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BREAKING:  Court Reserves Judgement On Osun Governorship Appeal

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BREAKING: Adeleke Freezes Osun Accounts , Reverses Appointments After Swearing In As Governor
Governor Adeleke

The Appeal Court has reserved judgement to decide on the case by  Ademola Adeleke challenging the decision of an election petition tribunal which nullified his victory in the Osun governorship election.

Judgement on the matter will be given at a later date as a three-member panel led by Justice Mohammed Shuaibu takes the arguments and adopts the briefs of all parties in the suit.

During proceedings on Monday, Counsel to Adeleke, Onyechi Ikpeazu, held that a member of the panel, who is also a chief magistrate, did not air her opinion during the judgement delivery. Rather, she only appended her signature and the constitution mandates her to have aired her views about the suit.

Counsel to Mr Oyetola, Lateef Fagbemi, however, held that mere signing of the judgment, and not making any comment afterwards does not make the judgment invalid.

He noted that the case of over voting exceeded  six polling units as claimed by the appellant, adding that the anomaly was experienced in 744 polling units across the state.

Fagbemi further stressed that the findings of over voting were obtained from the back end server of INEC.

In their defence however, Onyechi Ikpeazu held that results stored in the backend server, are inconsistent and unreliable as they could be affected by internet connectivity and battery life of the BVAS used to upload the result.

These two factors according to him can affect the upload.

Adeleke’s counsel also stated that he conducted a physical examination on the BVAS , and it showed that over-voting occurred in just six polling units, and not 744 as claimed by the Counsel to Oyetola.

Adeleke who is candidate of the People’s Democratic Party had won the said election held on 16 July, 2022, the result which was nullified on the grounds of over-voting.

Adeleke had in February, appealed the judgement of the Osun State Governorship Tribunal which nullified his election.

The tribunal ruled in favour of a former governor of the state Gboyega Oyetola. While delivering the judgement, two out of the three-member panel of the tribunal held that Oyetola proved that there was over-voting in some of the polling units.

But Adeleke swiftly rejected the ruling and described it as a “miscarriage of justice”. Weeks later, the governor filed an appeal before the Akure division of the Court of Appeal.

In the 31 grounds of appeal filed on Wednesday, Adeleke prayed the court for “an order setting aside the whole decision of the tribunal”.

The governor equally sought “an order striking out the petition for want of competence and jurisdiction or in the alternative, an order dismissing the petition on the merit”.

“The second respondent cannot ‘go lo lo lo lo’ and ‘buga won’ as the duly elected governor of Osun state,” the governor said.

“The tribunal, in its judgment, erred in law and displayed bias against the appellant when it made reference to the appellant’s dance at his inauguration as governor of Osun state which was never an issue before the lower tribunal,” Adeleke noted.

“By referring to the appellant’s personal eccentricity for dancing, the lower tribunal derided and mocked him in a manner suggesting that it was biased against him.

“The appearance of bias manifests in the reference to the Appellant’s proclivity for dancing and particularly the Buga song, has rendered the decision of the lower Tribunal a nullity.

“The tribunal in its judgment erred in law in returning the 1st respondent as the duly elected candidate without due regard to the enormity of the voters in the units where the results were cancelled for over-voting.”

 

 

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BREAKING: PDP Suspends Anyim, Fayose

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Anyim and Fayose

Former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose; former president of the Senate, Pius Anyim; Prof Dennis Ityavyar and Aslam Aliyu were on Thursday suspended from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP).

The PDP made the suspension on Thursday after an extensive review of the affairs of the party, pursuant to the provisions of the PDP Constitution (as amended in 2017).

The PDP also referred the Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, to the National Disciplinary Committee over his reported involvement in anti-party activities.

This was disclosed in a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba.

“The PDP urges all leaders, critical stakeholders and teeming members of our party across the country to remain united and focused at this critical time,” the statement added.

 

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BREAKING: Ekweremadu, Wife Found Guilty Of Organ-trafficking In UK

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Ekweremadu and his wife

A United Kingdom court has found former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, 60, his wife Beatrice, 56, and Dr Obinna Obeta, 50,  guilty of an organ-trafficking plot, which saw them bring a 21-year-old man to the UK

They were convicted of conspiring to exploit the man from Lagos for his kidney, reports the BBC.

Prosecutors told the Old Bailey the organ was to be removed and given to the couple’s daughter, Sonia, aged 25.

She was cleared of the same charge.

The victim, a street trader from Lagos, was brought to the UK last year to provide a kidney in an £80,000 private transplant at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

They were later arrested at the airport while trying to leave the UK.

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NLC Orders Workers To Shut CBN Offices Nationwide Over Naira Scarcity

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NLC Suspends Plan To Protest Against Fuel Subsidy Removal

Worried about the continued scarcity of naira, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has officially declared a nationwide . The national president of the union, Joe Ajaero, gave the directive during a media briefing in Abuja.

Ajaero also directed that affiliate unions constituting the NLC should be on standby for picketing exercises across all branches of the Central Bank of Nigeria nationwide.

The NLC earlier issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to end the petrol and cash scarcity being experienced in the country.

Ajaero told journalists on Wednesday that the industrial action became the last resort of the NLC following the expiration of the ultimatum.

He said the decision to picket the CBN branches became necessary as the federal government and the CBN had failed to show any commitment to addressing the situation.

Ajaero lamented that despite the Supreme Court order that the old N200, N500 and N1000 notes remain legal tender until December 31, 2023, the situation kept getting worse.

He said workers could not access cash to pay fares to work.

He also criticised the pricing irregularities in the petroleum sector.

“Last week, we gave an ultimatum for the review of the cash crunch bedevilling the country, but we have discovered to our dismay that as at this moment not much effort has been made to ameliorate the situation. Government is still foot-dragging on these issues we raised,” Ajaero said.

“Based on this, we met again this morning to review our position and resolved that by Wednesday next week all CBN branches will be picketed. Workers are directed to stay at home too because people cannot eat, workers can no longer go to the office, we have been pushed to the wall.

“We have decided to take our destiny in our hands, we have mobilised our workers on this exercise.”

The NLC has no fewer than 43 affiliate unions which include, but not limited to, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, and the National Union of Road Transport Workers.

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