Cloned Nigerian Anchor

Author: Vivian Michael

  • Tribunal: Atiku didn’t win 25% vote in FCT- PDP Witness

    Tribunal: Atiku didn’t win 25% vote in FCT- PDP Witness

    The first Petition Witness (PW9) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and their candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has told the Election Petition Court that Atiku didn’t secure 25% of votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the 2023 Presidential Election.

    The witness, Abraham David of Karmajiji community in the FCT, while under cross-examination, confirmed that the PDP candidate who didn’t score 25% votes, didn’t qualify to be declared the president of Nigeria.

    However, the businessman posited that for the fact that Ahmed Bola Tinubu who also didn’t score up to 25% votes could be returned as the president, Atiku Abubakar can also be returned as the winner. 

    Led by the Counsel to Tinubu, Akin Olujimi SAN, the witness, who said he visited 15 polling units out of the 2,822 polling units in FCT, maintained that unlawful votes were collated by the All Progressive Congress (APC) agents, but didn’t state the figures in his statement on oath.

    The witness, who claimed to be FCT Collation Officer for PDP, alleged that ballot papers and result sheets were manipulated by compromised Electoral officers in collusion with agents of other political parties.

    Also testifying, was a petition witness number 10(PW10), Ibrahim Mohammed Hamza of Lafia Nasarawa State. 

    Led in evidence by Atiku’s lead counsel, Akin Olujimi SAN, the witness, who said he is a Human Resources Consultant, identified Form EC8A 25, which is a collated result sheet from Nasarawa State.

    However, the witness maintained he signed clean documents while the documents he can identify with his signature were altered with cancellations.

    “My lords, the documents I signed had no cancellations. They must have altered the results. The cancellation was made after I endorsed my signature.”

    The Nasarawa State collation officer also maintained that the election results were not uploaded in most of the 3,256 polling units across the state, adding that he signed the result sheets under duress.

    “At the time of uploading the results, the system failed in most of the polling units across the state.

    “I signed the results sheet under duress because I needed a copy to submit at the state level,” he testified 

    So far, Atiku and his party have called 10 witnesses out of 100 witnesses lined up to prove their petition seeking to sack Bola Tinubu from Office.

    The proceeding continues tomorrow, the 6th of June.

  • FG’s approval for private importers will crash fuel price, says IPMAN

    FG’s approval for private importers will crash fuel price, says IPMAN

    The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), has commended the Federal Government for approving the importation of petroleum products by private firms.

    Mr. Chinedu Anyaso, Chairman of IPMAN Enugu Depot Community, in charge of Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu States, said this while reacting to the development in Awka on Sunday.

    The Managing Director of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed, on Friday, said private marketers could now import petrol into the country.

    Farouk said under the new arrangement, the NNPCL had ceased to be the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria.

    “We put the regulation in place, we make sure quality control is complied with, we make sure the product is there and we give licence to any prospective importer.

    “The market is now open for everybody that wants to import as far as they meet all the requirements. The NMDPRA will no longer fix prices or release templates for petrol.

    “As far as we are concerned in the NMDPRA, this is not like before when the PPPRA fixes the price; in a deregulated market, it is the market force that dictates the price,” he said.

    Anyaso said this was a positive development and appropriate responses to the demands of marketers and Nigerian masses who had condemned the monopolistic grip of NNPCL on the oil and gas sector for decades.

    He said this would create the much needed competitive pricing environment and allow market forces to demand price of products.

    According to him, “two days ago, I repeated the call that the Federal Government should issue import licences to private investigators, I also said it is wrong for the NNPCL, which is a private company, to be the sole importer and determiner of prices.

    “I am happy that the same NMDPRA also announced that approval has been given to private importers. This is how it should be in a deregulated Industry.

    “The competition that will begin in the coming days will surely ease the pain of high prices of products,” he said.

    Anyaso commended the Federal Government for its bold step and called on it to extend the same to refineries to complement the contributions of Dangote refinery when it commenced production.

    He said the four existing refineries should be repaired to produce at optimal capacity while licences are issued to more people who could build modular refineries.

    He said this was the time to address the problem of Enugu Depot which had been moribund for over 15 years and had made distribution of products in the zone difficult as a result.

    “We are appealing that as the government is addressing the issue of supply, they should also address the problem of distribution, Enugu Depot has not functioned for over 15 years, we need the Federal Government to fix it.

    “It has not been easy for our members who source products from Lagos, Warri, Calabar and bring by road, the risk, accident and losses have been too much,” he said.

  • Tribunal: Why we refused admittance of our own documents in evidence -INEC

    Tribunal: Why we refused admittance of our own documents in evidence -INEC

      

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday in Abuja, seized an opportunity presented at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) to explain its reasons for refusing that its own documents be admitted in evidence.

    The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP,) Mr. Peter Obi, and his party sought to tender the documents as exhibits to establish their petition against the conduct of the Feb. 25 Presidential Election.

    INEC had on Thursday, through its counsel, Mr. Kemi Pinhero, SAN, objected to the admission of several documents brought to the PEPC by the petitioners for the purpose of tendering them as exhibits in support of their petition.

    At Friday’s proceedings, INEC also objected to all the certified true copies of the Form EC8A the petitioners sought to tender from local governments across six states.

     INEC’s counsel, Pinheiro told the court that the electoral body kicked against the tendering of certified true copies of the documents, mainly election result sheets, on the grounds that they were strange to the petition.

    Pinheiro explained that issues were not joined in the local government areas where the result sheets were sought to be tendered, adding that it was wrong for the petitioners to go beyond the areas where the election was disputed.

    According to INEC, the local government areas unlawfully smuggled into proceedings of the court are totally strange to the petition and cannot stand in the face of the law.

    The Chairman of the Court, Justice Haruna Tsammani, however, held that it was wrong for INEC’S lawyer to attempt to give reasons for his objection now when all parties had agreed during the pre-hearing stage to give reasons at the address stage.

    The counsel, however, said that he was compelled to offer some explanation following the bashing the commission received in the media that it was objecting to the admittance of its own documents in court.

    Meanwhile, the court has admitted as exhibits, Forms EC8A from 21 local government areas of Adamawa, Lagos state, eight local government areas of Bayelsa, and parts of Rivers and Niger as tendered by the petitioners. 

  • Tribunal: Obi, LP tender more exhibits in 6 states against Tinubu

    Tribunal: Obi, LP tender more exhibits in 6 states against Tinubu

    The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) Friday, admitted as exhibits documents from six states from the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, against President Bola Tinubu’s election.

    The exhibits are certified true copies of forms EC8A used in the February 25 presidential provided by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    On Thursday, Obi and his party tendered exhibits in six States comprising Rivers, Benue, Cross River, Niger, Osun, and Ekiti.

    However, at Friday’s proceedings, Obi tendered exhibits in six other states including Adamawa, Bayelsa, Oyo, Edo, Lagos and Akwa Ibom.

    A breakdown of the fresh exhibits showed that forms EC8A were admitted in 21 Local Government Areas of Adamawa, 8 in Local Government Areas of Bayelsa, 31 Local Government Areas of Oyo, 18 Local Government Areas of Edo, 20 Local Government Areas of Lagos and 31 Local Government Areas of Akwa Ibom.

    So far, Obi and his party have tendered exhibits in twelve out of eighteen states they are challenging the election results.

    Reacting, all the Respondents in the matter submitted their intentions to object to the documents at the final stage of address.

    Haven exhausted the documents at their disposal for the day, Obi applied to the court to consider the admitted documents as read.

    The matter has been adjourned till June 5, for the continuation of the hearing.

  • Atiku, Obi tendering strange documents, INEC tells Court

    Atiku, Obi tendering strange documents, INEC tells Court

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has given reasons it objected documents as exhibits by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP,) Mr. Peter Gregory Obi.

    INEC has been opposing  documents sought to be tendered as evidence to establish Petitioners case against the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    At the resumed proceeding, Friday, INEC, through it’s counsel, Kemi Pinhero SAN, told the Court that the electoral body kicked against the tendering of certified true copies of the documents for election result sheets because Obi and the Labour Party did not challenge the conduct of election in the areas relating to the documents.

    The electoral empire posited that issues were not joined in the Local Government Areas where the result sheets were sought to be tendered, adding that it was wrong of the petitioners to go beyond the areas where the election is disputed.

    Specifically, INEC said Petitioners are trying to confuse issues by bringing result sheets where he did not dispute the election and the returns adding that the presidential candidate ought to have guided himself with the pleadings in his petition.

    It maintained that the local government areas’s documents presented in the proceedings are totally strange to the petition and cannot stand in the face of the law. 

    Reacting, Justice Haruna Tsammani held that it was wrong of INEC to bring in the explanation into the proceedings because all parties in the petition have agreed to offer such explanations at the address stage of proceedings.

    INEC explains that he was forced to speak up on the objections because of the social media bash client it’s client suffered.

    Pinhero informed that the social media owners had turned his client to object of ridicule without finding out reasons for objections against the admissibility of the documents.

    Earlier, hearing in the petition of the Allied People’s Movement (APM) was further shifted to June 9, to enable lawyers obtain the May 26 judgment of the Supreme Court that would determine whether the petition still has life to sustain it or not.

  • Hajj: 2nd batch of 586 Hajj pilgrims from Jigawa arrive in S/Arabia

    Hajj: 2nd batch of 586 Hajj pilgrims from Jigawa arrive in S/Arabia

    The second batch of 586 pilgrims from Jigawa arrived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Friday for the 2023 Hajj.

    The batch comprises staff of the Jigawa Pilgrims Board and its ad-hoc staff who departed Dutse International Airport on Thursday aboard Azaman Air.

    The second batch made a total of 1,145 pilgrims from Jigawa that had arrived for the 2023 Hajj as the first batch of 559 pilgrims from the state arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

    The pilgrims underwent medical screenings by the Saudi Authorities at the airport before they were taken by road to the holy city of Medina.

    In Medina, they would visit historical sites and perform some religious rites.

    Jigawa is expected to send additional 480 pilgrims for the 2023 Hajj.

    Executive Secretary of the pilgrims’ board, Alhaji Umar Labbo, had said earlier that a total of 1,625 pilgrims were expected to perform the 2023 Hajj from Jigawa. 

  • Abuja businessman docked for allegedly stealing N92,300 from sex worker

    Abuja businessman docked for allegedly stealing N92,300 from sex worker

    The Police, on Friday, arraigned a 53-year-old businessman, King Dauda, before a Kado Grade 1 Area Court, Abuja, for allegedly stealing the sum of N92, 300 from a sex worker.

    The police charged Dauda, of EFAB Global Estate, Life Camp, Abuja, with theft.

    The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

    The Prosecution Counsel, Stanley Nwafoaku, told the court that on May 26, at about 9:05 a.m., Ms Bolaji Olufumi, of Prosper Road Area 3, Abuja, reported the matter at Life Camp Police Station.

    Nwafoaku said that on May 20, the defendant invited the complainant to his residence, located at EFAB Estate, and after having carnal knowledge of her, took her purse containing N92,300.

    He said that all efforts by Olufumi to recover the purse and her money from the defendant proved abortive.

    According to him, the offence contravenes the provisions of Sections 288 of the Penal Code Law.

    The Defence Counsel, Charity Nwosu, made an oral bail application, citing Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Section 158 of Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015.

    Nwosu assured the court that the defendant would not jump bail, if granted.

    Nwafoaku, however, did not object to the bail application made by the defence counsel.

    The Judge, Muhammed Wakili, admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N100,000 and one surety in like sum.

    Wakili said that the surety must provide a Bank Verification Number (BVN) printout, a recent passport photograph and a valid identification card, which must be verified by the court registrar.

    The judge, thereafter, adjourned the case till June 15 for hearing. 

  • Federal High Court goes on annual vacation July 24

    Federal High Court goes on annual vacation July 24

    The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court (FHC), Justice John Tsoho, has disclosed that the court will commence its 2023 annual vacation on July 24.

    Justice Tsoho stated this on Friday in a statement made available by Dr Catherine Oby-Christopher, the FHC’s Assistant Director of Information, in Abuja.

    The CJ said that the vacation, which would begin on Monday, July 24, would end on Friday, Sept. 25.

    “By virtue of the provisions of Order 46, Rule 4 (d) of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Honourable Justice John Terhemba Tsoho, announces its 2023 Annual Vacation and Roster for Vacation Judges.

    “The vacation will commence from July 24 to Sept. 15.

    “The court shall resume sitting on Sept. 18. This is in order for Hon. Judges to enjoy their well- deserved rest and to prepare for the challenges of the new legal year,” it read.

    According to the statement, consequently, the litigating public will be at liberty to approach only the under-listed functional courts located nearest to them; Abuja, Lagos, and Port-Harcourt.

    “The vacation Judges are: Hon. Justice A. R. Mohammed and Hon. Justice O.A. Egwuatu for Abuja division; Hon Justice I. N. Oweibo and Hon. Justice A. Aluko for Lagos Division and Hon. Justice A. T. Mohammed and Hon. Justice S.I. Mark for Port-Harcourt

    “The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Honorable Justice John Terhemba Tsoho, wishes his fellow lordships a wonderful Vacation in advance,” it concluded.

  • We signed election result sheets under duress- PDP witness tells Tribunal

    We signed election result sheets under duress- PDP witness tells Tribunal

    The first witness (PW1) of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP and their candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has told the Election Petition Court that he signed election result sheets of the 2023 Presidential election under duress.

    He maintained that other party agents were also forced to sign the result sheets in their separate polling units and at the State level.

    The PW1, Captain Joe Agada (rtd) revealed that they signed the result sheets under duress when it became clear that the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC would not avail them of the result sheets.

    In his evidence in Chief, Captain Agada who claimed to be Kogi State Collation Officer for PDP in the February 25 presidential poll alleged that ballot papers and result sheets were manipulated by compromised Electoral officers in collusion with agents of other political party.

    Led in evidence by Atiku’s lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche SAN, the witness alleged that he was present in several polling units where Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS were manipulated in favour of a particular party.

    Agada specifically revealed that he visited over 20 polling units in two Senatorial Districts of Kogi State and watched where firms EC8A, EC8B and EC8C were signed under duress by the PDP agents as a condition for the agents to be issued with the result sheets.

    Under cross examination by INEC’S lawyer, Abdullahi Aliyu SAN, the witness claimed to have voted at Ogugu in Olamaboro but that he was allowed to move round to monitor the election because of the Special Election Duty Tag provided him by INEC.

    Also under cross examination by Chief Akin Olujimi SAN, counsel to President Tinubu, the witness maintained that he endorsed the collated State Result of the election when the reality dawned on him that he would be denied a copy of the result sheet.

    Captain Agada who admitted giving evidence for Atiku in 2019 admitted that he did not put his grievances against the election in his witness deposition on oath.

    Similarly cross examined by Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN on behalf of the All Progressives Congress APC, the witness admitted basing his report on the information supplied him by other agents of the party.

    Also, the Second Petition witness, 

    Dr Solarin Sunday Adekunle, the Ogun State Collation Officer said that he refused to sign the collated results in protest against electoral malpractices.

    Led in evidence, the witness 

    alleged that election results were allegedly inflated inflated prompting him to decline signing the result sheets.

    The third witness, Barrister Uzoma Nkem Abonta told the Court that the election was a nullify on account of so many irregularities, discrepancies and non compliance with rules of the election.

    Abonta said that because INEC failed to electronically transmit elections results, what was declared did not reflect the genuine wish of the people of Abia State.

    Matter continues June 2.

  • Tribunal: Obi, LP challenge 18 states’ presidential election results

    Tribunal: Obi, LP challenge 18 states’ presidential election results

    The Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate Mr. Peter Obi confirmed to the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) that out of 36 states, they will be challenging the election results of 18 states.

    So far, the Petitioners have tendered certified electoral documents obtained from the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Results Viewing Portal (IREV) in only six states.

    A breakdown of the tendered and admitted documents showed that Forms EC8A were tendered in 15 Local Government Areas of Rivers State,  23 in Benue, 18 in Cross River, 23 in Niger State,  20 in Osun, and 16 in Ekiti Local Government Areas.

    Reacting,  INEC, who was represented by Kemi Pinhero SAN, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his Vice, Kashim Shetima, who are 2nd and 3rd respondents and represented by Adebayo Adelodun SAN, as well as the All Progressives Congress (APC), represented by Chief Afolabi Fashanu SAN, hinted to oppose the admissibility of the electoral documents.

    The Respondents confirmed they have gone through the documents sought to be tendered and will be giving reasons for objection when presenting their written addresses.

    Consequently, the panel of the court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani admitted the documents as exhibits after they were tendered by Chief Emeka Okpoko SAN.

    In the meantime, further hearing in the petition has been shifted to June 2, at the instance of the Petitioners.

    Obi and LP approached the PEPC are challenging the declaration of President Bola Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.