Headlines
LP Threatens Protests over Alleged Plan to Manipulate Abia, Enugu Polls Results
National Chairman of Labour Party (LP), Comrade Julius Abure, has vowed that the party would resist what he described as ongoing attempts to manipulate the outcome of ongoing gubernatorial elections in Abia and Enugu states.
He also threatened to call out Obidients on a nationwide protest against the electoral fraud perpetrated against the party both at the presidential/National Assembly and governorship/State Assemblies elections.
Abure, who gave the declaration in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, said: “We have come to day two of the ongoing governorship and state house assembly elections and what we have continued to witness across the country and reports from our party men on ground, are not in anyway different from the criminality orchestrated against our presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, during the February 25 presidential election.
“Today, we are again witnessing a situation where a sitting governor in Abia State is fully involved in an attempt to upturn the victory of the Labour Party candidate, Alex Otti, in the Abia State governorship election that has been clearly won by our candidate.
“The same scenario is currently playing out in Enugu State where Labour Party’s candidate Chijioke Edeoga is currently leading in virtually all the local governments so far announced.
“As we speak, INEC staff are held hostage at Obingwa Local Govt by Governor Ikpeazu and his cohorts to rewrite the results already compiled by INEC officials, despite order from the election body asking their staff to head to Umuahia to collate results of the election, which is in favour of Labour Party’s Alex Otti.
“This is one robbery too many. While Nigerians are yet to get over the ugly rape of a democratic process in last month presidential election by the ruling party at the centre, the PDP has been found engaged in the most shameless manner and disregard for the rights of the citizens.
“We, therefore, call on the Inspector General of Police to intervene and ensure the transfer of all electoral materials to Umuahia where the sanctity of the election and safety of the officials in charge can be guaranteed.
“Ikpeazu cannot rig election in his local government which he lost in the senatorial elections on the 25th.
“Similarly, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi who lost woefully in the last election in Enugu North Senatorial zone is currently doctoring the results from the zone with the help of some compromised INEC staff and Police to ensure that PDP is returned elected in the state against the wishes of the electorate.
“We have endured what no other political party in the country has endured in the last few weeks because we believe in due process but it appears this is taken for granted. But we may not be patient for too long.
“Let me sound it for the first time that we will resist every attempt by the PDP in Abia and Enugu States to upturn our mandate.”
“It should be recalled that the PDP in both states had issued threat to opposition parties, which was specifically targeted at Labour Party after sweeping the states during the presidential election, this threat is already manifesting that the ruling party was only interested in rigging elections.
“The party chairman said Labour Party had thoroughly reviewed all infractions and has reached a decision that never again will it allow the use of foul means to usurp power as was done in the recent past where it was merely asked “to to go to court.”
He threatened that unless these attempt at broad daylight robbery was nipped in the bud, the party will be left with no option than to mobilise Obidients nationwide to occupy the streets.“He further said: “We have particularly reviewed the rigging of Edo state house assembly elections election, including other affected states and we are putting evidences of infractions in place to name and shame all democratic criminals.
“We have therefore, resolves that in as much as we remain a law-abiding political party, conducting our affairs strictly within the ambit of our nation’s electoral laws, the party will henceforth resist rigging and we will move to the streets to reclaim our stolen mandates.
“We will henceforth directly and physically confront and resist the election riggers from always having a field day in seizing our democratic institutions and circumventing the rules during elections.““ We have directed our supporters across the country to get ready for our signal to take over the streets.”
Vanguard
President Bola Tinubu has nominated Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, the immediate past sole administrator of Rivers State and a former Chief of Naval Staff, as a non-career ambassador.
Tinubu also nominated Ita Enang, a former senator; Chioma Ohakim, former First Lady of Imo State; and Abdulrahman Dambazau, former Minister of Interior and ex-Chief of Army Staff, as non-career ambassadors.
The United States Department of State on Wednesday announced that it is outlining new measures to address violence against Christians in Nigeria and other countries.
The policy, according to a statement released by the department, targets radical Islamic terrorists, Fulani ethnic militias, and other actors responsible for killings and attacks on religious communities.
“The United States is taking decisive action in response to the mass killings and attacks on Christians carried out by radical Islamic terrorists, Fulani militias, and other violent groups in Nigeria and beyond,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a statement.
According to the statement, a new policy under Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act allows the State Department to restrict visas for individuals who have “directed, authorised, significantly supported, participated in, or carried out violations of religious freedom,” and, when appropriate, extend those “restrictions to their immediate family members.”
The briefing, led by House Appropriations Vice Chair and National Security Subcommittee Chairman Mario Díaz-Balart, included members of the House Appropriations and House Foreign Affairs Committees, as well as religious freedom experts.
Participants included Representatives Robert Aderholt, Riley Moore, Brian Mast, Chris Smith, US Commission on International Religious Freedom Chair Vicky Hartzler, Alliance Defending Freedom International’s Sean Nelson, and Dr Ebenezer Obadare of the Council on Foreign Relations.
President Bola Tinubu recently approved Nigeria’s delegation to the new US–Nigeria Joint Working Group, formed to implement security agreements from high-level talks in Washington led by National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu.
The move follows growing concerns over terrorism, banditry, and targeted attacks on Christians in Nigeria, prompting increased US scrutiny and warnings about the protection of vulnerable faith communities.
On November 20, the US House Subcommittee on Africa opened a public hearing to review Trump’s redesignation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, placing the country under heightened scrutiny for alleged religious-freedom violations.
Lawmakers examined the potential consequences of the designation, which could pave the way for sanctions against Nigerian officials found complicit in religious persecution.
The Punch
United States of America lawmakers have sharply contradicted the Nigerian government’s position on the ongoing massacres in the country, describing the violence as “escalating,” “targeted,” and overwhelmingly directed at Christians during a rare joint congressional briefing on Tuesday.
The closed-door session – convened by House Appropriations, Vice Chair Mario Díaz-Balart, as part of a Trump-ordered investigation – examined recent killings and what Congress calls Abuja’s “deeply inadequate” response.
President Trump has asked lawmakers, led by Reps. Riley Moore and Tom Cole, to compile a report on persecution of Nigerian Christians and has even floated the possibility of U.S. military action against Islamist groups responsible for the attacks.
At the briefing, Vicky Hartzler, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, warned that “religious freedom [is] under siege” in Nigeria, citing mass abductions of schoolchildren and assaults in which “radical Muslims kill entire Christian villages [and] burn churches.” She said abuses were “rampant” and “violent,” claiming Christians are targeted “at a 2.2 to 1 rate” compared with Muslims.
While acknowledging Nigeria’s recent move to reassign 100,000 police officers from VIP protection, Hartzler said the country is entering a “coordinated and deeply troubling period of escalated violence.” She urged targeted sanctions, visa bans, asset freezes and tighter conditions on U.S. aid, insisting Abuja must retake villages seized from Christian communities so displaced widows and children can return home.
The strongest rebuke came from Dr. Ebenezer Obadare of the Council on Foreign Relations, who dismissed Abuja’s narrative that the killings are not religiously motivated. He called the idea that extremists attack Muslims and Christians equally a “myth,” stressing the groups operate “for one reason and one reason only: religion.” Higher Muslim casualty figures, he argued, reflect geography, not equal targeting.
Obadare described Boko Haram as fundamentally anti-democratic and accused the Nigerian military of being “too corrupt and incompetent” to defeat jihadist networks without external pressure. He urged Washington to push Nigeria to disband armed religious militias, confront security-sector corruption and respond swiftly to early warnings.
Sean Nelson of ADF International called Nigeria “the deadliest country in the world for Christians,” claiming more Christians are killed there than in all other countries combined and at a rate “five times” higher than Muslims when adjusted for population. He said extremists also kill Muslims who reject violent ideologies, undermining Abuja’s argument that the crisis is driven mainly by crime or communal disputes.
He pressed for tighter oversight on U.S. aid, recommending that some assistance be routed through faith-based groups to avoid corruption. Without “transparency and outside pressure,” he said, “nothing changes.”
Díaz-Balart criticised the Biden administration’s reversal of Trump’s designation of Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” in 2021, saying the decision had “clearly deadly consequences.” Lawmakers from the Appropriations, Foreign Affairs and Financial Services committees signaled further oversight actions as they prepare the Trump-directed report.
Hartzler pointed to recent comments by Nigeria’s Speaker of the House acknowledging a “coordinated and deeply troubling period of escalated violence,” calling it a rare moment of candor. She also welcomed the redeployment of police officers as “a promising start after years of neglect.”
But she stressed that these gestures are far from sufficient, insisting the Nigerian government must demonstrate a real commitment to “quell injustice,” act swiftly on early warnings, and embrace transparency.
The Nigerian Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to source.
