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.”

The Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship candidate in the Imo election holding on November 11, Samuel Anyanwu, has debunked the rumours that he has stepped down for his rival, Hope Uzondinma of the ruling All Progressives Congress.

A viral video circulating on social media claimed that the PDP’s candidate has asked his supporters to vote Uzodinma who is up for reelection.

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“We emphatically state that this information is categorically FALSE. After a thorough examination of the video, it became evident that it was heavily edited with manipulated audio to mislead the public,” Anyanwu’s spokesman Dumebi Ifeanyichukwu said in a statement on Friday.

He blamed the circulate of the “false” video on the “agents of the outgoing Uzodinma administration”.

He said by resorting to spreading disinformation, there “is incontrovertible proof of the palpable fear that has engulfed their camp due to the widespread endorsement of Senator Anyanwu’s Gubernatorial Bid and the Federal Government’s Commitment to ensuring free and fair elections in Imo.”

Member representing Ideato federal constituency of Imo State in the House of Representatives, Barr. Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere Ikeagwuonu, has again endorsed the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the State, Senator Samuel Nnaemeka Anyanwu (Sam Daddy).

Ugochinyere, during a live broadcast on the upcoming November 11 election, said that it was the obligation of every Imo citizen to come out and vote on Saturday, considering what he called the horrors of the past four years.

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He maintained that the November 11 election was an opportunity for everyone in Imo State complaining about misrule, intimidation, impunity, executive recklessness, unbridled violence and the wanton incidents of insecurity, to right all the wrongs with their votes.

Ugochinyere, during the briefing, also produced shocking evidence of how fake accreditation figures were successfully uploaded into the BVAS and used to back up what he called the magic figures that were used to allegedly steal the mandate of Mbaitolu/Ikeduru, Ahiazu Mbaise, Isu and Ideato South during the last supplementary election.

“The shocking evidence about Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi State governorship elections, showed the BVAS backend server that has simultaneously fake accreditations figures that have the same time stamp with no difference between any of the voters. The evidence showed that all voters were accredited magically in one second”

He said: “The way the incumbent governor and his handlers are desperate to retain office and continue to feed fat on our common ealth is the same manner every Imo citizen should be hungry to unseat them, restore sanity to Imo and save the state from the brink of collapse and anarchy.

“In this struggle for the life of Imo, there is no neutrality and no middle ground. You are either standing on the side of the people of Imo State or standing with the oppressor. It is a battle between light and darkness, a struggle by the forces of development against the minions of retrogression.”

Ugochinyere said he was mobilising Imo people to declare “Operation Vote, Defend Your Votes and Transmit Results”.

He maintained that the endorsements of the incumbent governor in Owerri were by people he called political jobbers, who, according, were only interested in their stomach and not even in who will win or lose the election.

“We know these people, immediately the power changes hands, this same people will be the first to jump ship, so ignore their theatrics, they are only responding to the impulses from their stomach,” the lawmaker stated.

He maintained that a change of leadership has become imperative in Imo and Senator Samuel Anyanwu was the best bet for Ndi Imo, so Imo people can get some respite.

Ugochinyere, therefore, called on Imo citizens to own the project to reclaim Imo, man their polling units and close ranks with men of goodwill until the forces of evil in Imo State are defeated.

The military high command, on Thursday, declared that troops deployed for governorship elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo States would inflict injuries on anybody that attempts to disrupt the exercise.

It specifically said it was aware of plans by some individuals to dress in military uniform to disrupt the electoral processes in the three states on Saturday during the gubernatorial elections.

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Addressing journalists at Defence Headquarters, Abuja, the Director of Media Operations, Edward Buba, said the military was determined to give the elections the seriousness it deserved.

Buba, a Major-General in the Nigerian Army, said, “For the off season elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states this weekend, here is a message for those who plan to disrupt the process.

“Stay away from the Nov. 11 governorship elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa or face injurious consequences from the military. We are aware of your plans to dress in military gear to misled the public. Be assured of injurious consequences should you proceed with those plans. We will not allow our image to be dragged to the mud. You’re warned.”

According to him, troops and platforms were being moved to locations to reinforce security already in place in those states, adding that security agenciesw eare ready to identify and differentiate between real soldiers and the fake ones.

Buba explained that troops had continued to exert pressure on groups that sought to derail any progress toward peace and security in the country.

He noted that it is for these reasons the military is inflicting severe damage on terrorists, insurgents and violent extremists through operations across the country.

The senior military officer added, “Accordingly, we are targeting their leadership, infrastructure and foot soldiers. The coordination between air and ground forces is like never seen before and yielding amazing results.

“We are expecting new platforms that would further enhance our capabilities to further root out terrorists and destroy their military capabilities.”