The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, on Saturday inaugurated his legal team to challenge the result of the 23 February presidential election.


The Wazirin Adamawa vowed that he would use every legal means to secured victory.

A statement made available to DAILY POST and signed by his spokesman, Paul Ibe, said the team is headed by Dr Livy Uzoukwu, SAN.


“I have just inaugurated my legal team and charged them with the responsibility of ensuring that our stolen mandate is retrieved”, Atiku was quoted as sauing.

“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”.


Atiku assured Nigerians that sooner than later, the noble dispensers of justice will give a judgement that will represent a historic denunciation of electoral fraud and mandate bandit.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had on Wednesday, 27 February declared Muhammadu Buhari as winner of the election.

However, Atiku on Thursday, 28 February rejected the result citing several malpractices.



He condemned “the use of the military to perfect voters’ intimidation and suppression in PDP strongholds, connivance of INEC officials, security agents and the ruling party to manufacture bogus figures and outright falsification of the returns from the polling units.”

It would be recalled that Thursday night, the PDP presidential candidate met with members of the National Peace Committee prompting concerns in some quarters that he may have been prevailed upon not to proceed with the challenge.

March 2, 2019


…Determined to Reclaim Stolen Mandate At The Tribunal

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) describes the fabrication being peddled by the Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) that the people’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar, is making some demands of President Muhammadu Buhari, as absolute falsehood and outright lies.

The PDP states categorically, without mincing words, that Atiku Abubakar had not, and will never, make or accept any condition from President Buhari regarding the rigged February 23, 2019 Presidential election, which he (Atiku) clearly won.

The Buhari Presidency and the APC know that their electoral robbery cannot stand before any noble justices and are now attempting to use all sorts of blackmail and shenanigans to derail the quest by Nigerians to reclaim the stolen mandate at the tribunal.

However, let it be known to President Buhari and the APC that Atiku Abubakar and the PDP are standing shoulder to shoulder with Nigerians in this collective determination to take back the stolen mandate and we are not ready for any form of negotiation with anybody on this matter.

Our party and candidate remain committed to the huge sacrifices made by Nigerians in ensuring our collective victory as delivered at the polling units across the country; we are mindful of the pains that Nigerians are passing through since the subversion of their will at the polls; we are sensitive to the expectations that millions of compatriots place on our shoulders in this struggle and we will never let Nigerians down.

We have all the authentic results from all the polling units as well as forensic evidence of manipulations by the APC and INEC. We will bare them all at the tribunal and the court will give justice to Nigerians.

On that note, the PDP states unequivocally that nothing will change its resolve to pursue this despicable electoral fraud, unknown in our political history, to its end.

We shall devote every energy necessary to reclaim our mandate and have Atiku Abubakar declared President, in line with the will of the people as delivered at the polling units on February 23, 2019.

Anything short of this is not acceptable and no amount of false reports, connivance, contrivance, intimidation, harassment and fresh attacks on our leaders, including the Director General of our Presidential Campaign, Senate President Bukola Saraki, whose residence was besieged by security agents last night, can alter this resolve.

Signed:

Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
And
Director, Media & Publicity
PDP Presidential Campaign Organization

The Management and staff of the Cross River State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), join all well meaning Cross Riverians to heartily felicitate and celebrate, His Excellency, The Governor of Cross River State, Sen. (Prof.) Benedict Ayade on the occasion of his 51st birthday celebration.

We celebrate a leader, mentor, achiever, innovator and an accomplished gentleman. A man whose drive, passion and love for the people of Cross River State is unquantifiable.

Your Excellency, we celebrate you even more for the great strides you are making in the development and transformation of our basic education sector. Your vision in ensuring that every ‘Cross River Child’ has access to qualitative education, raising a dynamic workforce of teachers and being a leading state in the delivery of basic education is being achieved.

As we celebrate your 51st birthday our sincere prayer is that God keeps you in good health and continue to use you to transform Cross River State and the basic education sector to an enviable height.
51 Hearty Cheers to a Great Achiever!!!

Signed
Dr.(Barr.) Stephen Odey
Executive Chairman CR-SUBEB

The clear implication is that Ayade is running against all party condidates excluding APC.

In a similar development, INEC has maintained that it's decision to remove the names of candidates of owan 's faction was in obedience to the order of court .

INEC further maintained that the news making the rounds on social media that it has reaffirmed the APC  candidates whose names were removed before Saturday's election is not only false but a pure figment of the imagination of the rumour peddlers.

According to INEC, it is only the tribunal that has the final say on the issue of all National Assembly candidates whose names were  removed and the commission is not empowered to do otherwise.

According to INEC, stay of execution is not granted retrospectively and therefore it is  practically illegal and immoral to attempt to stay the execution of the matter

A  philanthropist group called  Cross River State Voices led by Chief Patrick Agbe has provided 25 seaters for transport for all those going to vote for Senator Prof Ben Ayade  on the 9th  March 2019.
The free transport is to enable all those from the 5 LGAs in the North working and living in Calabar to travel home and vote for Gov. Ben Ayade. The free Buses shall be traveling from Motor parks in calabar to to be announced shortly on CRBC.
The affected voters shall also be transported back to calabar from the various LGAs  Sunday 10th March . 2019.
Speaking with the Coordinators for Chief Patrick Agbe philanthropist group Dr. Matthew Okeyim and James Amara Bullem this afternoon, they stated that the move is to put all hands on deck to make sure that CRS delivers our digital Governor come March 9th 2019.
Thanks and listen to CRBC from the weekend and early next week for directives..

By Anayo M. Nwosu

The presidential elections seem to have been concluded and the winner announced but it is not yet over.

By rejecting the results and heading for court, Atiku Abubakar, the PDP's presidential candidate has extended the presidential contest which result could be in his favour.

This time around, only the judiciary, especially the justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria will "elect" or determine who shall become the substantive Nigeria's president.

Nigerians should refresh their minds on how, the current chieftains of APC especially, Rotimi Amaechi dethroned Celestine Omehia in Rivers state, how Aregbesola replaced Prince Oyinlola in Osun state, and how Adams Oshiomhole had to take the governorship seat from Prof. Osunbor in Edo state. 

The above named APC politicians achieved their electoral victories through the courts many months after the winners who they unseated became eventual losers, were sworn in. All these happened in the last 16 years when PDP was in power and had all apparatuses of power under their almpit.

I am sure that President Buhari and some leaders of APC have realised that there is a rattle snake in their presidential roof going by the judicial pronouncements in the cases of Oshiomhole versus Osunbor (Edo) and Aregbesola versus Oyinlola (Osun) where irrefutable proofs of rigging, noncompliance with electoral guidelines and proven cases of election violence would lead to a judicial cancellation of the results and recomputation of remaining valid votes and thereafter announce the winner.

PDP and some observers claim that the use of card readers in the south disinfranchised many voters while manual voting was allowed in the extreme north. The implications of such lapse in the use of card readers across board seem to have favoured the winners.

In his acceptance speech, Buhari had cautioned his supporters not to gloat and deride the losers even though Adams Oshiomhole would not hear of that. He has been gloating and ridiculing Saraki over his loss.

Buhari who is an experienced presidential election results contestant in court knows that the final verdict is yet to be given on his re-election bid. Anything is possible.

Shebi APC people call Atiku a thief? They will see his awesome skills in court.

With the vigilance of a thief, Atiku who had a prior knowledge of rigging plot against him wired his agents and undercover observers with secret cameras aided with satellite photography which were warehoused in the cloud out of reach of evidence destroyers.

Atiku had invested heavily in surveillance technology and has been able to record all the electoral malefesances committed in the areas where APC won the big numbers. He anticipated it and he was prepared for it. His evidence in court would be tortuous, painstaking and irrefutable. And he has good lawyers who had handled such cases before. Nigeria may see the best of Wole Olanikpekun, Kanu Agabi and Onyechi Ikpeazụ assisted by the best technical and forensic experts money can buy. He knows how to assemble a crack team. He also knows that this is his best opportunity to win the presidency.

Atiku knows that our laws had been amended to allow deposition of electronic evidence and he will gleefully tender more than sufficient amount of evidence to prove his case to annul the votes in areas of interest. It would be an earthquake. It is going to be the mother of all presidential contests which judgement shall be a reference material for the students and teachers of law in Nigeria and beyond.

Has any of those gloating over Buhari's victory even looked at the INEC's electoral guidelines, particularly the one that insisted that no vote would count unless the voter was accredited using a card reader?

Even though the Supreme Court had ruled that the use of card readers was unknown to the electoral act but INEC adhoc officers' insistence on card readers usage in some areas and not using same in some areas where jumbo figures were recorded for Buhari will make the honourable Justices decide to cancel the results in those areas affected in favour of equity and good conscience. If this happens, Atiku would be announced the winner. 

I expect Atiku's legal team to keep it simple. I believe that they would select those states that gave Buhari huge votes and apply for their invalidation based on incontrovertible evidence for noncompliance with INEC's guidelines to which other voters were subjected. Borno, Kebbi, Katsina, Kano and Bauchi would make an interesting challenge. When material discrepancies are proven, Atiku would be announced the winner.

Another perspective that should give the APC and President Buhari goose pimples is that our anti-corruption President and his executives shall be at the mercy of the judiciary.

The executive has submitted its neck on the chopping table of the Judiciary they have humiliated since 2015 and deemed corrupt. It is this same Judiciary that the executive have decapitated and subjected their head and other ranking members to ridicule, would rely on to survive. Who will feed or arm an enemy?

Judiciary is like a cult and they understand the meaning of revenge or Omerta and like wounded souls carry out their revenge in a legal way. They have now presented to them by fate a once in a lifetime's opportunity to end their pains, mindless indictment and harassment.

It is a matter of self preservation for the new electors especially some of them who made mistakes in their assets declarations. They, by now, would be laughing at anti-corruption crusaders as Obasanjo laughed Atiku in 2011.

My pain in this Atiku's decision to challenge his loss in court is that a huge uncertainty has been created in the polity.

Many local and foreign investors in Nigeria would have to await for the judicial pronouncement of who will be  Nigeria's president. For now, foreign direct investments would continue to be short term until the haze is cleared.

Even though I had congratulated President Buhari on his victory but, with the decision of Atiku to contest his loss in court, I am being tempted to continue aticulating, albeit in a muted form, until our Lord Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria conduct their own finite election between Atiku and Buhari.

Fellow wailers should be encouraged by the following verses from the Book of Lamentation chapter 3 verses 36-38 as reproduced below :

"To defraud a man in his lawsuit, of these things the Lord does not approve.

"Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?"
"Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth?"

In his desperation to ensure he wins the March 9, governorship election in Akwa Ibom at all cost, fresh facts have emerged that Nsima Ekere, governorship candidate of the APC, has contracted agents to arrange a meeting of all Collation Officers with him.
Ekere, it was learnt adopted this method following the people's rejection of the APC in the state as was seen in  last week Presidential and National Assembly elections where APC candidates were roundly defeated by the PDP.
Ekere who is miffed that his Godfather, Senator Godswill Akpabio lost in the election following the refusal of the State Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC, Mr. Mike Igini to be bribed opted to deal directly with the Collation Officers.
Our source informed that a University of Calabar Lecturer of Akwa Ibom extraction, who is sympathetic to Nsima Ekere's ambition was on  Thursday seen in the Town Campus of the University of Uyo, meeting and collecting phone numbers of Lecturers who were appointed Collation Officers for onward transmission to Ekere.
It was gathered that Ekere plan, according to our source is to put a call to individual Collation officer where he would then offer mouth watering inducements of N1.5million naira each. Ekere, it was gathered would not meet the Collation Officers in persons but  would send an agent to deliver the goods after concluding discussions and negotiations.
Apart from the Collation Officers, Ekere is also said to be targeting Supervisory Presiding Officers and Presiding Officers of each of the 329 wards and over 2000 polling units respectively.
It was also gathered that  Ekere also directed his media team to send bulk sms to people indicating that the National Assembly elections where PDP won all the ten federal constituency and Senatorial seats had been cancelled. The essence of this, it was learnt was to discourage voters from coming out to vote with the mind that even if they vote it would be cancelled. Another source said Ekere was also working on the option of using militant groups from outside the state to disrupt elections where Collation Officers would not accede to manipulating results. It was gathered that, Ekere in his thinking is targeting about 25 Collation Officers across the state and to use militants to disrupt elections in at least 6 local government Areas where INEC could possibly cancel and call for a rerun on a separate date.
A source said that the desperation shows that without rigging, APC leadership in the state knows that it can never win in any free contest against governor Udom Emmanuel who has done much to endear electorate to himself.
It was not clear as at press time if Mike Mike Igini's led INEC would use the Collation Officers he used during the National Assembly elections in the Governorship and House of Assembly elections on March 9.

By News Agency of Nigeria - February 28, 2019

Anambra Broadcasting Service - ABS



The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Zamfara State, Alhaji Sani Shinkafi, Wednesday confirmed that he has ejected all displaced persons taking shelter in his houses in Shinkafi for voting for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.

Shinkafi confirmed in Gusau at a news conference organised by a coalition of some political parties in the state protesting against the elections.

“I have asked all the IDPs residing in my Shinkafi houses to immediately pack out because they are not serious in life.

“These are people who had to leave their villages due to insecurity caused by a government that could not provide such basic necessity to them, yet they went and sold their votes at the last elections trying to bring back the same gang,” he said.

According to him, in spite of earlier advice to the displaced persons “to vote out those who failed them in the past years,” they still voted for them.


He claimed that the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) allowed themselves to be bought over during the election by “the people who failed them.”

Shinkafi said the coalition would not support the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) and all security chiefs in the state to handle the March 9, governorship and state assembly elections.

“This is because we have no confidence in them and their ability to be fair and just to us,” the APGA governorship candidate added.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the coalition is comprised of the PDP, APGA, ACCORD, NRM, APP, ADC, NPP, DPP and YPP.

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https://www.today.ng/news/politics/zamfara-governorship-candidate-ejects-idps-voting-president-buhari