The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Petition

  • Protesters submit petition to Ban Ki-Moon in Abuja

    Concerned citizens of Plateau State have taken the opportunity of the visit of the Secretary- General of the United Nations (UN), Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, to protest killings in the state.

    The protest, held in Abuja, was targeted at drawing the attention of the UN Secretary-General to the alleged killings of the indigenes by the Fulani herdsmen, especially the recent carnage in Barkin Ladi, which led to the death of over 20 Berom.

    The protesters, who were at the Unity Gate and Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja where Ki-Moon was lodged, got his attention and presented their petition to him in the presence of foreign reporters, who were in the entourage of the UN Secretary-General.

    They displayed banners, which contained thought- provoking inscriptions, such as “How many more do we have to bury?” The banners also bore the photographs of the victims.

    A copy of the petition, which was later made available to reporters, was read by the group’s spokesperson, Mrs. Kate Pam: “We bring you greetings from the traumatised men, women and children of Plateau State. Permit me, sir, to give a summary of the nightmare our lives have become in the last decade.

    “The attack on our villages by Fulani herdsmen, whom we gave our land as pasture for their livestock, started over 10 years ago. Things climaxed on March 10 with the Dogo Nahawa massacre when over 500 men, women and children were killed in a cowardly dawn attack. From then, we have not known peace. Our tormentors have moved from village to village, killing, maiming, looting, shooting and burning.

    “From May this year, the attacks on our villages have increased. The people of Riyom and Barkin Ladi are worst hit. An average of 10 people are killed every week. On May 2, 27 people were killed in a COCIN church in Foron. Among the dead were the pastor, Rev. Luka Gwom and a young woman who wedded two weeks earlier. Two days later, 30 people were killed at Zakupang in Barkin Ladi Local Government.

    “Another attack on Kakpwis village left two men dead. The villages in Barkin Ladi Council have suffered these attacks, at least twice every week. On May 29, over 500 gunmen invaded Shonong village, killing people and torching homes. That attack left over a thousand people displaced, with about 300 houses razed. June was also a nightmare for the people of Barkin Ladi and Riyom. Over 20 villages were attacked. In the first 10 days of July, we experienced a number of attacks.”

     

     

  • Ogun condemns SERAP over petition to UN Rapporteurs

    Ogun State Government has condemned the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) over its petition to the United Nations (UN) Rapporteurs on the state’s sacked education officials.

    In a statement by the Secretary to the State Government, Taiwo Adeoluwa, the government accused SERAP of jumping the gun and crying more than the bereaved.

    “Had SERAP examined and understood the facts that led to the decisions of the Ogun State Civil Service Commission, it would have appreciated  they were not even remotely connected with the constitutionally-guaranteed rights to freedom of thought, conscience and expression or academic freedom, which formed the kernel of its petition to the UN Special Rapporteurs,” the statement said.

    The state government wondered if  SERAP had studied the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) in relation to disciplinary control over civil servants.

    “Had SERAP looked before leaping, it would have realised that by virtue of Paragraph 2, Part II, Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, the Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun,  could not have played any role in the disciplinary measures against the workers,” Adeoluwa said .

    “In the light of the foregoing, government  advised the civil society group  to approach the Ogun State Civil Service Commission for relevant information in order to be well guided,” he added.

  • PDP seeks dismissal of petition against Akpabio

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged the Akwa Ibom State Legislative Election Petitions Tribunal to nullify the proceedings it has so far conducted on the petition challenging the election of former Governor Godswill Akpabio, as the senator representing Akwa Ibom Northwest.

    The PDP, in a fresh motion filed before the tribunal, sitting in Abuja, argued that the tribunal lacked the jurisdiction to hear the petition on the ground that the petitioner wrongly applied for the issuance of pre-hearing notices.

    The party also prayed tribunal to dismiss the petition, arguing that it is deemed abandoned since the petitioners failed to comply with the legal requirement for the application of pre-hearing notices.

    The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Inibehe Okori, and his party are challenging the election of Akpabio, who is Minority Leader of the 8th Senate.

    PDP, named as the third defendant in the petition, argued that the petitioners failed to properly apply for the pre-hearing session, as required by law, before going into the hearing of the petition.

  • Osun Assembly: we received only Oloyede’s petition

    Osun Assembly: we received only Oloyede’s petition

    OSUN State House of Assembly has denied receiving any petition against Governor Rauf Aregbesola for alleged financial mismanagement prior to the one sent by the state’s serving judge, Justice Folahanmi Oloyede.

    Its Speaker, Najeem Salaam, said this at a plenary in response to the claim by the spokesman of the Civil Coalition for Emancipation of Osun State, Mr. Seun Adeoye, on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.

    Adeoye claimed that its group sent a petition to the house earlier and was not treated.

    Salaam said there was no record showing that any petition was sent before Oloyede’s own, saying some other petitions came in form of letters only after the one sent by the judge.

    He said: “It is unfortunate that some people are fond of  name calling,  as claimed that some other petitions have been sent to the house before the one sent by Justice Oloyede.

    “It is a blatant lie that any petition had been sent earlier. We have the record of what we are doing in the house. The first petition we received on this issue was the one sent by the judge.

    “Though, all others have been following, but their prayers are almost the same. Must we continue to treat petitions alone when we have several other things to do, especially when the contents of those petitions are the same?

    “For that reason, I want to implore the people to be careful and say things the way they are, rather than scoring cheap political points”, he said.

    Salaam added that the judge’s petition was treated with fairness, in line with the mandate given to the state legislature.

    He stressed that the Assembly would continue to follow the path of justice in line with the mandate and responsibilities of the legislative arm of government.

    Justice Oloyede sent a petition to the Assembly calling for the impeachment of the governor and his deputy, Mrs. Titilayo Laoye-Tomori.

  • Useni cautions Shagaya on petition

    The lawmaker representing Plateau South, Senator Jeremiah Useni, has cautioned his kinsman, Gen. John Shagaya, on his memo to the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.

    Shagaya reportedly sent a memo to the APC national chairman, alleging a plot by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to destroy APC’s stronghold in Plateau State through the election tribunal.

    The memo followed the dismissal of his petition by the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in Jos for lack of merit.

    Useni, the benefactor of the tribunal judgment, said Shagaya’s memo did not reflect the character of a retired general and a seasoned politician, who should concede defeat.

    Senator Useni, who reacted through his media aide, Abubakar Ateeku, said: “The attention of Senator (Gen) J.T. Useni’s media office has been drawn to a letter written to the National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, by Gen. John Shagaya and published in the media.

    “Useni found Shagaya’s letter as unfortunate, unnecessary and uncalled for, by trying to discredit a tribunal set up by the President of the Court of Appeal.

    “I expected that as a politician, Gen. Shagaya should have toed the path of honour by conceding the defeat he suffered at the polls and at the tribunal.

    “The tribunal worked on the fact laid before it and dismissed the petition of my opponent for lack of merit, not because it  compromised as Gen. Shagaya claimed in his memo.

    “Gen. Shagaya ought to blame himself for his failure to prove his allegation of electoral fraud beyond reasonable doubt, as expected of him, instead of blaming the judges.”

    Useni urged the APC national chairman to ignore Shagaya’s memo on the grounds that it was an attempt to cast aspersions on innocent judges for discharging their duties as their professional calling instructed them to do and because it was an attempt to undermine the credibility of the judicial system.

     

     

  • Wike, PDP, INEC fail to stop hearing of APC’s, Peterside’s petition

    •Tribunal refuses allegation of petitioners’ fee default

    For the umpteenth time yesterday,  the Rivers State governorship election petitions tribunal rejected request to dismiss the petition filed by the All Progressives Party (APC) and its candidate at the last governorship election in the state, Dakuku Peterside against the outcome of the election.

    The Justice Mu’azu Pindiga-led  tribunal held, in two rulings yesterday, that the joint request by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the election, Nyesome Wike for the dismissal of the petition, was misplaced.

    INEC, PDP and Wike had, in separate motions argued on Friday by their lawyers, F. O. Orbih, Ken Njemanze and Emmanuel Ukala (all Senior Advocates) sought the dismissal of the petition on the ground that the petitioners failed to comply with the provision of Paragraph 18(1) of the First Schedule of the Electoral Act 2010 by not paying the stipulated fee of N100 for their application for the issuance of pre-hearing notices (Form TF 007)  to parties.

    They contended that by not paying the fee, the petitioners were yet to ignite the tribunal’s jurisdiction and are deemed to have abandoned their petition, leaving the tribunal with the option of dismissal.

    But yesterday, the tribunal upheld the argument by petitioners’ lawyer, Akin Olujinmi (SAN), to the effect that ?application for the issuance of pre-hearing notice was not part of documents for which a filing fee must be paid as prescribed in the First Schedule to the Electoral Act.

    The tribunal also held that contrary to the argument by INEC, PDP and Wike, the APC and Peterside validly applied for the issuance of the pre-hearing notice (Forms TF 007 and TF 008) within seven days after the conclusion of exchange of processes by parties.

    “There is no defect in the pre-hearing notice. The tribunal therefore holds that the application filed by the 1st respondent (INEC) is hereby discountenanced and accordingly dismissed,” Justice Pindiga, who read the ruling, said.

    The tribunal’s decision yesterday is one of such decisions by the tribunal in series of applications filed in the past by INEC, PDP and Wike to prevent the hearing of the petition by APC and Peterside.

    The tribunal has however, fixed tomorrow for ruling on five motions filed by parties to the petition. Two were filed by the petitioners, two by Wike and one by INEC.

    In their motion filed on July 16, the petitioners want the tribunal to direct that all notices of preliminary objection already filed and yet to be filed by the respondents, should be raised in their final written addresses after the hearing of the petition.

    The petitioners, in the second motion filed on July 17, want the tribunal to order INEC to move all materials,  used for the conduct of the April 11 governorship election, to Abuja in view of their inability to inspect them in Rivers State.

    The petitioners have consistently accused INEC of working with the PDP and Wike to frustrate their inspection of the election materials despite a subsisting order of the tribunal made on June 11, directing INEC to allow the petitioners inspect the election materials.

    Wike, in his motion filed on July 11, is seeking order for stay of execution of the tribunal’s ruling of June 11 granting leave to the petitioners to inspect the election materials, pending his appeal against the ruling.

    In his second motion dated August 1, Wike is seeking order striking out all the witness statements on oath filed by the petitioners for not disclosing the full names and identities of the deponets

    INEC, in its sole motion filed on June 30, wants the tribunal to dismiss the petitioners’ reply to its response to the petition.

     

  • Edo: Strange objects found in Bishop’s house

    Few days after Bishop Ezekiel Orhevba petitioned the police over alleged plot to kidnap and kill him over his petition to President Muhammadu Buhari on the state of psychiatric hospital in Benin City, two strange objects were on Wednesday morning discovered at the entrance and exit door of the residence of Bishop Ezekiel Orhevba.

    A statement was placed on the obejcts at the back which read “Ancient juju from ancient shrine for Ezekiel Oise Orhevba. See and, touch and die. If you have solution to all moves and attacks, you have no solution to this mother of all destructions.”

    Orhevba said he had already informed the police and was waiting for their response.

    “I came from Abuja late last night and this morning, it was people from outside who alerted me that something strange was there, which I will call juju, when police come, they will give it a better name.

    “I have an issue with some people in Federal Psychiatric Hospital; I think they should know something about this.

    “I have a petition against six people there, so there are proofs, these are exhibits against them. They think they can stop me from going to the police and maybe out of the case so that they can walk as freemen but I am not deterred and victory is sure.”

    It would be recalled that Bishop Ezekiel Oise Orhevba has passionately appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to save the Federal Psychiatric Hospital, Uselu – Benin from what he termed: “its present irretrievably monumental rot.”

    According to Bishop Orhevba petition to President Buhari, stated that unless the President intervenes in the affairs of the more than 50 years old Hospital, chances are that “it will experience a total ruin and abandonment.”

    The Bishop, whose petition was further supported by a 22- paragraph affidavit to drive home his points, noted that there has been no peace in the hospital for over three years now.

    “There has been steady retrogression of the hospital. The hospital is in total darkness,” he stated.

    He further stated: “You can see the gardeners/landscape attendants using cutlasses to mow the grass instead of the former practice of using mechanical lawn mowers.

    “Food for patients is now cooked with firewood instead of gas, thereby leading to massive environment pollution in a Psychiatric Medical facility, where convalescing patients are not supposed to inhale noxious gas.

    “The hospital that has about 250 beds for patients hardly sees up to 50 patients now due to the unpleasant and unfriendly condition of the hospital.

    While alleging that there is a “terrorist gang” involved in transcendental sleaze in the hospital, Bishop Orhevba claimed that since October 2014, the Medical Director, Dr. S. O. Olotu had sacked about eight senior members of staff of the hospital who had never had any query over framed up charges, adding that the purported sack of the officers concerned was not approved by either the minister or the permanent secretary.

    Bishop Orhevba equally alleged that Dr. Olotu who is not a member of the cooperative society of the Hospital, forcibly dissolved the executive to put his own puppet.

    He therefore called on the President to help end the reign of corruption and impunity going on at the Federal Psychiatric Hospital Benin so that the avowed manifesto of change for which President Buhari is globally acclaimed will not be aborted.

     

  • Osun Assembly’s panel dismisses judge’s petition against Aregbesola

    Osun Assembly’s panel dismisses judge’s petition against Aregbesola

    •Speaker says Oloyede betrayed judicial conduct

    The Osun State House of Assembly has, on the recommendations of a seven-man committee headed by Mr. Akintunde Adegboye, dismissed the petition filed by Justice Folahanmi Oloyede against Governor Rauf Aregbesola.

    It also recommended the petitioner for sanction through the state Judicial Service Commission.

    The House, in a motion of 25 against one, as moved by its Majority Leader, Mr. Timothy Owoeye, and seconded by Mr. Abdulahi Ibrahim, representing Iwo State Constituency, adopted the committee’s recommendations.

    Among the adopted recommendations, the embattled judge was found wanting of abandoning the petition for non-appearance, lack of evidence as well as premising her petition on rumours and hearsay.

    The Assembly’s Speaker, Najeem Salaam, at the plenary, said the embattled Justice Oloyede had betrayed the oath of her office.

    He added that the judge lost her worth to be a judge in the temple of justice.

    The Speaker said the violation of processes and procedure as spelt out by the constitution and judicial code of conduct, through the judge’s partisan and emotional disposition on the allegations raised “against the government she is serving, has shown her as unfit for the bench”.

    Salaam, while explaining why he allowed the petition to sail through, noted that the state parliament under his watch elected to look into the petition not to gag Oloyede’s freedom of expression in accordance with sections 128 and 129 of the Constitution, which empowered the legislature to investigate any public petition forwarded to the House.

    The Speaker noted that the issue of impeachment raised in the petition was a mere opinion of the petitioner, not the position of the law.

    He noted that the parliament was conscious of the letter and the spirit of Section 188 raised by some lawyers, but added that a petition raised by the judicial officer could not have been substituted for the position of the one-third of the Assembly members capable of intimating impeachment article.

    He said: “We appreciate the views of the two legal luminaries who ventilated their opinions on the conduct of Justice Oloyede and the move of the parliament to tolerate the petition at all.

    “But having found no precedence for the action of the judge, the Parliament under me chose to set up the committee to investigate the content of the petition.

    “But we are surprised that the judge lost the courage to come forward to defend the allegations leveled against the duo of the governor and his deputy; suggesting that she is not worth her onion. It shows that if an individual sues the government to her court, the ruling could be preempt.”

    The Speaker said he would soon hold talk with the board of the state’s Civil Service Commission, the Chams consultancy in charge of workers’ documents, Head of Service and labour leaders on the issue of ghost workers and regime of wage payment with a view to debriefing them.

    He said the parliament would be guided on its intervention on the issue of delayed salaries, government/workers’ dispute and the sustainability of the wage regime and other related issues.

    Salaam hailed labour leaders for coming to the negotiation table, adding that the culture of negotiating on strike at every occasion should be reviewed for collective good.

  • Gombe tribunal dismisses petition

    The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Gombe State yesterday dismissed a petition filed by the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and its governorship candidate, Jafar Abubakar, challenging the election of Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the April 11 poll.

    The petition was nullified and dismissed following doubts over the  competence of the petitioner’s counsel, Mr. Sam Kagbo.

    The tribunal Chairman, Justice Mohammed Sirajo, held that following Section 1 (2) and (24) of the Legal Practitioner’s Act, “only persons whose names are on the roll of lawyers can practise as barristers or solicitors.”

    He said the name ‘Sam Kagbo’, as used by the petitioner’s counsel, was not on the roll of lawyers.

    Justice Sirajo held that the petition remained competent, as it was signed by the petitioner, Jafar Abubakar and Sam Kagbo, adding that the tribunal was bound to its unanimous ruling of July 9, “which still subsists.”

    He said the processes filed in respect of the case, including the proceedings conducted by Sam Kagbo on behalf of the petitioner, were also nullified for want of competence.

     

     

  • Oyegun exonerates APC from petition

    Oyegun exonerates APC from petition

    ALL Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman Chief John Odigie-Oyegun said yesterday that the party was not responsible for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) invitation and interrogation of the Senate President’s wife, Mrs. Toyin Saraki.

    Senator Joseph Waku last week accused APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the party of masterminding the invitation of Mrs. Saraki for alleged money laundering.

    Addressing reporters at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja yesterday, Odigie-Oyegun insisted that his party was innocent of all the accusations leveled against it on the matter.

    He said: “I want to assure you without doubting that the APC absolutely has nothing to do with this. She is not on trial by the way. It is an investigation that has to do with the Senate President’s wife.

    “You saw all the speculations in the media. As a matter of fact, this could have been triggered by the opposition party itself; the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has its branch in Kwara state.

    “They have to be nudged to denounce that they were not the originators of the petition or whatever triggered this investigation.

    “We are completely, totally, absolutely innocent of it. What we have not done like in the PDP days, is to rush and interfere with the processes of the EFCC, which our president has made quite clearly: everybody should be ready to carry out their legitimate functions without interference.

    “The EFCC is doing what it thinks it has to do.”

    Odigie-Oyegun explained that the Southeast has not lost out in the sharing formula of the House of Representatives.

    According to him, the sharing process was yet to close with the emergence of Femi Gbajabiamila as Majority Leader. He noted that all the geo-political zones would be taken into consideration.

     His words: “Sharing process is not over, even in the House of Representative. It is not yet over and all these will be taking into consideration when other positions in the House are been distributed. I have no doubt at all about that.”

    On the Southwest producing two principal officers in the House, Odigie-Oyegun said: “In real life, there is no perfection. In real life, there are ups and down. What is important is that the system functions.”