NEWS
Yakubu Inside Deepest Corner Of Tinubu’s Pocket – Atiku
Atiku Abubakar, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, has alleged that Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is working in tandem with the ruling party Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s APC to subvert Nigeria’s democracy.
A statement from Atiku’s media office on Sunday said Mr Yakubu’s compromise was the reason results were not uploaded to INEC server on the same day the presidential election was held on 25 February.
It was also the same reason that Mr Yakubu continued to announce the results despite protests from political parties, the statement, signed by Phrank Shaibu, Atiku’s special assistant on public communication read.
The former vice president was reacting to an allegation by the immediate-past Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who said Mr Yakubu was recommended for re-appointment by a member of Bola Tinubu’s camp in 2020.
Speaking in Rivers State on Saturday, Mr Amaechi noted that not only did the re-appointment of the INEC chairman come from Tinubu’s camp, but the INEC boss also worked under Governor Nyesom Wike when the Rivers State governor was Minister of State for Education and interim Minister of Education in the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
“INEC is a complete failure,” Mr Amaechi said. “There are those of us who opposed the reappointment of Yakubu Mahmood. The person who nominated him is a member of Tinubu’s camp. So what are you expecting?
“Here in Rivers State, Mahmood worked under Wike as Executive Secretary of TETFund; so what you are having in Rivers is that APC and other parties are contesting, not against PDP, but against INEC, against police,” the former minister added.
Atiku said Mr Amaechi’s revelation was a confirmation of “our worst fears that Yakubu’s INEC was working for the APC.”
“Former Governor Amaechi’s revelation is only a confirmation of what everyone always knew. That INEC under the leadership of Prof Yakubu is inside the deepest corner of Bola Tinubu’s pocket.”
Earlier, the PDP had said Mr Tinubu had already embarked on a systematic state capture where the police, INEC, and the judiciary are in his pocket.
“Is it not surprising that the AIG who was deployed in Rivers State to supervise the governorship and Presidential elections is Kayode Egbetokun, a known ally of Tinubu who also served as Tinubu’s Chief Security Officer while he was governor of Lagos?” the PDP said.
“This unholy alliance between INEC and the police is the reason why the election in Rivers State remains one of the most rigged in the history of Nigeria. Indeed, the journey to state capture has begun.”
For this, Atiku said when the story of the Nigerian elections is told, the name of Mr Yakubu will be mentioned for the wrong reasons.
“After promising Nigerians that he would upload election results from polling units, he changed his mind at the last minute and then blamed it on glitches. Truth be told, Yakubu was the only glitch because of his incestuous affair with Tinubu’s APC.”
“His predecessor, Prof. Attahiru Jega conducted two credible presidential elections in 2011 and 2015. The 2015 election was so credible that it witnessed the lowest number of election petitions and court disputes.
“Rather than improve on this, Prof Yakubu put his personal interest far and above that of over 200 million Nigerians. He claimed before the election at Chatham House that the electoral system he put in place was so advanced that the human body odour could be used for voter accreditation if he wanted. But this was all part of his grand deception.”
“Despite receiving higher allocations than any other INEC chairman in history, Prof Yakubu could not conduct a credible election. This is indeed shameful for a man who over 200 million Nigerians saw as their last hope,” the statement said.
INEC’s spokesperson, Festus Okoye, did not answer our reporter’s phone calls put through to him for his comment on Sunday. He has also yet to respond to the reporter’s text message.
Atiku is the second-place candidate in the 25 February presidential elections. He secured 29 per cent of the votes to finish behind Mr Tinubu of the APC.
“It was also disheartening that the INEC chairman continued to award sensitive election contracts to APC candidates.”
“In the same election season, INEC awarded sensitive contracts to companies owned by Senator Sani Musa of APC and Senator Aishatu Ahmed Binani, the APC governorship candidate in Adamawa. It is indeed safe to say that Nigeria’s democracy has been sold to the APC by Prof. Yakubu.”
A company owned by Aishatu Dahiru, a sitting Senator and governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa state, has been confirmed by INEC to have been awarded the contract to print certain sensitive materials for the 2023 elections.
The electoral commission, INEC, stated that the company obtained the contract through an open bidding process and that it had no knowledge of its connection to the senator.
However, upon further investigation, it was discovered that a certain individual named Aishatu Dahiru, who shares the same name as the said politician, is listed as one of the company’s two directors.
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has criticized the federal government’s plan to secure an additional N1.7 trillion loan through Eurobonds to cover a shortfall in the 2024 budget, describing the borrowing as unsustainable and harmful to Nigeria’s economy.
In a statement shared on Thursday via his X (formerly Twitter) handle, Atiku accused the Bola Tinubu-led administration of burdening Nigerians with debt while failing to provide clear answers about the country’s fiscal challenges.
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He also faulted the National Assembly for enabling what he called a “voracious appetite” for loans.
The former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate expressed alarm over a recent World Bank report ranking Nigeria as the third most indebted country to the International Development Association (IDA), calling the development troubling.
“The recent report released by the World Bank, showing Nigeria as the third most indebted country to the International Development Association (IDA), is very concerning,” Atiku stated.
He raised further concerns about the government’s decision to benchmark the proposed loan at an exchange rate of 1 USD to N800, despite the Central Bank of Nigeria’s official rate being over N1,600.
“What makes this particular loan proposal even more concerning is that it is benchmarked at the exchange rate of 1 USD to N800, whereas the current exchange rate from the Central Bank of Nigeria stands at over N1,600 to 1 USD,” he said.
Atiku questioned the need for additional borrowing, given the government’s earlier claims of record-high revenue collection.
“In July this year, Tinubu boasted that the FIRS and Customs under his watch had collected all-time high revenues to finance the budget. Why are they still borrowing?” he said
He accused the government of a lack of transparency, describing the borrowing spree as detrimental to Nigerians already struggling under economic hardship.
“There is something that they are not telling Nigerians, even as they are being crushed by a combination of their failed trial-and-error policies and loan rackets.”
Atiku also referenced a report by BudgIT, a budget monitoring group, which criticized the 2024 budget for its inefficiencies.
He alleged that corruption, rather than infrastructure or development needs, was driving the government’s borrowing decisions.
“These loans are powered by corruption and not for infrastructure and development needs. This voracious appetite for humongous loans is deeply concerning,” he said.
Reflecting on Nigeria’s financial history, Atiku lamented the return to significant foreign indebtedness just years after former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration cleared the country’s debt.
“It is agonizing to see that just a few years after the Obasanjo administration took us out of foreign indebtedness, we are today back at the top spot in the same conundrum,” he stated.
He called for a more cautious approach to borrowing, urging the government to prioritize fiscal responsibility and transparency to avoid worsening Nigeria’s economic challenges.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has taken a historic step, issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
The charges include crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed during Israel’s recent assault on Gaza.
In a detailed statement, the ICC accused the Israeli leaders of “intentionally and knowingly depriving the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity.”
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The ICC’s move marks a significant escalation in international scrutiny of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Netanyahu and Gallant are alleged to have orchestrated policies that caused severe harm to the civilian population in Gaza, leading to widespread condemnation from human rights organizations.
Alongside the charges against Israeli officials, the ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif. Deif has long been a central figure in Hamas’s military operations. Israel’s military claims to have killed him in a July airstrike, although this has not been independently verified.
The warrants highlight growing calls for accountability amid the ongoing conflict in the region. The ICC’s actions are likely to provoke heated debate and may complicate diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving the crisis.
With the warrants issued, global attention now turns to how the international community will respond and whether any practical steps will be taken to enforce them.
Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State has inaugurated a 12-member committee tasked with recovering government vehicles reportedly in private hands.
The committee, led by Kelly Okungbowa, has been given a two-week mandate to retrieve the vehicles and ensure their return to the state government.
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Speaking during the inauguration ceremony in Benin City, Governor Okpebholo emphasized the importance of accountability in the management of public resources.
He urged the committee to carry out its assignment thoroughly and within the bounds of the law.
In his response, Okungbowa expressed gratitude to the governor for entrusting the team with the assignment, vowing to deliver results within the stipulated timeframe.
“A lot of vehicles used by the past administration are missing, as those in custody of the vehicles have refused to return them,” Okungbowa said.
“The governor deemed it fit to inaugurate us today with a mandate to recover all government vehicles in private hands.”
The committee, which includes representatives from Edo’s three senatorial districts, is set to investigate and recover the vehicles based on credible intelligence already at their disposal.
“We already have vital information regarding some persons still holding government vehicles,” Okungbowa stated. “We will do the job according to the law, and both the government and the people will be satisfied with the outcome.”
He also called on members of the public to assist the committee by providing information about any government vehicles that may still be in private possession.
“We want to appeal to members of the public who might be aware of anyone still keeping government vehicles in their houses to please inform us to enable the committee to recover such for the Edo State Government,” Okungbowa said.
The committee’s vice chairman, Rt. Hon. Victor Edoror, a former Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, will work alongside other members to ensure the success of the initiative. The public can reach the committee at 08110165121.
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