Former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has condemned the Nigerian Presidency over alleged alterations to laws passed by the National Assembly, describing the government’s silence as a threat to transparency and constitutional governance.

In a statement on Saturday, Obi highlighted discrepancies between what the legislature approved and what was ultimately published as law, calling it a “serious breakdown in proper legislative procedure.

”He warned that these changes could negatively impact taxpayers’ rights and citizens’ access to justice.

Obi pointed out that new enforcement and coercive powers were introduced without approval from the House of Representatives.

These include a mandatory 20% deposit before appeals can be heard in court, the ability to sell assets without judicial oversight, and granting arrest powers to tax authorities.

He said, “Migrating from padded budgets to forged laws, our national shame continues to unfold. This is not merely an administrative oversight; it strikes at the core of constitutional governance and highlights the depth of institutional decay.”

“We have moved from a system of inflated budgets to one where laws themselves are manipulated, directly affecting taxpayers and their access to justice.”

Obi stressed that the public has the right to know who made the alterations and called on the Presidency to provide clarity.

“All of this must be made public. Nigerians need to understand what was signed, what was passed, and what was formally recorded. Trust in governance is collapsing, and we cannot continue asking citizens to pay more taxes under these conditions,” he said.

He urged leaders to respect due process, uphold transparency and accountability, and ensure that laws serve citizens rather than undermine them.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caretaker committee backed by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has dissolved the executive committees of 14 state chapters of the party and announced plans to conduct fresh congresses in January 2026.

The committee insisted that the leadership of Abdulrahman Mohammed as Acting National Chairman and Senator Samuel Anyanwu as Acting National Secretary remains the only legitimate national structure of the party.

This position was contained in a communiqué issued after the committee’s meeting held on Thursday evening in Abuja and read by the Acting National Publicity Secretary, Haruna Jungun.

The development comes amid deepening internal divisions within the PDP following the Ibadan convention held on November 16, where governors elected Tanimu Turaki (SAN) and other members of the National Working Committee for four-year terms.

Despite the governors’ endorsement of the Ibadan convention and the handover from former chairman Umar Damagum to Turaki ahead of the expiration of Damagum’s tenure on December 9, the Wike-backed faction proceeded on December 8 to constitute a 60-day caretaker committee headed by Mohammed and Anyanwu.

According to the committee, the caretaker arrangement is mandated to conclude all outstanding congresses and organise a national convention within the stipulated period.

While Turaki has continued to engage party leaders nationwide, the Mohammed-led caretaker committee has also remained active, holding meetings and issuing directives.

Jungun listed the affected states as Borno, Bauchi, Oyo, Zamfara, Yobe, Ekiti, Bayelsa, Enugu, Ebonyi, Anambra, Delta, Taraba, Kano and Lagos.

The communiqué dismissed reports that the Turaki-led executives had been recognised by the Independent National Electoral Commission, describing such claims as false.

The committee challenged Turaki to publicly produce evidence of uploading his executives’ details on the INEC portal.

It also ratified the dissolution of several state working committees, confirmed caretaker committees in affected states and assigned portfolios to members of the national caretaker body.

State congresses are scheduled to commence on January 9, 2026, after which a national convention will be convened.

Earlier, Mohammed maintained that his faction was operating strictly within the PDP constitution and the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, insisting that there is only one legitimate PDP leadership under his stewardship.

The Independent National Electoral Commission has disclosed that only four out of 14 associations earlier cleared to seek registration as political parties met the requirements to advance to the next stage of the process.

INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, made this known in a statement issued after the commission’s regular meeting held on Friday in Abuja.

According to Olumekun, the commission reviewed the report of its Committee on the Review of Letters of Intent submitted by associations seeking registration and found that 10 of the 14 groups failed to satisfy the prescribed criteria.

The associations initially cleared include the African Transformation Party, All Democratic Alliance, Advance Nigeria Congress, Abundance Social Party, African Alliance Party, Citizens Democratic Alliance and Democratic Leadership Alliance. Others are the Grassroots Initiative Party, Green Future Party, Liberation People’s Party, National Democratic Party, National Reform Party, Patriotic Peoples Alliance and Peoples Freedom Party.

Olumekun explained that each association was assessed on the basis of prima facie compliance with Section 222 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, as well as Sections 79(1), (2) and (4) of the Electoral Act 2022 and Clause 2 (i and ii) of the Commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for Political Parties 2022.

“Out of the 14 initially cleared associations, only four met the requirements to proceed to the next stage, while 10 did not,” he said.

The senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has called on President Bola Tinubu to ensure that the proposed ₦58.18 trillion 2026 Appropriation Bill delivers tangible benefits that directly improve the lives of Nigerians.

Reacting to the President’s presentation of the budget to a joint sitting of the National Assembly on Friday, Akpoti-Uduaghan described the session as important but warned against focusing on headline figures at the expense of real outcomes.

She said the sheer size of the budget alone would not resolve Nigeria’s long-standing development challenges if it fails to translate into meaningful improvements for citizens.

“Of all the lengthy speeches, one line by Mr President struck me deeply. It is not the size of the budget but the quantum of impact felt by Nigerians,” the senator said.

According to her, while the ₦58.18 trillion spending plan reflects the scale of Nigeria’s economic ambitions and structural deficits, Nigerians are more concerned about how public funds will improve their daily lives.

She noted that citizens expect budgets to produce visible results such as sustainable job creation, functional infrastructure, affordable healthcare, quality education and accessible social services.

Akpoti-Uduaghan also stressed the importance of accountability, saying it must be upheld not only by leaders but also demanded by the governed.

“Leaders must do better, and citizens must demand accountability,” she said.

A member of the Senate Committee on Finance, the lawmaker has consistently advocated fiscal transparency, prudent management of public resources and people-centred budgeting, positions she said align with growing public demand for governance outcomes that are measurable and felt at the grassroots.

Her comments echo wider concerns within and outside the National Assembly that Nigeria’s expanding annual budgets have yet to deliver proportional improvements in welfare, productivity and social stability.

President Tinubu on Friday presented the 2026 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly, projecting a cautiously improving economy and pledging stricter budget discipline and stronger revenue enforcement across government agencies.

He also vowed a firm security approach, declaring that all armed non-state actors would be treated as terrorists under his administration’s security doctrine.

Presenting the proposal, titled Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity, the President said the fiscal framework was designed to consolidate recent macroeconomic gains, restore investor confidence and translate stability into broad-based prosperity.

He defended the administration’s economic reforms, citing 3.98 per cent economic growth in the third quarter of 2025, eight consecutive months of easing inflation, improved oil output, stronger non-oil revenues and renewed investor confidence as indicators of progress.

However, as deliberations begin in the National Assembly, lawmakers such as Akpoti-Uduaghan insist that the true test of the 2026 budget will lie not in macroeconomic statistics alone, but in its real-world impact on Nigerian households and communities.