I'll Never Validate An Illegitimate Outcome Of A Flawed Process - Atiku

 PRESS RELEASE

I'll never validate an illegitimate outcome of a flawed process

I have been notified of a fake press release attributed to me and purportedly giving legitimacy to the widely rigged presidential election of February 25.

The so-called press release did not emanate from me or my office, and it should be treated with repudiation, untrue, and deliberately contrived by those who illegally appropriated the mandate of the Nigerian people.

For the avoidance of any doubt, I wish to state categorically that my lawyers still have my unflinching mandate to challenge the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.

I join other lovers of democracy in Nigeria and friends of our great country in the outright rejection of the predetermined outcome of the February 25 election.

I shall continue to challenge the legality of that election, alongside my party, the Peoples Democratic Party.

The decision to challenge the sham election of February 25, the worst election in our democratic history, is not predicated on my personal interest but the interest of Nigeria and its people. It is aimed at deepening democracy and ensuring that we do not confer legitimacy to an outcome of illegitimacy.

My commitment to the democratic struggle in Nigeria is beyond an election season.

Signed:
Atiku Abubakar
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party 
and former Vice President of Nigeria, 1999-2007 
25th March, 2023

Soludo, Okonjo-iweala, Best Appointments I Made As President – Obasanjo

 Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday recalled his relationship with Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State and current Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as his appointees.

He said they about the best appointments he made while he was President.

The former Nigerian leader also condemned the “persistent” discrimination against people of southeastern extraction, which he describes as Igbophobia.

Obasanjo spoke at an event to commemorate Governor Soludo’s one year in office.

In Obasanjo’s administration which spanned 1999 to 2007, Soludo served as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), while Okonjo-Iweala was the Minister of Finance.

The former President stated that Soludo, who worked closely with him as an economic adviser, “never misadvised me”, and the economist’s performance impressed him so much so that he was asked to lead the apex bank.

According to the 85-year-old statesman, Soludo was the second Nigerian CBN governor who was not a commercial banker of some sort.

However, soon after appointing the academic, the ex-president said, he found himself in an encounter with a dissenting voice.

“Somebody came to me and said, ‘Wow! You have ruined the economy of Nigeria.’

“I said, ‘How?’ He said, ‘An Igbo woman, Minister of Finance; an Igbo man, Governor of the Central Bank? Then you have clearly completed the task of ruining the economy of Nigeria.’

“I don’t know why he said that, except for what I can call Igbophobia, and I don’t take that lightly. It remains, it persists.

“But when you have that type of thing that was said to me and the type of thing that you know is going on, as I have just called it, what do we do with it?

“I believe we have to go back to the scripture, which says we must conquer evil with good.

“And whoever you are, wherever people are afraid of you, you must make yourself friendly to those who are afraid of you and earn their friendship by being good to them, and that is what we have to do,” Obasanjo said.

The former president noted from his personal experience, nothing wins friendship like one being friendly.

He added that the appointments of Okonjo-Iweala and Soludo were “probably the best of the appointments that I made when I was president”.

Don’t Touch Peter Obi, Datti Baba-ahmed, HURIWA Warns DSS

 Nigeria’s leading civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA), on Friday, slammed the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keya­mo, for asking the Department of State Services (DSS) to arrest the flag bearer of the Labour Party, Peter Obi and his run­ning mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed for allegedly ‘riling up’ their supporters popularly known as ‘Obidients’.

HURIWA also called for an investigation by the National Judicial Council to be led by the next in line to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the circumstances surrounding the sighting of the Chief Justice of Nigeria Olu­kayode Ariwoola in a wheel­chair in the UK at the same time that the controversially returned President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu jetted off to France in what some persons alleged to be a plot for the duo to meet over the pending election petition filed by Peter Obi of Labour party and Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.

HURIWA wondered how the newly appointed Chief Justice of Nigeria suddenly started using a wheelchair like he is infirm or too sick to head the judiciary and his mission to London which is only about 45 minutes of a train ride to Paris from the Pancrass International train station in London.

The rights group, in a state­ment signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emman­uel Onwubiko, alleged that the leadership of the judiciary has had many controversial public outings dubbed to be politically tainted which the office of the CJN had denied.

Onwubiko slammed the spokesman for Bola Tinubu Campaign Council, saying he should have been sacked by President Muhammadu Bu­hari when he was appointed as Tinubu campaigner even as a minister.

The group said Nigeria will be thrown into unprecedented unrest if the secret police dare lay their hands on Obi and Ba­ba-Ahmed.

HURIWA also said the APC and its candidate should not think that they have the DSS in their pocket, noting that all actions needed to be taken in and outside Nigeria will be legally taken to force the un­constitutional actions by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the entire government of President Muhammadu Buhari who saw power as a reward for the former Lagos governor who was said to have installed him in office in 2015.

HURIWA again lambasted Keyamo for saying the Presi­dential Election Petition Tribu­nal will clear Tinubu of all alle­gations brought against him by Obi and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) even when the tribunal has yet to fully begin the case.

Keyamo had on Thursday pe­titioned the Department of State Services (DSS) to invite the LP leaders over their rejection of the declaration of Bola Tinubu as the President-elect and their pursuit of justice at the courts.

Wild Cheers As Peter Obi Attends Soludo’s First Anniversary Event

 

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, on Saturday was welcome amid cheers as he attended a town hall event to mark Governor Charles Soludo’s first year in office.

The town hall meeting attended by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and other dignitaries was held at the International Convention Center, Awka, the state capital.

Soludo was making a speech but was interrupted by a loud noise after guests noticed Obi coming into the venue.

The former Anambra State governor made his way to a reserved seat at the front but got up to greet Obasanjo after he was informed of the former leader’s presence.

Iwuanyanwu: There Is No War Between Igbo And Yoruba

Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, chairman of the council of elders, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, says there is no fight between the Igbo and Yoruba people in the country.

Speaking in Anambra on Saturday at the event marking one year in the office of Chukwuma Soludo, governor of the state, Iwuanyanwu said those destroying Igbo properties in Lagos were “political rascals”.

“I want to let our people in Lagos know, on Wednesday, I called a meeting of the Ohanaeze council of elders worldwide and we x-rayed the events in Lagos,” he said.

“I want to tell you that people who attended are from the branches in America, Canada, Europe, London, and Nigeria. We have resolved and I want those from Lagos to go home and tell those in Lagos that we have resolved that never again can we allow anybody to take the life of any innocent Igbo person. All of us are going to fight the person. Never again!

We are in Nigeria and we have invested in Nigeria. Our investments are so much, we are not going to take the question of people telling us to go, we are not going anywhere.
“And I want to tell those in Lagos to realise that there is no war between us and Yorubas. Yorubas are with us. There are just political rascals, and we’re going to handle them.

“The elders have directed the secretary general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, [Okey] Emuchay, to set up a commission of inquiry to find out things destroyed; people are going to pay.”

In the build-up to the governorship election in Lagos, there were reported cases of ethnic slurs in the state.

After the elections, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide called on the federal government to look into the ethnic profiling of the Igbo in Lagos state.

In a statement, Alex Ogbonnia, national publicity secretary of the group, said there is a need to end atrocities against the Igbo in Lagos.

Ogbonnia urged the government to curb the humiliation the people have been subjected to since the 2023 general election began. 

Ogbonnia described Ndigbo as “essentially republican and cosmopolitan in nature”, noting that despite the horrific hardship endured during the civil war, they have embraced Nigeria with open-mindedness and patriotism.

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos, called for unity after he was declared the winner of the election.

Sanwo–Olu said he appreciated persons who refused to be divided by “hateful and hurtful” ethnic profiling.

 

Florence Enwerim Onyegbu, Convicted Nigerian Woman, Extradited To U.S

 A convicted Nigerian fugitive, Florence Enwerim Onyegbu, was on Thursday, extradited to the United States of America, where she is wanted to answer to criminal charges bordering on the violation of the U.S. law involving the offer and payment of illegal remuneration in a health care matter.

Onyegbu ‘sextradition was coordinated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, following a request by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, seeking assistance for her apprehension. 

The EFCC said its investigations revealed that she had changed her name from Florence E. Onyegbu to Janet Boi in an attempt to remain hidden. But that she however ran out of luck when operatives of the EFCC swooped on her at her residence in the Ojodu area of Lagos on February 21, 2022.

The anti-graft agency said that upon her arrest, a national identity card with the name Janet Boi as well as a Texas driver’s license with the name Florence Enwerim Onyegbu were found on her.

The Commission, on March 22, 2023, handed over Onyegbu to the FBI, following an extradition order granted by Justice Z.B. Abubakar of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on December 2, 2022.

It will be recalled that Onyegbu’s travails began after she was arrested on February 12, 2011 in the U.S. and subsequently sentenced to 46 months imprisonment, following a guilty plea , over the violation of the U.S. law bordering on the offer and payment of illegal remuneration in a health care matter.

Although she was ordered to report for service of her sentence on April 4, 2011, she failed to surrender on that date.

Consequently, she was further charged with failure to surrender for service of sentence in violation of U.S. Law on March 4, 2013.

Sanwo-Olu Rejects ₦5M Compensation To Uber Driver Tortured

 Barely a week after his reelection, Governor @jidesanwoolu has rejected demands to compensate the Uber driver who was tortured during the EndSARS memorial.

A Federal High Court in Lagos had on March 14, 2023 ordered the Lagos State Government to pay the sum of N5 Million as compensation to Adedotun Clement, an Uber driver who was severely tortured on October 20, 2021 at the Lekki Toll-Gate during the first EndSARS anniversary.

Clement was carrying a passenger to Lagos Mainland when he encountered a gridlock at the Lekki Toll-Gate during a protest to commemorate the first anniversary of EndSARS. He was tortured and pepper-sprayed by officers of the Lagos State Neighborhood Safety Agency and policemen.

The attack on the Uber driver was captured on video and reported by television stations and newspapers, and attracted a nationwide condemnation.

Human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, filed a lawsuit against the Lagos State Government and the Nigeria Police Force to seek redress.

Following the judgment, Effiong wrote a letter Governor Sanwo-Olu on March 16, 2023 demanding compliance with the judgment. However, the governor refused to act on the demand. The Lagos State Government has now filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal in Lagos against the judgment.

In a Notice of Appeal filed on Tuesday, March 21, 2023, but served on Friday, March 23, signed by Dr. Babajide Martins, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, the government said there was no evidence that the Uber driver was tortured.

Responding to the appeal, Effiong said his client was disappointed by the action of the Lagos State Government but that he was ready to face the government at the Court of Appeal.

“I’m not surprised by their decision not to obey a judgment that the everyone knows is justifiable. Since they’ve chosen this infamous path, I will equally file a cross-appeal against the N5 Million damages and ask the Court of Appeal to increase it significantly.” Effiong said.

The Lagos lawyer added that “the message derivable from this action is that Lagosians are back to the regime of real Governor Sanwo-Olu that they know, and not the pretentious one who tried to project himself as a populist or respecter of human rights during the campaigns.”