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2023: Atiku Meets Media Editors, Vows to Uphold Press Freedom

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The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar on Wednesday, November 16 vowed to uphold press freedom if he wins the 2023 presidential election.

Atiku made the promise when he engaged members of the Nigerian Guild of Editors in Lagos state.

Giving accolades to the Nigerian media, the former Vice President said: “I want to pay tribute to the press for their role in the restoration of democracy in Nigeria. Many of you have sacrificed your life and career.”

He also used the opportunity of the interactive session to reel out his plans for Nigerians as contained in his manifesto titled “My Covenant with Nigerians” as well as the Recover Agenda of the PDP.

Atiku kicked off his speech by informing the editors that he sees himself as a true Nigerian in every sense mainly because he has spent the greater part of his career in the south and as such, he knows the south as much as he knows the north.

When asked about his economic blueprint for Nigeria, Atiku said he intends to continue with the economic policy of the PDP government in 1999-2007 which includes to liberalize the economy, empower the private sector and continue with the privatization agenda of the Obasanjo-led administration.

His words:

“If you look at the thriving economy in the world, they allow the private sector run the economy. If you see the amount of work government has to do in-terms of constructing and decongesting our ports, railway, and you have to borrow, I will rather concession most of these projects to the private sector and give them tax incentives. This will bring progress, prosperity and peace”.

Speaking on the unity of the country, the ex- VP said: “In 1999, we had two presidential candidates from the south and the PDP won resoundingly well but we had a government of national unity.

“We had APP, AD ministers and the country became one and this provided peace and stability that we want. This is what I intend to do. PDP will set up a government of national unity. It is one of the ways to unite this country. Every section or geo-political zone will be carried along in appointments in every sector.”

Reminding the editors that the PDP government had more women in government that the current APC, Atiku said he would continue in that line by ensuring more women and youths participation in government should he win the 2023 presidential elections.

When asked about his model of restructuring if it means resource control, the former vice president said: “I have set up a team of credible constitution lawyers to give me a legislation I will present to the National Assembly on day one but I cant share the document with you. Devolution of power goes hand in hand with a measure of resource control but it depends on the type of power we want to devolve.”

On his part, the DG PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Governor Tambuwal, thanked the media for their role in deepening democracy in Nigeria and urged the media to be apolitical while reporting all sides of the divide as we head towards the general election.

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Lagos Bags Recognition As City with Global Worst Road Traffic

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Traffic Index has released its annual report on global traffic congestion ranking for 2023 with Lagos State emerging as the city with the worst road traffic in the world.

Traffic Index is a web-based application built on top of the traffic layer within Google Maps.

The specified layer uses 4 colors to represent traffic congestion: green, orange, red, dark-red. The darker the color is, the more congestion can bee observed in that location.

Every 20 minutes, the web app saves an image for each tracked location, containing the traffic data reported by Google Maps.

After a couple of minutes, the images are analyzed, and the percentages of the 4 traffic colors are calculated.

The Traffic Index report, which contains only cities having at least five hundred thousand residents, revealed Lagos has the worst road traffic among all cities.

Riga, the capital and largest city of Latvia, came second on the list, followed by Tehran, the capital and largest city of Iran.

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Gov. Umo Eno Floors Bassey Albert, Akan Udofia, Udoedehe at Appeal Court

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The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos has dismissed the appeal filed by Senator Bassey Albert Akpan and his party, Young Progressives Party, Akanimo Udofia of the All Progressives Congress, APC and Senator John Akpanudoedehe of the New Nigerian Peoples Party,NNPP, challenging the election of Governor Umo Eno of the Peoples Democratic Party.

At separate judgements delivered on Friday in Lagos, the Appellate Court struck out the respective appeals by the three appellants, describing them as lacking in merit.

The court ruled that the appellants missed the point by arguing that since they were not parties in the case, the judgement on the certificate matter was not binding on them.

“The declaratory judgment of a competent court is a judgement in rem is binding on the whole world, and not only on those who were parties in the case,” the court stated

The Court faulted the abuse of judicial process by the Appellants in re-litigating a matter that was dispensed at the High Court, Appeal Court and Supreme Court in favour of the 2nd respondent Pastor Umo Eno Bassey.

“There was no forged certificate presented to INEC. It has already been held to be genuine by the supreme Court, so the issue is resolved against the appellant.”

Ruling further on the appeal by the YPP governorship candidate, the appellate court also faulted the inability of the appellants to summon witnesses who were at the elections as polling agents, to prove their case of elections irregularities.

The court was of the opinion that Bassey Albert and his party only depended on documentary evidences amounting to hearsay, to allege irregularities, without making efforts to bring those who witnessed and took part in the elections at the polling units.

On the local government collation agents that the YPP candidate paraded before the court, the court held that “it is possible to say that the evidence given by Bassey Albert’s witnesses amounted to drama scripts meant to entertain the gallery and not serious statements that could influence the emergence of a Governor.”

Noting further”In pleading a petition, you can’t compel a party to call a witness of your choice, the appellant could if they so wish call any witness. The petitioner must also tender all documents, electoral forms and witnesses who saw it all to prove the alleged illegalities and give life to the documents tendered”

The appeal court also dismissed the preliminary objection by Bassey Albert’s counsel, Tunde Falola, and ruled that the briefs filed by the respondents did not violate the Appeal Court practice direction.

Falola had raised objections, arguing that the briefs of argument by the respondents ran more than the number of pages stipulated by the court practice guidelines and should be rejected.

But the court dismissed the objection insisting that the extra pages did not constitute part of the briefs l, but were mere acknowledgment of authorities and addresses of parties.

The Court ruled that the burden of proof in the allegations that the name of the 2nd Respondent was not the same as the names on the 1981 and 1983 WAEC certificates, was on the Appellants, adding that they failed to establish the proof.Appeal Court Upholds Umo Eno’s election as Akwa Ibom Governor and then awarded a cost of N500,000 in favour of Governor Eno and the PDP .

Following the March 2023 election, INEC declared Umo Eno winner polling 356,348 votes to defeat his closest rival, Bassey Albert of the YPP who polled 136,262 votes.

Recall that the Akwa Ibom electoral petition tribunal had earlier affirmed the election of Umo Eno as the governor of the state.

In its judgement, the tribunal dismissed the petition marked EPT/AKW/GOV/01/2023 instituted by Albert Bassey and his party, the Young Progressives Party (YPP), which challenged the election of the Akwa Ibom state governor.

The unanimous judgement read by Adekunle Adeleye, who led the panel, held that the issue of Eno’s qualification had already been settled by the supreme court.

The tribunal held that the WAEC official summoned via a subpoena as PW10 authenticated the certificates, insisting that “WAEC did not disclaim the 1981 and 1983 WAEC certificates. Without a disclaimer by the issuing authority, the certificates remain valid,” the court held.

The court also held that “There is no legislation in Nigeria that a person’s name should be arranged in a particular order on a document.

“In the absence of any other person holding claims to the said 1981 and 1983 WAEC certificates, I hold that the certificates belong to the 2nd Respondent.

“Even the 1st petitioner himself told the court he was a victim of the same issue as three documents bearing his name tendered as exhibits before the tribunal carried different arrangements of his name, Albert Bassey, Akpan Bassey Albert and Bassey Albert Akpan. This is a case of a pot calling the kettle black.”

Summarily, the tribunal dismissed Bassey’s petition describing it as frivolous and baseless.

The tribunal had also dismissed the petition of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Akanimo Udofia.

Udofia sought the nullification of Eno’s election on the grounds that he presented forged documents to INEC, and also did not score the highest number of valid votes in the March 18, governorship poll.

Udofia also accused the 2nd respondent of being convicted by an Abuja magistrate court, hence not qualified to be fielded for elections.

However, the tribunal ruled that the allegations of substantial non-compliance with the electoral law in the conduct of the elections were not sufficiently proven by the petitioners in their case.

The panel also ruled that the magistrate court, in its judgment, nullified its earlier conviction of Eno and that once a judgment is nullified, it ceases to exist.

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Court Grants Emefiele N300m Bail

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Justice Hamza Muazu of the Federal Capital Territory High Court Abuja, has granted the immediate past Governor of the Central Bank, Mr Godwin Emefiele, bail in the sum of N300 million and two sureties in like sum.

The sureties must have certificates of occupancy and titles of properties within the Maitama District.

Emefiele is mandated to deposit all his travel documents with the registrar of the court and must remain within the Abuja Municipal Council.

He is expected to remain in Kuje Correctional Centre pending when he meets the bail conditions.

Emefiele was absent Wednesday morning for the ruling on his bail application. His lawyer, Mr Mathew Burkaa, however, said it was normal, as he is already at the Kuje Correctional Centre.

This comes four months after the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos granted him bail in the sum of N20 million.

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