part by his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart Atiku Abubakar.

    Obi at a briefing in Abuja on Wednesday challenged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his identity and academic record, asking the winner of the February 25 presidential election to re-introduce himself to Nigerians.

    But the ruling party faulted Obi’s tirade and likened all his claims to a “broken voice note of Atiku Abubakar, long after his party had dissociated itself from a bogus call to action by the former Vice President.”

    The statement reads: “Like a befuddled mind jolted out of deep slumber, Peter Obi, Labour Party’s presidential candidate, hugged a podium to echo a script authored by Atiku Abubakar, his senior partner and co-traveller on a dark ignominious alley to nowhere.

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    “At his press conference earlier day, Obi blathered on about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s identity and academic record, like a broken voice note of Atiku Abubakar, cutting a pitiful profile as though forced to read a prepared statement by his unimaginative handlers, and mendacious associates in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    “Unwilling to miss out in the orchestrated campaign of calumny against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over his certificate from the Chicago State University, Obi jumped on the tailboard of Atiku’s bandwagon to satisfy his uncanny and insatiable thirst for cheap media attention, long after his Labour Party had dissociated itself from a bogus call to action by the former Vice President.”

    Dismissing Obi’s request for Tinubu to reintroduce himself to Nigerians, the ruling party reminded the Labour Party that the 8.9 million Nigerians who voted for the President during the last general election made their free democratic choice based on their understanding of whom they are voting for.

    According to APC: “Mr Obi must know that President Tinubu does not need a re-introduction. He does not have any identity problem, except the one contrived by the Atikus and Peters of our political firmament.

    “The 8.9 million Nigerians who voted him into office were, and remain, are of his outstanding record and accomplishments as a defender of democracy, freedom, social and economic justice for over three decades. Nigerians know President Tinubu as a thoroughbred professional and former auditor and treasurer of Mobil Nigeria, now ExxonMobil.

    “Nigerians know the President as a former Senator of the Federal Republic where he served as Chairman of the influential Finance and Appropriations Committee.

    “They know him as a former Governor of Lagos State who designed and paved the pathway to the growth and prosperity of present-day Lagos, the 5th largest economy in Africa.

    “Nigerians know who they voted for as the 16th President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. They voted for him with full faith and confidence that his track record and wide competencies would help in the re-engineering of our country’s economy for the good of the greatest number of Nigerians.”

    APC further noted that Nigerians have flatly and serially rejected Atiku Abubakar and denied Peter Obi’s presidential bid in the last election election.

    The ruling party argued that beyond regaling Nigerians with false and embarrassing statistics for which he has gained notoriety, the LP candidate cannot be said to be known for any outstanding performance as Governor of Anambra State for eight years with no worthy legacy standing to his name.

    As for President Tinubu’s academic record at the Chicago State University, APC maintained that “the facts are clear and settled except for those political jaundiced by the trauma of electoral defeat.

    “The Chicago State University has unequivocally stated over and over again, and in a deposition, under oath, by the Registrar, Caleb Westberg that President Tinubu attended the school and graduated with Honours.

    “Nigerians are now familiar with the stellar academic performance of President Tinubu as evidenced by his transcript as released by the CSU with 18As, 10Bs and 3Cs grades.

    “It is disturbing and utterly contemptuous of the courts of our land for the duo of Atiku and Obi to rail and pollute the public space with the very same issues that they have submitted to the court for adjudication. They have continued to perpetrate public deception, operating, simultaneously, as accusers and judges in their base cause.”

    The ruling party condemned the two opposition figures and their cheerleaders for using the media to intimidate the judiciary, incite the public to violence, and disparage Justices of the Appeal and Supreme Court.

    APC well-meaning Nigerians to condemn the anti-democratic and irresponsible conduct of the two opposition leaders.

  • Stop overheating the polity, Igbo group cautions Obi, Atiku

    Stop overheating the polity, Igbo group cautions Obi, Atiku

    A tribal Igbo group, Omaluegwuoku Progressive Initiative (OPI), has called on the presidential candidates of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar to stop the overheating the polity by their utterances and actions.

    The two leaders have since their defeat in the February 25 presidential election embarked on both legal and media attacks on the mandate given to President Tinubu by Nigerians.

    Addressing newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday, October 11, the global president of the group, Ginika Tor, advised the two opposition leaders to calm down, maintaining that the election of Tinubu was divine and popular among Nigerians.

    The group also asked the two opposition figures to stop distracting President Tinubu from delivering the “Renewed Hope Agenda” and take the country to the desired destination.

    Reacting to Obi’s press conference transmitted live on national television – Arise News, the group through its leader, Tor, a member of the defunct All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council lampooned the Labour Party candidate for unnecessarily overheating the polity.

    She said Obi should calm down adding that if God had wanted him (Obi) to be the President, he would have won.

    According to Tor: “How can you ask our president, a man that is the number one man in this country should come out and explain his state? So by now a man who served 8 years as a governor, you don’t know his state? Should tell us his background educationally, is that right?

    “It is an insult to Nigeria as a nation. For you to call out our President who was massively supported, elected, confirmed, and validated as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to come and stand before who? To say he’s from this state, from this country, from this region, from this locality. Does he owe us that? What the president owes us now is to take us to our destination of choice.

    “So, I am disappointed in a man that I respected so much, my brother (Obi), who stood in front to run for Igbos. It may not be his turn now, but it could come in the future. But whatever he does now is going to play out in the future. So let us be cautious and let all Igbos not be misled by this press interview that our brother granted ARISE.

    “We are telling our brother, Obi, calm down, if God wanted you to be there, He would have made you the president. He did not.”

    The group also gave a knock on the PDP candidate and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, whom they said is being affected by the failure of his legal team to successfully prosecute his petition at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) for lacking in substance and direction.

    “Like someone who woke up from a terrible nightmare, Atiku commissioned a fishing expedition to Chicago State University on a wild goose chase for President Bola Tinubu’s certificate. They started by saying President Bola Tinubu did not attend CSU and when CSU confirmed repeatedly that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was their student and graduated with honours in 1979, they changed lanes and started accusing President Bola Tinubu of submitting a fake certificate to INEC in 2022.

    He added: “Atiku Abubakar’s inordinate quest to malign the integrity of Mr President also amounts to destroying or tarnishing the image of Nigeria before the international community all in a bid to perpetuate a lie and make people believe that President Bola Tinubu submitted a forged certificate to INEC.

    Read Also: Clear doubts on CSU saga, Obi tells Tinubu

    “We wish to state that this matter is in court, we chose to refrain from making comments on it but wish to unequivocally debunk the lies being towed by such an elder Statesman who should place patriotism and national interest above his ambition to be the number one man in Nigeria. To seek to impugn the character of Nigerians before the International community in the manner he is going smacks of desperation.

    “We at OPI also want to use this opportunity to appeal to Nigerians to continue showing their understanding and confidence in the ability of Mr. President to solve many of our problems especially economic and security issues confronting the country today.

    “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is determined to tackle all these issues from the root and not apply cosmetic solutions to paper the cracks.

    In the past four months, the Tinubu administration has systematically laid the groundwork for a very prosperous Nigeria where the fruits of prosperity will percolate from the grassroots to the common man. The process may be thorny and harsh, but the destination will bring lasting relief and sustainable prosperity for all.”