Nelson Ugwuagbo

The Presidential Election Petition Court has reserved judgement in the petition filed by Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), against the February 25 election victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The five-man panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, reserved judgement to a date to be communicated to the parties.

Atiku, Nigeria’s Vice-President between May 1999 and May 2007, was physically present in court today (Tuesday).

The petitioners — PDP and Atiku as well as Labour Party (LP) and its flag bearer, Peter Obi — are praying for the nullification of Tinubu’s victory in the February 25 poll.

They are both praying to be named the winner of the election, or that a rerun to be conducted.

In their final arguments, counsel for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Abubakar Mahmoud, said it would amount to absurdity for the Tribunal to accept the argument of Atiku that one must secure 25% votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to emerge winner of a presidential election.

Citing Section 134 of the Constitution, Mahmoud said the FCT has no special status.

He added that it would amount to absurdity for residents of the FCT to be deemed as being more special than other Nigerians elsewhere who voted during the keenly contested election.

On Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC Result Viewing portal (IREV), Mahmoud argued that the evidence before the court showed that all the information generated by the BVAS in relation to transmission of results were stored in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) and it was the most secured and publicly available cloud service in the world.

He held that there was a test of vulnerability and application of the AWS.

He further held that INEC showed good intention to make the election credible as manifested by the evidence before the court.

Mahmoud submitted that the major plank of the petitioners’ case is non-compliance with the electoral act, regulations and guidelines.

On his part, the counsel for Tinubu and his vice, Kashim Shettima, Wole Olanikpekun, described the petitioners as meddlesome interloper.

He held that uploading of results to the IREV, either manually or electronically, played no role in the election process. He added that collation was physical and also manual.

Citing pages 10-11 of their address, he drew the attention of the court to the difference between transfer and transmit, the vertical, horizontal and the continuous use of the word or by the petitioner.

On the FCT, Olanikpekun held that the FCT is the 37th state in Nigeria for the purpose of the presidential election.

He added that the President won one quarter of the votes in two-third of the FCT.

On his part, counsel for the APC, Lateef Fagbemi, also prayed the court to dismiss the petition on the grounds that all the points raised in the petition has been ruled on by other court.

On the issue of 25% in Abuja, he said treating Abuja specially would be undue privilege, discrimination and elevation of a state, above others.

On the issue of election results, he noted that the petitioners did not prove that election did not hold in any area, neither did they prove that the results were proported as their witnesses did not disagree with the results of the election, as the only complain they had was the uploading of results.

On the issue of forfeiture, he noted that it was a civil forfeiture not a criminal one.

However, Atiku’s counsel, Chris Uche, said the issue of double nomination wasn’t raised.

On the issue of transmission, he added that there is a new regime in the Electoral Act and the essence of the innovation was to enhance transparency of collation and integrity of results declared.

He contended that INEC had a choice and option which they exercised.Uche further added that RW 1 admitted results in the National Assembly election were transmitted but that of the presidential poll was not.

He further insisted that there was no technical glitch but a deliberate hitch to create room for manipulation.

He wondered why INEC said it was only four hours they had a delay, while their witness admitted that results were uploaded till March 1, 2023.

He pointed out that the burden shifts to INEC to explain the substantiality of the non-compliance.

He accused INEC of carrying out a total shutdown to create room for manipulation.

On the issue of FCT, he said they have sought to create an additional state. No one is endowed with the competence to add what has already been.

He urged the court to adopt the current trend and allow all the petitions which they clearly proved.

The five-man panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani subsequently reserved judgement to a date that will be communicated to the parties.

President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio has declared that salaries of members of the National Assembly are not enough to take care of demands and projects from their constituents.

He said with the volume of requests from various constituents represented in the National Assembly, lawmakers’ earnings were too inadequate to cater for everything.

The Senate President made the revelation while contributing to the debate on a motion sponsored by Kano lawmaker, Senator Abdulraman Kawu, on the need to avert planned strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

The former Akwa Ibom state governor admitted that though hardships associated with the removal of subsidy on fuel were enormous, there was need Nigerians to be more patient with the government while they work to cushion its effect.

Defending his motion, Senator Kawu called the Senate’s attention to the fact that the strike would cripple the country as movement would be severely curtailed with commercial transport operators withdrawing their services, while markets, schools and healthcare facilities would be forced to shut down.

He said the strike action could heat up the polity adding that the gains from the strike would be far below the costs to either of the parties in conflict.

The senate, after the debate, mandated its leadership to interface between the NLC and the federal government in order to avert strike.

Senator Ishaku Abbo (APC-Adamawa North), yesterday, claimed to have taken the National Common Entrance Examination when he was in Primary Three.

Abbo described himself as exceptionally brilliant, to the amusement of his colleagues.

“I sat for common entrance examination when I was in Primary Three and I won because I was exceptionally brilliant… I passed,” he said during the screening of a ministerial nominee, Prof. Joseph Utsev of Benue State.

Upon correction by fellow lawmakers, Abbo retorted, “It’s all the same – winning and passing are all the same.”

The senator’s comments followed a question posed to Utsev by Senator Mukhail Adetokunbo Abiru (Lagos East) on his biodata where the professor’s birth year was apparently indicated as 1980 while his primary education was supposedly completed in 1989.

“On the very first page, page one, you said you were born on the 2nd of December, 1980. Now, looking further down, you attended St John’s Primary School, Gboko,” Abiru noted.

“You just wrote 1989; I’m wondering whether you finished primary school at 1989 which would suggest that you either started primary school at the age of three or two, for you to finish in 1989.”

In response, Utsev stated that his admission to primary school came in 1984.

“The year 1989 was when I got my first (school) leaving certificate,” he said.

“That was when I passed out with a first school leaving certificate. I’m talking about primary school.”

Later, as Abbo gave his submission on the subject matter, he argued that it was plausible for the nominee to have been enrolled in primary school at the age of three.

“You may be like me, exceptionally brilliant,” he told the professor which elicited chuckles from some of his colleagues.

“Because you’re on national television, I don’t want people to go home thinking that your integrity is being called into question. You’re a professor in this country and have done exceptionally well for the university to make you a professor.”

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the appointment of Ajuri Ngelale as his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity.

This was made known in a statement by Willie Bassey, the Director of Information in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume on Monday.

The statement reads, “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, has approved the appointment of Chief Ajuri Ngelale as Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity.

“The appointment takes effect from 31st July, 2023 and would terminate at the end of this administration unless otherwise decided by the President.

“The President urges him to bring his wealth of experience to bear on the new assignment.”

Ngelale served as a Senior Special Assistant for Public Affairs in the Presidency in the immediate past government of Muhammadu Buhari.