Conference Of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) and civil society organisations (CSOs) under the aegis of the Coalition Of National Civil Society Organisations (CNCSOs) have demanded that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu resign from office.

The joint body comprising CNPP and the CSOs said failure of this directive after 14-day ultimatum to Prof. Yakubu will see them galvanised all democratic and legal means to force him to do so.

In a statement jointly signed by the CNPP Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu and the National Secretary of the Coalition, Alhaji Ali Abacha, they explained that the INEC Chairman, who failed to deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) it procured “despite billions of naira wasted on the 2023 general elections is not worthy of remaining in office and must not be allowed to continue to waste the nation’s resources in conduct of future elections.”

The joint body, said that they are equally disturbed that “INEC under Prof. Yakubu has equally constituted itself into an obstruction to justice in the electioneering process in Nigeria by becoming a partisan umpire and opposing petitioners who are in the various tribunals to seek justice after being allegedly rigged out in the elections.”

They also accused the INEC Chairman of inflating about N105.25 billion spent on acquiring BVAS machines for the 2023 polls, saying that “despite having been severally accused of manipulating the February 25 presidential election results, counsel to INEC, Abubakar Mahmoud, recently aligned with the position of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 25 presidential election to object to the presentation of subpoenaed witnesses who were INEC ad-hoc staff during the 2023 presidential election in the petition filed by Atiku Abubakar and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The statement read in parts, “We recall that at the resumption of proceedings on Atiku’s petition last Thursday in Abuja, one of the witnesses, Egwuma Friday from Kubwa area of Abuja entered the witness box and prayed the court to admit his witness statement, but all respondents in the petition, including INEC, raised objections to stop the witness from testifying.

“This is the same INEC that has been accused of manipulating election results by deliberately refusing to transmit polling units results as promised real-time.

“From mere allegations, a staff of INEC, Abedemi Joseph on Friday told the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) that they were instructed by the commission under Prof. Yakubu, their employer, not to give copies of election results to political party agents who declined to sign the results.

“It’s now becoming more obvious that, until INEC Chairman exited from the commission, rebuilding confidence in the electoral body will be impossible due to the now battered image of the commission in the eyes of the electorates.

“More so, INEC under Prof. Yakubu took four years to mislead Nigerians by creating false impression that uploading of the election results to the BVAS real-time was the only way to go for the country’s electoral system.

“Contrary to expectations, INEC made it impossible for electoral officers to upload the results of the presidential election real-time from the polling units, which may have created room for the upload of manipulated election results.

“We note that the former Minister of Transportation and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, had revealed that a member of the camp of the presidential candidate of his party, now President Bola Tinubu, nominated the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Yakubu, for his reappointment for a second term.

“In the words of Amaechi, ‘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?’

“So, how can anyone convince Nigerians that such a character remain in office as INEC Chairman for a single day, not to even think of allowing him to conduct another election in the country?

“We equally call on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), other anti-graft agencies, as well as the Department Of State Services (DSS) to immediately commence investigation of INEC’s N105.25 billion budgetted for acquiring 200,000 units of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) as the budget has been found to have surpassed the estimated market cost by a whopping 30.4 percent, yet Nigeria lost the anticipated benefits, and for constituting himself into a national security risk as his continued stay in office could trigger violence in the country.

“According our findings as corroborated by the media, the BVAS machines, which were deploy during the now controversial 2023 general elections, EMP2920 Biometric tablets, were manufactured and supplied by Shenzhen Emperor Technology at an inflated unit cost of $795 (N366,089.55 at the rate of N460.47/$) as against the Amazon price, where the device sells under a different name SecuMind Tablet Biometric CX2920.

“Why should the INEC Chairman remain in office after wasting 34.51 percent of the total sum of N355 billion budgeted for the 2023 polls on the procurement of biometric devices that never worked?

“In a sane clime, such an official who failed woefully to conduct an acceptable general elections after receiving all he asked for should have long resigned.

“We, therefore, demand the immediate resignation of the INEC Chairman within 14 days.

“At the expiration of the ultimatum, all democratic and legal means possible would be deployed to force him to quit the office.

“All the CNPP organs at the state level and the civil society groups under the CNCSOs across the country are being mobilised for appropriate action in event that Prof. Yakubu remains in office after two weeks from today.

“It is on record that the CNPP and the CSOs fully backed INEC in the build up to the 2023 general elections and insisted that all that the commission required should be made available to it since INEC Chairman had assured of conducting a free, fair and credible elections.

“The same promise to do what is right was made by the INEC Chairman at the CHATHAM House before the elections and today, the world is seeing Nigeria as a mockery among the comity of nations, especially with the testimonies emanating from the election petition courts where INEC staff are indicting the commission under Prof. Yakubu.

“Therefore, if the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, who followed the instructions of former President Muhammadu Buhari to redesign the naira to ensure that illicit funds were not deployed for 2023 elections, could be ordered to step aside from office, why should Prof. Yakubu, who has done more harm to the psyche of Nigerian electorates than any past Chairman of the commission in Nigeria’s history, remain in office?

“Prof Yakubu dashed the hopes Nigerians in a credible 2023 electoral system, raising voter apathy to the highest level in the country, and for us, it’s time up for Prof Mahmood Yakubu to quit the stage as INEC Chairman. Enough is enough”, the statement concluded.

Pursuant to the fulfilment of one of his campaign promises to liberalize funding of education in the country, President Bola Tinubu on Monday signed the Students Loan Bill into law.

Titled “A Bill for an Act to Provide for easy access to higher education for Nigerians through an interest-free loan from the Nigerian Education Bank established in this Act to provide education for Nigerians and other purposes connected thereto,” It was sponsored by the Speaker of the 9th House House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila.

It recommends two years imprisonment or N500,000 or both for students who default in repayment or anyone found aiding defaulters.

Joined by other close aides of the president, including Tunde Rahman, Abdulaziz Abdulaziz as well as the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, David Adejoh, Alake said: “We are very happy to announce to you that today, just a few minutes ago, the President His Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, signed into law, the Student Loans Bill and that Student Loans Bill. You all know what it entails, what it connotes the meaning.

“This is the promise made during the presidential campaign by the then candidate, His Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, that he will bring back the student loans issue to the front burner and today, that promise he made has been kept.

“He has just signed that bill into law, which henceforth, will allow or enable our indigent students to access federal government loans to fund their educational pursuit or career and this is how it’s done in other developed climes all over the world.”

He added: “So, this is a boom to our youths, to our students nationwide. Of course, there are prescribed qualification parameters and that is the proof of indigeneship of whoever is to be a beneficiary and other prescribed parameters will be there.

“Of course, there are committees to be set up, the members of committees drawn from various bodies to superintend over the efficient and proficient disbursement of this facility.”

Alake said the law would take immediate effect but the committee would superintend over the procedures.

Also speaking on the new law, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Adejoh, stated: “What the President has done goes beyond a symbolism, it’s a demonstration of intent in terms of how he wants to handle education as he progresses in his Presidency.

“Like somebody asked about procedures, once the bill has been signed, that is the most important thing.

“A bill tells you what should be done, the how it will be done is what we’re going to put together and the good luck is that we have experience already in this area. We already have the Federal Scholarship Board Scheme running.

“The difference this bill makes is that it’s going to be a loans board so that people that don’t have whatever reason, don’t qualify to be able to apply for a loan. I’m very sure the country has learned from recovery rates of loans and the experience we had will be able to guide how this federal students loans board will work.

“I want to congratulate the President and most importantly, congratulate us Nigerians because what we have now is that nobody should say money did not allow him to go to school. That opportunity will be there, it will be inclusive and it will be equitable.”

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission has held the bid opening exercise for the 2023 planned disposal of assets forfeited to the Federal Government.

Its Spokesperson, Mrs Azuka Ogugua, said this in a statement on Monday in Abuja.

She quoted the ICPC Chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, SAN, as promising in his opening remarks that the exercise would be transparent.

Owasanoye commended the auctioneers for their cooperation and assured them that the commission would not renege on its pledge to ensure a fair and transparent process.

The ICPC boss, who was represented by Dr Louis Mandama, a Board member, noted that the exercise was the first for 2023 and promised that the second exercise would hold in the second half of the year.

He stated that the mode of allocation of assets in the current stage would be different as there would be no batching of assets.

He gave assurance that the auctioneers would be allowed to go and take a look at the assets while working with the technical team in order to evaluate them.

The ICPC boss went further to say that complaints received from the five bidders after the broadcast of results on the commission’s website had been addressed.

At the commencement of the exercise, the bids submitted were sorted, marked and observed closely as the opening of the bids revealed the number of properties bided for and its cost which were certified by the auctioneers.

The representatives of the Bureau of Public Procurement, Alhaji Bello Nasir, and the representative of the Civil Society Organisations, Mr Paul Odokara, expressed satisfaction with the exercise.

They commended the transparent nature of the exercise hoping that its outcome would certainly meet the criteria set for the bidding.

They also advised other agencies to take a cue from ICPC and charged the auctioneers on the need to adhere to instructions for easy identification of their bids to avoid any disqualification.

The exercise, which was held at the commission’s headquarters, had 25 auctioneers in attendance.

NAN

The management of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has decried what it called fake and misleading online information quoting dates for the 2023 NYSC activities.

It said the misinformation by the online sources misquoted the dates for its pre-mobilisation workshop, post-mobilisation workshop, uploading of Senate Approved result lists, among others.

The NYSC said the information did not emanate from its management as it emanated from the writer’s imagination.

“Consequent upon the above, the approved dates for the 2023 mobilisation activities would be made public at the appropriate time through this medium and other media channels, including all NYSC social media platforms,” the NYSC said in a statement in Abuja by its Director of Press and Public Relations, Eddy Megwa.