The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Thursday, in Abuja, handed the transition documents to the President-elect Bola Tinubu.
Buhari also handed the baton of service alongside the documents at the investiture of the National Honour of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic on Tinubu and Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger on Vice President-elect Kashim Shettima at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja.
This is in line with Executive Order 14 which mandates that the transition council issues handover notes containing, amongst other things, proposed policy direction for the incoming administration.
UI: A CALL FOR THE CANCELLATION OF ACCEPTANCE FEE ACROSS NIGERIA
We, the Concerned Students’ Against Tuition Fee movement finds it imperative to resolutely oppose the decision to charge prospective students into the University of Ibadan, as well as the determined act to hike the same fee from #37,500 to #50,000. As a very concerned movement, we are opposed to the commercialization of education in the many forms it may appear.
We strongly recognize that accessible education is a fundamental human right and should be made free and accessible to all. Against this backdrop, we at CSATF vehemently condemn the levy of acceptance fee charges, now up to the sum of #50,000, on the prospective students who are currently in the final stage of their admission processing at the University of Ibadan.
We consider the payment of acceptance fee arbitrary simply because it is not a payment for any known service rendered by the University to the prospective students. We, at CSATF, believe that since these intending students have been made to go through the rigorous process of writing three different examinations; including the Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (SSCE), University Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), and ultimately the Post-UTME examinations, all in a bid to willfully secure and merit admissions into the University, it is therefore nothing short of injustice that these prospective students are levied with a fee for which they have not received any actual service.
Given the deepening economic crisis, we at CSATF consider the fee construct as ever more unjust considering that all Universities received a directive from the National University Commission (NUC) to stop the collection of acceptance fees from prospective students. As confirmed by the National University commission’s (NUC) Executive Secretary, Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, on 13th February 2020, in an interview with the NTA’s Platform, a part of the statement reads, “we (NUC) have received a communication from the Senate and from the National Assembly and we have communicated to all Universities in the country to stop charging acceptance fee henceforth”.
It is disturbing that three years after the issuance of such a directive, acceptance fees are still being collected by Universities and even more disconcerting is its increase from #37,500 in the previous year, to #50, 000 as in the case of the University of Ibadan; a fee which is way above the minimum wage in Nigeria. We can only consider this an attempt to commercialize education and make it the exclusive reserve of the haves.
We therefore call on the administrators of the University of Ibadan to abide by the directive from the National University Commission and to stop the collection of acceptance fees in the University. We also seize this opportunity to reiterate that education is a right and should be made free and accessible to all by the Government. We call on the leadership of the Staff Unions at the University of Ibadan and across Nigeria to increase pressure on all the public Universities and on Government across all levels to stop the collection of the imposed fee.
We recognize the fact that the need for the collection of acceptance fee may be connected with the problems of underfunding bedeviling Nigerian universities. Despite this, we hold that the imposition of the acceptance fee and other unjust fees on students is tantamount to levying students and their parents to pay for the failure of successive governments, all who have refused to adequately fund public education including universities.
Note – CSATF is an acronym for a newly formed pro-students and workers campaign platform called CONCERNED STUDENTS AGAINST TUITION FEES. CSATF opposes commercialization of university education and insists that education is not a commodity but social service.
Signed
Aduwo Ayodele
CSATF Coordinator
Kareem Abdullahi
CSATF Secretary
To join and help build CSATF, contact the following numbers: 09052902527, 08106421540.
The Presidential Election Petition Court on Tuesday released the timetable for the hearing of petitions filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, Labour Party and Allied Peoples Movement seeking to invalidate the victory of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, in the February 25 election.
The court announced that the hearing of the petitions would commence on May 30.
The development followed the conclusion of the pre-hearing sessions in which the court allocated time for the litigants and also consolidated the three petitions which would be heard as one despite opposition by the All Progressives Congress and Tinubu.
The Chairman of the five-man panel, Justice Haruna Tsammani, who delivered the ruling during the proceedings on Tuesday, dismissed the objections raised against the merger by the president-elect, the APC, the vice-president-elect, Kashim Shettima and Kabir Masari, the APC place-holder.
The Independent National Electoral Commission left the consolidation decision to the panel and did not oppose the idea.
In its ruling, the court maintained that the demand for justice supported the consolidation to aid the speedy dispensation of justice.
It held that the three petitions were about the same subject matter – the 2023 election and the return of the president-elect.
The court further noted that consolidation of the three petitions would ensure justice in the matter, adding that the parties would adopt their final briefs of argument to enable it to fix a date for judgment.
On the subject of time to present their case, the panel directed Obi and the LP to do so within three weeks against their proposed seven weeks within which they planned to present 50 witnesses to prove their case against Tinubu.
Obi, through his counsel, Awa Kalu, SAN, had requested seven weeks to establish his case against the disputed election.
However, Justice Tsammani ordered Obi to open his petition for hearing on Tuesday, May 30, and end the same on June 23.
Furthermore, he stated that Obi’s camp would adopt its final briefs of argument on August 5 after which the court would deliver judgment on his petition.
Whereas the court gave INEC two days to present its defence, it gave Tinubu and the APC five days each to defend the petitions.
Likewise, the court gave the 4th respondent in the case, Kabiru Masari, three days to also defend himself.
The panel noted that a total of 166 witnesses would be called to testify in the matter.
It stressed that the star witnesses in the petition would only be allowed to adopt their written depositions, make oral submissions and identify documents where it is required.
In addition, the panel emphasised that examination and cross-examination in all cases would be strictly monitored and enforced without an intention to extend the dates.
Following the presentation of the schedule for Obi’s petition, the court in a similar fashion fixed May 30 as day one in the hearing of the petitions by the Allied Peoples Movement and the Peoples Democratic Party, now consolidated.
Aside from Atiku who came second in the election, and Obi of the LP who came third in the election, the APM equally lodged a petition to challenge the outcome of the presidential election.
Though five petitions were initially filed to challenge the return of Tinubu as the winner of the election, however, the Action Alliance, on May 8 withdrew its case while the Action Peoples Party discontinued its own petition a few days later.
As in the case of LP and Obi, the PDP and the APM did not object to the duly signed and certified documents by INEC but reserved the right to object to other documents.
However, they both disagreed with an out-of-court settlement agreement and subscribed to the hearing of the petitions.
The APM which has one witness was directed to present its case within a day.
According to the pre-hearing report by the court, the PDP and Atiku have 10 interlocutory applications with nine preliminary objections by the 1st, 2nd and 3rd respondents.
Court fixes dates
While the APM will adopt its brief of argument on July 3, the PDP and Atiku are to adopt theirs on August 8.
The PDP and Atiku had informed the court of their plan to prove their case through 100 witnesses, but the court granted them three weeks to do so.
Atiku had in his joint petition with the PDP, marked: CA/PEPC/05/2023, applied for the withdrawal of the certificate of return that was issued to Tinubu by INEC.
He maintained that the declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election was “invalid by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022”.
The ex-vice president further argued that Tinubu’s election was invalid because of corrupt practices and prayed the court to nullify his election and declare him the winner of the presidential election, having secured the second-highest number of lawful votes cast at the election.
He insisted that the APC candidate did not meet the constitutional threshold and “is constitutionally disabled from contesting for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
However, in a reply he filed through his team of lawyers led by Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, Tinubu, queried the legal competence of the petition.
Tinubu described Atiku as a consistent serial loser that had since 1993, crisscrossed different political parties, in search of power.
With the presentation of the pre-hearing report and disclosure of the schedule, the court sessions had entered a more critical period counting down from May 30 and extending to Saturdays.
Meanwhile, the PEPC hinted it may subsequently disallow phones in the courtroom.
The court stressed that it is acting with reason, adding that the “security of everyone is important,” among other justifications.
Anti-inauguration suit
In a related development, a Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed a ruling for Friday on an ex-parte application filed by some individuals seeking to restrain the president-elect from being inaugurated on May 29 until the determination of petitions before the PEPC.
Justice James Omotosho adjourned the case on Tuesday after listening to arguments from the counsel for the applicants, Oliver Eya.
Before adjourning the case, Omotosho ordered the applicants’ lawyer to be prepared to address the court on the jurisdiction, whether the plaintiffs have the locus standi to file the suit and whether they have any legal right they seek to protect with the suit.
The applicants – Praise Ilemona Isaiah, Pastor Paul Isaac Audu and Anongu Moses – who claimed to be Nigerian electorate, want the court to stop the inauguration pending the determination of their motion for interlocutory injunctions.
They urged the court to issue “an order of interim injunction restraining the 2nd respondent (Tinubu) from being sworn in as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice already filed.”
They claimed, among others, that Tinubu gave false information about his citizenship status and his date of birth.
Listed as defendants in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/ 657/2023 are the President, the President-elect, APC, the Attorney General of the Federation, the Director-General, the Department of State Services, the Inspector-General of Police and INEC.
In the affidavit in support of the motion ex parte, the plaintiffs urged that their prayer be granted because “the 2nd defendant/respondent (Tinubu) is billed to be sworn in as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on May, 29th, 2023.”
The National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Pastor Obiora Ifoh has alleged that three courts turned down petitions by the Lamidi Apapa-led faction shopping for injunctions against the LP
In a statement he signed, Obiora Ifoh said Apapa and his group have continued their search for a court that would grant their injunction in spite of the failed attempt.
He said, “Labour Party sources who have been monitoring the clandestine movement of Akingbade and his team have informed us that the former Legal Adviser has visited three states in the North as at today, moving from one court to the other, shopping for a judge who will give them an injunction in order to enable the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to recognize them.
They have visited three judges in the North who have all turned down their requests.
“They are still prowling the Northern states with enough liquidity at their disposal to influence the legal officers but we can confirm that as of today, none of the judges have agreed to their tempting offers.
We therefore commend the judges who have refused their offers, and who are insisting that justice can not be bought.
“Notwithstanding, the unfortunate incident in Kano Federal High court last week where they deceived the judge to enter a judgement against Labour Party.
“We are happy that their motives was not defeated but also the clarification of His Lordship, that his judgement was misinterpreted to mean a blanket punishment against all elected members of the party across Nigeria was heart warming. Labour Party has also swiftly applied for notice of appeal. We believe that justice will also be dispensed accordingly.
“We use this opportunity to call on the judiciary to be up and doing, and to be on notice of the plots of these anti-democratic elements to derail our thriving democracy.
“We also call on the Chief Justice of the Federation and Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to advice judges under them not to allow the name of the judiciary to be dragged into the mud by desperate politicians.
The judiciary has a duty to protect our democracy and we believe that this arm of government has done well but can still do more until the likes of Apapa and his cohorts are properly caged in accordance with the law and are made to pay for the injury and pains they have continued to inflict on our democracy,” Obiorah stated.
Chairman of Anambra State Internal Revenue Service (AIRS) Mr Richard Madiebo has disclosed that the state government generate monthly revenue of N100 millions from tricycle operators alone .
Madiebo made the disclosure while briefing journalists on the success they have made through the digitalisation of revenue collections in the state .
He said that before the introduction of digital revenue collections in the state ,the government was generating N7 millions monthly from the tricycle operators,but today it has risen up to N100 millions.
According to him,the government started the digital revenue collections from the Keke riders and it has been successful .
He also stated that the government will replicate the model to all the revenue collections in the state.
Madiebo also stated that the government was still having challenges making people in the markets complying with the digital payments .
“The Keke model will be replicated in all the markets in Anambra state. Though,we are having challenges for those in the markets paying in through digital means. Surely,we will keep to the Keke model. Before now people are doing all things they want in the name revenue collections,but now it can no longer work for them” he said
BVI Channel 1 online is of the opinion that AIRS Chairman should find a revenue model on how to collect revenue from landlords who have more than two houses and above ,and private car owners whose car is above N5 million among others
I honoured the invitation to the Commissioning of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals in Lagos. This is the World’s Largest Single Train Petroleum Refinery.
I congratulate Alhaji Aliko Dangote for this world-class project which I believe will be very beneficial to Nigeria’s economy.
The refinery with a capacity of 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day when operated maximally, is expected to meet Nigeria’s domestic demand for petroleum products and help Nigeria to save the much-needed foreign exchange currently spent on the importation of such products.
By supplying the surplus to the International markets, Nigeria will reposition itself as a key player in the downstream petroleum sector of the global market. In moving Nigeria from consumption to production,I have always argued for greater private sector participation in the economy as exemplified by the Dangote Group. I believe the Dangote Refinery will be very beneficial to the nation’s economy.
By moving Nigeria from a net importer to a net exporter of petroleum products, this refinery will create numerous jobs and generate needed foreign exchange inflow.
This refinery is another milestone towards the New Nigeria, to which I am committed. That new nation will be an enabling environment for a booming private sector that will see the rise of many micro, small and medium-scale businesses that will boost the nation’s economy and foster increased productivity among our people.
Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has described Nigeria’s 1999 constitution as one which does not represent the interest of the citizens.
Akeredolu lamented that the constitution is adding to the mystery of Nigerians because it “sustains the privileges enjoyed by a parasitic few at the detriment of the majority.”
He made the submission during the 59th Founders’ Day Anniversary Lecture, Award, and Endowment of the Adeyemi Federal University of Education in Ondo.
Represented by his Special Adviser on Union Matters and Special Duties, Dare Aragbaiye, Akeredolu said that States in the federation have been reduced to pathetic beggars as a result of the skewed nature of the 1999 constitution.
He further called for its replacement with the 1963 constitution because according to him, the 1999 constitution is an ‘experiment in audacious mendacity.’
His words: “A defective law cannot engender peace and progress. It is, more often than not, the source of the seemingly intractable crises.
There can be no development in a place where the law and its application are skewed, heavily, against the majority of the people. When the law becomes an instrument of repression, society is imperiled.
“A codification which alienates the people from its intendment is not only repressive but also fraudulent.
There can be no meaningful achievement from the existence of a set of regulations whose purpose is to sustain the privileges enjoyed by a parasitic few at the detriment of the majority.”
He added that “The subversion of the people’s will cannot engender progress in any society if the essence of development is the amelioration of the challenges faced by them.
“Any law which imposes the whims and caprices of a select but partisan few on the majority of the people cannot be used to advance the cause of the society.
“If there is any document whose existence represents an experiment in audacious mendacity, it is this so-called Constitution of the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Constitution tells manifest lies against itself. It purports to represent the wishes of the Nigerian people but nothing can be farther from this obvious lie.”
Akeredolu further called on the incoming administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu to be bold in confronting the challenges facing the country.
“The in-coming administration has its job clearly defined. It is inheriting not only a heavy backlog of disaffection and complaints from the citizenry from all parts of the country; it has sold its campaign on the promise of a Renewed Hope,” he said.
The completion of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals in Lagos State is remarkable one.
President Muhammadu Buhari will on Monday commission the plant which is arguably Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the worlds biggest simple-train facility.
There is no doubt that this venture will create more employment opportunities for Nigeria’s teeming population.
Beyond this, here are 21 facts about the refinery that everyone interested should know.
1. It is located in Ibeju, Lagos, Covering a land area of approximately 2,635 hectares.
2. World’s Largest Single-Train 650,000 barrels per day Petroleum Refinery with 900 KTPA Polypropylene Plant.
3. The Refinery is powered by a 435 MW Power Plant.
4. At full capacity, it can meet 100% of the Nigerian requirement of all refined products and also have surplus for export.
5. Designed for 100% Nigerian Crude with flexibility to process other crudes.
6. Self-sufficient marine facility with ability for freight optimisation. Largest single order of 5 SPMs anywhere in the world.
7. Diesel & gasoline from the refinery will conform to Euro V specifications.
8. The refinery design complies with World Bank, US EPA, European emission norms and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) emission/effluent norms.
9. It incorporates state-of-the-art technology.
10. It is designed to process large variety of crudes including many of the African Crudes, some of the Middle Eastern Crudes and the US Light Tight Oil.
11. About 65 million cubic metres of sand dredged, costing approximately €300 million, using the world’s largest dredgers.
12. Over 1,200 units of various equipment were bought to enhance the local capacity for site works.
13. Dangote Group bought 332 cranes to build up equipment installation capacity.
14. Also built is the world’s largest granite quarry to supply coarse aggregate, stone column material, stone base, stone dust & material for break water (10 million tonnes per year production capacity).
15. In a bid to bring over dimensional cargoes close to the site directly, Dangote Group had to develop a port and constructed two quays with a load bearing capacity of 25 tonnes/sq metre.
16. Constructed two more quays in the port with a capacity to handle up to Panamax vessels to export, two quays to handle liquid cargoes.
17. The port will have 6 quays, including a roll-on/roll-off quay.
18. In the course of the civil works, 700 piles were drilled on some days, with total number of piles up to 250,000.
19. It has 177 tanks of 4.742 billion litres capacity
20. Dangote is one of the few companies in the world executing a Petroleum Refinery and a Petrochemical complex directly as an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) Contractor.
21. Training of 900 young engineers in refinery operations abroad. Mechanical Engineers trained in the GE University in Italy. Process engineers trained by Honeywell/UOP for six months.
Meanwhile, everyone, it seems, looks forward to the production of Petroleum products from the plant after this symbolic activity.
BVI Channel 1 wonders why Nigeria refineries cannot work optimally to serve the interest of 200 million Nigerians but allowed a monopolist like Dangote to exploit consumers . We are watching .
Ahead of today’s ruling on the application for live transmission of the proceedings of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, the Peoples Democratic Party, Labour Party and the All Progressives Congress have disagreed over the need for the hearing to be broadcast by the media.
The PDP and LP told The PUNCH on Sunday that the live telecast of the court sittings would remove any doubts about the transparency of the judiciary and promote fairness, but the APC argued that it would not advance the course of justice.
The PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who came second behind the President-elect, Bola Tinubu in the February 25 election, had prayed the tribunal to broadcast its sittings live to Nigerians to enable them to have firsthand information of the processes that would guide the tribunal in determining the authentic winner of the contest.
Atiku and the PDP in an application dated May 5, filed by their counsel, Chris Uche, SAN, specifically prayed to the court for an order directing the court’s registry and the parties on modalities for admission of media practitioners and their equipment into the courtroom.
The LP and its standard bearer, Peter Obi filed a similar application through their lead counsel, Awa Kalu, SAN, in which they argued that Nigerians being stakeholders have a right to have real-time information about the election petition proceedings.
However, the Independent National Electoral Commission, the president-elect and the APC vehemently opposed the application, describing it as frivolous.
They argued that the application relates to policy formulation of the court, which is outside the PEPC’s jurisdiction as constituted.
Counsel for APC, Lateef Fagbemi, asked the court not to concede the request to turn the court into “a Big Brother electoral series.”
The counsel to the president-elect, Wole Olanipekun, SAN, noted that the live broadcast if approved, would expose both the judges and lawyers to danger while the counsel to INEC, Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, argued that the application was needless since already, “the court is a public place and is accessible to all, subject to the availability of space.”
After hearing the arguments from all the parties last Thursday, the court reserved a ruling on the application till Monday (today).
But speaking on the issue ahead of the ruling, Obi is insisting on the live broadcast of the court proceedings.
Obi, who spoke to our correspondent through his media aide, Emeka Obasi, urged the tribunal to rule in favour of his application in the interest of transparency and democracy.
He said, “We are in the modern age where transparency is required. An election is being disputed by four political parties. To be fair and for equity, it is very much expected that processes are steamed live for people to follow. We are talking about over 200 million Nigerians. The courtroom cannot contain 1,000 people.
“Every interested Nigerian should be given the access to see for himself or herself the proceedings of the most important ruling in the history of the country. So, if we are practising democracy, the tribunal has nothing other than to approve the live streaming.”
Buttressing his principal’s arguments, the Spokesperson for Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko noted that the approval of the live broadcast would build trust and restore “the hope of the common man as the judiciary is seen to be the hope of the common man, especially now that the judiciary is seen also to be on trial.”
PDP insists on broadcast
In a telephone conversation with The PUNCH on Sunday, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Debo Ologunagba gave strong reasons for the party’s demand for a live telecast of the hearing.
According to him, voters needed to be carried along by the tribunal throughout its sittings to give them a sense of participation.
He noted, “Live telecast is consistent with democracy because participatory democracy provides that the people have the right to know. As a party, we are saying that elections are a process, not an event.
‘’The Independent National Electoral Commission in its guidelines to the elections under the Electoral Act enjoins parties to be transparent and in most cases, what the political parties did were televised.’’
“The process which led to the emergence of the candidates which is an internal process of the parties was witnessed by INEC. That is a process. Starting from the party primaries to the sponsorship of candidates, everything was done in the open. The next part is the actual election conducted by INEC.
INEC has been televising its processes-voting, collation, counting, announcement, and declaration of results were done in the open. In the presidential election, in particular, INEC’s collation and declaration of results were in the open and televised live worldwide.
‘’The other part of the election is the tribunal. Now, if the first two processes can be televised, we expect that the last one which involves the judiciary should be televised live,” he submitted.
Similarly, the Media Adviser to the PDP standard bearer, Mr Paul Ibe maintained that the live telecast would enhance the transparency of the court proceedings, stressing that it is of primary interest to Nigerians.
He added, “The live telecast is to give Nigerians, who were participants in the election as citizens, whether they voted or not, an opportunity to be part of the process. It (live telecast) is good for transparency too. All eyes are on the judiciary and what the tribunal will make out of it.
‘’We are of the view that the court should grant this request because it is one made on behalf of Nigerians regardless of their political affiliations. It will make sense for the process to be open to Nigerians. We don’t know what INEC is saying because it is acting as if it is a political party in the election. It should stop acting as if it is an agent of a political party.
‘’Let’s hope they are not hiding anything and in any case, what they are hiding is what they don’t want Nigerians to know. The commission conducted elections in the negation of its own rules. People should be able to see in real-time the tribunal’s proceedings.”
The supporters of the LP presidential candidate who took to social media on Sunday, are also insisting on a live broadcast of the proceedings of the court.
They endorsed the prayers of their candidate with various hashtags one of which read, ‘#LivebroadcastInTheCourtRoom.’
As of the time of filing this report, our correspondent observed that the hashtag had a total of about 200,000 tweets on the microblogging site, Twitter.
A Peter Obi supporter, Ndi Kato said, “We are seeking to have a live broadcast of the election tribunal on tv stations but the court which we are depending on for that ruling has now banned phones in the court. Which way Nigeria? Why is our judiciary like this?”
A lawyer, Malcom Omirhobo noted that the INEC and the APC were opposed to the live broadcast due to “unclean hands.”
He said, “INEC and Tinubu are opposing the live broadcast of P/election tribunal proceedings because they turned Nigeria into a reality show by shamelessly asking the opposition to go to court after rigging elections. Now, they are afraid to entertain the world with their crime.”
Similarly, a member of the PDP, David Titiloye said on Twitter, “The lawyers of the PDP have been insisting on the live broadcast of the presidential election tribunal because Atiku is confident that it will be tougher for the judiciary to pervert justice when the whole country is watching but APC and INEC have been insisting otherwise. Why ?”
Also, the lead pastor, of Household of Love Church, Yinka Yusuf, who posted via his Twitter account, @rev-yinkayusuf, said, “ Mr Judiciary, please shock the world by allowing live broadcast of the presidential election tribunal. Only a thief is afraid of stop and search!. Go to court is not go to a secret society. We can’t wait to congratulate whoever is the true winner.”
Meanwhile, over 9,222 Nigerians had signed a petition demanding a live broadcast of the tribunal proceedings as of 2.50 pm on Sunday.
The petition by a citizen, Jane Peter and addressed to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, National Judicial Council and one other, is titled, ‘Live Broadcast The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal-PEPT.’
The petitioners contended that allowing the live coverage of the proceedings would ensure transparency and openness in the conduct of the tribunal.
“We believe that the judiciary in Nigeria can also save time and earn the trust of Nigerians by working to terminate the case and give its judgment before the inauguration date,” it also stated.
‘Not people’s opinion’
But the Chief Spokesman for the dissolved Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, believed the matter should be subjected to the court and not the people’s opinions.
While urging Nigerians to await the final verdict of the tribunal, the senior lawyer stressed that people must understand that this is not the first time an election petition would be decided in the country.
He said, “I sincerely don’t think this is a matter we subject to press analysis. We subject the ruling to an analysis but not before it is given. Let us be patient. As a senior member of the bar, I cannot begin to speculate now.
“We have made our submission where we asked ‘How does this advance the case?’ Everything they say the court should do would be to advance the course of justice.
“For me, I prefer to wait and see what the court says and abide by it. The matter has been submitted to the court for ruling tomorrow (today). Let them be patient. It is not the first time the court is deciding election petitions in Nigeria. Justice will be served one way or the other at the end of the day.”
The APC Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim said the matter is in court and declined to speak further.
A federal high court in Abuja has ordered the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to account for the spending of a $460 million Chinese loan to fund the “failed” Abuja closed-circuit television (CCTV) project.
Emeka Nwite, the judge, gave the order while delivering judgement in the freedom of information suit ‘FHC/ABJ/CS/1447/2019’ brought by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).
The judge ordered the government to publish the total amount of money paid to Chinese and local companies and contractors, specific details of the identities of the companies and contractors as well as the implementation of the project.
In December 2019, SERAP filed a lawsuit against Zainab Ahmed, finance minister, over failure to disclose information and specific documents on the total amount of money paid to contractors from the $460 million loan obtained in 2010 from China to fund the Abuja CCTV project.
Ahmed had disclosed that Nigeria was servicing the loan, adding that she had no explanations on the status of the project.
In his judgement, Nwite agreed with SERAP that there was a reasonable cause of action against the government.
“Accounting for the spending of the $460 million Chinese loan is in the public’s interest. It will be inimical for the court to refuse SERAP’s application for judicial review of the government’s action,” he said.
“The Minister of Finance is in charge of the finances of the country and cannot by any stretch of imagination be oblivious of the amount of money paid to the contractors for the Abuja CCTV contract and the money meant for the construction of the headquarters of the Code of Conduct Bureau.”
The judge ordered the government to provide the “details clarifying whether the sum of N1.5 billion paid for the failed contract meant to construct the headquarters of the Code of Conduct Bureau was part of another loan obtained from China”.
Nwite granted an order of mandamus compelling the federal government through the minister of finance, “to provide and make available to SERAP information on the total amount of money paid to contractors, with specific details of names of companies local contractors involved, from the $460 million loan obtained in 2010 from China by the Federal Government of Nigeria to fund the failed Abuja CCTV contract”.
The judgment reads: “An order of mandamus is hereby made directing and compelling the government (through the Minister of Finance) to provide the details of the local companies and Chinese contractors that have received funds from the $460 million loan for the finance of the Abuja CCTV contract as well as details of the status of implementation of the project.
An order of mandamus is hereby made directing and compelling the government (through the Minister of Finance) to provide the details clarifying whether the sum of N1.5 billion mobilisation fee reportedly paid to the contractors for the construction of the Headquarters of the Code of Conduct Bureau in Abuja was part of another loan from China.”
