NEWS
Tribunal Dismisses Atiku’s Petitions Against Tinubu
Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate for the People Democratic Party in the February elections, submitted petitions on Wednesday, but the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal on Wednesday struck out several paragraphs of those petitions in order to invalidate Tinubu’s victory as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Additionally, the tribunal rejected and discounted exhibits submitted by Abubakar, including witness statements, in order to substantiate his claims of electoral irregularities.
Delivering judgment in some objections argued by Tinubu’s lead counsel, Wole Olanipekun SAN, Justice Moses Ugoh, held that several parts of Atiku’s petition could neither stand nor survive, hence, is incompetent.
In a similar judgement meted to presentations by Labour Party’s Peter Obi, the Court held that Abubakar failed to provide several facts fundamentally required to support his petition.
Inter alia, the court said the PDP candidate failed to name the places where ballot boxes were snatched, the ways and manners the BVAS machines were manipulated, and specific polling units where the alleged malpractices happened.
Abubakar, who claimed to have polled the majority of lawful votes was said to have failed to state, in strong terms, the total lawful votes he claimed to have scored.
The Tribunal held that although the former Vice President alleged that Tinubu did not score the majority of lawful votes, he failed to reveal the perceived lawful votes in his petition to the Tribunal.
Correspondingly, the Tribunal said Abubakar made grievous allegations against Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State and Chairman of Olamaboro Local Government Area of Kogi, Friday Adejoh, but neglected to join them as respondents in the petition.
Justice Ugoh held that failure to join the governor, who was accused of electoral fraud obstructed the petition because the governor was denied the opportunity to defend himself as required by law.
Therefore, the Tribunal dismissed the allegations of over-voting nationwide by the petitioner saying such pleadings run foul of the law because he failed to mention the specific locations where the alleged over-voting took place.
Abubakar’s petition was also faulted for introducing several facts and allegations in unlawful ways that caught the respondents unaware, adding that the tactic employed was unfair and made him clever by half.
Amongst the new facts he was said to have wrongfully introduced were the allegations of certificate forgery, criminal conviction, and dual citizenship of Guinea, made against Tinubu outside the mode of filing a petition.
Justice Stephen Adah, who read another ruling on objections against the petition, expunged several documents tendered by Atiku on the ground that the exhibits were made during the pendency of the petition.
Additionally, the tribunal removed from the tribunal record a number of important witnesses for Abubakar because they had been called in ways that were illegal. It was decided that many paragraphs should be deleted since they lacked validity due to the improper structuring of the petition by the presidential candidate from Adamawa.
The Osun State Government has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Inspector General of Police and other stakeholders in Nigeria to urgently summon a former PDP stalwart in Osun State, Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun for questioning over his recent incendiary comments on the person and personality of the Governor of Osun State, Senator Dr Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke and the entire Adeleke family of Ede, Osun State.
This was contained in a statement issued in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, by the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Oluomo Kolapo Alimi.
According to the statement, the Government viewed with gross concern and outright dismay, the careless and unguarded utterances made by Alh. Shuaib Oyedokun wherein he advised Gov Adeleke not to, by any means, contest for a second term governorship in Osun State, if he doesn’t want an act of murder to be carried out and be hanged on the Governor and the highly respected Adeleke family of Ede where the Governor hails from.
The statement noted that during a live Yoruba radio programme on Rave F.M, Osogbo, tagged *Oro Oselu*, on Monday, the 20th of May, 2024, Alhaji.Oyedokun threw cautions to the wind in many of his politically uncultured and morally unguarded remarks while on the programme.
The OSG viewed such comments as not only inciting but the highest form of desperation from Alh Oyedokun and the entire Osun APC to which he defected to recently.
Against the backdrop of further interpreting his utterances throughout the duration of the Yoruba programme as a dangerous security development in Osun State, for which Alimi in the statement called for an immediate summon and eventual questioning of Oyedokun, by the law enforcement agencies to explain why the right of Gov Adeleke to contest for a second term should warrant shedding of innocent blood and hanging it on the neck of the governor and his family.
The security agencies need to unravel what plots or scheming bordering on criminality Pa Oyedokun is privy to or hatching alone or in partnership with his new party. This is necessary to forestall maturing of a hideous agenda capable of plunging Osun into crisis ahead of 2026 polls, the statement further reiterated.
The statement reads in part as follows: “As a Government, we view Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun’s utterances throughout the duration of the
*Oro Oselu* radio programme of Monday, 20th of May,2024 as totally incongruous, callous, dirty, unwarranted and nauseating to say the least.
“Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun’s comments,were not just within the boundaries of exercising his fundamental human rights of freedom of speech, they are at best morally awkward, debasing and a threat cum invitation for mayhem.
“Conclusively, as a Government, we are of the view that,whatever happens, bordering on the security of lives and property of the people of Osun State, before, during and after the coming Governorship election or any other election in our dear state, the likes of Oyedokun and APC members should be held accountable.”
Retired police officers under the contributory pension scheme have taken to the streets of Abuja to protest several months of unpaid pensions.
Coming from various state chapters, they voiced their frustration over the hardships they face due to PENCOM’s failure to pay their entitlements.
The retirees are calling on the Federal Government to exempt them from the contributory pension scheme.
In a video shared on social media platform X on Tuesday, the retirees were seen holding placards and chanting, “All we are saying, give us our right.”
See video below:
Asma al-Assad, the wife of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who bravely battled breast cancer in 2019, has been struck with another health challenge.
The president’s office revealed in a statement on Tuesday that she has been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.
The statement said, “First Lady Asma al-Assad has been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia.”
More to follow…………
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