Kogi Guber: Tribunal Reserves Judgment

The Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja has reserved judgement on the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Engineer Musa Wada, challenging the declaration of Yahaya Bello as winner of the November 16, 2019, governorship election in Kogi State.

Wada and his party had in December 2019, filed a petition at the tribunal challenging the declaration of Bello as winner of the election by INEC.

The three-man panel of Justices, led by Kashim G. Kaigama, reserved judgment in the petition after parties adopted their addresses on Thursday.

Respondents in the petition marked EPT/KG/GOV/06/2019 are the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Yahaya Bello and the All Progressives Congress (APC) as 1st, 2nd and 3rd respondents, respectively.

Counsel to the petitioner, Jibril Okutepa (SAN) in his adumbration, urged the court to uphold the petition and order that the first petitioner (Wada) be returned as the duly elected governor of Kogi State, having won majority of votes cast in the election.

Moreso, he prayed the court to reject every objection raised by the respondents in the matter.

Okutepa in further argument alleged massive rigging at the election and substantial non-compliance to electoral laws.

“There was massive thumb printing of ballot papers in seven Local Government Areas of the state by people believed to be agents of Bello and APC rather than voters”, Okutepa held.

“It is therefore my submission that the court upholds the petition and grant the reliefs, and not to be persuaded by the highly technical submissions done by my learned colleagues.”

Earlier, lawyers to the respondents had urged the court to dismiss the petition in its entirety for lacking merit.

Counsel to the respondents, Dr. Alex Iziyon (SAN), Joseph Daudu (SAN) and Ahmed Raji (SAN), relied on all processes filed as well as final written addresses in urging the court to discountenance the petition.

“Our submission is that the petitioners have failed woefully to prove statistics as required by law”, stated Iziyon (SAN).

The lawyers argued that there were seven Local Government Areas out of 21 in the state and 2,548 poling units involved in the dispute but the petitioners did not present more than 32 witnesses to prove cases of alleged election malpractice, substantial non-compliance to electoral rules and other forms of irregularities as alleged.

They also faulted the petitioner for presenting a witness who informed the court that the petition gave rise to the report he tendered in court.

According to the counsel, the implication was that the report was made when the matter was already pending in court.

PDP rejects N108 ex-depot fuel price, insists on N70 pump price

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has rejected the new ex-depot price of N108 per litre of the Premium Motor Spirit insisting on a new pricing template that must accommodate a pump price of between N60 to N70 per litre to reflect the crash in the price of crude oil and petroleum products in the international market.

This is even as the party described the N108 ex-depot price as fraudulent and a far cry from the appropriate pump price template that should not exceed N70 given the prevailing situation in the international oil market.

In a statement issued by the national publicity secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP maintained that the N108 ex-depot price with a projected additional N9 per litre Expected Open Market price is “completely unacceptable to Nigerians.”

The statement read: “The federal government has continued to shroud the indices and parameters it is using in determining domestic prices of petroleum products in secrecy. Such parameters obviously cannot be in tandem with the appropriate situation in the global industry.

“The PDP laments that the All Progressives Congress, APC-led federal government has continued to shortchange unsuspecting Nigerians since the beginning of the year by refusing to end its corrupt interferences and allow market forces to determine pump price of fuel to reflect current global prices.

“Our party insists that the federal government has no reason to continue to fleece Nigerians particularly in the face of worsening economic crisis occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic which it had also failed to effectively handle. (Vanguard News)

BREAKING: 10 Persons Associated With Lagos House Test Positive For Coronavirus

BREAKING: 10 Persons Associated With Lagos House Test Positive For Coronavirus

 

The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, revealed this through his Twitter handle on Thursday.

See Tweet Below: 

However, 10 persons associated with Lagos State House in Marina have tested positive to #COVID19.

On behalf of @followlasg, I therefore implore you all to continue to embrace the #MaskUpLagos initiative and observe all precautionary measures

— Prof. Akin Abayomi (@ProfAkinAbayomi) May 7, 2020

Osun-born Professor Dies In Kano

Monsuru Emiola, a senior lecturer of Bayero University, Kano (BUK), is dead.

The Osun State-born professor died at the university clinic following an undisclosed illness.

Emiola was a senior lecturer with the Physical and Health Education Department, Faculty of Education, until his death.

Kano State has witnessed an alarming number of deaths since the outbreak of Coronavirus in Nigeria.

Recall that another lecturer from the same university, Prof Balarabe Maikaba, of the Faculty of Communication, died on April 26.

Meanwhile, the Kano State Ministry of Health on Thursday confirmed that it recorded another five COVID-19 deaths.

The state made this known in a tweet, adding that 30 fresh cases of the Coronavirus disease were recorded on Wednesday, May 6 in the state.

Sacked Kano Commissioner Tests Positive For COVID-19

The sacked Kano State Commissioner of Works and Infrastructural Development, Engr. Muazu Magaji, has tested positive for COVID-19.

Engr. Magaji who said he has been put in one of the state’s facilities made the announcement on Thursday through his Facebook page.

He said, “This morning my NCDC test came out, I have been confirmed positive for COVID-19.

“And have been moved to one of the state’s facilities”.

See Post below:

Engr. Magaji was sacked by the state governor on April 18, 2020, with immediate effect following his unguarded utterances against the demise of the late Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari.

Governor Ganduje in a statement rebuked the former commissioner for his utterances saying, as a public servant, the commissioner ought to have respect for the office by refraining from any act capable of rendering it to disrepute.

“The action of a public servant, personal or otherwise reflects back on the government and therefore, the Ganduje administration would not tolerate people in official capacities engaging in a personal vendetta or otherwise”.

Engr. Magaji in his response said he was misunderstood and never intended to celebrate the death of the late Chief of Staff to President Buhari

He explained that he cannot celebrate the death of anyone and all he did was to mourn the late Abba Kyari who he also described as a martyr.

“I want to sincerely clear up what a lot of people may have misunderstood and set the record straight. As a Muslim and a patriotic Nigerians, I was only misunderstood by people to think that I celebrated Kyari’s death, the truth is I did not.

“Not only that, I made several posts mourning Kyari’s death on my same Facebook account and through my special assistants but the general public couldn’t commend such or claim I did such post, rather tend to capitalize on a full-phrase post that is given another set of definition and direction as well as negativity in other to tarnish my reputable image as a member of H.E. Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje Administration and his loyalist and that of our National Party APC.

"The use of the “win-win phrase” is basically an attempt to explain the Islamic Promise on the people that died as a result of any kind of pandemic. The late Mallam Abba Kyari was privileged to die as a result of COVID-19, making him among the beneficiaries in Islam. He is conferred with the automatic privilege of martyrdom, Magaji added.

Channels Television 

Woman and 'side guy' arrested after mistakenly contracting Police boss to kill husband

A married woman and her illicit lover who had conspired to kill her husband to enable them to settle down mistook the contract killer’s phone number for that of the Manhyia Divisional Police Commander and offered him money to execute the murder.

Reports say the two lovers were arrested by the Manhyia Divisional Police Command in the Ashanti region after unknowingly giving themselves away.

The married woman Mavis Brepor conspired with her lover, identified as Patrick Asare, aged, 50, to kill her husband who resides at Pamen near Kwabeng in the Eastern region so the two could freely settle down.

ACP Kwaku Buah, the Manhyia Divisional Police Commander, said conversations with Asare revealed that the latter was willing to pay GH¢ 100,000 to execute the killing after feigning interest in the contract.

He told Class News’ Elisha Adarkwah that it took the Police between three and four weeks to lure the suspect to come to Kumasi, leading to his arrest.

After his arrest, Asare led the police to Pamen where suspect his lover Brepor was also arrested.

She spoke told Class News’ Elisha Adarkwah, alleging that the boyfriend Asare used ‘juju’ on her to make her consent to the conspiracy unconsciously.

The 27-year-old suspect Brepor who is married to David Gator, 52 with whom she has three children has pleaded for forgiveness for the intended crime.

According to reports, the suspects are currently in Police custody and are being processed for court.