His Excellency, Peter Obi was in Enugu state earlier today where he payed a condolence visit to the late former Senatorial candidate of the Labour party, for Enugu East senatorial district.
He wrote below :
“I just arrived in Enugu, to pay a condolence visit to the family of late Barr Oyibo Chukwu, the former senatorial candidate of Labour Party, for Enugu East Senatorial zone. I was accompanied by Barr Julius Abure, LP chairman, LP governorship candidate in Enugu State, Hon. Chijioke Edeoga, LP governorship candidate in Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti, and Sen. Victor Umeh. -PO
Growing up, two proverbs stuck out for me, one by my father, and the other was a Pidgin English saying. One was: “If one person buries himself, one hand will stick out”. Young, impressionistic, and inquisitive, I asked for an explanation. My father explained it away both as an idiomatic expression and a literary saying. According to him, if one person tries to bury himself, certainly the hand that covered his body with sand would need another hand to cover it. And left that way, the man wouldn’t be fully buried.
The other was: “If a cunning man die, a cunning man go bury am”.
Looking at the charade made of the February 25 presidential election by Professor Mahmood Yakubu and the Commission under his watch, those ancient wise sayings of our people come in handy. It is about what happens with any perfidious lie; once told, a bigger one would be required to cover it. Professor Mahmood Yakubu and his Commission seem to be on a voyage to find bigger lies to cover the one told on February 25 presidential election results.
This journey became more obvious when INEC approached the Tribunal for an order to reconfigure the BVAS to enable it to use the same machines for the March 11 guber and state assembly polls.
Yes ordinarily, INEC would need the BVAS to conduct any election under the Electoral Act 2022. The BVAS performs two major functions that will permit the Commission to fulfill the mandatory and obligatory requirements of the Electoral Act 2022. One is accreditation before voting to prevent proxy voting, and the other is a verification and confirmation of the accredited number of voters and votes received by the parties/candidates that must be done by the Collation or Returning Officer.
After jeopardizing the presidential election, INEC has realized how fatal it will be to the entire exercise if further elections are conducted and results declared after circumventing the express provisions of the extant electoral act (2022). For the avoidance of doubt, Section 64 (4) of the Electoral Act states: “a collation officer or returning officer at an election shall collate and announce the result of an election, subject to his or her verification and confirmation that the number of accredited voters stated on the collated result is correct and consistent with the number of accredited voters recorded and transmitted directly from polling units and that the votes stated on the collated result are correct and consistent with the votes or results recorded and transmitted directly from polling units”. This is called ‘Condition precedent’ in law.
Earlier the same day, INEC sent out a message directing Nigerians to be ready for the guber and state assembly polls this coming Saturday. And before the day wound down the same INEC told Nigerians that the guber and state assembly elections had been postponed to 18th March. Such knee-jerk reactions usually come from a confused bunch. INEC is now much like that man who buried himself, leaving his arm sticking out on the sand.
Prof Mahmood Yakubu let himself and Nigerians down in the terrible manner he conducted the presidential election on February 25. He deliberately abandoned the electronic transmission of results as required by the electoral act 2022, particularly section 64 subsections 4, which requires the collation or returning officer to follow an obligatory process; he or she is required by that section (Condition precedent) to compare the transmitted results directly from the polling units with the copies brought to the collation centre by the INEC officials who conducted and declared the results.
This is to ensure there is no falsification leading to inflation or deflation of results, judging by the accredited number of voters in the polling units recorded by BVAS. This is the only real difference between repealed electoral act 2010 and the electoral act 2022. INEC and CSOs fought for the electronic transfer of votes to achieve real-time and to eliminate manipulations of results perpetrated by the INEC officials who often colluded with desperate politicians.
Thankfully, the President signed this critical element into law. Yet, Prof Mahmood Yakubu led the INEC to abandon the Electoral Act 2022 and did manual collation after curiously shutting down INEC IReV. There is no doubt it was deliberate and not a network glitch as they wanted Nigerians to believe. If it was not deliberately done, INEC would have raised an alarm when it occurred as a natural reaction.
Rather, it took the Commission over 12 hours to respond with a terse statement that made many uninformed and bald-faced lying claims.
As if to erase any doubts, Professor Mahmood Yakubu refused to take the window of one to two weeks offered by the electoral act 2022 to review valid complaints that border on the integrity of the process and clear violations of the enabling act that were repeatedly pointed out by Senator Dino Malaye and others. More worrisome was the fact that Mahmood thrice promised to review the complaints once done with the collation. He didn’t keep that promise, the same way he didn’t keep the promise on electronic transmission of results designed to ensure real-time uploading of results. Where then is his professorate, integrity, and patriotism?
INEC went to the Court of Appeal to get permission to reconfigure BVAS. They got it, but not exactly what they had in mind. The Court of Appeal was wiser. The appellate court permitted the INEC to reconfigure as long as the contents of the BVAS will remain intact and saved in a backend server. This was like Shakespeare’s pound of flesh in his classic, Merchant of Venice; Shylock was asked cut it without drawing blood.
Mahmood and INEC would want permission to erase the presidential election data. Now, the Court of Appeal is saying whatever you do, do not tamper with the data. In other words, INEC can reconfigure as long as the data is unaffected.
Postponement of the guber and state assembly polls was therefore inevitable because INEC would have to produce the digital infrastructure to back up the data. What is more, the transfer of data will be done on the BVAS machines used in 176,606 polling units where the presidential election took place before reconfiguring. This cannot be done overnight. If the Commission does not do this, they cannot collaborate the results upon which they based Tinubu’s victory as required by law. This could mean some INEC officials could be headed to jail and that would render presidential election cancellation inevitable. This ruling gave hope that substantive law will prevail in these Presidential election petitions, not politics and antics as is often the case.
The BVAS revolution is therefore real. Nobody can bypass the magic machine and go undetected.
For the opposition parties, particularly the PDP and the Labour party, one would urge patience. The process is everything. Those instigating convulsion of the polity may have enlisted the services of INEC leadership. The short-changed Nigerian masses should note that any violent response to their provocations would mean playing into their hands.
Nigerians must be patient and watch closely the INEC macabre dance. The dilemma of INEC stems from the fact that the majority of the BVAS uploaded results automatically when the IReV came back on after it was switched off. That’s the way the BVAS is meant to function… simply click the ‘send’ button and anytime the server comes up and the BVAS has access to the internet, uploading would happen uninterruptedly.
That is the one hand INEC is trying to bury but it keeps sticking out. Let’s wait it out, for as our people would say when a cunning man dies, a cunning man will bury him.
·Dr. Law Mefor is a senior fellow of The Abuja School of Social and Political Thought; Tel.: +234- 905 642 4375; e-mail: drlawmefor@gmail.com; follow me on Twitter: @DrLawMefor1.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued fresh operational guidelines on open banking to deposit money banks, mobile money operators and payment service providers in the country.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued fresh operational guidelines on open banking to deposit money banks, mobile money operators and payment service providers in the country.
The apex bank on Wednesday in a circular titled “Issuance of the Operational Guidelines for Open Banking in Nigeria” directed all operators and service providers in the banking sector to comply with the new guidelines on open banking.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, in furtherance of its mandate for the stability of the financial system and pursuant to its role in deepening the financial system, hereby issues the Operational Guidelines for Open Banking in Nigeria”, the statement reads.
The adoption of Open Banking in Nigeria will foster the sharing of customer-permissioned data between banks and third-party firms to enable the building of customer-focused products and services. It is also aimed at enhancing efficiency, competition and access to financial services in Nigeria
“All stakeholders are required to ensure strict compliance with the guidelines and all other regulations, as the CBN continues to monitor developments and issue guidance as may be appropriate”, the apex bank said.
Nigerian Army’s 9 Brigade recovered 1,671 Permanent Voter Cards from an apartment in the Olodi-Apapa area of Lagos State on Wednesday.
According to Eons Intelligence on Thursday, three people were arrested in the apartment, while the main suspect was said to be on the run.
The troops also recovered ballot papers, cutlasses, and Indian hemp from the apartment.
The Governorship Candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour says the security and safety of voters are paramount in the forthcoming March 18 election, adding that any form of voter intimidation and harassment will be met with resistance.
“My focus now is on security and ensuring that people come out to vote and they are not intimidated or harassed because any form of intimidation or harassment will be met with resistance. It’s just that simple,” Rhodes-Vivour said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Thursday.
On February 25, thugs attacked voters and disrupted the electoral process in Elegushi, Ikate and other parts of Lagos . The police said over 20 political thugs were arrested over cases of electoral violence and ballot box snatching recorded during the just-concluded presidential and National Assembly polls.
He also said the postponement of the governorship and state assemblies’ elections from March 11 to March 18 has not dampened his momentum and determination to become the next governor of Lagos.
“It is not about rushing an election; it is about getting it right and that is why we got the injunction to ensure that INEC actually follows its processes. There are a lot of things that must be done right if we want to get this country on the right path,” he said.
The LP governorship candidate, however, said after what happened in the February 25 presidential and National Assembly polls, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would have to win his trust again.
Rhodes-Vivour said the people of Lagos want good governance regardless of the language a leader speaks or the tribe he belongs to. He noted that he is a proper cosmopolitan Lagosian having roots with the Yoruba people and having been trained in best institutions in the world.
The LP candidate said Lagos has always existed in harmony but politicians whip up ethnicity to divide the people of the state.
He said, “Lagos State has been in harmony for a long time. What happens is politicians try to divide us. Let us be wary of politicians who remember that they are Yoruba when it is time for politics. When Fulani herdsmen were making incursions into Oyo and people like Sunday Igboho, Rotimi Akeredolu stood up, a lot of politicians in Lagos were quiet. They played politics with it.
“When it was time for Amotekun, they were quiet. They were quiet on so many interests of the Yoruba people because they wanted an alliance with the north. So, they put their political interest above the interest of their people. And all of a sudden, it is election time and they are reminding you that this person does not speak Yoruba.”
“All the agberos on the streets that are wasting their lives, young men that are getting on drugs and are multiplying for years, do they meet the ones that are Yorubas and rehabilitate them, get them off the streets and ensure that they are more productive members of the society?” he queried.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has concluded arrangements to postpone the governorship and state house of assembly elections scheduled for Saturday, March 11.
Sources that spoke with our Reporter on the issue said the electoral body has rescheduled the polls to March 18, 2023.
The sources claimed that the election was postponed due to INEC’s inability to commence the re-configuration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines used for the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections, to enable their use for the state elections.
Sources disclosed that INEC in a meeting currently going on is considering shifting it to either March 18 or March 25 for the elections.
It was however learnt that March 18 was chosen.
One of the officials said, “You know that the BVAS re-configuration would take three or four days and since they would all be moved to the headquarters in Abuja, the machines would be re-configured and deployed to the various states and finally to the polling units.”
This is coming hours after the Tribunal Court on Wednesday permitted INEC to reconfigure the BVAS for the forthcoming election.
The Court gave the ruling after the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi asked the court to hinder INEC from reconfiguring the BVAS.
The Appeal Court in Abuja has granted the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, access to inspect electoral materials used by the Independent National Electoral Commission during February 25, 2022, general elections.
The PUNCH reports that Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, on Tuesday, urged the Court of Appeal in Abuja to order INEC to grant him access to sensitive materials it used for the presidential election.
While Tinubu’s first ex-parte application, which was filed on March 6, has the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi as respondents, in the second application, the Peoples Democratic Party, and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, were cited as respondents, alongside INEC.
The materials will be relevant in helping us to prepare our defence and also make comparison with the information contained in INEC’s back-end server,” Makinde said.
But delivering judgment on Wednesday, a three-member panel of the court, in four rulings on Wednesday granted the reliefs sought by Tinubu and APC in the fourth motion ex-parte, except prayers 5 and 6 in the motion filed by Tinubu.
The Presidential Election Petition Court sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, on Wednesday, granted the request of the Independent National Electoral Commission to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System it used for the presidential election.
The court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of justices, held that preventing
the electoral umpire from reconfiguring the BVAS would adversely affect the forthcoming governorship and State Assembly elections.
It dismissed objections by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, against the request.
According to the court, allowing the objections by Obi and his party, would amount to “tying the hands of the Respondent, INEC”.
Dismissing objections by LP and Obi, the court held that the backup files on the server cannot be lost and that restraining INEC will affect the forthcoming governorship elections.
Justice Joseph Ikyegh who presided over the panel chided the applicants for repeating their request to be allowed to scan and make copies of the electoral materials in INEC’s possession stating that it amounted to an abuse of court process.
It noted that INEC had in an affidavit filed before the court, assured that the accreditation data contained in the BVAS could not be tampered with or lost.
It further stated that neither Obi nor LP filed a counter affidavit to challenge the argument in INEC’s affidavit.
The court, however ordered INEC to allow the Applicants to inspect and carry out digital forensic examination of all the electoral materials used in the conduct of the elections, as well as to avail them the Certified True Copy, of result of the physical inspection of the BVAS.
The electoral commission lead counsel, Tanimu Inuwa, gave the assurance on Tuesday at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, while opposing an application filed by the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, on BVAS deployed in the presidential poll.
Opposing the application, Inuwa argued it would delay the conduct of governorship and houses of assembly elections scheduled for Saturday.
Earlier, Obi, lead counsel, Dr Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, had argued that the essence of the application was to enable the legal team to extract data embedded in the BVAS, “which represent the actual results from polling units.”
Obi’s lawyers also applied to obtain the certified true copy of all the data in the BVAS.
My lords, this is to ensure that the evidence is preserved before the BVAS are reconfigured by INEC. This is because if they are wiped out, it will affect the substance of the case”, Ikpeazu added.
However, INEC, through its team of lawyers comprising four Senior Advocates of Nigeria, led by Inuwa, urged the court to refuse the application.
INEC insisted that granting the request by Obi would affect its preparations for the impending governorship and houses of assembly elections.
BVAS machines
It told the court that there were about 176, 000 BVAS machines that were deployed in polling units during the presidential election.
“Each polling unit has its own particular BVAS machine which we need to configure for the forthcoming elections. It will be very difficult for us, within the period, to reconfigure the 176,000 BVAS.
“We have already stated in our affidavit that no information in the BVAS will be lost as we will transfer all the data in the BVAS to our backend server.
We need the BVAS configured. So, granting this application will be a clog in the process and may delay the conduct of the elections”, INEC’s lawyer, Inuwa, SAN, pleaded.
After listening to the parties, Justice Joseph Ikyegh adjourned ruling on the matter till Wednesday.
The Spokesperson for the Atiku-Okowa Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Dino Melaye, has claimed the Independent National Electoral Commission spent over N400billion on the presidential election he described as “a caricature show”.
The spokesperson disclosed this in a video posted on social media on Monday night.
In the one minute 45 seconds video, Melaye said that the whole concept of redesigning the naira was a deception by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
This is coming hours after the PDP leadership led by Senator Iyorchia Ayu, and other party chieftains stormed the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission to protest the declaration of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, as the president-elect after the February 25, 2023 elections.
The PDP, Labour Party, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party rejected the results describing the election as being marred by violence, rigging, and lacking integrity by the non-uploading of the presidential election results on the iRev portal in real time on the Election Day thereby calling for its cancellation among others.
The PDP also lamented what it described as the irregularities recorded during the conduct of the elections.
Melaye further remarked that “to make sure that the mandate of the people given freely to Atiku Abubakar is retrieved, we spent over N400bn just for a caricature show. INEC deceived Nigerians.
On the naira redesign, the spokesperson alleged that “because money was given to Bola Tinubu, the APC shared new notes on Election Day across the country and the PDP was starved of funds. Naira redesign was a ploy by INEC to deceive Nigerians.
He also called on all PDP supporters, lovers of democracy all over the country not to allow this to stand.
Comrade Julius Abure has dissolved the Labour Party State Executive Council of Rivers State with immediate effect, for gross anti-party activities and corruption in the management of Labour Party funds.
The National Chairman believes that it’s in the interest of Labour Party and the Obidient movement in Rivers State that those who were at the helm of affairs in Rivers State when our presidential mandate was openly stolen in Rivers State should step aside until full investigation is completed on what happened on that day.
The National Chairman has lost confidence in the ability of the compromised State Executive Council led by Mr Deinye Pepple to lead the campaign for the gubernatorial and State House of Assembly elections come March 11th.
He urges all Obidients in Rivers State to disregard every comment made by the disgraced State Chairman of the Labour Party, Deinye Pepple, on the election of March 11th and reiterates the full backing of the Labour Party on the candidacy of Comrade Beatrice Itubo of the Labour Party as the next Governor of Rivers State.
He therefore enjoins all Obidients to come out massively on March 11th to vote for Comrade Beatrice Itubo of Labour Party.
