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.
A top member of Mr Peter Obi’s campaign team, Aisha Yesufu has openly asked supporters of Peter Obi, also known as #Obidients in Enugu State to back the governorship candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Mr Frank Nweke Jr.
In a viral video, Yesufu said there were some corrupt opportunists who have joined Labour Party and are now benefitting from Obi’s proven capacity.
Millions of ordinary Nigerians backed the candidature of Obi, not minding their religious background, political party or ethnicity. According to them, they voted for the personality of Peter Obi, not necessarily for Labour Party, because he has an excellent track record.
The Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State, Mr. Christian Aburime, has declared a journalist, Mr. Raymond Ozoji, an enemy of the State Government for reporting activities of the Labour Party in the state the way he (Aburime) does not like.
Aburime in a WhatsApp message he sent to the journalist on Saturday, March 4, 2023 informed that he has officially blacklisted the journalist for not writing in favour of the present state government and to that extent the journalist has been declared enemy of the government and people of Anambra State.
The WhatsApp message from Aburime reads: “Mr Raymond Ozoji. It is very obvious you have decided to be an enemy of Soludo government. An enemy of progress and development of Anambra State. An enemy of Ndi Anambra!! I have officially blacklisted you as enemy of this government and the good people of Anambra State!”
The CPS forwarded the headline of a story by the journalist which reads, “11th March: Tension Rises Over Majority In Anambra Legislature, As Labour Party Prepares For Another Tsunami…”
The journalist, who did not bandy words with the CPS, issued a public notice which he circulated on various WhatsApp groups and social media platforms, calling on the Police and other security agencies to take note, should any harm befall him.
The short public notice written by the journalist after the threat reads: “The above was a WhatsApp message sent to me by Mr. Christian Aburime, Press Secretary to Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra state.
“I wish to state that any harm done to RAYMOND OZOJI henceforth, Mr. Christian Aburime should be held responsible.
“The Police and other security agencies should take note.”
Lagos state is one of the most cosmopolitan states in Nigeria that can be easily likened to present day United States of America (USA), where people are given the opportunity to explore the opportunities available in the state because of the strategic nature of its location to the economic activities and development of the country, Nigeria. It is also worthy to note that most of the present developments witnessed today in the state is a combine effort and contributions of both indigenes and non-indigenes of the state, and most non-indigenes, especially the Igbos who are either born in the state or migrated to the state to explore commercial and other economic opportunities. Private Citizens have contributed a great deal to the development of Lagos State but they have been made to endure multiple tax regime and political feudal system that tend to have reduced the expected pace in terms of development and opportunities the state should have witnessed today.
And in the bid to liberate Lagos state from its long strangulation of political feudal system and ruthless godfatherism, where every policy of the state has to be approved by a single individual, irrespective of its irrationality, and regardless of its long or short-term effect on the people, there is an utmost and urgent need to usher in a new change where the voice of the people can be heard; where policies of the government of the state will have the interest of the people at heart; and where the development of the state will have a human face, without discrimination against any tribe or ethnic group residing in the state.
Gbadebo Chinedu Rhodes-Vivour, the Governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Lagos State has proven beyond every reasonable doubt that he is the ideal governorship material the state needs now to actualize the long expected political liberation and progression of the people in the state.
He is the ideal governorship candidate that will end the long reign of political godfatherism in the state, and will in turn enthrone an ideal democratic system where every tribe and persons, irrespective of your social strata in the society will have a voice in the state.
Gbadebo Chinedu Rhodes-Vivour is a young architecture, activist and politician that is just 39years old. He previously contested for the Lagos West Senatorial district in 2019 under the platform of the PDP. He left the PDP for LP in 2022 when he realized that it was time to contest under a platform that will give succor to the downtrodden and suffering Nigerians in Lagos State, and he eventually emerged as the Governorship candidate of the party (LP) after a stiff contest at the party’s primary election.
As a cosmopolitan city boy like his father, Olawole Rhodes-Vivour who got married to Barr. Nkechi Rhodes-Vivour, Gbadebo Chinedu Rhodes-Vivour also got married to Dr. Ifeyinwa Aniebo (a molecular geneticist by profession). Ironically, instead of applauding his cosmopolitan disposition of getting married outside his tribe as a means of bringing about ethnic and cultural unity in the country through inter-tribal marriage, some querulous critics have had the effrontery to lampoon him for having anything to do with a woman from the South-East (Igbo), like his father, and have even threatened not to vote for him during the governorship election.
But Gbadebo Chinedu Rhodes-Vivour does not appear troubled by these pity-thinking individuals who have left the main discourse of his leadership competence to delve into his private marital decision. To the end, it has become obvious that some political opportunities are out to play ethnic politics against this young man, hence, I am compelled to speak to the conscience of every resident electorate of Lagos state not to buy into this cheap political gambit against one who is out to give them a new lease of fresh air through competent leadership in the state. Also, the Igbos residing in the state must come out in their numbers to stand behind Gbadebo Chinedu Rhodes-Vivour as a means of shaming these ethnic jingoist that have become the major reason of our national retrogression and underdevelopment.
I will also want to urge the Yorubas residing in Lagos state not to abandon their illustrious son who will eventually make them very proud if given the opportunity to create a new liberated Lagos State for them. In the same vein, I will also appeal to Lagosians from other tribes to vote for Gbadebo Chinedu Rhodes-Vivour for a great and better Lagos state devoid of intimidation from some ego-inflated touts in the state that have constituted themselves to unofficial non-state actors with state recognition and acknowledgment.
Gbadebo Chinedu Rhodes-Vivour is already a well-established young man, well-exposed and has a leadership track record that will help in changing the narrative of governance in Lagos state. He has been a leading voice in many national policy issues, and has always stood on the side of the people and the protection of their collective interests; and bearing in mind that he is from a well-respected family in Lagos state and Nigeria, he will definitely give his best to maintain the long standing family good legacy, as to provide good governance for the people of Lagos state, where greater opportunities and environment will be created for private business and activities to thrive through good government policies.
The Senator-elect for Anambra Central Senatorial District, Chief Victor Umeh, has vouched full involvement in the election petition of the presumed winner of the 2023 presidential election, Mr Peter Obi, of the Labour Party (LP).
Umeh who said that his joy of winning the February 25 poll would not be complete without Obi reclaiming his mandate in court ,said Obi got over two million votes in Rivers State but was shortchanged.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commisdion (INEC) declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Ahmed BolaTinubu, the winner of the presidential election.
Speaking ar a radio programme monitored by our correspondent, Umeh while thanking the people of Anambra Central Senatorial District for voting for him, enjoined them not to despair over the rigging of the presidential election, stating that Obi would reclaim his mandate by the grace of God.
He revealed that Obi constitutionally won in no fewer than 30 states as against INEC claim of winning in 12 states.
Umeh, who is nicknamed ‘court martial’ because of scores of cases he won while in the All Progressives Grand Alliance as its national chairman and more said over 38 Senior Advocates of Nigeria ( SANs) had taken up the Obi election petition matter pro bono.
He said, “I thank Ndi Anambra central for voting for me and I’m happy that I won .I promise to continue doing the things I’m known for by speaking for our people and contributing in debates for the progress of Nigeria but my joy is not complete because of Peter Obi: he won the election but was rigged out .If the winner is not announced but the loser ,the land will be angry and indeed the land is angry .
“By 4am on Wednesday ,Igwe Mbaukwu called me with a sad news that INEC had declared Tinubu the winner of the election.I wonder why the declaration in that odd hours of the night and why INEC was in a hurry to give Tinubu Certificate of Return in the evening of the day they declared him winner when National Assembly election winners have not been given theirs .
” It’s obvious that since INEC robbed the true winner of his victory ,there has been no celebration, no dancing; no gunshots because the wrong person was declared winner .It was not what we asked to be bought for us at the market that was bought .
“INEC told us that Obi won in 12 states and got 25% in 20 states which is not true for Obi got 25% in 30 states from the real result available to us .
From our calculation,Obi had a landslide victory at Lagos state and scored more that 2 million votes in Rivers state .
“The real result from one LG is out and that’s how it is in almost all LG’s in Rivers state. In that LG ,Obi got above 70,000 votes and APC got 3,000 votes but they changed it and gave Obi 3,000 votes and 80,000 votes to Tinubu .The votes allocated to us in Benue ,Plateau were not what we got and I strongly believe that the court will do the right calculation and give us back our victory . It was possible in 2003 when Obis Anambra state guber election victory was stolen and it will be possible again .
“We’ve set up a situation room at Abuja on Friday after which I went with Obi to see the EU observers ,38 SANS drawn across Nigeria have offered their services “pro Bono” and more are joining .
“In this petition ,I will fully be part of it as I was in 2003’and God of Abraham ,Isaac and Jacob who sees in secret and abhors injustice will reward us .
“Be strong ! Don’t fret! We have more than enough evidence to get this stolen victory back at the court .
Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election may have come and gone but the controversies trailing its conduct by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) appear to be far from over.
This comes as a senior member of INEC’s staff has told THE WHISTLER that the presidential poll was manipulated in favour of Bola Ahmed Tinubu — the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate.
The official who was deployed to one of the southwestern states during the election, claimed that the electoral process was manipulated and undermined by various forces in connivance with members of INEC.
In the wee hours of March 1, four days after the presidential election, INEC declared that Tinubu of the ruling APC polled 8,794,726 votes to emerge as president-elect ahead of his closest contenders, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who got 6,984,520, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party who secured 6,101,533 votes.
INEC declared the winner despite complaints of alleged discrepancies in collated figures and allegations that the electoral umpire failed to abide by its own regulation mandating electronic transmission of the results from polling units using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine.
Known as the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), the website which was designed to receive photographic images of election result sheets in real-time directly from polling units across the country was reported to have suffered system collapse that prevented the transmission.
But the commission’s senior official who spoke to THE WHISTLER on the condition of anonymity, said the claim that transmission of the results was prevented by server downtime was part of a game plan to manipulate the election.
“It was a very messy election. I am an INEC staff member but no! no!! no!!!
“They (INEC management) made an excuse that our server was hit by hackers 162 times but they are merely deceiving members of the public.
“Why are commercial banks’ servers not being attacked that way? Do banks suffer such attacks to the point that their customers are not able to carry out transactions? It (the election outcome) was scripted and orchestrated to turn out that way,” said the official.
According to him, governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) made a special arrangement to take care of INEC staff during the election even though the commission already paid allowances to staff deployed for elections.
“In fact, they (APC governors) were taking care of us and fed us twice daily during our stay for the presidential election.
“I heard they gave money to some INEC officials in Lagos. And they also gave election observers money, that’s what usually happens. Some APC-controlled states were also allowed to assist the commission with transportation of sensitive election materials on election day.”
The official recalled that, “INEC management had instructed state offices to not deploy election materials and personnel until they’re instructed to do so. That was why they delayed in some states. In strongholds of the APC, they quickly deployed personnel and materials to polling units and in strongholds of opponents, they delayed. In some places, they did not even deploy personnel to the field.
“For instance, in a whole local government where the Labour Party is popular, elections did not start until past 12 PM. Was our chairman not supposed to announce that there won’t be election in that case? In fact, I learnt that voting did not start until about 4:30 PM in some areas.
“All the things people are saying about the election being rigged in favour of the APC is true, there’s no gainsaying it. In fact, worse things that people aren’t aware of happened during the presidential election,” he said.
On Saturday, the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, at a meeting with resident electoral commissioners, appeared to admit that some officials of the electoral umpire were compromised to manipulate the polls.
He said while planning for the election was “painstakingly done,” issues of “logistics, election technology, behaviour of some election personnel at different levels, attitude of some party agents and supporters” affected the outcome negatively.
Yakubu directed that “All staff found to be negligent, whether they are regular or ad hoc officials, including Collation and Returning Officers, must not be involved” in the forthcoming governorship and state assembly elections to avoid a repeat while promising to that proven infractions against political candidates would be addressed.
Meanwhile, the INEC source told THE WHISTLER
that some of the challenges recorded during presidential election also arose from poorly trained ad-hoc staff and intimidation of voters and personnel of the commission.
“A video had gone viral where a lawmaker was going round Lagos and opening ballot boxes to see if the electorate were voting the APC. Where he saw that APC got more votes, he left it but in places where other parties dominated, he tore the ballot papers. I can get the video and send it to you.
“The international observers did not lie in their submissions that the election was flawed. They had even noted before the election that there would be problems because a lot of the ad-hoc staff used were either not properly trained or not trained at all and this was because INEC did “fire brigade” training before the election.
“In fact, some people were recruited on the day of the election at the polling unit. All they asked them was if they could operate a phone before engaging them to handle the BVAS machine. I even saw where a minor held the BVAS machine.
“If I was prepared for INEC to sack me, I would have granted an interview to pressmen exposing some of these infractions. If I decide to expose what happened in my PU alone, the INEC chairman would order my sacking. I will become a hero but INEC will sack me because I will indict a lot of persons and that would also lead to their sacking from the commission.
“If I decide to speak out, even the head of the ICT department will go, they will call for his head because he too was compromised.”
Many Nigerians believe that Mr Peter Obi, the candidate of an unpopular political party, was cheated through ballot rigging in the election. The former Anambra State Governor enjoyed the support of young people who constitute over 60% the country’s total population of eligible voters.
He defeated the declared winner, Bola Tinubu, a two-time former Lagos State Governor and acclaimed ‘godfather’ of Lagos politics, in the latter’s stronghold but failed to pull sufficient votes to be declared winner according to INEC figures.
However, the INEC source claimed that Obi could have won the election if he wasn’t rigged through the collusion of some INEC officials and the ruling party.
“Obi really tried and even the spread that people are talking about, Tinubu did not get it. From what I saw, Obi is the only candidate that got the spread. He (Obi) really worked hard and people really wanted him and you can see that the Labour Party has won a lot of House of Reps seats and the Senate.
“And let me tell you, the Labour Party is likely get Lagos in this governorship election (and) at least three other states. See, you people underestimated the Labour Party. I recall people said they cannot even get one million votes in the presidential election but how many million votes did they get?”
He added, “I don’t know if those (LP and PDP) going to court can succeed but they can get a lot of evidence of election fraud to show to the court. All they (the aggrieved candidates) need to do is to ask people who have evidence of malpractices in any form from the polling units to come forward with them and give them a token in return. This way they will get all the evidence they need.”…..CONTINUE READING
