There was panic at the Anambra State House of Assembly as four armed men, suspected to be operatives of the Directorate of Security Services (DSS), tried to whisk away member-elect for Nnewi North constituency, Mr Onyekachukwu Ike.

The armed men drove into the Assembly complex in three vehicles and grabbed the member-elect after he participated in a valedictory thanksgiving mass for the seventh Assembly.

They forced the member-elect into their vehicle and were trying to drive out of the Assembly complex when security personnel quickly locked the exit gate.

The Acting Clerk of the Assembly, Mrs Esther Aneto, and other senior staff lamented that the suspected DSS operatives did not inform them or even the Police personnel at the Assembly before trying to whisk Ike away.

One of the suspected DSS operatives, however, explained that they had a court order to arrest the member-elect.

It took the intervention of the Speaker, Dr Uche Okafor, and the Deputy Governor, Dr Onyeka Ibezim, who came to represent the Governor at the Valedictory session of the seventh Assembly, before the member-elect was released.

(NAN)

…As PEPC Reserves Ruling On 12 Questions Obi Asked INEC About BVAS, Others

A software engineer, Anthony Chinwo, appeared before the Presidential Election Petitions Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday and was identified as the second witness fielded by the flagbearer of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, against the Independent National Electoral Commission, President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima and the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Led in evidence by Obi’s legal team, represented by P.I Ekweto SAN, Anthony Chinwo asked the court to adopt his statement on oath.

In his statement on oath before the court, he said from his knowledge of software engineering and computer operations, “the information or data generated/inputted in the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System whether operating online or offline were transmitted to the INEC servers, including the virtual server hosted on the Amazon Web Services, AWS, Cloud Platform.”

He also deposed in his statement on oath that the AWS is the world’s most comprehensive platform which enables large enterprises and government agencies to “effectively and in real-time manage data”, thereby disputing the statement by INEC about technical glitches during the presidential election.

Under cross-examination, INEC lawyer, A.B Mahmoud SAN asked him if he was familiar with any of the applications on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.

He responded in the negative but noted that he was familiar with the backend server and INEC Results Viewing Portal, IRev.

The witness was also asked if he believes that the Amazon Web Services, AWS, is the most secure provider of cloud services globally and that INEC engaged it for the purpose of securing the results

The witness agreed that the AWS was secured but explained that “It is not a fair conclusion” to conclude that INEC protected the actual results of the 2023 presidential poll.

“You are not a staff of Amazon?,” Mahmoud asked him.

“No, I am not,” Chinwo replied.

When the turn of Tinubu and Kashim Shettima’s lawyer, Yusuf Ali SAN, came, he asked the witness if he was still standing by his statement on oath.

“They are seventeen paragraphs and I stand by them,” the witness replied.

When pressed further by Ali, the witness agreed that while the election is disputed, it is only INEC that prescribes the procedures for conduct of election in Nigeria.

APC lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, asked Chinwo to tell the court if it was his experience as an architect and software engineer that he used to write his statement on oath.

The witness said he wrote his statement on oath from his knowledge as a software engineer as well as his investigation of the INEC Results Viewing Portal, IRev.

The witness went on to say that he leveraged on the Application Programming Interface, API, to collect and study all the INEC publicly available information on the internet relating to the IRev and the 2023 election.

But Fagbemi asked him why he did not put his profile on oath, to which he replied that it was intentional and for sensitive reasons.

The court subsequently discharged the witness from the testimony dock.

Obi’s lawyer, P.I Ekweto, then adopted his interrogatory application which among other things wants INEC to answer certain relevant questions, including who restored the alleged “technical glitches” the electoral umpire said happened on election day.

He asked the court to grant his application in the interest of justice.

But INEC counsel, Oluwakemi Pinheiro SAN, urged the court to dismiss the application for being a waste of time.

APC’s lawyer, Olanrewaji Akinsola, asked the court to dismiss the application.

Responding, the panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani reserved ruling “for either tomorrow or the next day.”

Part of the question Obi’s team insists INEC must answer border on the technological aspect of the poll.

“What time was the technological glitches fixed and or repaired?

“What was the exact time of the occurrence of the technical glitch which prevented the e-transmission of the results of the Presidential Election on 25th February 2023?,” the application partly reads.

The Nigerian Catholic Diocesan Priests Association (NCDPA), Kaduna State has written an open letter to the governor of Kaduna State, Uba Sani over the controversial viral video by his predecessor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai.

The letter, titled: “The Public Declaration of Islamic Political Supremacism by Ex- Governor El-Rufai, Implications on Dialogue and Peace for Your Public Stance” was jointly signed by Rev. Fr Joseph Gandu NCDPA, chairman Kaduna Archdiocese, Very Rev. Fr Douglas Rock, NCDPA chairman Kafanchan Diocese and Very Rev. Fr Samuel Ameh, NCDPA chairman of Zaria Diocese.

They said, “With consternation and utter disillusionment, we watched the now viral videoclip in which the former governor, Nasiru El-Rufai, while addressing a group of Islamic clerics with you sitting by his side, made comments that objectively amount to a divisive, bigoted, hateful and completely unstatesmanlike declaration of Islamic political supremacism in Kaduna State and Nigeria.

“Having soberly considered the contents and implications of such communication by a former State Governor who is known to be your close ally, we feel compelled to write to you, to know where you stand with regards to the commotions Mallam El-Rufai intends to propagate and perpetuate in our State.

“We write to you today because we are responsible stakeholders in the affairs of our beloved State with our own congregations and followers. We cannot fold our hands and watch unpatriotic persons who neither live in the State nor care about it, come and set it ablaze at will. Moreso, we and our congregations have prominently been at the receiving end of the terrors of ineffective governance, especially in the last eight years.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the now-viral video in reference, is that in which ex-Governor El-Rufai among other things, speaking in Hausa language, categorically that most Christians in Kaduna do not vote his party (the APC), hence the reason why he orchestrated their exclusion from being even Deputy Governor.

“Mr. Governor, this, to every discerning mind, is not only the evidence of discrimination and the provocation that most Christian communities and individuals have endured in our State, especially during the reign of former Governor Nasiru El-rufai. It is also an explanation for the many unjust policies of his administration, uneven distribution of State resources, the wanton killings and kidnappings that afflicted the Christian dominated areas, and the nonchalance and sometimes scornful response of the government to the distress calls of victims.

“It is important to call your attention to the fact which we believe you already have details of, that during the pendency of the last administration, our association almost lost count of our members who were steadily being targeted, kidnapped and killed. In most cases, Priests were executed after paying huge sums as ransom.

“This is apart from the several other pastors of other Christian denominations and countless whole Christian communities that are being steadily raided, ransacked, burnt down and their inhabitants either taken for ransom or slaughtered without any of the perpetrators brought to book, nor any support for the survivors from the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), or the National Emergency management Agency (NEMA), nor from any other government agency.

“The only response that would usually come their way from the government has been bizarre and inhumane accusations that they provoked their killers, tagging the atrocities as justified revenge killings, with punitive curfews and proscription of socio-cultural and developmental associations of some socio-cultural communities.

“We are fully aware that as guaranteed both by Natural Law and the Nigerian Constitution, Kaduna State and its resources is our common patrimony irrespective of ethnic, cultural or religious diversity and disparity. As such, elements who are notoriously seen to be despotic, divisive, inciting and eminent failures in building peace should be hiding their faces in shame, rather than be publicly seen standing by you and using your religion or party to promote extremist exclusion and anarchy without consequences.

“Our disappointment and shock did not stem only from the utterances of the former governor, but more from the endorsement he received from the audience, made-up of Muslim clerics who excitedly cheered him on. It was more shocking because these are the same clerics with whom we have been in constant dialogue and discussion on how to help entrench harmony, peace and mutual respect for our different faith-persuasions.

“They are the same clerics we have called friends and partners in inter-religious dialogue, and now they seem to stab their friends in the back.

“We expect that you will use your good office to correct the fallacies that the former Governor’s actions and comments have created and propagated, these fallacies are, that: Christians and Muslims in Kaduna State are at war with each other; that your party, the APC, is a party for Muslims, that being a Christian in Kaduna State is a misfortune if not an offense, as religion automatically excludes one from certain State privileges which should be accessible to all citizens”.

Seek Implementation Of Uwais Committee Report

The Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room, a coalition of 70 organizations working to ensure credible elections in the country, on Thursday, asked the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu to apologise to Nigerians over what they described as poor conduct of the 2023 general elections.

The Situation Room, in its final statement on the elections, which it made available to newsmen in Abuja, maintained that the electoral body failed to live up to expectations, despite several assurances from its Chairman.

“Contrary to expectations, the 2023 general election was marred by very poor organization, severe logistical and operational failure, lack of essential electoral transparency, substantial disruption of voting, and several incidents of violence.

“As a result, the process cannot be considered to have been credible. Given the lack of transparency, particularly in the result collation process, there can be no confidence in the results of the election. In addition, there was very poor communication from INEC on challenges with its processes on election day.

“In the light of these shortcomings, the Situation Room believes that additional reforms and improvements are required to ensure that the quality of future elections in Nigeria does not further decline, and that public confidence in the capacity of INEC to conduct elections is restored, while trust in the credibility is re-established.

“As a body, the Situation Room demands that the INEC Chairman should apologize to Nigerians for his failure.”

As part of its recommendations, the CSOs called for an amendment of the Constitution to eliminate the position of Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) under the control and direction of the Commission through the appointments of State Directors of Elections to replace RECs.

“The suggestion by the Justice Uwais Committee for the unbundling of INEC should be considered and implemented without delay. An effective legal framework should be formulated for the establishment of Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal, Political Parties Registration and Regulation Commission, and an agency to handle constituency delimitation.

“Proposed amendments to the Constitution should include issues critical to the inclusiveness of the electoral process, such as endorsement of early voting for election day workers, independent candidacy and voting by Nigerians in Diaspora, in conformity with international principles for democratic elections,” the Situation Room added in the joint statement that was signed by its Convener, Ene Obi and Co-Conveners, Asma’u Joda and James Ugochukwu.

No fewer than 20 school officials, allegedly aiding and abetting examination malpractice, have been arrested by the West African Examination Council (WAEC)  in its ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates.

The Council said that the arrests were made in various parts of the country.

The Head, National Office (HNO) of council, Mr Patrick Areghan, disclosed this on the sidelines of a monitoring exercise he carried out in some schools on Thursday in Lagos.

According to him, the WAEC  has since handed over all the culprits to the police for prosecution.

Areghan vowed that the council would do everything possible to ensure that their prosecution was followed to  logical conclusion.

“The issue of examination malpractice can no longer be treated with kid gloves.

“It is no longer business as usual, as it has completely eroded morals and values in our society. It is taking a dangerous dimension, of which, if not tackled will bring our country to its knees.

“Now, since the commencement of this examination, we have deployed our technology, designed to catch examination cheats and we are happy at the results we have gotten so far.

“For instance, in Ibadan, Oyo, where we have our zonal office, which takes care of Osun, Kwara and Oyo itself, we made three arrests in a school and for the purpose of confidentiality, I will not mention the name.

“There, a supervisor at a centre, principal and invigilator were all arrested.They were arrested for allegedly snapping and posting the questions to some platforms, thereby, aiding and abetting examination malpractices.’’ 

He said: “Then, in Maiduguri, a supervisor and principal of a school, were both arrested and handed over to the police too.

“In Umuahia, a teacher and a supervisor were arrested in a particular school and they have been handed over to the police.

“In Abeokuta, a school proprietor was the first to be caught at the beginning of this examination on May 8, snapping and posting question papers,” he said.

Areghan described the act as a monumental disgrace.

The WAEC official, said that the proprietor and a supervisor had since been arrested and also handed over to the police.

He further disclosed that the same situation was also recorded at

Osogbo, where a principal, invigilator and chief supervisor were arrested for the same offence.

According to him, in Kaduna too, a supervisor and an examination official in a school who were caught in the act, were arrested and handed over to the police.

He explained that the school, which was ceded to Kaduna was supposed to be Kano, but was ceded because it was closer to Kaduna.

Areghan said that the arrests would continue until the end of the examination.

He urged candidates not allow their future to be compromised by persons who did not wish them well, by promising to assist them pass their examination through illegal means, stressing that WAEC’s examinations could never be accessed illegally.

According to him, all of the culprits caught in the act may have been paid by the unsuspecting candidates and their parents, promising to assist them pass the examination.

“I want to counter this statement that some people are fond of making, which is that our examination questions always leak.

“That does not exist. Our examination is always safe and secured until they get to the candidates in the hall.”

He asserted that WAEC examination questions don’t ever leak and cautioned the media to stop using the word “leak”. 

“What actually happens is that, once the examination is about to start, we give the question papers to the supervisors, one hour before commencement, so that they can travel from the collection point, to the various schools, where they will administer the examination.

“What happens?

“Immediately they get to the exam hall, they will open the pack  in the name of distributing to candidates and they will snap and post to various designated platforms-  WhatsApp, Instagram and others.

“Such persons are members of a syndicate group who collect money,’’ he said.

According to him, once the examination is already in progress, anyone that  takes pictures of the papers and posts will be detected. 

Areghan noted that the council had a method of detecting who snapped, who posted, who it was posted to and which candidate’s question booklet was posted.

According to him, that is when the council swings to action by rounding all of them up and subsequently handing them  over to the police.

“You have been following me around for this monitoring

“You  saw me telling these children that they will hardly have time to access any materials snapped and posted on any platforms because they are already in the hall writing the examination.

“From what we have seen so far today at the schools we visited, I will say that the examination has been going on smoothly. There has not been any challenge beyond our control. 

“Of course you will come across persons who will want to prove smart by cutting corners and trying to get things done unethically, but we have been able to beat them to it.

“There are though, some that we do not bother ourselves with, as we will deal with such administratively.’’

He noted that only hard work was the way out to a stable and progressive country, adding that schools should continue to stick to academic excellence and nothing less, in order to sustain quality education.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that schools visited for the monitoring on Thursday  included  ST and T in Ikeja, Ikeja Senior High School as well as State Senior High School among others.

The Plateau state Governor Caleb Mutfwang Thursday reversed some appointments, and recruitment made by the immediate past Governor of the state, Simon Lalong.

In a statement made available to newsmen on Thursday by his Director of Press and Public Affairs, Gyang Bere, Governor Caleb stated that “All appointments into the State Civil Service made from 1st October 2022 to date are hereby suspended with effect from the same date subject to review in line with due process.”

The statement noted that, “In light of the apparent flagrant abuse of Public Service Rules, non-adherence to due process, indiscriminate and irregular employment in the State and Local Governments by the immediate past administration, His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Plateau State, Barr. Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang has directed as follows:

“All appointments into the State Civil Service made from 1st October 2022 to date are hereby suspended with effect from the same date subject to review in line with due process.

” All those who have retired but are yet to vacate their offices or duty posts either because of extension or contract appointment are to hand over any Government property in their possession and vacate office immediately.

“All Civil Servants due for retirement but are yet to tender their letters of retirement or notice of retirement should do so forthwith and proceed on retirement immediately.

” All Civil Servants and or persons appointed Permanent Secretaries from January 2023 to date should revert to their previous positions forthwith.

The statement added that other measures and steps towards strengthening and building a result-oriented Civil Service will be taken in due course by the administration.

Months after the conclusion of the 2023 presidential election won by President Bola Tinubu, the spiritual director of the Adoration Ministry in Enugu, Nigeria (AMEN), Rev. Fr Ejike Mbaka, said his prophecy and vision shown him by God was so clear.

Naija News reports that Fr Mbaka said this in reaction to those criticising him on social media after the outcome of the 2023 general election.

Delivering a sermon at his Church branch, the renowned Christian cleric warned those attacking him, especially on social media, insisting that he would keep talking.

According to Mbaka, social media cannot control the voice of prophecy. The cleric asserted that God reveals the future through vision, and people will see it.

“Please, if the gift you have is not genuine, ask God for the real one; stop fabricating things. When there is a lot of noise on social media, then somebody begins to speak because you think that if millions of people are speaking of somebody, that means the majority will win the vote. No, it is a different thing from prophecy and vision.

”In a vision, God will reveal to you the future. You will see it. It was so clear. Even in the time of Jonathan, I told him, look at what the Holy Spirit says you should do, ‘remove this person if you want to win the election. If you don’t remove him, you will lose, and Buhari will take over,” Fr Mbaka said.

”People will never understand Father Mbaka, and they will begin to talk rubbish on social media. Whether you understand me or not, I will keep talking.

”Social media cannot control the voice of prophecy because, in the end, it will happen the way God said it must happen,” he said.

[NaijaNews]

The Lagos State government has dragged popular Interior designer, Ehizogie Ogbebor before the Lagos State High Court sitting in Tafawa Balewa Square for allegedly failing to file her tax returns.

Ogbebor, who is also a social media celebrity, is facing a 12-count charge before Justice Yetunde Adesanya.

The state accused her of allegedly refusing to pay personal income tax to the state internal revenue service within the time stipulated by law since 2014 till date.

The prosecution further alleged that the defendant being a taxable personality in Nigeria failed to pay her tax, which contravened Sections 41 and 94 (1) of the Personal Income Tax Act, Cap. P8, Laws of the Federation,  2004.

It also stated that the offences contravened Sections 56(a) (b) of the Lagos State Revenue Administration Law, No.8, 2006.

When the matter came up on Monday, the state prosecution counsel, Ade Alli, told Justice Adesanya that the case was a matter of tax and he had a motion for substituted service.

While moving the motion of notice dated May 10, 2023, Alli told the court that the prosecution was seeking an order from the court to effect substituted service on the defendant.

He said, “we seek the leave of this court for substituted service to paste the notice on the last known address of the defendant at plot 59, Fola Osibo Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos.”

After listening to the lawyer, Justice Adesanya granted the prayer as prayed and added that the substituted service should be served on the defendant.

The judge then adjourned the case to October 26 for trial.

[Leadership]

Nigeria is more divided than ever, and the politicians of Nigeria have gone completely mad. It is as though everybody is now totally beyond control. Nigerians have replaced the Constitution with just one word: Impunity.

Of course in this matter of impunity, there is no difference between the parties and the politicians because crossing party lines rampantly like harlots-on-heat is all the rage. There is no redemption in sight for the odious lot. These wanton Nigerian politicians need to be reminded of what happened in Ghana back in 1979.

Then Flight Lieutenant John Jerry Rawlings decided to have a say in the power equation of Ghana by shooting to death three former Heads of State, Generals Ignatius Acheampong, Afrifa, and Fred Akuffo.

Nigerian politicians always lamely assert: “It can never happen here. Nigeria is not Ghana bla… bla… bla…” We only need to be reminded that there is always a first time. Democracy should not be reduced to blackmail as is being currently done in Nigeria. Things are going mightily wrong here, and the leaders appear not to notice.

Hunger has reached unprecedented levels in the history of the country. In the Second Republic, the then Transport Minister Umaru Dikko infamously said that there was no hunger in Nigeria because the people had not started eating from the refuse dumps.

Nobody in their right mind can deny that Nigerians are today scavenging for food from the refuse heaps behind the homes of the rich and powerful. Cost of living is now out of the reach of the so-called average Nigerian. Little wonder most people now take refuge in betting and gambling, and generally wiling away time in the new-fangled churches that promise all kinds of miracles.

The rulers ought to see that there exists in Nigeria today a separation of the government from the people. In one of his more famous poems, the late German playwright Bertolt Brecht made the suggestion that the government ought to dissolve the people and elect another “people” since the people had forfeited confidence in the government!

It is this kind of dangerous pass that leads to bloody revolution. It appears as though the powers-that-be are not in the know that much of the world views Nigeria as a joke, a lost cause. Every report emanating from all cardinal points point to the fact that Nigeria is actually a failed state.

The uncontrolled killing spree of the Fulani herdsmen grates the mind. The vexed matter of Biafra is on the upsurge. The Niger Delta insurgency is threatening to come back in full force. Kidnapping is now the rule rather than the exception. Mind boggling robberies take place with the police running for their dear lives.

Security which ought to be the first guarantee of the government is only observed in the breach. For every Nigerian, it is now OYO (i.e. On Your Own!). Something needs to be given now. When Acheampong was carrying on in Ghana with the largesse of incumbency, he thought quite little of the danger that Rawlings represented.

The initial mutiny of Rawlings was of course thwarted and he was thrown into prison, awaiting execution, only for his group to upturn the apple cart which led to the public execution of Acheampong, Afrifa and Akuffo on charges of corruption.

Things change and remain the same in Nigeria – or in fact get worse: Inconclusive elections… Hopeless budgets… Endless fuel queues… Collapsing currency… Diabolical darkness… Forex abracadabra… Presidential tourism… Judicial absurdities…

People are more or less left embracing self-help. The overconfidence of our ruling politicians reminds me of a passage I read in the trashy fiction of my teenage years, to wit, James Hadley Chase in The Sucker Punch: “It is only when a guy gets so full of confidence in his ability that he is wide open for the sucker punch. I have seen it happen again and again in my racket. A guy commits murder, fakes an alibi and thinks he can cover up. Then wham! And he is flat on his back. Only he’s damn sight worse than a busted jaw.”

Our caterwauling politicians are not unlike the ungainly crooks in the genre thrillers of James Hadley Chase. They will, like all the fictional characters, come to a tacky end in the archetypal mode that stresses: Crime does not pay.

We need to be reminded that the democracy that Ghana is being praised for today came at a steep cost. Rawlings was the man who made change possible in Ghana. It is so saddening that Nigeria may end up needing the shock treatment like that of good old J.J. Rawlings to get its bearing right.

Of course it is not too late in the day for Nigerian leaders to tell themselves the home truth and thus avert the doom that the Rawlings treatment portends. This is not a warning – it is a revelation.

President Bola Tinubu has signed into law the bill on uniform retirement age for judicial officers.

Tinubu signed the bill on Thursday.

The bill was passed by the outgoing Ninth National Assembly.

In a statement by Abiodun Oladunjoye, state house director of information, the president pledged that his administration would strengthen the judiciary and empower judicial officers.

The bill, titled: “Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, 1999 (fifth altercation) (No.37) bill, 2023”, was the first to be signed by President Tinubu since taking the oath of office on May 29.

The law extends the retirement age of high court judges — and others — from 65 to 70 years.

The retirement age of justices of the appeal and supreme courts is already pegged at 70.

The legislation also ensured uniformity in the pension rights of judicial officers of “superior courts of record” specified in section 6(5) of the 1999 constitution (as amended).

With the signing of the Constitutional amendment Bill, retirement age and pension rights of judicial officers have been effectively brought into uniformity and other related matters.

While signing the amendment Bill, Tinubu pledged his administration’s dedication to strengthening the judiciary, ensuring the rule of law, and empowering judicial officers to execute their responsibilities effectively.

On May 2, the national assembly directed Amos Ojo, its clerk, to transmit the bill to former President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.

Recall that Abubakar Malami, the immediate past attorney-general of the federation, advised Buhari to decline assent to the bill.

In a memo dated May 23 and addressed to the office of the chief of staff to the president, Malami said the bill appeared to be “far-reaching, unduly wide, ambiguous”, adding that it made no “justification” for the extension of retirement age and benefits for judges.

The former AGF said the bill if approved, may lead to further agitation for the extension of the retirement age of justices of the supreme court and court of appeal.