Headlines
Embattled Adamawa REC Flees, Police Launch Manhunt
The Commissioner for Information and Voter Education of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Festus Okoye, has said the commission lacks the power to declare wanted its Resident Electoral Commissioner in Adamawa, Hudu Ari.
The REC had got into trouble for usurping the powers of the Collation Officer for Adamawa State to announce the result of supplementary governorship poll and errorneously declaring the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Aishatu Dahiru, aka Binani, as the winner of the poll.
INEC had since written the Inspector General of Police to investigate and prosecute the REC, while the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), ordered that Ari be suspended, probed and possibly prosecuted.
INEC, however, said the whereabouts the REC was unknown as he had refused to take phone calls.
The commission’s spokesman, Okoye, who spoke when he appeared on Arise Television on Sunday, added that there were enough leads that would help the police to arrest the REC.
On what the commission was doing to ensure that the REC was located, Okoye said, “The commission has written officially to the Inspector General of Police detailing some of the infractions which the INEC Residential Electoral Commissioner committed and asking for a thorough investigation of his actions and also asking that the police should find out if he had accomplices in the infractions which he committed.
“The police force has responded to the letter written to them by the commission and advised that they had commenced investigations in relation to his whereabouts and secondly relating to the infractions which he committed. So, that is where we are now.”
Asked if INEC would advise the police to declare Ari a wanted person, Okoye said, “It is not within the province of the commission to dictate to the police force how to carry out its investigation and how to do its work. They have various sources of information and they have various procedures and processes through which they carry out their work. We are hopeful and confident that the information available to them at the moment that they will be in a position to determine when to declare him wanted if they don’t know where he is. Some people took Hudu Ari out of Yola on the day he actually made the so-called declaration. So, there should be some leads to where the Resident Electoral Commissioner is. The Commissioner of Police was with him at the purported declaration, a director in the Department of State Services was with him during the purported declaration and some people took him out of the collation centre. So, some of those individuals have a lead or information on his whereabouts.”
Okoye also addressed the claims by the All Progressives Congress candidate in the Adamawa State governorship election, Aisha Dahiru, aka Binani, that INEC officials held nocturnal meetings with the incumbent governor who was eventually declared the winner of the election.
“Since she has made the allegation, it is incumbent on her to provide evidence of such nocturnal meeting to the investigation authorities and to the police, and she has a responsibility to do that. Do you also know that it is an offence for an individual to know about the commission of an offence and hoard such information from the police and authorities?” He said.
The Punch
The Presidency has dismissed claims that Vice President Kashim Shettima’s recent comments were directed at the political situation in Rivers State or President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s constitutional decisions on the matter.
In a statement on Friday by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications (Office of the Vice President), Stanley Nkwocha, the Presidency described the reports as a “gross misrepresentation.”
The statement clarified that Vice President Shettima’s remarks at the public presentation of a book by former Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), were misconstrued by some online platforms and individuals.
“These reports have distorted the Vice President’s comments in pursuit of a mischievous agenda,” it stated.
“They twisted his account of how the administration of former President Jonathan considered removing him as Borno Governor during the insurgency to falsely link it with current events in Rivers State.”
The Vice President, who spoke at the launch of OPL 245: The Inside Story of the $1.3 Billion Oil Block in Abuja on Thursday, was said to have referenced the past solely to commend Adoke’s professionalism while in office, and to reflect on Nigeria’s constitutional evolution regarding federal and state relations.
“For the avoidance of doubt, President Tinubu did not remove Governor Fubara from office. The constitutional measure implemented was a suspension, not an outright removal.
“This action was taken in response to the grave political crisis in Rivers State at the time, with the governor facing a looming impeachment and the State Assembly complex under demolition,” Nkwocha clarified.
The Presidency insisted that the action taken by President Tinubu in declaring a state of emergency and suspending the Governor was fully in line with Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which authorises such measures when there is a breakdown of public order requiring extraordinary intervention.
According to the statement, the President’s proclamation invoking Section 305(2) was subsequently ratified by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in the National Assembly, confirming the legitimacy and constitutional propriety of the decision.
“The action of President Tinubu in suspending Mr. Fubara and others from exercising the functions of office averted the governor’s outright removal. To conflate suspension with removal is misleading,” the statement further noted.
Nkwocha also stressed that Vice President Shettima’s comments were delivered extemporaneously and intended to underline the importance of public accountability and historical documentation.
He referenced the Vice President’s mention of past public servants, including Adoke and former Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, to illustrate principled leadership.
“His remarks were not in any way a criticism of President Tinubu’s actions, which the Vice President and the entire administration fully support and stand by without reservation,” the spokesman stated.
The Vice President, the statement added, remains in “loyal concert” with President Tinubu and is committed to implementing all constitutional measures necessary to safeguard democracy and uphold order across the country.
Concluding, the Presidency called on media organisations and political actors to desist from misrepresenting public remarks for sensational or partisan purposes.
“We urge media organisations and political actors to desist from the destructive practice of wrenching statements from context in order to fabricate nonexistent conflicts,” Nkwocha said.
Headlines
Akpabio Relieves Natasha of Committee Chairmanship Position, Appoints Akwa Ibom Senator As Replacement
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has replaced suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, as the Chairman, Senate Committee on Diaspora/Non-Governmental Organisations.
In her place, Akpabio named Senator Bassey Aniekun Etim (Akwa Ibom -East).
The Senate President, who made the announcement on the floor in Abuja on Thursday, did not give any reasons.
The committee position had remained vacant since March when the Senate suspended the Kogi-Central Senatorial District lawmaker for six months for flouting the Senate’s rule on the seating arrangement and seat allocation.
The suspended lawmaker, at a point, chaired the Senate Committee on Local Content before Akpabio reassigned her to the Committee on Diaspora/NGO, shortly before she ran into trouble with the Senate over her conduct on seat allocation.
The Supreme Court has affirmed the 2024 governorship election victory of Governor Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC), dismissing the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Asuerinme Ighodalo.
In a unanimous decision by a five-member panel led by Justice Mohammed Garba, the apex court ruled that the appeal lacked merit. It upheld the earlier judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which had both declared Okpebholo the validly elected governor.
