Today's Headline: Don’t Suffocate Judiciary Group Warn Tinubu Lawyer, Niger Republic: Atiku cautions on military engagement

GLatestAugust 4, 2023

4 minutes read

PEPC: Don’t Suffocate Judiciary, Group Warns Tinubu’s Lawyer

Photo Credit: The Sun Nigeria

Civil society organization(CSO), the Coalition for the Protection of Democracy (COPDEM), has warned the Lead Counsel of President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Election Court (PEPC), Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), to stop harassing the judiciary.

The group spoke amidst criticisms that greeted the position of Olanipekun at the PEPC where he submitted that there could be anarchy in Nigeria if the election petition court nullified Tinubu’s victory.

Tinubu had asked the presidential election tribunal to dismiss the petition filed by Labout Party (LP) seeking to nullify his victory on the grounds that he did not secure 25 per cent of the lawful votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Tinubu, through Olanipekun, in a final written address to the tribunal against the petition, said the FCT is the 37th state for electoral purposes and any other interpretation would “lead to absurdity, chaos, anarchy and alteration of the very intention of the legislature.”

Niger Republic: Atiku cautions on military engagement

Photo Credit: Vanguard

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has cautioned the leadership of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) against the engagement of military to military to restore democratic order in Niger Republic.

Abubakar, the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in a statement signed by himself in Abuja on Thursday, said that the crisis in Niger required sustained diplomatic engagements.

He said the military intervention in the Republic of Niger had created tension across the West Africa sub-region, a development that has caused international attention to that neighbouring country to Nigeria.

Abubakar said that the putsch was even more worrisome because the number of states that had witnessed military interventions in the last three years in the sub-region was increasing.

“Of course, the world expects Nigeria to take up leadership in ensuring that the crisis of political leadership in the Republic of Niger is not just curtailed but also ensuring the restoration of democratic governance in that country.

“While the expectations that fall on Nigeria as the sub-regional leader is not a quick fix, it must be expressed that the role taken so far by the ECOWAS has been commendable.

“As the ECOWAS continues to work towards reinstating democracy in the Republic of Niger, it must be reinforced that the regional body should not travel the road of military hostilities that may exacerbate the situation.

“The crisis in the Republic of Niger requires diplomatic engagement, and that must mean that the channels for dialogue should be well sustained.

Niger Crisis: In Search of Resolution, Tinubu Dispatches 3-man Team to Niamey

Photo Credit: Thisday Live

The Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, President Bola Tinubu, has dispatched a three-man delegation to Niger Republic with a mandate to expeditiously resolve the current political impasse in the country.

The development emerged just as the Defence Headquarters yesterday, said defence chiefs of ECOWAS were yet to receive any battle order to engage in Niger Republic in furtherance of the decision of the regional bloc, ECOWAS, to deploy military assets to dislodge the coupists in that country.

However, former vice president and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), have advised the African Union (AU) and ECOWAS against the use of force in restoring democratic governance in Niger Republic.The three-man delegation dispatched by Tinubu, according to a statement issued yesterday, by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, was in line with the resolution reached at the end of the extraordinary summit of the ECOWAS held on Sunday in Abuja.

Court Dismisses NYSC’s Objection in Mbah’s Suit

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Enugu State Governor, Mr. Peter Mbah, has continued to triumph over allegations of forging the certificate of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) with the latest being the dismissal of the preliminary objection filed by the corps against the N20 billion suit he slammed on it by Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Mbah’s NYSC discharge certificate has been a subject of controversy between him and the NYSC. Recall that the corps had on February 1, 2023, written a letter signed by its Director of Certifications, Ibrahim Muhammad, saying the certificate belonging to Mbah was not issued by the corps.This made Mbah to sue the NYSC and Muhammad for N20 billion, demanding compensation for what he described as conspiracy, deceit, and misrepresentation of facts. Apart from N20 billion damages, the governor is seeking a declaration that he participated in the NYSC scheme for one calendar year a call-up letter numbered FRN/2001/800351 with the Lagos code LA/01/1532. He said this was why he was issued a certificate of national service numbered A808297 upon completing his service year in 2003.

The governor is further seeking a declaration that NYSC and its director for corps certification “conspired by fraudulent design, suppressed, and misrepresented facts” in voiding his certificate of national service. He said: “The predominant purpose of the deceitful misrepresentation was intended albeit to inflict damages in legal profession, politics, business, as it was to unlawfully profit the defendants.”In an affidavit submitted in support of his counterclaim, his lawyers said the governor returned to Nigeria to practise as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court after bagging a law degree from the University of East London in 2000. They said he applied and was admitted into the Bar Part I programme of the Nigerian Law School.