Politics

Presidency: APC should have presented Osinbajo as candidate – Peter Obi

Published

2 weeks ago

May 17, 2023

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi, on Wednesday, said the All Progressives Congress would have succeeded in moving Nigeria forward if it had chosen Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as its candidate.

Obi said this while exchanging pleasantries with some guests at Dele Momodu’s 63rd birthday in London.

In the 52-second video that went viral on social media platforms, the former Anambra State governor said he had one time confronted the leadership of APC that if they wanted Nigeria to work as a progressive country, they should have just given Osinbajo the party’s presidential ticket.

He said, “I am desperate to see Nigeria working, I can’t hide it. I even confronted them if you want it, why didn’t you bring Osinbajo so that we can have people who want to work for the country?

“Nigeria needs a healthy person and someone like him working 24 hours. Let’s have the place working for everyone,” he added.

Recall that Obi had filed a petition to challenge the victory of APC’s Bola Tinubu as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Obi, who came third in the election, filed his petition to challenge the outcome of the poll at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja around midnight on Tuesday, March 21, 2023.

He alleged that the election was characterised by various irregularities including the non-qualification of Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima, to contest the election.

He also alleged that Tinubu failed to win the majority of the lawful votes cast in the election, and just as he could not secure one-quarter of the lawful votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Obi also challenged that the election was conducted in substantial non-compliance with the provision of the law.

Following the resumption of the sitting today, the court has adjourned to Friday, May 19, 2023, the pre-hearing of Obi’s petition against Tinubu.

The court headed by Justice Haruna Tsammani fixed the date, following the failure of parties in the petition to agree on documents among other reasons.

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Politics

Why I will never call Tinubu ‘my president’ – Tunde Bakare

Published

2 days ago

May 28, 2023

Advocate News Nigeria

Pastor Tunde Bakare and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu

The Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has said he will never call the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, his president.

The cleric and politician, during a webinar on Saturday, alleged a series of malpractices during the 2023 elections, saying the Independent National Electoral Commission made a mess of the electioneering process.

He said this while responding during a Question & Answer session after delivering his speech on the Zoom programme titled ‘Building the New Nigeria: The Role of the Diaspora’ organised by the PTB4Nigeria In Diaspora Group.

The meeting, which began 7pm and was monitored by our correspondent, had over 200 participants.

While speaking earlier during the programme, he said the 2023 elections were below acceptable standards.

When asked if he would be happy to work for the new government as a Minister of Diaspora Engagements, he laughed and said he would say what he said to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), last week.

He said he told Buhari that sometimes he called him President of Nigeria and other times, he called him “My President.”

Bakare said, “Last Wednesday, I was at the Glass House where he (Buhari) has been restricted now because the main house is being renovated. I said I have done that for you. I want you to know that, because of the circumstances of your flying into power on the wings of integrity and incorruptibility, but you’re now passing onto someone who does not have that value.

He said that at “any public lecture anywhere, before this mess is cleared off, I will address Asiwaju (Tinubu) as a President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria but I will never call him my president.”

He said he didn’t participate in the elections, and therefore, no one could say he lost.

Bakare, who participated in the All Progressives Congress presidential primary in June 2022, where nomination forms were sold for N100 million, polled no single vote.

Briefly touching this, he said, “I participated in the primary, and there were hundreds (of persons) who participated only by stepping down, so there is no shame in what we have done. We spoke truth to power.

“I wasn’t there when they voted, I wasn’t there when they scored (me) zero, but we won that badge of zero and badge of honour,” he said, adding that this was because some defeats were more triumphant than victories.

Answering the question, he said if he was called to be a minister under the incoming government, there would be conditions to it, “but I am not desperate to be a minister, not at all. I was offered before but I turned it down. My life is not just to take photographs with the president and shake hands.

“But we will do if it will benefit even one citizen.”

Tinubu will on Monday, May 29, be sworn in as the President of the country.

On Thursday, Tinubu was handed the transition report by Buhari, where he also promised not to disappoint Nigerians.

He pledged to address the security and power crises, among other challenges confronting the country

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Politics

Appeal court suspends Fed High Court judgement sacking Otti

Published

3 days ago

May 27, 2023

Advocate News Nigeria

Dr Alex Otti, Abia Governor-elect

The planned inauguration of Abia Governor-elect, Dr Alex Otti, on Monday, May 29, was Saturday solidified following the suspension of the judgement of the Federal High Court sitting in Kano, which last week, purportedly voided his candidacy.

The court presided over by Justice Mbaba further granted the application of Dr. Otti to appeal as an interested party while suspending the judgment of the Federal High Court pending the hearing and determination of the appeal.

The Appeal Court order was made in respect of the motion for leave filed by the Abia Governor-Elect to appeal as an interested party against the judgment of the Kano Division of Federal High Court delivered on 18th May 2023 in Suit No. FHC/KN/CS/107/2023.

Similarly, the Appellate Court granted an order for stay and suspension of the judgment of the lower court delivered by Justice Yunusa J. pending the hearing and determination of the appeal for which leave has been granted.

Otti had in his response to his purported sack last week, accused the outgoing Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Abia State of masterminding the judgement, an allegation the party flatly denied.

Politics

Court confirms Abure as LP national chairman

Published

3 days ago

May 27, 2023

Advocate News Nigeria

Apapa and Abure

Julius Abure has been confirmed as the National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP).

A State High Court in Edo passed the judgement on Friday, putting aside a suit by Lamidi Apapa‘s camp.

Some party members at the ward level had issued a notice of suspension to Abure.

However, the high court judge, Justice Emmanuel Aihamoje, threw away the case on Friday for lacking merit.

At the court session, which reportedly lasted for about two hours on Friday, Aihamoje said that the party ward executive in Uromi Ward 3 lacked the power under the LP constitution, particularly Act 13 & 17 and the Electoral Act 2022, as amended to remove the national chairman of the party.

Therefore, the judge in Suit No: HUC/21/2023 went ahead to impose a perpetual injunction against Lamidi Apapa and his faction from removing or suspending Abure as the national chairman until a new national convention of the party is convened.

Aihamoje further stated that the purported wards three executives who suspended the party’s national chairman acted outside the powers vested on it by the Labour Party Constitution.

Addressing journalists after the court judgement, the LP Ward 3 Chairman, Thompson Ehiguese, said the court’s verdict has ended impostors masquerading as members of the labour party in the ward.

He said, “These charlatans claiming to be members of our party are from Edo North and members of APC. I want to use this medium to congratulate the Labour Party and the Obidient Movement that stood firmly with Comrade Julius Abure while the sponsored crisis in our great party lasted.

“The judgement explicitly made it clear that Barrister Julius Abure remains the national Chairman until the party convention holds next year. Nothing can change our collective resolve to reclaim the Nigerian masses’ mandate freely given to Mr Peter Obi and the party in the last presidential election.”