Headlines
Atiku Defeated Buhari in Katsina, Claims PDP State Chairman
The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in Katsina State, Sailisu Maijigiri, told the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja, on Tuesday, that his party defeated President Muhammadu Buhari in the February 23, 2019 presidential election in the state.
The figures he however gave failed to tally with those his party and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, alluded to in their petition as the “true results” they obtained from the Independent National Electoral Commission’s server.
Maijigiri appeared before the five-man tribunal led by Justice Mohammed Garba, at the instance of the PDP and Atiku, who are by their petition challenging the victory of Buhari and his All Progressives Congress at the poll.
The petitioners, on Tuesday, presented 13 witnesses, in addition to the six they earlier called on Monday.
Testifying as the eighth petitioners’ witness, Maijigiri who served as the party’s collation agent for the presidential election in Katsina State, said the collation of the results of the poll carried out by his party in the state, showed that his party polled 905,000 to defeat Buhari and the APC whom he said scored 872,000 votes.
He said, “We (the PDP) won the election in Katsina State not the APC. The APC scored 872,000 and the PDP scored, 905,000.”
But the respondents’ lawyers pointed his attention to the claim by the petitioners in their petition conceding defeat to Buhari.
Asked if he was aware that the petitioners, according to the results they claimed to have obtained from INEC’s server, stated that in their petition that they polled 160,203 votes while Buhari scored 155,633 votes, he said, “The figures we have are the results that we collated in our state, and not the ones from the server.”
In the results officially declared by INEC, Buhari won his home state of Katsina with 1,232,133 to defeat Atiku who polled 308,056 votes.
Another agent of the PDP in Katsina State for the presidential election, Dan Abdusallam, who testified as the 10th petitioners’ witness at the tribunal , was also asked if he was aware that the petitioners conceded defeat to Buhari in Katsina State, he said, “It will never happen that Atiku would concede defeat to Buhari in Katsina.”
In his testimony, he alleged that the election was marred by over-voting in some polling units as the total votes cast outnumbered the number of accredited voters.
Two ad hoc electoral officers who served during the election also told the tribunal that they electronically transmitted results of the election into the INEC server.
The Punch
The first hostages freed from Gaza under a long-awaited ceasefire agreement are back in Israel. The news sparked jubilant scenes in Tel Aviv where large crowds gathered ahead of their release.
The three freed Israeli hostages – the first of 33 to be released over the next six weeks – are Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari. They are said to be in good health and are receiving treatment at a medical center in Tel Aviv.
In exchange, 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are set to be released by Israel from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military withdrew from several locations in southern and northern Gaza after the truce began earlier on Sunday, an Israeli military official told CNN.
Displaced Gazans have started returning to their homes, while the aid trucks laden with much-needed supplies have crossed into Gaza. Here’s what we know about how the ceasefire deal will work.
Hamas, despite suffering devastating losses, is framing the Gaza ceasefire agreement as a victory for itself, and a failure for Israel.
One of Hamas’ main goals for taking some 250 people during its brazen October 7, 2023, attack on Israel was to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. As Israel pounded Gaza in response, Hamas vowed not to return the hostages until Israel withdrew its forces from the enclave, permanently ended the war, and allowed for rebuilding.
Source: CNN
The leader of UK’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has said she doesn’t want Britain to be like Nigeria that is plagued by “terrible governments.”
Speaking on Thursday at an event organised by Onward, a British think tank producing research on economic and social issues, Badenoch expressed fears that Britain may become like Nigeria if the system is not reformed.
“And why does this matter so much to me? It’s because I know what it is like to have something and then to lose it,” Badenoch told the audience.
“I don’t want Britain to lose what it has.
“I grew up in a poor country and watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer, despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation.
“I came back to the UK aged 16 with my father’s last £100 in the hope of a better life.
“So I have lived with the consequences of terrible governments that destroy lives, and I never, ever want it to happen here.”
Badenoch has been in the news of late after she dissociated herself from Nigeria, saying she has nothing to do with the Islamic northern region.
She also accused the Nigeria Police of robbing citizens instead of protecting them.
She said: “My experience with the Nigeria Police was very negative. Coming to the UK, my experience with the British Police was very positive.
“The police in Nigeria will rob us (laughter). When people say I have this bad experience with the police because I’m black, I say well…I remember the police stole my brother’s shoe and his watch.”
