The National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Lagos State has sacked Thaddeus Attah of the Labour Party as the winner of the House of Representatives election for Eti-Osa Constituency.

Giving the judgment on Monday, the tribunal also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct a supplementary election in 32 polling units within 90 days, as it agreed with Banky W and Obanikoro that elections did not hold in about 40 polling units.

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INEC had declared that Mr Attah winner of the election with 24,075 votes, defeating Bankole Wellington, aka Banky W, of the Peoples Democratic Party who polled 18,666 votes and Babajide Obanikoro of the All Progressives Congress who scored 16,901 votes.

Banky W saw the tribunal ruling as a potential turnaround in his political career to be a federal lawmaker.

In a brief post on his X handle on Monday, he tweeted, “It is possible. Still.”

According to Peoples Gazette, the spokesperson for the Labour Party in Lagos, Olubunmi Adesanya, confirmed the decision.

She said, “So what happened was that two of the three judges ruled in favour of supplementary election taking place in some areas, while the third judge said the case should be dismissed.

“We’ll know what the party will do by tomorrow. We’ll await what our legal advisers tell us before we do anything.”

There is heavy security in and around the High Court of Enugu state, venue of the National and State Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal, hearing petitions of various political parties and candidates challenging the 2023 general elections.

Daily Gazette correspondent who is in Court reports that the Enugu Tribunal is currently delivering judgment on the petition filed against the Senator representing Enugu West Senatorial Zone, Engr. Osita Ngwu by the Labour Party Senatorial candidate in the February 25 election, Hon. Dennis Oguerinwa Amadi.

The tribunal is also delivering judgment on the petition filed by the Labour Party House of Assembly Candidate for Uzouwani state Constituency, Hon. Ifeanyi Utazi against the declaration and return of the PDP candidate.

Also in the list of judgments to be delivered, is the petition filed by Dr. Festus Uzor of the PDP challenging the victory of the Labour Party Lawmaker representing Ezeagu/Udi federal constituency in the house of representatives, Hon. Barr. Cyriacus Sunday Umeha.

Stay glued to Daily Gazette for more details..

The National and State Houses of Assembly Election Tribunal, on Monday, sacked the son of Prof. Jerry Gana, Rep Joshua Gana, from the House of Representatives.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Rep Gana was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Edati/Lavun/Mokwa Federal Constituency of Niger State in the Feb. 25 general elections.

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Gana, who won the election with 47,942 votes as against 40,003 votes scored by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Abdullahi Usman Gbatamagi, was declared the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Dissatisfied with the declaration, the APC and its candidate, Gbatamagi, through their Counsel, Johnson Usman, SAN, challenged the return of Gana.

The petition with the number; EPT/NG/HR/06/2023 on the ground that the election was invalid by reason of non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022, adding that the margin of win was less than the permanent voter cards (PVCs) collected in the polling units where elections did not hold or were cancelled.

Delivering the judgment on Monday, the three-member tribunal, headed by Justice Sylvester Godspower, agreed with Mr Usman’s arguments.

The tribunal proceeded to invalidate votes in the 26 polling units of the constituency, thereby reducing the votes of Gana to 46,494 votes while that of Gbatamagi now stood at 39,159 votes, leaving the PVCs collected in the affected polling units at 14,411.

The tribunal consequently set aside the Certificate of Return issued to Gana by INEC and ordered the commission to conduct a supplementary election in the 26 polling units within 90 days of the judgment with a view to determining the winner of the election. (NAN)

One of the Ministers of President Bola Tinubu has been declared as winner of the February 25 Parliamentary election.

Simon Lalong, former Plateau State governor, who was Director-General of Tinubu/Shettima Campaign, was among the seven governors declared as losers of senatorial elections.

Tinubu had subsequently appointed him as Minister of Labour.

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But on Monday, the National and State Petition Election Tribunal sitting in Jos sacked the senator representing Plateau South, Napoleon Bali, and declared Lalong as winner.

Bali contested the election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while Lalong ran under the All Progressive Congress (APC).

The tribunal also sacked Peter Gyendeng as member representing Barikin Ladi/ Riyom federal constituency of the House of Representatives and declared Fom Dalyop of the Labour Party (LP) who became second in the February 25 general elections in the state, as winner.

In their separate rulings, Justice Omaka Elekwo and Justice Muhammad Tukur nullified the election of the two PDP candidates because of the party’s refusal to respect the order of a Jos High court to conduct ward congresses before the last general elections.

The Justices therefore said the evidence presented by the APC and LP candidates were relevant and admissible.

A member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) in the last election, Dr Don Pedro Obaseki, has called on the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, to be ready for war.

In an interactive session with journalists in Abuja, on Monday, Obaseki, who was the Director of Strategy and Research of the PDP – PCC, said Wike crossed the line by calling for the suspension of former Vice president Atiku Abubakar from the party.

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He also described the former Rivers Governor as a serial betrayal and called on members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to watch their backs.

He alleged that the minister has his eyes on becoming the president of Nigeria and all his actions were tailored towards making that happen.

“He is the most rewarded betrayer in the history of our recent politics. From his time with Rotimi Amaechi, Goodluck Jonathan, Peter Odili, Atiku Abubakar and now his time with Bola Tinubu,” he said.

The PDP chieftain also claimed that Wike is no longer a member of the opposition party and challenged him to publicly display the letter he allegedly wrote to the acting National Chairman on his ministerial nomination and the reply he got.

Wike while speaking on Channels Television programme, Politics Today, Wike had said, “Look at the areas that the PDP did not win because of high-handedness, because of greed because of impunity. If the PDP had done what they were supposed to do, then you could have talked about that.

“There should be equity, there should be justice, there should be fairness and that is why I am calling on the National Working Committee they should suspend the presidential candidate, suspend people like Aminu Tambuwal so that they can rebuild the party (PDP).”

But according to Obaseki: “Wike coming out to ask for the suspension of the number one leader of the party and the presidential flag bearer of the party and the recipient of the mandate of the Nigerian people as declared in INEC’s submission that we won 21 states and asking Atiku to be suspended from the party, Wike has crossed the red line and now, he should be ready.

“He has all the money to fight us back because we are coming at him like a thousand bricks. He has unleashed the dogs of war and we will not sit back and watch him ride roughshod over the party and majority of Nigerians like he did for 8 years over the humility of Rivers people. That can no longer suffice. I am sure Wike went to Law School. I am sure he is a lawyer and he knows that ‘He who is ready for peace should prepare for war.”

“Nyesom Wike has touched the tiger’s tail, let him wait. The only extensional advice I am going to give is that those who have employed his dastardly betrayal and chicanery in the APC should watch their backs! The rain may beat the leopard but it cannot wash off its spots. The spots speckled all over Wike are the spots of disharmony, betrayal, use and dump, messing up people, insults and lack of humility.”

Obaseki also stated that Wike was yet to be officially suspended from the party because of the court injunction stopping the move and also largely because leadership of the party are gentlemen.

“PDP is not a party of brigands. Wike by his elemental behaviour, unending vituperations fits more into the category and behavioural pattern of an APC member. Wike is APC.

“As for the party not suspending or expelling him now, I have quoted the court injunction but he has violated every other thing going forward. If some of us were in charge, Wike will not have the moral rectitude to go on air to start talking about a party he so singularly in the past one year decimated and bastardized,” he said.

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will start releasing approximately 2,500 documents relating to President Bola Tinubu in its database, from October.

The FBI, according to a report by The Gazette, cited a new court filing, and said it would start releasing the documents effective October ending, at 500 pages per month.

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“FBI has identified a total of approximately 2500 pages potentially responsive to FOIA requests 1553430-00 and 1587544-000,” the U.S. body said in a status report docketed on September 11 at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C.

“FBI plans a processing schedule of 500 pages per month, with an initial release anticipated by the end of October 2023.”

The unexpected move followed frontline American law enforcement institution’s initial reluctance to turn over the documents in line with a freedom of information request first filed in 2022.

Aaron Greenspan, who runs PlainSite, a website that pushes anti-corruption and transparency in public service, filed the request in collaboration with Nigerian journalist, David Hundeyin.

The Gazette has monitored the application for months and offered suggestions to help ensure its success after initial excuses by the FBI.

The disclosure is expected to clarify outstanding questions about when President Bola Tinubu entered the U.S, under which name he entered, and all activities he has been involved in ever since.

Tinubu spent decades in the United States, appearing to have first moved there in the 1970s. More details about his forfeiture of $460,000 over drug dealing in Chicago in the 1990s are also expected to be among the records to be released.

The Nigerian president’s background has remained a mystery for most citizens as questions about his real parents and childhood education have not been answered.

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Pedro Obaseki, has accused the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike, of plotting to weaken the structures of the party to make it easier for him to run on its platform for the 2027 presidency.

Obaseki who worked as Director of Planning and Strategy for the PDP 2023 Presidential Campaign Council also described Wike as a ‘nobody’ who rode on the structures of the party and the goodwill of some of its chieftains to power only to betray them when he got to the top.

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He stated this on Monday in an interactive session with a handful of journalists in Abuja against the backdrop of a call by the FCT minister to suspend Atiku from the PDP.

Speaking as a guest on the Channels Television programme, Politics Today on Thursday, Wike was quoted as saying, “Look at the areas that the PDP did not win because of high-handedness, because of greed, because of impunity.

“If the PDP had done what they were supposed to do, then you could have talked about that. There should be equity, there should be justice, there should be fairness and that is why I am calling on the National Working Committee to suspend the presidential candidate (Atiku Abubakar) and people like Aminu Tambuwal so that they can rebuild the party.”

Reacting to Wike’s television outing, however, Obaseki said, “It is not hidden that the only thing Wike is interested in is becoming the President of our country, and anything that seems to stand wittingly or otherwise in his achieving that quest will be flushed away and that is what he has been doing.

“What we are seeing now is that he is fighting to decimate the PDP, so that he can also decimate the All Progressives Congress to create a vehicle for himself to run in 2027, but we are not stupid.

“It is important that we caution Wike. There is a limit to the continued brigandage of a man who should be grateful to God. Chinua Achebe in his book, Things Fall Apart, warned us that ‘Those whose palm kernels were cracked for them by benevolent spirits should not forget to be humble.’ But someone like Wike… has continued to overstretch his luck.

“Who is Wike? He is a nobody. He rode on the back of the electorate of Rivers State to national prominence and betrayed everybody along the way. From being a Local Government chairman, a Minister of State, became Governor of Rivers State and now minister of the FCT.”

He noted that the former Rivers State governor had been in the business of championing a personal cause for long noting that he fought for the removal of his friend and political ally, Uche Secondus, as the PDP chairman because he considered him an obstacle to his presidential aspiration in 2023.

Obaseki continued, “Wike plotted a graph from the time he supported Prince Uche Secondus to arrest the structures of the PDP. He then forced the removal of Secondus because he knew that as chairman of the party, his own local government and senatorial district, it’s goodbye to his running for the presidency.

“But he ran for that same presidency and lost. He swore to support whoever won and reneged on every point along the way.

“Time has come for the PDP and those who want to strengthen democracy in Nigeria to see Wike for what he really is. He is brave enough to come to the public space to say that he is the sole financier of the PDP, a party founded in 1998.

“This is a party where he became governor in a state where (Peter) Odili was already a governor for eight years on the platform of the party; where Rotimi Amaechi had been governor for seven years before defecting to the APC.”

While noting that it is Wike who ought to be suspended from the PDP, Obaseki narrated what he called a number of misdeeds by the former Rivers State governor, which prompted other leaders of the PDP to defect to other parties.

“Wike should tell us why Atiku should be suspended from the party. The person who deserves to be suspended from the party is the man who is calling for the expulsion of others from the party. Wike is the one who created a cult within the party and called it the G-5.

Against the will, constitution and structures of the party, he campaigned against the party. If anybody had done anything anti-party, it is Wike.

He has fought every known person within the party. If you remember, Bello Matawalle, former Governor of Zamfara State, cited him as the reason for leaving the party. David Umahi cited him as the reason for leaving the party.

Prof Ben Ayade cited him as the reason for leaving the party. He has become the proverbial tortoise featuring in every bad story.”

The British High Commission in Nigeria has announced the opening of a new temporary submission centre for United Kingdom visas in Enugu State.

The announcement was made via a statement made available to our correspondent on Monday.

According to the commission, the centre would be opened from September 13, 2023, in addition to current locations in Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt.

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The facility will operate out of the Omedel Luxury Hotel, 4/6 Link Road off Pascal and Jerk Bus Stop, Independence Layout, Enugu and will shortly offer a twice-a-week service.

The statement read, “The appointment system allows an applicant to select Enugu as their application location when applying for a UK Visa.

“The temporary submission centre in Enugu opens as a Premium Location, meaning it will cost NGN246,250.00, which includes a Premium Lounge appointment, courier return, SMS notifications, general customer support and guidance.”

“Demand for visa services will be carefully monitored and service reviewed/expanded should there be sufficient volumes. TLS will trial this location for at least 3 months to assess uptake of the service and enable decisions on continuation.”

Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial district, Victor Umeh has praised Labour Party (LP)’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi over his decision to appeal his case at the Supreme Court.

He described Obi as a dogged politician without violent and desperate disposition, urging Nigerians to keep faith with him.

Umeh who was reacting to Presidential Election Petition Tribunal judgement, expressed confidence in the judiciary, despite unfavourable outcome at the tribunal.

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He acknowledged impossibility of importing justices from heaven for Supreme Court to adjudicate over appeals that would arise from PEPT judgement, but insisted it was necessary the process was followed to the later.

He said: “The election has a process, including campaigns, actual election, declaration of the results, and the judicial adjudication. Anyone who feels unsatisfied will go to the court to challenge the outcome.

“This week witnessed several judgements across Nigeria. The PEPT delivered its own judgement on Wednesday. The petitioners are assessing the judgements. Anyone who finds any hole has the right to go to supreme Court.

“The truth is that you can’t abridge anybody’s right to go and ventilate his grievances in court. The petitioners will decide on the next line of action.

“Our own candidate, Mr. Peter Obi has decided to go to the Supreme Court. We won’t go to heaven to bring justices at the Supreme Court to come adjudicate over the appeals that will arise from judgements of the Presidential Election Tribunal.

“But we must keep faith with the process we have. Nobody can prejudge what the Supreme Court will do. I must commend my own brother for his tenacity and the spirit of non-violence; he won’t do anything to diminish the integrity of democracy. Even with the judgement delivered dismissing his petition, he’s not desperate.

“He’s someone I’ve worked with; he’s not a new person in this process. I’ve gone through this route with him since 2001. We went through all kinds of formidable challenges to get him become Anambra State Governor after three years in the tribunal, eventually he prevailed.

“He told me he will go and test the process at the Supreme Court. It’s his constitutional rights. We’ll continue to pray and wish him well.”

Umeh however noted it was high time politicians placed credible electoral process above election victory, which he stressed was critical to democratic growth and development.

“What’s important for Nigeria is no matter who wins, let’s think about this country and processes of creating our leadership. It’s far more fundamental than victory anybody can take away.

“Let’s establish a standard where election will be transparent and credible, and after announcement of results, whoever loses will go home and congratulate the winner.

“Let the process not be subverted, with people taking advantage of another yet expect democracy to grow. We want a democracy our people will have confidence in, not even waiting on the courts over election disputes.”