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Don’t Allow Sylva, Kyari, Malami, Sirika, Bala, Jamoh, Others Escape Justice, Timi Frank Tells Tinubu

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…Says Nigerians waiting arrest, prosecution of ex, serving top officials under Buhari

Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Comrade Timi Frank on Tuesday, pleaded with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to allow former and serving top officials appointed by ex-President Muhammadu Buhari alleged to have abused their offices to escape justice.

Frank who made the call in a statement in Abuja listed those that deserve to be guests of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to include former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, former Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, former Attorney- General for the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami and Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari.

Others are former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, former Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman (now appointed Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Policy Coordination), former Comptroller general of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hammid Ali, Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Bashir Jamo, former Managing Directors and Sole Administrators of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as well as former and immediate past Service Chiefs appointed by Buhari.

Frank, who is the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), Ambassador to East Africa and the Middle East, said: “Nigerians know how agencies managed or still being managed by these former and present government officials were run in the most opaque and corrupt manner. The President has no choice but to demand accountability on behalf of the people.

“The suspension and arrest of the Governor of Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele and Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), AbdulRasheed Bawa have been hailed by Nigerians but this is just a tip of the iceberg; the President must not let his anti-corruption drive stop with these two individuals.

“Those that must be investigated and prosecuted are still running free out there and the earlier they are rounded up and made to face the law for economic sabotage, the better for this country. Besides, some of them have already found their way into the present administration like Ms. Hadiza Bala-Usman.

“There is further intelligence that others like her are currently lobbying cabal around Tinubu to get a soft landing or better still find their way into the administration by way of appointment.”

Frank, who is the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), Ambassador to East Africa and the Middle East, insisted that failure to arrest and prosecute these suspects known to have used their offices for selfish gain would show that the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration is only out to witch-hunt Emefiele and Bawa now under DSS custody.

He insisted that that ex-officials like Sylva need to answer questions on alleged identity theft, sale of oil blocks, marginal oil fields and refineries. Siriki needs to tell Nigerians the whereabouts of Air Nigeria and monumental funds spent on it so far.
On her part, Sadiya Umar Farouq needs to tell the DSS and EFCC how money voted for social investment programme especially school feeding were expended.

He urged the EFCC and DSS to extend that probe actives to cover former Service Chiefs and Inspector General of Police from the administration of former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai up to the ones recently retired by the President administration.

He further urged Tinubu to be wary of former Governors especially of the PDP who are now pretending to support his administration. He described their motive as selfish while warning that Tinubu not to allow his administration to be a dump site for known corrupt elements.

Despite the pendency of the presidential elect ion petitions at the tribunal that will determine the true outcome of the last presidential election, Nigerians will commend Tinubu if he is doing well and also call him out if he goes wrong.

Comrade Timi Frank is the ULMWP Ambassador to East Africa and Middle East

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Kaduna: Tribunal Affirms Sani’s Election, Dismisses PDP’s Petition

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The Kaduna State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Kaduna has dismissed petition brought by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the 2023 election, Isah Ashiru, against the victory of Governor Uba Sani of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

However, in a dissenting judgment of two against one, delivered on Thursday, a three-member panel headed by Justice Victor Oviawie dismissed the petition on the ground that the pre-hearing notice was filed out of time, and therefore deemed to be abandoned.

The tribunal chairman and another member held that the appeal brought by PDP and Ashiru against the dismissal of their petition at the preliminary stage by the first and second defendants was not meritorious because the filing of the pre-hearing notice was abandoned and out of time, and therefore had dealt the entire petition a fatal blow.

The tribunal, however, noted that if the petition had not been dismissed for lack of merit, it would have ordered a supplementary election in 22 polling units within 90 days in the substantive judgment.

Senator Sani, during the election polled a total of 730,001 votes to defeat his closest rival, Ashiru of the PDP, who scored 719, 196 votes.

The Labour Party (LP) candidate, Jonathan Asake, came third with 58,283 votes, while Suleiman Hunkuyi of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) scored 21,405 votes.

While the Labour Party and NNPP accepted the outcome of the election, the PDP and its candidate rejected the results, alleging that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the wrong candidate winner of the election.

Besides, the PDP and Ashiru alleged that there were massive irregularities and manipulation of results in favour of Governor Ubah in some local governments by INEC. According to them, the APC candidate did not score the highest number of valid votes cast in the election and ought not to have been returned winner of the election by INEC.

In June 2023, PDP and Ashiru, however, filed a petition at the election petition tribunal to challenge the election of Governor Uba.

At the last sitting of the court on September 3rd, all parties presented their final written addresses before the tribunal, with APC’s legal team led by a former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Bayo Ojo (SAN), arguing that the petitioners had helped in proving he won the election free and fair, pointing in particular to the admission of a star witness for the petitioner, Bonett Gwazah, a senior system analyst in the VR/ICT department of INEC in Kaduna State.

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NiMET Alerts FCT, Edo, 23 States of 48-Hour Downpour

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The Nigerian Meteorological Agency has notified the residents of the Federal Capital Territory, Edo, Kwara, and 22 other states of 48-hour downpour beginning on Thursday.

In its weekly heavy rainfall forecast bulletin released on Wednesday, the agency told the residents to also expect flash floods.
Other states listed are Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Plateau, Borno, Adamawa, Taraba, Kaduna, Niger, Nasarawa, Kogi, Enugu, Delta, Bayelsa, Abia, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ebonyi, Kwara, and Benue.

The bulletin reads: “Moderate to heavy rainfall is expected within the forecast period (Thursday 28th and Friday 29th, September 2023) over parts of Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Plateau, Borno, Adamawa, Taraba, Kaduna, Niger, Nasarawa, Kogi, Enugu, Edo, Delta, and Bayelsa.

Other States are: “Abia, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ebonyi, Kwara, Benue State and the Federal Capital Territory.”

On the likely impact of the rains, NiMet warned: “The expected moderate to heavy rainfall is expected to cause some flash flooding over their areas of occurrence.

“Strong winds should accompany the rains with the strongest winds expected over parts of Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, Bauchi, Yobe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, and Kebbi State.”

The agency cautioned residents against driving through surface runoff waters, as they have strong undercurrents.

It identified slippery road surfaces and reduced visibility as other hazards that may be triggered by the downpour.

The Punch

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Chicago Academic Record: Atiku Plans Fresh Suit Against Tinubu

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The legal team of the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, is planning to file a motion to challenge President Bola Tinubu’s plea for Chicago State University not to release privileged documents in his academic records.

The Special Adviser to Atiku on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu, told The Punch that the legal team had up to 48 hours to respond to the motion in the US court.

Atiku had earlier secured an order for CSU to make the president’s academic records available to his legal team.

A magistrate, Jeffrey Gilbert, had last week ordered Tinubu’s alma mater to provide all relevant and non-privileged documents to the applicant within two days.

Atiku is currently challenging the victory of the former Lagos State governor at the 2023 presidential poll and his recent affirmation by an election petition court in Nigeria.

The documents sought by the PDP candidate, through his counsel, Angela Liu, include the record of admission and acceptance at the university, dates of attendance including degrees, awards, and honors attained by the former governor of Lagos State at the university, among others.

But as the deadline given by Gilbert drew nearer on Thursday, Tinubu’s lawyers approached Maldonado, arguing that the earlier decision by Gilbert needed to be reviewed by a district judge.

The request for a review and delay of the order till Monday was eventually granted by the US district judge.

Tinubu’s application, filed by his lawyers, Oluwole Afolabi and Christopher Charmichael, advanced two reasons.

First was that his academic records in issue are not useful in Nigerian courts as claimed by Atiku because the Nigerian election proceedings and the Nigerian courts have explicitly been unreceptive to the discovery.

The second reason given was that Atiku’s request is unduly intrusive because it allows Applicant (Atiku) to conduct a fishing expedition into intervenor’s private, confidential, and protected educational records.

When asked on Wednesday to confirm if Atiku has filed the suit as he earlier threatened in Monday, Shaibu reassured that the former vice president would submit the motion before midnight.

He said, “I am sure you have seen his application. We are working on our response. We have up till midnight today (Wednesday) to respond to them. And we will.”

On when they expect the court to rule over the matter, Shaibu stated that “It is after we have responded to the court, that it will fix the date and inform the parties.”

When contacted for reaction, Coordinator of Tinubu Presidential Legal Team, Babatunde Ogala, who spoke via phone from his base in the United States told The Punch he would rather not speak on the development.

“As I told you earlier, I am still on vacation,” he said.

The Punch

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