Gbagi: Tribunal Orders Substituted Service On Oborevwori, Omo-Agege, Others

The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has ordered a substituted service on the Delta State governor-elect under the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Sheriff Oborevwori, and candidates of other political parties in the March 18 governorship poll.

The order comes on the heel of a suit challenging their eligibility to contest the just concluded governorship election in the State.

Amongst those also to be served are the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC),

Ovie Augustine Omo-Agege, that of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru and their counterpart in Labour Party (LP), Ken Pela.

The Tribunal has also granted that the Defendants be served with Gbagi’s petition through substituted service on the notice board of the tribunal, which has been complied with in Asaba, the State capital.

The Governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Olorogun Barr. Kenneth

Gbagi, who made this known on Wednesday, shortly after the tribunal granted the application, said trial has commenced in ernest for them to show cause that those evidences as contained in his petitions are to the contrary.

The order of the tribunal followed an ex parte application moved by Chief Chris Uche, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Gbagi’s counsel.

The senior lawyer had specifically sought the leave of the tribunal to serve the notice of substituted service on the walls of the notice board of the tribunal on the Defendants by substituted means after all efforts to serve them directly failed.

According to him, “What has played out is that, in the last nine and 10 days, efforts to serve these petition on the runaway faceless candidates have resulted into so much futility in that they have been hiding.

“They have come up with various excuses as some of them are abroad, some of them disappeared into thin air.

“The tribunal faced with time issue has today, granted the application asking that these characters be served these petitions on the notice board of the tribunal.

“By singular arrangement, the trial in ernest has begun for them to show cause that those evidences as contained in those petitions are to the contrary.

“There is no need to run. It is a thing of joy that the tribunal has heeded substituted service which is now and has been pasted on the notice board of the tribunal in Asaba,” he added.

FG approves N1.5trn for construction, rehabilitation of over 700km roads

From Abubakar Yunusa Abuja

The federal executive council

(FEC) has approved the sum of N1.535 trillion for the construction and rehabilitation of eleven roads across the country.

The construction would be enabled under the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) tax credit scheme.

Speaking after the council meeting, Babatunde Fashola, the minister of works and housing, said over N1.5 trillion would be spent on some major roads in Nigeria, totalling over 700 kilometres linking 11 states.

The states include Edo, Delta, Kano, Kaduna, Borno and Adamawa among others.

“The council gave approval for the construction and rehabilitation of 11 roads totalling 737.242 kilometres in the sum of N1, 535, 154, 247, 234.48 under phase II of the NNPC tax credit scheme,” Fashola said.

“Recall that in January this year, the council approved a memo for the NNPC to invest N1.9 trillion on our roads. That amount was then about 44 roads that had been awarded and the balance of those roads that had to go through procurement between then and now are the 11 that have now been approved by the council.”

In a report by TheCable, Fashola said in November 2022 that NNPC Limited has released N196 billion for roads under the tax credit scheme out of the N662 billion approved by the FEC.

He added that the ministry needed N1.2 trillion for the execution of highway projects, but only N198.9 billion has been allocated under the budget envelope in 2023 for the roads.