Bayelsa State Governor and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Douye Diri and his wife, Gloria, have cast their votes at Kalama-owei Wari Unit 4, Ward 6, Sampou in Kolokuma/Opokuma LGA.

The governor commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for improving their facilities and training of personnel.

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Diri, who spoke to newsmen shortly after voting, however expressed concerns about the alleged restriction of PDP members and agents from Nembe-Basambiri.

He said: “I think this is an improvement on all other elections, that we have participated on, and it’s very seamless, very fast and if it continues like this, then I want to believe that INEC is improving not only on their facilities but the training of their personnel that are handling the process.

“It is too early to call, we are still putting our ears to the ground as to what is happening in other polling units, but here I’m very satisfied with the process and the personnel that is handling the process.

“But we have concerns about Nembe-Basambiri. Our party members, most of them have been excluded, our agents have been stopped from going into Nembe, that is a very serious concern. Our party has written to INEC and they have to take drastic action to ensure our people are allowed to vote.

“In any case, what we call for is a free, fair process where BIVAS should be used just as I have done here today, so let the accreditation be by BIVAS.”

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it is investigating the fake results in circulation in Kogi State.

A civil society organisation, YIAGA Africa, had raised the alarm over the discovery of election results from Polling Unit 004, Eni Ward of Ogori/Mangogo area of the state.

The forged result was seen while voters were still in queue.

In the results, a copy of which was attached to the post, the APC polled 200 votes; AA scored 1; while ADC, PDP and SDP got 2 votes each.

In a tweet, the CSO wrote, “Dear @inecnigeria we received report of pre-filled results sheet discovered in PU 004, Eni Ward of Ogori/magongo in Kogi state before commencement of voting. Kindly investigate and address this issue promptly to safeguard the integrity of the process,” the post read.

At about 9.45am, the organisation posted another pre-recorded result sheet from PU 020, Eika/Ohizenyi, Okehi LGA of the state.

“Another case of pre-filled results sheet in PU 020, Eika/Ohizenyi, Okehi LGA of Kogi state,” it wrote.

According to the results, APC got 530 votes; while AA and SDP polled 1 each.

Responding after the tweets went viral, the commission said it viewed the situation seriously.

“Our attention has been drawn to a report that filled result sheets were discovered in some polling units in Kogi State. The Commission views this situation seriously.”

“Our senior officials deployed to the State are currently investigating the incident(s). The Commission will communicate its decision earnestly.”

Armed thugs have invaded polling units in Southern Ijaw and Sagbama local Government Areas of Bayelsa State and hijacked elections materials.

The thugs first struck at Agorogbene unit 6, 7 and 8 in Ward 11 of Southern Ijaw where they destroyed election materials.

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Attempts by some voters to challenge the armed men were replied with heavy gunshots.

They also stormed the Registration Area Center and carted away election materials of five out of the seven polling units.

At Ogiadiama ward 9 in Unit 14 of Southern Ijaw Local Government area, gunmen stormed the unit but were repelled by security men.

Sporadic gunshots were also heard around Abuja/Imbikiri area of Brass ward 2. Thugs also attacked the RAC center in Oginibiri in Brass Ward 8.

Police spokesman in Bayelsa State, CSP Asinim Butswat, is yet to confirm the incident as he was not picking his calls.

Residents of Magongo in the Ogori-Magongo local government area of Kogi State are protesting against the surfacing of pre-recorded results from polling units for Saturday’s governorship election.

The results had been written on the sheets while accreditation and voting had not even commenced.  

The residents are currently protesting at Magongo RAC centre are displeased that officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in collaboration with the officials of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had allegedly written results of the various polling units in the local government.

They described it as unacceptable to them.

One of the pre-written results of some polling units shows that APC scored 120 votes while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) were allocated one vote each as their scores in the election that was yet to start.

The Social Democratic Party’s (SDP) flag-bearer in the last presidential election in Nigeria, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has called for an urgent electoral reform that would ensure that winners in any election are not sworn into offices until the cases against them in courts are concluded.

He stressed that politicians were only interested in getting power and not justice.

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He commended the Supreme Court for quick dispensation of justice in the last presidential election petition, even as he insisted that the courts could still do better by ensuring that all matters relating to elections are thrashed and done with before anybody is sworn into office.

He lamented that what causes tension in the land most often is because the court doesn’t have what the politicians want.

“So, there is no time in the history of election litigation that the politicians will be satisfied with the court because the court can only give you justice. Politicians don’t want justice. They want judgment leading to power. So, they see the court as another layer of getting power. But the court isn’t designed to give you power. The court is designed to give you justice. So, sometimes you may get justice, but if justice doesn’t land you in power, you say this isn’t justice,” he said.

On the Supreme Court’s emphasis on technicality rather than on the substance of the case with a particular reference to how President Bola Tinubu’s Chicago State University certificate was handled, Adewole who is a lawyer, stressed that in election matters, there are three things to be considered.

“One, for people who are not lawyers, everything about law boils down to technicality to them. Two, election matter is said to be sui-generis; it doesn’t follow the traditional procedural, technical and substantive form because election itself is technical in nature. The whole jurisprudence of election is technical by nature. Three, the claim of the party before the court was not a substantive claim, it was a claim based on technicality because if I come to court and say I scored the highest votes and I can prove it; that is substantive. If I come to court and say well, the other person scored higher votes than me but he is not qualified, that is technicality,” he said.

He also raised concern about the mode of appointment of both the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court justices, saying a situation where the president has the final say is not good for the country. He condemned situations where the National Judicial Council (NJC) could only recommend since the President is at liberty to accept or reject such recommendations.

He said: “From my reading of the constitution, the president is even more powerful than any other person because he is the one who can appoint. The National Judicial Council (NJC) can only make recommendations to the president. If the president isn’t satisfied, he won’t appoint, and that is the end. But, if the president appoints somebody and the judiciary isn’t happy, the person stays, though the person may have a hard time.”

Founding National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Chekwas Okorie, has said it is suicidal and dangerous for governorship candidates in the off-season elections of Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa states to trust the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

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He advised all the contestants to ensure that they have their trusted agents in all polling units where the elections will take place, adding that failure to do so would be regretted by them.

Okorie stated this in a statement titled: “Candid advice to all governorship candidates for the November 11, 2023 elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states,” on Friday.

The elder statesman backed his argument with how the evidence of polling unit results helped former Anambra state governor, Peter Obi to claimed his mandate from his predecessor, Dr Chris Ngige, after three years.

“It cannot be over-emphasised that elections are won and lost at the Polling Units. Any candidate who has not planned to have polling agents at all the Polling Units (PUs) during elections has obviously planned to fail ab initio,” Okorie said.

“The PU results entered and signed by the INEC Returning Officer and counter-signed by the designated Political Party Polling Agents on Forms EC8A are superior to whatever INEC may wish to upload on any of its platforms, whatever name called, whether BVAS or IREV. Two instances will suffice to support this assertion.

“In the 2003 governorship election in Anambra State, INEC declared Dr. Chris Ngige of the Peoples Democratic Party as the winner of the election. Mr. Peter Obi’s Director of Campaign, Hon. Dr. Okey Umeano, meticulously assembled and collated results returned by APGA Polling Agents from over 7,000 polling units in Anambra State.

“The aggregate result showed that Mr. Peter Obi clearly won the election. The weight of evidence was overwhelming and the Election Tribunal declared Peter Obi of APGA the winner of the election. Dr. Ngige’s incumbency advantage including having a larger financial war chest and INEC complicity did not help him.”

The 70-year-old said after 20 years that the nation’s electoral body failed in the election of Anambra state, the same was repeated in the Kogi senatorial tussle, but Senator Natasha Apkoti-Uduaghan also used polling unit results proof to defeat Abubakar Ohere at the court.

The septuagenarian said, “About 20 years after, in 2023, Senator Natasha Apkoti-Uduaghan recovered her mandate as the elected Senator for the Kogi Central Senatorial District of Kogi State basically on the weight of the evidence of Polling Units results presented at the Election Petition Tribunal. Again, INEC’s conspiracy against her election failed.

“I venture to warn that it is risky and indeed suicidal to trust INEC. The trust deficit of the Commission is at an all-time low.”

“Finally, I advise that candidates who have lost the election at the polls and are convinced that they lost having done their homework as prescribed here should show the gallantry of a sportsman and congratulate the winner. Similarly, the winner should demonstrate magnanimity in victory. I join other leaders and organisations that have prayed for peaceful elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States.”

Labour Party Governorship candidate in the 2023 general elections in Enugu, Barr. Chijioke Edeoga, has appealed to members and supporters of the Labour Party to remain calm and not to be discouraged by the Friday’s verdict of the Court of Appeal on the State’s governorship dispute, saying his abiding faith in God to reclaim his mandate through the highest court in the land remains undoubted.

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Reacting to the Appeal Court judgement, which upheld the decision of the Election Petitions Tribunal, which initially affirmed INEC’s declaration and return of Peter Mba, Barr. Edeoga in a statement by the spokesperson of his campaign organization, Engr. George Ugwu, noted that his belief in the judiciary also remains unshaken.

He said: “The Edeoga/Nwokeabia Campaign organization received with shock and disappointment the judgement of the Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos on the petition of the Enugu State Chapter of the Labour Party and its candidate in the March 18 Governorship Election in the state, Hon. Chijioke Edeoga.”

“Our lawyers present at the Court have briefed the Party and the Candidate and the way forward determined.”

“They have been instructed to explore the constitutional rights of appeal to the Supreme Court, while we continue to engage the human conscience to uphold what is right and just and what will, in the end, help reignite the blinking and fading embers of our humanity as Nigerians.”

“We thank the great people of Enugu State and all our supporters worldwide for their steadfastness and enduring love. We enjoin them to remain peaceful, law-abiding, prayerful and purposefully expectant of victory in the end.”

Chairman of Lokoja Local Government Council, Muhammed Danasabe Muhammed, is dead.

He was confirmed dead around 4:30am at a hospital in Lokoja, the state capital.

Muhammed was rushed to the hospital after he slumped at his residence.

He was said to have been active at series of political meetings in preparation for Saturday’s governorship election.

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A family source said he was rushed to Shifa Hospital, Lokoja, shortly after he collapsed in the house at the late hours of Thursday.

“Doctors confirmed him clinically dead around 4.30am on Friday”, said a family member who craved for anonymity.

The deceased was from ward B in cantonment area of Lokoja.

He will be buried at the Unguwan Kura Muslim cemetery after Juma’at prayer on Friday.

Sympathisers were reportedly seen trooping into his family house on Friday morning at cantonment areas of Lokoja to condole the family over his sudden demise.

He is survived by his mother, wife and children.

The Public Relation Officer (PRO) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lokoja, Talba Lakwaja, confirmed the incident in a statement.

“This is to notify the general public that the remains of the Lokoja Local Government Council Chairman, Hon. Mohammed Dasebe Mohammed, will be buried at Anguwan Kura burial ground 2pm immediately after jummat prayer. The body will depart his family house at cantonment to Lokoja Central Mosque by 1:30pm,” he said in a statement.

The Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has ordered thorough investigations into the circumstances surrounding the attack and assault on the President of the National Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, by personnel of the Nigeria Police Force and hoodlums in Owerri, Imo State last week.

Ajaero has been hospitalised since he was attacked and brutalised while a controversy has trailed the incident with the NLC shutting down critical services in Imo State and also threatening a nationwide shutdown.

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In a statement issued on Friday, the Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said that the IGP directed the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) to take over the matter “with the primary objective of ascertaining the true facts surrounding the incident and to address any ambiguities that may exist as the Police has been inundated with different versions of the incident making investigations imperative to clear the conflicting accounts.”

The force spokesperson stated that “The Nigeria Police Force understands the importance of transparency and accountability in maintaining public trust.

“The IGP therefore assures the public, most especially the leadership of the organised labour, that a thorough and unbiased inquiry will be conducted to provide clarifications while urging organised labour and the public to remain calm, as he has personally intervened to address the issues surrounding this incident.

“The investigation has commenced, and the Nigeria Police Force guarantees that it will be followed to a conclusive end while appropriate actions will be taken based on the findings of the investigation.”