News
INEC asks court to disregard Obi’s petition against Tinubu
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has asked the presidential election petition tribunal to dismiss a petition filed by the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
Obi and the LP filed a petition challenging the victory of Bola Tinubu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the president-elect.
In the petition marked CA/PEPC/03/2023 Livy Ozoukwu, lead counsel to LP and its presidential candidate, contended that Tinubu “was not duly elected by the majority of the lawful votes cast at the time of the election”.
They also claimed that Shettima had a double nomination in contravention of the electoral act.
The petitioners asserted that the election was marred by rigging and manipulations adding that the INEC violated its own regulations when it announced the results when at the time of the announcement, the total polling unit results had yet to be fully scanned, uploaded, and transmitted electronically as required by the electoral act.
In a response filed on Monday night, INEC, through its lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud, said the reliefs sought by Obi and his party are not grantable.
The commission prayed the court to either “dismiss or strike out the petition for being grossly incompetent, abusive, vague, nebulous, generic, general, non-specific, ambiguous, equivocal, hypothetical and academic”.
INEC argued that the grounds of the petition are vague.
The commission further discredited the petitioners over the claim that Tinubu was not elected by the majority of lawful votes cast.
The electoral body argued that the petitioners’ prayer to declare that Obi scored the majority of lawful votes cast at the election and be declared winner was defective for failure to join necessary parties and for lack of requisite particulars and pleading to support same.
The commission said Obi cannot be returned as elected, “not having polled majority of the lawful votes cast at the election and /or secured one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all states in the federation and the FCT”.
On the issue of non-representation, INEC said the petitioners did not have polling agents in all the polling units across Nigeria as they only submitted a list of 134, 874 polling agents which are 41, 972 short of the 176, 846 polling units across Nigeria.
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have arrested Yahaya Bello, former governor of Kogi state.
TheCable understands that Usman Ododo, Kogi governor, brought Bello to Abuja this morning and invited EFCC to come pick him up.
The EFCC had charged the former governor with alleged money laundering, breach of trust, and misappropriation of N80.2 billion.
In April, the commission declared Bello wanted after several attempts to arrest him proved unsuccessful.
On August 20, the court of appeal in Abuja ordered Bello to surrender himself for arraignment.
Ola Olukoyede, EFCC chairman, would later allege that Bello withdrew $720,000 from Kogi coffers to pay his child’s school fees in advance.
The anti-graft agency also filed a 19-count charge against Bello over alleged money laundering.
However, the arraignment was stalled due to the absence of the former governor.
In May, Abdulwahab Mohammed, counsel to Bello, told the court that the former governor’s whereabouts remain unknown and that he was nurturing some safety concerns.
On August 20, the court of appeal in Abuja ordered Bello to surrender himself for arraignment.
Dele Oyewale, EFCC spokesperson, had said the court’s ruling was a “vindication” of the EFCC’s stance that Bello must face trial.
Sources had told TheCable that Bello has been hiding in plain sight — holed up in the “protective custody” of the Kogi state government — since he was declared wanted by the EFCC.
President Bola Tinubu has asked the house of representatives to confirm Olufemi Oluyede as the substantive chief of army staff (COAS).
Tinubu’s request is contained in a letter read by Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house of representatives, during plenary on Tuesday.
Tinubu said Oluyede’s confirmation is in accordance with the provision of section 218(2) of the 1999 constitution as amended and section 18(1) of the Armed Forces Act.
The president said the army chief’s contribution to the military and Nigeria makes him “well-suited” for the role.
He said Oluyede has been professional in his duties, adding that his confirmation should be done “expeditiously”.
On October 30, Tinubu appointed Oluyede as the acting COAS following the prolonged illness of Taoreed Lagbaja, the former army chief.
The Ebonyi State Governor, Francis Nwifuru, has suspended the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Moses Ekuma and his Housing and Urban Development counterpart, Francis Ori.
It was gathered that they were suspended on Monday during the State Executive Council meeting in Abakaliki, the state capital.
A statement issued by the Commissioner for Information and State Orientation, Jude Okpor, which was sighted by our correspondent on Tuesday morning, read, “Following cases of gross misconduct and dereliction of duties by some government officials and matters related thereto, the Chairman of Council directed the indefinite suspension of the Honourable Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development and three months suspension of the Honourable Commissioner for Health respectively.”
It was also learnt that the development may be connected to the alleged theft of pieces of property belonging to the Ministry of Health by its officials and the reported underperformance of the Housing and Urban Development commissioner and his shoddy handling of the Amaeze Housing Scheme in the Ishielu Local Government Area of the state.
Recall that the governor was in the health ministry’s premises on Saturday night and met a scene where six officials were caught allegedly diverting government materials.
He, therefore, ordered their arrest and eventual prosecution.
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Bodex F. Hungbo, SPMIIM is a multiple award-winning Nigerian Digital Media Practitioner, Digital Strategist, PR consultant, Brand and Event Expert, Tv Presenter, Tier-A Blogger/Influencer, and a top cobbler in Nigeria.
She has widespread experiences across different professions and skills, which includes experiences in; Marketing, Media, Broadcasting, Brand and Event Management, Administration and Management with prior stints at MTN, NAPIMS-NNPC, GLOBAL FLEET OIL AND GAS, LTV, Silverbird and a host of others
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