Peter Obi Hires 20 SANs To Challenge Presidential Election Result

 The Labour Party said it had engaged the services of at least 20 senior advocates of Nigeria to challenge the outcome of the February 25 presidential election on behalf of its presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

According to sources within the party, the lawyers drawn from different chambers were being furnished with materials that would be used as evidence in court.

The president-elect and candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, was announced the winner of the keenly contested election last Wednesday.

Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the LP flag bearer, who got 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes respectively.

But Atiku and Obi rejected the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, with each claiming at separate press conferences that the election was fraught with violence and massive rigging.

The drama took a twist last Friday when the two major opposition candidates were reported to have approached the court to seek permission for the inspection of election materials used during the poll.

At least six states – Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo and Sokoto – had dragged the Federal Government before the Supreme Court over the conduct of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections before withdrawing the case last Friday.

How Wike Led Ugwuanyi, Ortom, Ikpeazu To Electoral Defeat

 Three of the five aggrieved governors of the Peoples Democratic Party lost their bids to go to the Senate, DIRISU YAKUBU examines the implication of the loss for the governors and the members of the Integrity Group led by the outgoing Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike

For months, reconciliatory efforts were made by chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party to bring its aggrieved five governors back to its fold but to no avail. For Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State and leader of the Integrity Group, together with his four colleagues, Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, Samuel Ortom of Benue State and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, there was no pathway to peace unless Iyorchia Ayu, the National Chairman of the PDP stepped aside before the elections.

The governors premised their anti-Ayu stand on the alleged violation of the PDP constitution which provides for fair distribution of elective and national offices between the North and South. They maintained that with Atiku Abubakar’s emergence as the party’s presidential candidate, Ayu’s continued chairmanship was no longer acceptable.

Following the collapse of peace talks between the two sides, Atiku kept Ayu and worked with loyal governors of the party for the presidential election which was held on February 25.

PDP chieftains including its immediate past National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, ex-National Secretary, Ibrahim Tsauri, former Governors Ahmed Makarfi (Kaduna), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Ibrahim Idris (Kogi) and a host of others had argued that it was in the interest of the rebellious governors to sheathe their swords and team up with Atiku.

Tsauri was particularly philosophical; he told our correspondent in an interview that “It is better for your enemy to win in your party than for your friend to win in a rival party.” As it were, the Wike-led group rebuffed the gestures and counsel of party faithful including their colleague governors.

In several meetings held home and abroad, Wike assured the PDP that lessons would be learnt the hard way, even as he vowed on behalf of others to reveal their adopted candidate before the election.

But unlike Wike who was not contesting any position, Makinde is seeking re-election while the trio of Ortom, Ikpeazu and Ugwuanyi were seeking seats in the Senate to represent their respective senatorial districts.

At the final collation of ballots however, the outgoing governors lost their elections, granting their enemies and political opponents the grounds to mock them.

Ortom lost to Titus Zam of the All Progressives Congress in the race for the Benue North-West Senatorial District. Zam, who served as Special Adviser to Governor Ortom on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs before his defection to the APC, polled a total of 143,151 votes to defeat Ortom who polled 106, 882 votes.

Like Ortom, Ugwuanyi had no answer to the Peter Obi-induced Labour Party hurricane that swept across the country in a spectacular fashion. His bid to represent Enugu North was frustrated by Okechukwu Ezea of the LP whose 104, 948 votes were far above the governor’s 46,948 votes.

The story was the same with Ikpeazu who lost to the All Progressives Grand Alliance candidate, Enyinnaya Abaribe, who garnered a total of 49, 903 votes to beat LP’s Chinedu Onyeizu and Ikpeazu as the duo secured 43, 903 and 28, 422 votes respectively.

Some analysts who spoke to our correspondent made some posers; were the governors not aware that Wike had little to lose in the game that saw them more as anti-party agents than believers in the PDP creed? Could they have won had they remained loyal to the Ayu-led National Working Committee without bickering? And didn’t they know it was difficult for people to vote for different parties in elections that held the same day and the same polling units at the same time, since they already took a stand not to support their party in the presidential election?

There seems to be no straight answers to these posers but Timothy Osadolor, the Deputy National Youth Leader of the PDP, is of the view that the outgoing governors failed to realise that they had a life outside their agitation for Ayu to go.

Thabo Mbeki To Tinubu: Don’t Forget African Continent

 Thabo Mbeki tells President-elect Tinubu: Don’t forget African continent

He added: "Please Mr President, don't be far from us."

Former South African president and Head of the Commonwealth Observer Mission to Nigeria, Thabo Mbeki, has urged President-elect Bola Tinubu, not to forget the African continent when he assumes office in May.

A statement signed by Tunde Rahman for the office of the President-elected noted that Mr Mbeki spoke on Thursday when he visited Mr Tinubu in his Abuja residence on completion of the Commonwealth Observer Mission.

Mr Mbeki, who noted that the election was fair and credible, asked the president-elect to make the entire African continent his compass when he takes over the reins of government.

“Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with a big economy. Whatever happens here sets the pace for the rest of Africa.

“We need a strong Nigerian presidency that will also focus on the African region,” he said.


“Your opponent will be looking for a smallest thing to throw stones at. That is the way of democracy,” he added.


The president-elect assured the former South African president of his commitment to further African integration and economic development and promised to work with Mr Mbeki and other leaders of the continent in this direction.

He added: “Please Mr President, don’t be far from us.”

Mr Tinubu, a former two-term governor of Lagos State, was returned elected as the president-elect according to INEC in the 25 February presidential election.

The first and second runner-ups in the election – Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Peter Obi of the Labour Party have vowed to challenge the victory of the APC candidate in court.

INEC Assures Use Of BVAS In Governorship & State Assembly Elections

 The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured Nigerians that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), will be used in the governorship and state legislature elections on Saturday, March 11.

Chairman of the commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, gave the assurance on Saturday, during a meeting with all Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) at the INEC headquarters in Abuja.

He confirmed that the BVAS machines are being worked on to avoid a repeat of the claimed glitches recorded during the presidential and national assembly elections.

Yakubu, who said the meeting was to review performances at the last week’s elections, urged the RECs to work harder to ensure that the governorship elections do not experience the same glitches recorded with the last elections while calling for disciplining of staff who err.

He added that there are lessons to be learned from last week’s elections, especially as it relates to logistics management.

IREV: INEC Uploads 90% Of Presidential Election Results

 The Independent National Electoral Commission has so far uploaded 159,509 results from 176, 846 polling units, seven days after the presidential poll.

The figure represents 90 per cent of results from all the polling units.

As of the time of filing this report, the electronic transmission of results was still ongoing.

Nigerians expected that the election results would be uploaded on election day as promised by the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.

However, INEC came under fire for its failure to upload results to its viewing portal which led to the walkout of some parties’ agents at the National Collation Centre on Monday.

Checks by our correspondent on Saturday revealed that the results of all the polling units were yet to be uploaded on INEC website.

According to the Commission, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, won with 8.8 million votes, while main opposition candidates in the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, had 6.9 million and 6.1 million votes respectively.

UAE Leader, Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Congratulates, Bola Ahmed Tinubu

 ABU DHABI, 4th March, 2023 (WAM) -- President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has sent a message of congratulations to Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his election as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, also dispatched a similar message to President Tinubu.

New Naira Notes: We Have No Information On The Supreme Court Ruling - CBN

 For the second time since the Supreme Court ruled that the old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes will remain legal tender until December 31, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has refused to speak on the judgement.

On Saturday, an official of the CBN told The Nation that the communications department has not been informed of any new developments on the Supreme Court judgement.

Asked when the CBN will start releasing cash to banks, the official replied they “don’t have that information”.

The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the old bank notes will remain as legal tenders while also declaring that the N20,000 withdrawal limit set by the apex bank was illegal.

Without any official pronouncement from the CBN, Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) cannot act outside the last instruction by the apex bank that N20,000 will be the withdrawal limit for individual account holders.

The latest withdrawal threshold, The Nation learnt, has put doubts in the minds of many Nigerians who prefer to save their money outside the banking system.

Asked if the Supreme Court judgement describing the N20,000 withdrawal limit as illegal will negatively impact the CBN’s cashless policy, another official of the CBN said: “The cashless policy has been in operation since 2012 and many Nigerians are already keying into the idea”.