Headline

Buhari’s Victory : Atiku Inaugurates Legal Team, Heads to Court

Published

6 years ago

March 3, 2019

Eric

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has inaugurated a legal team to challenge the result of last Saturday’s presidential election, his spokesperson said.

The team is headed by Livy Uzoukwu, a senior advocate of Nigeria.

The Independent National Electoral Commission had on Wednesday declared Muhammadu Buhari as winner of the election.

Mr Abubakar rejected the result, accusing the government of using the military to intimidate voters and suppress PDP strongholds. He also alleged the connivance of INEC officials, security agents and the ruling party to manufacture bogus figures and falsify the returns from the polling units.

On Thursday night, the PDP candidate met with members of the National Peace Committee prompting reports he may have been prevailed upon not to proceed with the challenge.

“I have just inaugurated my legal team and charged them with the responsibility of ensuring that our stolen mandate is retrieved,” Mr Abubakar said Saturday, according to his spokesperson, Paul Ibe.

“I am encouraged by the presence of fearless men and women of the Bench. The judiciary which had in the past discharged itself ably is once again being called upon to deliver judgement on this matter that will be untainted by lucre and uncowed by the threat of immoral power,” he added.

Mr Abubakar said sooner “these noble dispensers of justice will give a judgement that will represent a historic denunciation of electoral fraud and mandate bandit.”

I will not mortgage the Peoples’ mandate.

Meanwhile, Mr Abubakar’s media office said the former vice president’s son in-law and the finance director of his group of companies, Babalele Abdullahi, was arrested in Abuja on Saturday “in a desperate move to have Atiku Abubakar concede and congratulate Gen. Muhammadu Buhari”.

“…officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at about 8.30am today (Saturday) invaded the Maitama residence of Babalele. They were however not given access into the house until his lawyers arrived,” the statement said.

“The EFCC agents numbering about two dozen came in 2 regular vehicles, an 18-seater Toyota bus (registration Abuja CS 522 RSH) and a hilux van.

“They came with a search warrant to search the house and office of Babalele and found nothing incriminating.

“They then proceeded to his office at Oakland Centre in Maitama and found nothing incriminating there. However, they took away some documents of landed property.

“Not done, the EFCC officials stormed his Wuse residence where they again found nothing incriminating after the search.

“Afterwards, Babalele was taken away to the EFCC office in Wuse to make a statement alongside Mr. Lawan Ayuba.

Mr Abubakar’s media office said while the PDP candidate recognised the constitutional role of the EFCC to carry out investigations, he “will not be cowed by any attempt to blackmail him into mortgaging his mandate.”

When asked why Mr Babalele was arrested, the spokesperson for the EFCC, Tony Orilade, told PREMIUM TIMES he could not immediately confirm the case, and would require time to do so.

Premium Times

Headline

Akpabio Relieves Natasha of Committee Chairmanship Position, Appoints Akwa Ibom Senator As Replacement

Published

2 days ago

July 10, 2025

Eric

Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has replaced suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, as the Chairman, Senate Committee on Diaspora/Non-Governmental Organisations.

In her place, Akpabio named Senator Bassey Aniekun Etim (Akwa Ibom -East).

The Senate President, who made the announcement on the floor in Abuja on Thursday, did not give any reasons.

The committee position had remained vacant since March when the Senate suspended the Kogi-Central Senatorial District lawmaker for six months for flouting the Senate’s rule on the seating arrangement and seat allocation.

The suspended lawmaker, at a point, chaired the Senate Committee on Local Content before Akpabio reassigned her to the Committee on Diaspora/NGO, shortly before she ran into trouble with the Senate over her conduct on seat allocation.

Headline

Supreme Court Upholds Election of Monday Okpebholo As Edo Governor

Published

2 days ago

July 10, 2025

Eric

The Supreme Court has affirmed the 2024 governorship election victory of Governor Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC), dismissing the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Asuerinme Ighodalo.

In a unanimous decision by a five-member panel led by Justice Mohammed Garba, the apex court ruled that the appeal lacked merit. It upheld the earlier judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which had both declared Okpebholo the validly elected governor.

Headline

‘Overthrow’ Comment: Tinubu’ll Be Removed by Votes, Not Bullets, ADC Replies Presidency

Published

2 days ago

July 10, 2025

Eric

The African Democratic Congress (ADC), on Wednesday, said President Bola Tinubu will be removed through the ballot and not bullets.It dismissed insinuations that the coalition is interested in truncating democracy in Nigeria.

ADC’s Interim National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, accused Tinubu of laying the foundation for a clampdown on opposition leaders.

He made the remark in response to a tweet by Tinubu’s spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, who alleged that the opposition was planning to overthrow the President.

Onanuga had said the coalition had ganged up to overthrow Tinubu’s administration.Rubbishing Onanuga’s comment, Abdullahi described his remark as reckless and unsubstantiated.

In a statement he signed, Abdullahi said Onanuga’s comment shows that Tinubu’s administration is out to intimidate and repress opposition political leaders in Nigeria.

He noted that ADC would explore Democratic means to ensure Tinubu’s removal from office and not by overthrowing him.

The statement read partly: “ADC condemned the tweet made by an aide of President Bola Tinubu, Onanuga, which alleges that the opposition is planning to overthrow the Tinubu government before 2027.

“If anything, it potentially lays the grounds for systematic clampdown on opposition leaders.

“The ADC is not interested in truncating democracy, we are solely committed to saving the nation from the irredeemable incompetence of this government. We are not soldiers, we are politicians.

“We don’t have bullets; we only have the ballots. When the time comes, we will only present our solutions and an alternative vision of the future to the Nigerian people and leave them to make their choice.”