The Independent National Electoral Commission has knocked the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, for expressing doubts over the credibility of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and Results Viewing Portal which will be deployed for the 2023 election.

 The commission expressed shock that the APC candidate could question the efficiency of the technology which had been used in several polls, including the off-season governorship elections in Ekiti, Osun, and Anambra states.

The former Lagos State governor had on Monday at the Chatham House in London, United Kingdom, said the electoral body had yet to assure Nigerians of the workability of the BVAS and e-transmission of poll results.

He spoke weeks after the APC National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and the National Organising Secretary, Suleiman Argungu, expressed concerns over the planned deployment of BVAS for next year’s general polls.

Speaking at Chatham House, Tinubu said, “We are still building confidence in our democratic and voting system. INEC is yet to assure us (that) during this election that electronic transmission, the technology being used for accreditation and the total vote count, is reliable, dependable and assuring in our democratic process before we introduce a complicated element of ballot counting.”

But responding to Tinubu’s uncertainty, the Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman of INEC, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, pointed out that the commission has been talking about the features, strengths and advantages of BVAS since 2020.

Oyekanmi spoke in response to inquiries by The PUNCH regarding the APC standard bearer’s comment on the credibility of BVAS and the e-transmission of results.

He stated, ‘’The Independent National Electoral Commission has been talking about the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, its features, strengths and advantages since 2020 when it was introduced to replace our beloved Smart Card Reader.

“At every quarterly meeting that the commission held with leaders of political parties since this BVAS was introduced, and I am talking about more than five meetings, it has always been on the agenda and discussed. My presumption is that both the national chairman and secretary of all the political parties that attend our meetings also brief their presidential candidates about the issues discussed.

‘’More importantly, we have conducted off-season governorship elections in Ekiti, Osun and Anambra states using the BVAS and all of these elections have generally been described and accepted as free, fair, credible, and inclusive by all and sundry. The governors elected have quietly been enjoying their respective tenures. Don’t forget that we also deployed it for the Federal Capital Territory area council election and it was a huge success.

 ‘’The BVAS has been trending on social media platforms and even foreigners visiting Nigeria for the first are asking: ‘What is this BVAS thing?’’

 In response to mischief-makers who circulated rumours that the commission had dumped the BVAS, Oyekanmi explained that the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has reiterated severally that there is no going back on the deployment of BVAS for the 2023 general election.

‘’Therefore, if at this moment in 2022, we still have a presidential candidate of one of the 18 registered political parties, saying he needs assurances on the BVAS or he doesn’t know or appreciate its relevance to the 2023 general election, then something is terribly wrong somewhere,’’ he stated.

But the APC defended the reservations expressed by Adamu and Tinubu on the BVAS, stating that their statements were probably misconstrued.

The APC Publicity Director, Bala Ibrahim, stressed that both men were merely striving to ensure INEC is 100 per cent certain about its readiness for the election.

Ibrahim said, “I think we are misinterpreting or refusing to understand the broader meaning of concerns in this context. The concern raised by both the party chairman and presidential candidate is that justice should not just be done but be seen to be done holistically.

“What they are doing is to ensure that the right things are done to avoid giving room for complaints to be raised after the 2023 elections. The process should not just be left at 99 per cent; it must meet up with the acceptable 100 per cent standard.

If there is an iota of doubt or anything that can compromise the integrity of the election, it must be looked into. The right thing has to be done.”

When asked if the party was apprehensive that the use of the technology might affect its chances in the polls, the director declared that the party has nothing to fear.

This is even as he reiterated that they have the confidence that the commission can successfully conduct the polls if the right things are done.

“No, we are not intimidated. In fact, our imminent victory is more pronounced with what is happening now. If you look at the ongoing rancour, chaos and divisive situation in the camp of the opposition PDP, you will discover that our chances are getting brighter every day,’’ he stated.

Speaking further, Ibrahim said, “The indices have also indicated that the APC is coasting home to victory and it is certainly going to be an ‘Hallelujah’ at the end of the day. I think we should have confidence in INEC. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t tell the commission to be on its feet. On its part, INEC has assured us that everything is on course and everything has been done to ensure the election will be successful.

“For now, we don’t have any fear. Our only worry is misinformation or wrong information being peddled. We hope people won’t believe the antics of the opposition that is giving the public the impression that the party is not ready for the election.

“Of course, we are more than ready. In fact, let me also remind them that the APC is the party to beat. The ruling party is in power and will want to continue by consolidating what the Buhari administration has done. When the Jagaban takes over, we are confident that he will hit the ground running.’’

Ibrahim’s position was echoed by the Director of Media and Publicity for the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, who said the party leadership and APC candidate simply wanted the electoral body to get its acts together.

The former boss of the News Agency of Nigeria was also positive that his principal would beat the opposition candidates by a landslide.

He said, “What Adamu and Tinubu are trying to tell INEC is to get its acts together. They are not saying anything more than that. Of course, they are not against BVAS. Tinubu as a candidate, even when he was in the opposition, has been at the forefront of using technology to campaign for the election. So he cannot at this time be saying that he is not in support of BVAS.

“What he is simply saying and what Adamu also said is that INEC should get its acts together to be able to use BVAS seamlessly. This is all they are saying contrary to the twist and distortion of the opposition that they are against technology.

You can see what happened in Osun State, for instance. In one breath, INEC gave the APC a set of results. The party went to tender it in court. Instead of the commission to disclose that they made a mistake, it printed another set of results. How can you print two contradictory results?

“That’s not the kind of thing we are looking forward to. We don’t want an election where people will be arguing that INEC cheated them or anything related to that. This is why we are saying the commission must get its acts together.

“If it presents a result, it should be ready to say ‘That’s the result.’ Not running to get another result. It is so embarrassing.”

On the biggest fear of the APC ahead of the polls, Onanuga maintained that if the exercise was devoid of mischief or rigging, the ruling party would win.

“We are not threatened by the use of BVAS or any technology because we know we are winning this election. In fact, we are winning with a landslide. We have no fear because we believe we will win if there is no mischief or attempt to rig the elections by the opposition.

“Just some months ago, some people told Peter Obi that they could hack the INEC portal when he went on a tour. Once everybody allows the process to go on seamlessly, we don’t have any fear about the 2023 election. We are prepared and believe that with the Almighty God on our side, we are going to win massively,” he stated.

(Punch)

The Chatham House on Tuesday said the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu ambushed its chairman when he appeared for an interactive session on Monday morning.

According to Peoples Gazette, the frontline British think-tank said the ruling All Progressives Congress presidential candidate undermined its normal arrangement and did not seek prior permission to act in the manner he did.

Mr Tinubu, during his appearance, delegated political surrogates that included Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to answer questions on his behalf.

Mr Tinubu assigned the question on oil theft to one of his campaign spokespersons, Dele Alake; the question on security he assigned to Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna; and the question on youth development and inclusion to Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River.

Also, a former commissioner of finance in Lagos, Wale Edun, was asked to answer the question on job creation; Mr Gbajabiamila answered a question on national defence while incumbent Lagos State governor Mr Sanwo-Olu took the question on youth inclusion in politics and governance.

Yesterday’s event was not the norm and our Chair was not notified in advance that Mr Tinubu would be delegating questions,” a spokesperson for Chatham House said in an email to Peoples Gazette. “The principle of Chatham House events is to be able to hear the views of invited speakers, and also to hold those speakers to account.”

Nigerians have expressed serious condemnation of Mr Tinubu’s conduct during the question and answer session of the event. The former Lagos governor failed to express his plans for the country in several areas of governance, including health, education, economy and national defence.

Mr Tinubu, who has continued to ignore Nigerian media, has committed repeated blunders on the campaign trail that critics said showed manifestation of severe medical conditions.

Since the start of the campaign in February, Mr Tinubu has been seen urinating on himself, carrying a catheter device to take his bodily waste and speaking gibberish during public appearances.

The presidential candidate has dismissed public concerns about his health, saying it was misplaced since he only needs his mental capacity to govern and not his physical capacity, which should be reserved for manual labour workers.

(Journalist101)

Iruono slumped on Monday evening and was confirmed dead in the early hours of Tuesday.

The late politician who is also a member of the Obi-Yusuf Datti presidential campaign council was billed to anchor Peter Obi’s presidential rally in Owerri today, Tuesday.

He was the Senior Special Assistant to the Imo Governor on Entertainment. He was also the pioneer Chairman of the Imo State Entertainment and Carnival Commission.

More to come…

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC Bola Tinubu, on Monday, dropped another gaffe at the Chatham House in the United Kingdom.

Since the former Lagos governor began his presidential campaign, it has been from one gaffe to another whenever he addresses his supporters at the podium.

Series of his goofs are often mimicked by comedians and skit makers in the country for comic relief.

Addressing his audience at the UK think-tank, Mr Tinubu blew another blunder while saying, “I hereby urged all my fellow ‘consentensants’ in this election to do the same.”

A twelve seconds video clip trending on social media captured the moment he meant to say his fellow contestants.

At the event, he also assigned his surrogates to answer questions on how he intends to govern the most populous country in Africa.

Already, there are insinuation that his incoherence at public functions might be reasons he is shying away from public debates involving his rivals, and rather opting for town hall meetings organised by his party.

(Journalist101)

*WHO IS ABAYOMI ARABAMBI WORKING FOR?*

The Labour Party, in the last few days has been watching with consternation the grandstanding of its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Abayomi Arabambi and his cohorts in the Ogun state executive of the party wherein they have continued to dish out lies to the public concerning the leadership of the party.

The party is constrained not to go to the gutters with its national officer, especially as it concerns the internal matters of the party which we all swore oath of confidentiality to uphold. We are even more constrained knowing that when a bird dances in the air, the probability of a drummer hiding nearby is a possibility. We are also not unmindful of the gullibility of men when confronted with carrots they can’t resist, hence, we have chosen to come out with facts as distorted by our supposed spokesperson.

Appearing on a popular television programme Saturday morning, Abayomi Arabambi threw caution to the wind by callously dishing out statements attacking a party for which he claims to be the National Publicity Secretary and has also questioned the legality of the membership of our respectable leaders and the Director-General of the Presidential Campaign Council, Dr. Doyin Okupe, wherein he pronounced him expelled from the party.

On Friday, I did address a press conference wherein the party over-ruled the illegal expulsion and had also warned of dire consequences against the architects of that rascality but with the recent development, the party has decided to tell its own story of how it has unknowingly harboured a ‘Judas Iscariot’ who is driven by pecuniary gains to sell the party, it ought to be defending,.

First, at the conclusion of the party primaries, in line with the directives of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, forms of the party’s candidates are supposed to be uploaded to INEC’s Portal. As a ranking member our party from the South-West, Mr. Arabambi was tasked with handling the candidates from both Lagos State and his home State, Ogun for the House of Assembly and governorship. The party didn’t know that he had ulterior motives and never had the intention of submitting the forms. He frustrated the arrangement and made sure that no name was uploaded.

When the party found out and queried him, he apologised and promised to take the matters to the court with a view to getting INEC to accept the forms. At this point, the *distraught* party began to suspect a foul play and on closer monitoring, it was realised that the matter was not diligently pursued in the courts leading to the matter being dismissed at the Federal High Court.

The party was going to wield the big stick for dereliction of duty but again he pleaded that he would appeal the judgement and had also given a firm assurance that the forms will be uploaded. It was on the basis of that that he was given the permission to pursue those cases on behalf of the party to Appeal Court. He once again lied to the party that there was valid appeal on the two states, Lagos and Ogun but unknown to the party, he never filed any appeal proper, though he filed notice of appeal for Lagos but he didn’t *consummate* it, there were no documents, no evidence before the court.

When the party noticed that he was playing pranks, and that he was merely deceiving the party, it quickly contracted another lawyer who *pursued* the case and got judgment in Lagos within three weeks. And *thereafter* when we saw what happened in Lagos we instructed other lawyers to take over the cases in Ogun for diligent prosecution. That is how Labour Party got the list of its candidates uploaded in INEC portal.

Every party member ought and should be happy that the party now have candidates in Lagos, having gotten that judgement, but this is not so with the party’s so called spokesperson. I therefore ask, ‘Arabambi is not APC, he is not PDP member, why is he angry that his party got a judgment that enabled INEC to recognise candidates of his party? Which sane person will be fighting his own party? His reactions and actions on the judicial success of the party which he initiated, defeats any logic. So who is he working for? Is he now working for or against the Labour Party?

And now for him threatening to go to court to challenge the judgment in favour of his own party, a party where he ought to be an image maker tells you clearly that he is completely compromised. He has been detailed to frustrate the party from getting candidates to field for elections in these areas. That he has instituted action against the Party’ victory in the Supreme Court is in his determination to ensure that Labour Party does not have candidates in Lagos and Ogun states. The inference that you can draw from his actions is that he is compromised because there is no other means to justify his current position.

Secondly, his unilateral expulsion of a foremost party leader like Doyin Okupe is laughable. Like I said earlier, during my press conference on Friday, we have made a strong statement that Arabambi has no constitutional powers to suspend any member of the party, not to talk of a personality, the party had worked hard to bring over to its fold.

For his information, Dr. Okupe, a frontline politician and a former Presidential aspirant joined the party with Peter Obi along with thousands of other notable leaders and were duly granted waivers. Since joining the party, he has been of immense benefit not just to the party but also the campaign council, investing both financial and material resources to ensure that the will of the people, which is a pro-people government is actualized in Nigeria soonest.

His unilateral pronouncement on the membership of our esteemed leader or any other member without authorisation by the leadership is viewed as usurpation of the authority of the leadership of the party, in this case the National Working Committee. Arabambi, the last time I checked is neither the National Financial Secretary or the National Legal Adviser whose duties are to advise the leadership of the party on who is financially viable or who is ineligible to be a member of the party.

Let me reiterate that any member of the party who is proven to be a hireling planted to sow discord in the party will soon have a date for judgement. We can’t afford to behave like other political parties we are working hard to upstage. Meanwhile, we will not be distracted by any mechanistic actions of a few. Our eyes are on the ball, 2023 will be the end point.

Sign.

Umar Farouk
National Secretary Labour Party.