The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will on Monday approach the Court of Appeal, hoping to set aside an earlier ruling regarding the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and other sensitive materials used for the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections.
This was disclosed by a top INEC official at the weekend in Abuja.
“The commission as a law-abiding institution would seek the Court’s leave concerning the BVAS, they have to be re-configured polling units by polling units for the next election.We have to approach the court to grant us leave to do the re-configuration, as this cannot be done without the court order. The re-configuration must be done on time as it would be done manually and would be deployed to the designated PUs,” the official said.Recall that there have been mixed reactions on the outcome of the elections, especially on the real time transmission of collated results from the BVAS to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (iReV).
The court had last week stopped the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC from tampering with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS deployed in last Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly Elections.
Obi in his application moved by his team of lawyers, led by Mr Alex Ejesieme, SAN, sought six principal reliefs, while Atiku’s lawyer, Adedamola Faloku, sought seven prayers from the tribunal.
However, INEC is expected to deploy the same BVAS for the subnational elections, meaning that the commission will have to reconfigure them and make them fit for purpose.
Checks revealed that it takes an average of five days to configure the BVAS, meaning that the commission has to begin the process of reconfiguration latest by Tuesday.
A source in one of the state offices of the commission who did not want his name mentioned due to the sensitivity of the issue however said the commission would be approaching the courts to vacate the order.
He said: There are over 176,000 polling units. The BVAS is polling units specific, which means that you cannot do a mass reconfiguration. The machines have to be reconfigured individually and those take an average of five days.
“If we leave the BVAS as the court has ordered, it simply means that we cannot use them for the state elections. So, we are approaching the court to seek a way out”.
The Labour Party said it had engaged the services of at least 20 senior advocates of Nigeria to challenge the outcome of the February 25 presidential election on behalf of its presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
According to sources within the party, the lawyers drawn from different chambers were being furnished with materials that would be used as evidence in court.
The president-elect and candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, was announced the winner of the keenly contested election last Wednesday.
Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the LP flag bearer, who got 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes respectively.
But Atiku and Obi rejected the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, with each claiming at separate press conferences that the election was fraught with violence and massive rigging.
The drama took a twist last Friday when the two major opposition candidates were reported to have approached the court to seek permission for the inspection of election materials used during the poll.
At least six states – Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo and Sokoto – had dragged the Federal Government before the Supreme Court over the conduct of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections before withdrawing the case last Friday.
But the National Secretary of the Labour Party, Umar Farouk, disclosed some SANs expressed their interest in joining the legal battle to prove Obi’s case.
While disclosing that INEC had lost its independence through its alleged collusion with the ruling APC by giving victory to Tinubu, Farouk said the LP’s hope was vested in the judiciary to do the needful.
“We have more than 20 SANs that are willing to participate and offer their services for the renewal and emergence of a new Nigeria. As I am talking to you, our lawyers are working on it.
“But this is not something we can discuss on the pages of a newspaper. All I can tell you is that we have started ‘trekking’ to the court,” he said,
Asked if the leadership of the party and the candidate had been able to garner concrete evidence other than the alleged isolated incidents the APC claimed the Labour Party was dangling to get public sympathy, Farouk said, “The court is not a polling box that they can smash and put in what they want.
“If the APC thinks they can pre-empt the court, let them do it. They had earlier pre-empted the election that they were going to win by hook or crook and they had claimed they won. Let’s wait and see. Unlike INEC, the judiciary is a different thing.
“We have seen how independent the commission is. But we need to also examine how independent the judiciary also is in a matter of this magnitude. Let’s see the solace it can offer the masses. Let’s see if the judiciary has also shattered the hope of Nigerians just as INEC did.”
Farouk, however, couldn’t give a definite date when the case would be filed.
“We are saying Obi is the winner from the record we have before us. But INEC did something else. They hurriedly carried out the plan of their paymaster.
“Therefore we have every reason to claim victory if it is being denied.
On the part of Atiku and the PDP, they have the right and data to claim that their mandate was stolen. The only arbiter now is the court.
So many people can claim one thing. It is the judiciary that gives a verdict based on the evidence before it.”
Similarly, the PDP said it has commenced a preliminary study of the results of the presidential election to challenge Tinubu’s victory.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a staff member of the publicity division of the party said lawyers with strong affiliation to the PDP were studying the pages of the reports of the elections before them.
“Why the hurry (in putting together a legal team)? Like his excellency, Atiku Abubakar, said yesterday (Thursday), our lawyers are studying the results to advise accordingly but definitely, the party is challenging the election. We can’t continue like this and expect to become a great nation.
“Some lawyers whose names I don’t want to reveal yet actually approached the party, offering pro bono services. They are angry like every other well-meaning Nigerian. These eggheads are currently reviewing the entire process, particularly the flagrant breach of the Electoral Act. This is all I can say for now,” the source said.
Tinubu camp reacts
But the chief spokesman of the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, said that the president-elect and his camp were not intimidated by the legal threat of the opposition.
He also confirmed that the legal directorate of the PCC was putting together more than 12 SANs to defend his principal in the alleged case of rigging and stolen mandate.
Although he did not reveal the names of members of the legal team, the legal directorate of the Tinubu Campaign Organisation is led by Babatunde Ogala, who could not be reached for comments.
But Keyamo said, “The number of our advocates is around that figure (12). But I can’t confirm the exact figures at the moment. However, it doesn’t matter the number of SANs the Labour Party is parading. It is not a competition.
“I am a lawyer and can tell you specifically that the numbers don’t matter. It is all about the quality of evidence. But I can tell you that we have enough to nullify more of their votes than theirs to nullify our own.”
Meanwhile, the Young Progressives Party said it would make its position known as soon as it was done going through the reports on the election.
Speaking with the newsmen, the National Publicity Secretary of YPP, Egbeola Wale-Martins, said, “We are still studying the outcome of the election and would make our stance of whether or not to proceed to the tribunal known after our findings.”
But Wale-Martins’ position contradicted that of the party’s National Secretary, Vidiyeno Bamaiyi, who told our correspondent that the party would not approach the tribunal to challenge the outcome of the election.
“Our presidential candidate did not campaign anywhere. On what basis are we going to challenge the results? We didn’t go out to tell Nigerians our dreams for the country,” Bamaiyi added.
The leadership of the Social Democratic Party and Zenith Labour Party on Friday said they would not challenge the outcome of the poll while the African Action Alliance said it had yet to make up its mind on the way forward.
The spokesperson for the African Action Congress, Adeyeye Olorunfemi, while reacting to the outcome of the election, said, “The National Working Committee of our party will sit and come up with a clarification but for now, there is no update in that regard.”
The National Chairman of the Action Alliance, Dr Kenneth Udeze, told one of our correspondents that the party would make known its decision after the conclusion of its ongoing investigation of the alleged irregularities during the election.
On his part, the National Chairman and presidential candidate of the Action Democratic Party, Yabaji Sani, said the ACP was studying the process.
But a leader in the Accord Party who did not mention his name said the presidential candidate of the party had already congratulated the presidential-elect, Bola Tinubu.
Similarly, the National Chairman of the National Rescue Movement, Amb. Isaac Udeh, and the National Secretary of the Allied Peoples Movement, Oyadeyi Ayodele, said their parties would not challenge the result of the election.
The suspected cybercrime specialist that recently brought some men of the Nigeria Police, Anambra State Command into ridicule including the Police Public Relations Officer, Zone 13, Ukpo, SP Nkiruka Nwode, Nnamdi Daniel Emeh was last Friday arrested and whisked to the Force Headquarters, Abuja by a joint operation of the INTERPOL operatives in Benin Republic and Nigeria.
Emeh who is 26 years old, until he went into a mess for allegedly swindling unsuspecting members of the public through cybercrime, was serving as a National Youth Service Corps, NYSC in the facility of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Annex, Awkuzu, Anambra State Police Command.
Recall that the accused notorious crime expert was declared wanted by the Nigeria Police Force on February 20, 2023, for impersonation of an Assistant Superintendent of Police and defamation of character and the said Emeh Nnamdi is currently cooling off his feet in the police dungeon in Abuja.
Before he attempted to flee Nigeria, Nnamdi Daniel Emeh with his criminal gang, including a DSS staff, Paul Okoli serving in Benin Edo State capital connived and defamed the characters of some top police officers in Anambra State Command where he linked the senior police officers for kidnappings and killing of suspects after extorting huge sums of money as well as human organ traffickers.
The Court of Appeal Abuja Division has granted the Exparte application brought before it by the People’s democratic party and it’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar and the Labour party with it’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, urging the Court to grant their application to interrogate the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) over the conduct of the just concluded February 25 Presidential election.
Moving the application on Friday Counsel for Abubakar of the PDP, Adedamola Faloku asked the Court to grant the Exparte application brought before it pursuant to Section One hundred and forty-six subsection one of the Electoral Act 2022 and under the inherent jurisdiction of the Court as referenced by Section six subsection Six A & B of the 1999 Constitution.
The application seeks seven prayers predicated upon six grounds, one of which that the elections was marred with fraudulent act.
In the same vein, the Exparte application brought before it by the Labour Party and its Presidential candidate Peter Obi was also heard .
Alex Ejeseme, who represented the labour party also relied on six grounds urging the Court to grant its application to inspect INEC materials used for the conduct of the 2023 presidential election.
Justice Joseph Ikyegh who presided over the matter granted the applications.
The Supreme Court, on Friday, nullified the ban on use of the old N200, N500 and N1000 banknotes as legal tenders.
The apex court, in a unanimous decision by a seven-member panel of Justices, held that the old banknotes should remain valid legal tenders until December 31.
It held that the old Naira notes should be used alongside the redesigned currencies.
It faulted President Muhammadu Buhari for introducing the demonization policy, without due consultation with the Council of States, the Federal Executive Council, the Civil Society and other relevant stakeholders.
In the lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the apex court accused President Buhari of disobeying its interim order that halted the full implementation of the new monetary policy.
The apex court said the defendants (CBN And Federal Government) doesn’t deserve to be heard because it has refused to obey the orders of this Honourable Court. “The disobedience of the orders of the Court is a sign of the failure of rule of law. This suit has merits.”
The court also held that the demonetisation policy is inconsistent with the CBN Act and that the President cannot make a unilateral policy without carrying the Plaintiffs (state Governors) along.
Continuing, the Supreme Court said that in implementing the policy, the president is under an obligation to carry the national council of states along and that the policy has impeded the functions of state governments.
It also said that the directive of the president is illegal.
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, says he will prove to Nigerians that he won the presidential election conducted on the 25th of February, 2023.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC conducted the election while disregarding the electoral act and its own guidelines for the conduct of the elections.
Addressing a press conference on Thursday in Abuja, Obi said he will explore all legal avenues to recover his mandate, adding that the rascality will not stand.
He assured his supporters to remain calm, come out and vote on March 11th.
On his faith in the court, Obi said he’s not a stranger to the court as he has been there since 2003 and has recovered her mandate.
Asked if he’s fighting anyone, Obi said he’s challenging the process of a fraudulent election.
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, will be addressing a world press conference shortly.
The address will be coming 24 hours after the Mr Bola Tinubu was unceremoniously declared as the president-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Valentine Ozigbo, Special Adviser to Mr Peter Obi confirmed this in a short statement obtained by News Band Newspaper.
He said, “Good day.
“This is to invite your media outlet to a World Press Conference hosted by His Excellency, Mr Peter Obi, the Labour Party Presidential Candidate, holding as follows:
“Venue: Plateau Hall, Transcorp Hilton, 1 Aguiyi Ironsi St, Maitama, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), Nigeria’s leading independent research and investigative, democracy, human rights, rule of law and public security and safety advocacy/not-for-profit Organization has responded swiftly to the armada of electoral fraud that characterized the 25th Feb 2023 Presidential Poll by identifying, naming and dragging forty-four top INEC officials that vicariously or directly involved in the INEC in-house brutal rigging of the 2023 Presidential Poll to 31 key foreign missions in Nigeria, representing the world’s best and most powerful Democracies. Also dragged to the 31 globally respected Democracies are four conspiratorial Govs in Nigeria. The 31 international Democracies written to include: the Head of the EU Delegation to Nigeria/ECOWAS and Ambassadors or High Commissioners of US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, State of Israel, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Czech, Portugal, Norway, Finland, Austria, Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Australia, the Vatican, South Korea, Brazil and Mexico. The letter was dated Wednesday, 1st March 2023.
Those petitioned against for their vicarious or direct liability are Prof Mahmood Yakubu, INEC’s National Chairman and the following fourteen serving or immediate past National Commissioners of the Commission-with their States of origin: Retired Air Vice Marshal Ahmed Mua’zu (Gombe), Mrs. May Agbamuche-Mbu (Delta), Dr. Adekunle Ladipo Ogunmola (Oyo), Mallam Mohammed Kudu Haruna (Kano), Ukegbu Nnamdi (Abia), Retired Major Gen Abubakar Alkali (Adamawa), Rhoda Gumus (Bayelsa), Sam Olumekun (Ondo), Barr Festus Okoye (Anambra), Kunle Ajayi (Ekiti), Muhammad Kallah (Borno), Dr. Baba Bila (North-East), Prof Sani Adam (North-Central) and Prof Abdullahi Abdu (North-West). The 31 respected international Democracies called upon, were humbly requested to slam visa ban and other inter-country entry restrictions and block international engagements and recognitions in their names particularly those involving the National Chairman of INEC (Prof Mahmood Yakubu), the National Commissioner for Voter Education who doubles as National Commissioner for Anambra, Imo and Enugu (Festus Okoye Esquire). The letter seminally and conscientiously raised against them was for their vicarious or direct involvement in widespread voter suppression and brutal subversion of the sacred electoral wishes of Nigerians during the INEC in-house brutally rigged Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Election.
Named, too, in the letter are 37 serving or immediate past 37 State Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) with their States of origin: Ibrahim Abdullahi (Adamawa State), Obo Effanga (Cross Rivers), Agboke Olaleke (Ogun), Prof Sam Egwu (Kogi), Onyeka Ugochi (Imo), Muhammad Bashir (Sokoto), Prof Ayobami Salami (Oyo), Olaniyi Ijalaye (Ondo), Muhammed Nura (Yobe), Zango Abdu (Katsina), Dr. Elizabeth Agwu (Ebonyi), Agundu Tarsoo (Benue), Yomere Onitsemlebi (Delta), Prof Yahaya Ibrahim (Kaduna), Nura Ali (Kano), Agu Uchenna (Enugu), Ahmed Garki (FCT), Hudu Yunusa (Bauchi), Prof Uzochukwu Chijoke (Anambra), Abdulganiyu Raji (Oyo), Risikuwa Shehu (Sokoto), Bello Mahmud (Zamfara), Nentawe Yilwada (Plateau),Umar Ibrahim (Taraba), Mustapha Zubairu (Niger), Asmau Maikudi (Katsina), James Apam (Benue), Godswill Obioma (Abia), Olusegun Agbaje (Lagos), Dr. Cyril Omorogbe (Edo State), Baba Yusuf (Borno), Dr. Uthman Ajidagba (Kwara), Yahaya Bello (Nasarawa), Dr Emmanuel Hart (Rivers), Mohammed Ibrahim (Gombe), Mahmuda Isah (Kebbi) and Dr. Adediran Rahmon Tella (Osun). Two key Directors of INEC: Engineer Paul Omokere (Director of ICT) and Dr. Lawrence Bayode (Deputy Director of ICT) are among those blacklisted and petitioned against.
The vicariously or directly culpable four Governors petitioned against for their conspiratorial roles in the brutal voter suppression and INEC in-house presidential poll rigging are Govs Nyesom Nwike of Rivers State, Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna State, Hope Uzodinma of Imo State and Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State. While three of them (Wike, El-Rufai and Umahi) will lose their office immunities in less than three months (29th May 2023), that of Imo State will be facing a crucial governorship poll in Sept 2023 or less than seven months away and runs high risk of losing his office immunity by 20th Jan 2024 if he loses the poll. They were also petitioned against and sought to be slammed with visa ban and inter-country entry restrictions involving themselves and members of their nuclear families for their vicarious or direct involvement in gross human rights abuses and violations under their gubernatorial watch in Imo, Rivers, Kaduna and Ebonyi between 2015 and 2020 and 2021 and 2023.
We had prayerfully called on the 31 respected Ambassadors or High Commissioners to:
1. Slam visa sanctions and other international travel, engagement and recognition restrictions on the serving Gov of Imo State and office immunity losing (outgoing) Govs of Rivers, Kaduna and Ebonyi States. Included in the list is Gov Yahaya Bello of Kogi State who will also be losing office immunity on 29th May 2023
2. Repatriate all their stashed away material and human deposits and monetary valuable services (if any) traced and linked to the 44 top INEC officials and strongly suspected office atrocity perpetrator Govs named
3. Ensure that all members of their nuclear families living or holidaying or studying anywhere in the named respected countries and their assets and liabilities are speedily repatriated back to Nigeria and permanently embargoed from finding their way back to the respected countries.
4. Particularly, Prof Mahmood Yakubu and Festus Okoye Esquire should be stripped of international forums and opportunities to speak emptily and noisily and stop from receiving undue international attentions and recognitions and permanently barred from traveling to any of the 31 respected Democratic countries named including their nuclear family members.
5. Holistically review future funding and international democracy support funds to INEC and its rubberstamping CSOs including scholarships and sponsorship of their international visitations and exchange programs and speech deliveries.
6. Downward review of funding of Election Day monitoring and upward review of supporting independent CSOs’ critical oversight on INEC especially during Continuous Voters’ Registration and Distribution of Permanent Voters’ Cards to discourage disenfranchisement and enhance enfranchisement
7. Mount sufficient pressure and tying future democracy support funding to INEC on full digitalization of voting process or dualization of voting in the country or any part thereof to include electronic PVC and manual PVC voting; whereby registered voters can vote from their homes or choose to vote physically at polling units with their votes count.
Note: A 3-Page Supporting Statistics Was Also Attached To Back Up The Letter.
Signed
For: International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety)
Biafra Defacto Customary Government, has commended Biafrans who heeded their call and participated in the just concluded presidential and National Assembly elections despite threats by criminal elements to scuttle the poll in the region.
In a statement made available to News Band by its communication Director, Mazi Uche Mefor, while acknowledging the manipulations that marred the elections in some areas, urged all Biafrans to remain peaceful and challenge appropriately where the obvious injustices were observed.
He also reaffirmed Biafra Defacto Customary Government’s commitment to human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.
The statement reads, “The Parliament – Biafra De Facto Customary Government appreciates all Biafrans who heeded her advise and call to political action February 25, 2023; thereby, came out en mass and exercised their democratic rights whereas ignored those who threatened enforcement of election boycott, sit-at-home, and curfew throughout Biafraland.
Although not strange, the election has been expectedly rigged and manipulated in some areas in Biafraland, and even beyond, the Biafra De Facto Customary Government particularly urges all Biafrans to remain peaceful; nonetheless, challenge appropriately where the obvious injustices were observed during the process in blantant subversion of the people’s wish. Of noteworthy, these injustices further justify why the people of Biafra must continue to exercise their rights to both internal and external self-determination.
“The Biafra De Facto Customary Government reaffirms her commitment to human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.”
The People movement has just started with the declaration of Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the President -elect of Nigeria with 8.8M votes while Peter Obi got 6.0 million votes .
GGM wishes to congratulate all of us in Good Governance Ministry (GGM ) and Obidient Movement for being part of this political history in Nigeria.
GGM knows that all of us are disappointed and demoralized with INEC wicked display of biasness and unprofessionalism but one thing is certain : what God does not know ,does not exist.
Peter Obi with millions Obidient Nigerians across the world has caused a major political earthquake in the Nigeria political history. Peter Obi,to his credit ,has returned political power to the ordinary people. For the first time in the recent history of Nigeria ,a son of nobody won National Assembly election without godfather ,or sharing money . GGM position for several years has been vindicated that political power belongs to an organised and informed people not criminal political structures that have hijacked Nigeria Government transactions since after the civil war. Peter Obi with Obidient Nigerians has destroyed and dismantled that criminal structures across Nigeria . Time will tell.
GGM calls all supporters of Good Governance and better society to remain calm in the face of the present provocation. INEC declaration of Tinubu as President -elect will surely not stand the test of time . In 21st century,war is not won on the street but strategic session in air-conditioned conference room . We shall beat the enemies of democracy in their own game. We have won them in the battlefield even without their so called structures . We have no access to public funding,but destroyed them in Lagos and across Nigeria. We will surely destroy them in public court and reclaim people mandate.
Once again ,I want to say a big congratulations to all of us in GGM and Obidient family for being part of this divine mission .Our celebration might be delayed but we shall surely celebrate the dawn of the new political order within Nigeria . Just believe in us and wait for further instructions.
