17 minute read
Politics
By Christiana Ekpa
The Court of Appeal in Makurdi has ordered the All Progressives Congress (APC) to conduct a fresh primary election in 11 out of the 23 local government areas of Benue State for the nomination of its gubernatorial candidate.
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The affected local governments are, Gboko, Gwer- East, GwerWest, Guma, Katsina-Ala, Logo, Makurdi, Otukpo, Ukum, Tarka and Vandeikya.
The court also asked that APC conduct the primaries within 14 days and that INEC recognize the winner after adding election results from the 12 local government areas.
The development is coming barely 33 days before the 2023
2023: We will mobilise our members, votes for Peter Obi – NCP
By Musa Baba Adamu
Barely 33 days to the presidential election, the National Conscience Party, NCP, has said it will mobilize votes for the Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate Peter Obi.
This was disclosed in a statement on Monday by the National Chairman of the NCP, Yinusa Tanko.
Tanko said NCP members had studied the Labour Party’s manifesto and the characters of Obi and his running mate, Datti Baba Ahmed and believed both have what it takes to earn their trust and confidence.
He explained that Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, has all it takes to earn the trust and confidence of his party.
“We will mobilise our members and supporters nationwide to canvas and vote for the Labour Party candidate because we share their philosophy and manifesto.
“We have studied both the party’s manifesto and the characters of the ex-governor Peter Obi and Datti Baba Ahmed carefully, ” he stated.
Court of Appeal nullifies APC guber primaries in Benue
general elections.
The judgement followed an appeal filed by one of the aspirants on the platform of the APC, Professor Terhemba Shija, arguing that there was no valid primary election held on 27th May 2022 by APC for the nomination of its gubernatorial candidate to warrant Fr Alia emerging as the winner.
The court, after evaluating evidence submitted by Professor Shija, agreed with his submissions.
However, the Court agreed with APC on the rerun of 9th June 2022, which took part in 12 local governments of the states, saying it was valid and still stands.
Meanwhile, the court dismissed Senator Barnabas Gemade’s appeal and upheld the judgement of the Federal High Court, which dismissed his suit against Fr Alia for being statute-barred.
NNPP: Collecting security votes as governor, pure stealing – Kwankwaso
Ogun 2023: Appeal court reinstates Otegbeye, other ADC candidates
By Ikechukwu Okaforadi
The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), presidential candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso on Monday faulted the collection of security votes by state governors.
Kwankwaso said he never collected security votes while he was governor of Kano State for eight years because it would amount to stealing.
The NNPP presidential candidate disclosed this during a town hall meeting in Abuja.
According to Kwankwaso: “Security vote is stealing, that was why we never took security votes the eight years I was a governor. security starts with you as a person. I will do whatever it takes for our house to be in order in the area of foreign policy.
“Government must do better than what we have seen today with respect to the rule of law,” he insisted.
By Christiana Ekpa
The Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan, the Oyo State on Monday reinstated Biyi Otegbeye as the governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Ogun State.
The court set aside the judgement of the Federal High Court in Abeokuta, which initially ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to expunge other 23 Ogun ADC Assembly candidates from its list.
The court, in a unanimous judgement delivered by Justice M. A. Adumein held that the lower court has no jurisdiction to adjudicate on the suit filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) before the trial court challenging the primaries conducted by the ADC.
The court subsequently set aside the decision and all the orders made by the trial court for want of jurisdiction.
The court awarded the cost of N50,000 in favour of the appellants.
Abia 2023: APC guber candidate, Uche Ogah tasks citizens on PVC collection
By Ikechukwu Okaforadi
The All Progressives Congress, APC, gubernatorial candidate in Abia State, Dr Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah, on Sunday, called on eligible citizens and residents of the state to collect their Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, to enable them to exercise the civic rights and responsibilities in the forthcoming elections.
Ogah, a former minister, made the call on Sunday on the backdrops of the recent declaration of Monday and Tuesday as public holidays by the state government.
Recall that the government had, in a release by the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Barrister Chris Ezem, on Saturday, announced Monday 23rd and Tuesday 24th January 2023 as public holidays for PVC collection.
Dr Ogah tasked the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to ensure adequate logistics are provided to fasten all processes in achieving smooth collection of PVCs.
INEC has extended the deadline for registered voters to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) until Sunday, January 29, 2023, from the initial January 22.
The commission also vowed to punish any staff found to have extorted or discriminated against any registered voter in the issuance of the PVCs.
The National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Festus Okoye, disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja.
Uche Ogah
PDP left northeast to Boko Haram - Lawan tells campaign rally in Bauchi
By Musa Baba Adamu
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan on Monday took a swipe again at the opposition People’s Democratic Party(PDP) alleging that while the party was in power, it abandoned the people in the northeast to Boko Haram insurgency.
Lawan said it was not until President Muhammadu Buhari came into power before the region was eventually liberated from the clutches of Boko Haram.
The Senate President thanked President Buhari for the many benefits which the northeast enjoyed from his government.
Speaking at the APC Presidential Campaign Rally which was attended by Buhari in Bauchi, the Senate President said: “Mr President, the PDP abandoned the northeast to Boko Haram, to insurgency.
“PDP abandoned us until you came into office. In 2015, when you were sworn in, your first task was to liberate us. Thank you very much that you did.
“Mr President, we in the northeast are probably the most beneficiaries of your administration. Infact, we were the first to start enjoy your administration more than any other part of Nigeria because BoKo Haram was technically defeated immediately you came into office and you appointed our son Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai and of course Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar as Chief of Air Staff.
“They did so well that your government gave the security that we are enjoying today. The northeast, from 2015 particularly, enjoyed the most important appointments in your administration. That is to say that you are a northeasterner.
“This crowd is a testimony. Everywhere you go is Buhari, in the northeast.”
Lawan made similar accusation about two weeks ago at a campaign rally in Yobe when he blasted PDP to have allowed Boko Haram insurgency to fester while it was in power.
He criticised PDP to have denied the existence of Boko Haram and allowed the insurgency to blossom instead of doing the needful and curb the menace.
PAGE 16 POLITICS
By Musa Baba Adamu
The Labour Party (LP) senatorial candidate for Plateau Central Zone, Hon. Melchior Gowon, has given the party three days to publicly renounce and correct what he called ‘mischievous publication/ fake news’.
The candidate was particularly referring to the picture of Chief Garba Pwul (SAN), which appeared on the programme of event during the LP presidential campaign rally in Jos last Friday, as the purported senatorial candidate
Ganduje paid Kwankwaso’s N18bn scholarships debt – Kano commissioner
By Ikechukwu Okaforadi
The administration of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State has paid the N18 billion scholarship debts incurred by the previous administration of Rabiu Kwankwaso.
Kano State Commissioner for Information, Mallam Mohammed Garba, made this assertion on the foreign scholarship programme initiated by Kwankwaso before leaving office in 2015.
“When we came into power in 2015, we met huge unpaid foreign and domestic scholarships left behind by the Government of Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and this gave us a lot of problems. But we [have] settled about N18 billion so far,” Garba said.
He said there was over five million euro debt in Cyprus alone, leading to institutions in the country writing to Governor Ganduje.
According to him: “We have to sit down and negotiate a way out with Cyprus to reduce the debts. We [have] paid N600 million; N300 million in the beginning and another N300 million [now]. You can see how committed we are to settling all the scholarships [debts] left behind by the government of Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.”
The commissioner insisted that the scholarship programme was haphazardly created and without due diligence.
“If Gawuna is elected as governor of Kano State, he will certainly look at the programme [and] fine-tune it,” he said, noting that beneficiaries would henceforth be those studying courses that will be beneficial to the state “like engineers, and other relevant courses, not historians and their likes.
Plateau LP senatorial candidate threatens to sue party over ‘fake publication’
for the party.
Gowon, while briefing journalists in Jos, the state capital, said he needed to protest and expressed his disenchantment over the development; describing it as “fraudulent”.
He said, “I am here to express my protest to the publication in the magazine of the Labour Party presidential campaign rally, Jos 2023, circulated at the Rwang Pam Township Stadium, Jos on the 20th January 2023, titled ‘A new Nigeria is possible’.
“This is a conspiracy against me and against the interest of the people of Plateau Central Zone. It is my picture and name that is supposed to be in the magazine, not that of Chief Garba Pwul (SAN).
“This is simple; you journalists and let every Nigerian listening to this press briefing Google the INEC portal and see the INEC final list of candidates nominated by the 18 political parties for all elections published and posted on 4th October 2022 for the forthcoming 2023 general elections and you would notice that the senatorial candidate for the Labour Party for the Plateau Central Zone is Melchior Mukilama Gowon, that is me and not one Chief Garba Pwul SAN.”
Gowon further stated that he has already discussed this with his legal team, stressing that he would take every legal step to “stop and correct the falsehood”.
“What they are doing is an attempt to mislead my teaming supporters”, he maintained.
“Consequently, I call on Labour Party Plateau State Chapter, the Mobilization Committee of the Labour Party presidential campaign rally 2023, and the National Headquarters of the party to take immediate step within three days from the day of this press briefing to come out and renounce and correct this mischievous publication/fake news, particularly the picture and name of Chief Garba Pwul SAN on page 11 of the programme of the event which runs contrary to the INEC final list published on the 4th of October 2022 containing my name.
Efforts to get the reaction of the State Chairman of LP, Hon. Grace Zamfara, were unsuccessful.
Executive Director, Distribution Systems, Storage and Retailing Infrastructure, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Mr Ogbugo Ukoha (L) with the Secretary and Legal Adviser, NMDPRA, Dr Joseph Tolorunse, during the NMDPRA’s Stakeholders Consultation Forum on Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulations, yesterday in Abuja. Photo:
2023 elections: I will implement restructuring – Atiku promises Bayelsans
By Christiana Ekpa
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, has assured the people of Bayelsa State and Nigeria that he will engage in efforts that will end insecurity in the country if elected as President of Nigeria in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.
He also promised that his government will focus on restructuring the country.
The former vice president made the promises at the presidential campaign rally of PDP on Monday, at the Oxbow Lake Pavilion, in Yenagoa, the state capital.
He reminded the people that from the beginning of democracy Bayelsa State has been a bastion for PDP, and there was no need to leave the party for an opposition party because the state is one with the party.
He said: “The future of the state and Nigeria is tied to PDP. I will unify this country because we have never been this divided. I will give everyone a sense of belonging if elected.”
“I will restore security, tackle the economy of the country; if you recall, from 1999 to 2015, we were the biggest economy of Africa, but since the inception of the APC the country has suffered economically. There’ll be no more ASUU strikes when I am in power, and our students will continue to grow educationally like their peers in other countries.”
He further stated: “The people of the Niger Delta region need more restructuring than any part of the country. You will not need any government assistance at all times. I will need your support, and I assure you that we will lift the living condition of the people in the country.”
Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, reminded that the PDP has once produced a president of the country from the state, adding that the only candidate who has keyed into what the Ijaws and Bayelsans want is Atiku, who has always talked about resource control.
He said: “No other candidate has talked about the feelings of the people. Here in Bayelsa, they came with guns but today no more guns, it’s BVAS. We will defeat them all in the elections. The youths and women are all with us and they can’t be deceived.”
Governor of Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom, who is the chairman of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, PCC, stated that all other voices apart in the Niger Delta region apart from PDP are strange voices. “We follow the voice of our leader, which is to follow PDP,” he stated.
Senator Seriake Dickson, also assured Atiku: “As you have all seen that Bayelsa State will continue to be a state ruled by PDP since 1999, it will not change.”
He added that Bayelsa represents the soul of the PDP. “Atiku is an original proponent of restructuring and he has been very supportive of this state,” he said.
PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2023 PAGE 17 POLITICS
Shehu Abubakar, Maiduguri
The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in Borno State has complained of the persistent destruction of its campaign structures and attacks on its candidates in the state, allegedly by the governing All Progressives Congress (APC).
“The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) Borno state chapter finds it highly imperative to draw the attention of the good people of Borno to the dangerous political trends capable of plunging our dear state into wanton violence and disruption of the emergent fragile peace that we have collectively fought for,” the party complained in a statement signed
I’ll return Kano to trade and industry hub if elected - Obi assures electorate
By Musa Baba Adamu
The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi and his campaign train arrived at the North’s commercial nerve center, Kano on Sunday, where he assured the people that Kano will regain its old enviable status in trade and industry.
Obi told the jubilant crowd in the ancient city that he drove round Kano before coming to address them and he found all the industries in the City shutdown, promising that if elected in February, he and Datti will restore them.
He said that the trading status of Kano will return and will remain the center of cash, adding “Before, if you want cash, you come to Kano, but what you see today is poverty everywhere. Datti and I will restore the old glory of Kano.
“We will secure and unite Nigeria where people will be proud to say I am a Nigerian. We will kill the sentiments of tribes and religions which they have been using to deceive us.”
The former Anambra Governor told the people amidst shouts of ‘Sai Obi’ that under the Presidency of he and Datti, there will be one Nigeria where the people will be free to move and do their business unmolested.
Obi said that they will be able to do what they are preaching because they have done it in public and private sectors and succeeded, referring to his record in Anambra state where he was governor for eight years and no kobo was missing.
“Datti and I will not allow wastages. We will do exactly what we are saying”, Obi stressed.
He told the people that this election is going to be about character you can trust not people who will come to talk about religion and tribe which they have been using to deceive us.
2023: Borno NNPP alleges APC
destroying its campaign structures
by its State Chairman of the party, Barr. Mohammed Mustapha, and circulated to newsmen.
“On Friday, January 20, 2023, the campaign billboards of our Presidential candidate, His Excellency Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and that of the Borno Central Senatorial candidate, His Excellency Attom Magira Tom, were violently attacked and destroyed in strategic locations across the Maiduguri Metropolis and other major communities within the constituency,” the party said.
“This attack on our campaign structures was coming barely two weeks after similar destruction was carried out on the same number of billboards,” the party complained further.
“As law-abiding members of a party whose principles have resonated with the electorates, we did not call for counter-violence,” saying, “Instead, we urged our teaming supporters to remain calm and law-abiding while the leadership of NNPP reported the matter to the concerned security agencies.”
The party expressed shock that “The Friday incident of an attack on our billboard was carried out in a coordinated fashion on the night of the very day we replaced our duly authorised billboards.”
The party alleged: “It is even more saddening to note that the APC and its thugs did not only destroy our billboards, but they also went ahead to replace the banners on them with those of some of their own APC candidates, even though we have paid the Borno state government all the required fees for the advertisement permit.”
The party listed some of the locations where its billboards were destroyed within the Maiduguri metropolis alone.
“For the avoidance of doubts, we want the public to fact-check our claims by visiting the WestEnd Roundabout, the Dandal Police station Roundabout, the Post Office Roundabout, Opposite Metro Police Division, the Adjacent Government College Maiduguri, Adjacent FGC Monguno, Adjacent Umaru Shehu General Hospital, Airport Roundabout, LM Bakery Junction at GidanMadara, Bulunkutu YanNono, Bama Road/Lagos Street Junction, Adjacent UBA along Sir Kashim Road, and host of many other places to verify our claims.”
NNPP alleged further: “We want to kindly remind the general public that this attitude of violence by the APC and its government did not start today.”
The Acting Director General of NYSC, Mrs Christy Ifeyinwa Uba presenting a copy of NYSC publications to the Deputy Director, Information Technology Department, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Habib Yusuf when he led a delegation of some staff on a courtesy visit to the NYSC National Directorate Headquarters, yesterday in Maitama Abuja . Photo; NYSC
2023 is time for North to repay Tinubu’s support – Shettima
By Musa Baba Adamu
The vice presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Kashim Shettima said President Muhammadu Buhari would not have been the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria without the support of Bola Tinubu.
Shettima stated this while addressing supporters at the APC presidential rally in Dutse, the capital of Jigawa at the weekend.
He said 2023 is a payback time for the northern part of the country for what the APC presidential candidate did to the region in the past.
Shettima explained that since 2007, Tinubu has been supporting northerners.
According to him: “Tinubu in 2007 backed Atiku; he also supported Nuhu Ribadu in 2011, and in 2015, if Bola Ahmed Tinubu didn’t support Buhari during the APC presidential primary election, he would have not been the president,” he said.
He said that 2023 is a payback time and northerners must prove that they are promisekeepers.
Shettima said Nigeria needs somebody who has vast experience and can solve all the problems of the country like Tinubu.
He said President Buhari has done remarkably well in the development of the country and Governor Mohammed Badaru Abubakar has also achieved a lot, therefore, they need somebody who will continue from where they stopped.
The APC vice presidential candidate urged the electorate in the state to vote for all APC candidates as a token of appreciation for what the APC administration has achieved in the last seven years.
