The convener of the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, has said Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, can’t fix Nigeria.

Abdullahi said Tinubu and Atiku have been within the political circle for about 30 years, but he is not convinced with their achievements and what they have to offer in 2023.

The elder statesman, however, stressed that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo could have been a better presidential material.

According to Abdullahi: “We still haven’t got the man who we think will fix Nigeria. What we have on the ground is not good enough. How can you look at Tinubu and Atiku to say they are the ones who will fix this country?

“They have been on the ground for the last 25, 30 years and so on. What have they done? What are we looking for?”

“I believe we have not had a good array of politicians. With due respect to some of them that one saw contesting, I am not being selfish here by referring to certain people like Prof. Osinbajo. He is a quality material but the political system will not tolerate him,” he told Vanguard.

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The Action Peoples Party has moved to challenge the academic qualifications of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, before a court of law.

This comes on the trail of alleged irregularities in the academic qualifications and documents submitted by Tinubu to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The APP’s chairman, Uche Nnadi, said the party had enough facts to prove its case noting that the publication of the list of candidates for the 2023 elections showed that the APC presidential candidate was not eligible to contest in the forthcoming elections as his forms allegedly contain false information.

“Tinubu denies attending primary and secondary but claims a university degree in the new forms INEC published today (Friday),” Leadership quoted him as saying.

He added, “Tinubu commits perjury as he abandons his earlier claim of attending primary school, sworn in an affidavit to run for governor but now claims not to have attended primary school.

“Tinubu’s new forms contradict his 2007 affidavit that he had primary school and secondary.

“Tinubu’s new declaration in new INEC forms of not attending primary and secondary school is false information, in view of earlier nomination forms of 2007 on oath containing alleged controversial primary and secondary schools he claimed to have.”

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Tinubu submits affidavit to INEC instead of certificates. He claimed that unknown persons stole all his acadenmic certificates.

Reno Omokri Challenges Tinubu To Take A Drug Test, Says The APC Presidential Candidate Is A Known Drug Lord Who Was Involved In A Heroin Drug Ring In US Between 1991 – 1993.

Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi had a closed door meeting with Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state, today June 22.

This is coming after it was reported that presidential candidate of People’s Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar constituted a committee to pacify and woo the Rivers state Governor and other aggrieved members of the party.

It has also been alleged that the opposition party has been rocked by crisis following the choice of Delta state’s Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, as Atiku’s running mate.

A former Governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, has said that the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, should not waste his time and resources in contesting for president.

According to Aliyu during an interview on Channels TV on Tuesday, Tinubu should have supported a younger candidate like the Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi to win the party’s presidential ticket.

“Bola Tinubu a good friend, I don’t think he should waste his time now, and I think he should reserve his resources for another thing and I thought that it would have been better for him to have sponsored younger people into this win. He has the governor of Ekiti, Fayemi, he has other young people that he could have sponsored and allowed it happen, no matter what he thought he could do to Nigeria, these people would do it better,” Aliyu said.

“If it’s your turn in the APC that’s your own problem but that’s not for Nigerians. Nigerians will come to decide what is best for them given what we have gone through,” Babangida noted.

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The bus conveying press crew covering Lagos State Governor’s Office on Sunday was heavily attacked by thugs between Ebute-Ero and Adeniji, Iga-Iduganran axis on Lagos Island, leaving no fewer than two journalists wounded with others sustaining various scars on their bodies.

The press crew bus which was in the convoy of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was attacked by the thugs who threw heavy stones repeatedly as it joined other vehicles conveying dignitaries, including Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje; and others, who had just left the palace of Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwanu Akiolu.

Tinubu, who arrived at Lagos Airport at around 3:40 pm, to the waiting hands of an enthusiastic crowd of party loyalists and supporters, had immediately headed to the palace of Oba Akiolu on a courtesy call.

The press crew bus was heavily attacked by the hoodlums, as it drove with high speed to escape while journalists had to lie low in it for many to escape being injured, but still few others still had bruises.

However, a Western Post correspondent, Adeola Ogunrinde and Omatseye Atsenuwa of Smooth 98.1FM got wounded, while Adedoja Salam of TVC went into shock due to the heavy bombardment of stones and bricks thrown at the press crew bus, leaving the windscreen and nearly all the side screens were broken.

Ogunrinde got wounded in the face, while Atsenuwa had his arm hit directly by one of the heavy stones thrown at the press crew bus.

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Vote-buying has always taken the forefront in every election in Nigeria, and the 2022 governorship election in Ekiti State was no different. Interestingly, it was taken a notch higher in the just concluded Ekiti State governorship election.

The election was contested among 16 candidates, however, it was a three-horse race among Segun Oni of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Biodun Oyebanji of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Bisi Kolawole of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Before the election, Civil Society Organisations, police and anti-graft agencies issued a stern warning to electorates and political parties to shun vote-buying or risk arrest and prosecution. Rather than heed the warning to rid the electoral system of money-politics, candidates and party agents devised new means to carry out transactional voting.

Also, to ensure a smooth transaction, party agents at different polling units bribed security personnel dispatched to various polling units to look the other way while the transaction is going on.

APC Allegedly Outspends PDP, SDP

Election monitoring done in different polling units across the state revealed widespread vote-buying carried out by the top three contenders in the election.

In areas like Efon, Iyin and Ifaki, party members and some voters were paid a day before the election to reduce suspicion by security operatives, election observers and the media.

Also, designated locations for money sharing were strategically located away from the polling units, while party agents were placed in different polling units to monitor who electorates voted for.

At Ward 6, Ikogosi, the hometown of Oyebanji, some party agents designated to monitor votes were seen interfering with the voting process by guiding voters on where to vote. The APC subsequently won the ward with a landslide victory.

At Polling Unit 009, Ward 02 of Ikere Local Government Area, voters were seen going into an apartment located behind Oisa Alada Hall. It was later discovered that APC agents were stationed in the house, sharing N7,000 to voters who were required to present their Permanent Voter Cards and evidence showing they voted for the party.

At Polling Unit 002, Ward 2, Sabo area in Ijero Local Government Area of the state, two women raised the alarm about not being paid despite voting for the APC candidate. The women said they were left out of the money sharing by the party agent.

They accused the APC of deception and corruption by not fulfilling their agreement of paying for votes cast for the party. 

The outcry prompted an APC agent at the unit to send a man, identified as Lapo, to attend to them and pay them.

In Ipoti Ward A, party agents from PDP and SDP were also seen bribing voters in the presence of security personnel.

Similarly, at C.A.C Grammar School, Ola Oluwa II with PU code 014 in Ado-Ekiti, APC and PDP party agents were giving N5,000 to voters who confirmed they had voted for the party.

Corroborating the claim, Kemi Elebute-Halle, governorship candidate of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) in the election claimed that the APC gave voters N10,000 while the

PDP and the SDP induced voters with N5,000, and N3,000 respectively.

The candidate of the SDP, Oni, also confirmed that voters were being induced by the PDP and APC. He said, “I have been told that selling and buying of votes are going on in Ado and Oye. This is not allowed by the law.”

He urged security operatives to ensure the arrest and prosecution of those indicted in the act.

On his part, Kolawole denied his party engaged in vote-buying. He said, as an opposition, his party does not have the resources to engage in vote-buying.

Few Arrests Made

In a bid to curb vote-buying in the Ekiti, security operatives were able to arrest some party agents involved in buying votes. No fewer than three arrests were made during the election.

Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested a party agent as the governorship election commenced.

He was arrested with a bag of cash as he was sharing the money to voters.

In another operation, EFCC operatives stormed a building where money was being shared to voters.

The suspects were caught with nylon bags containing money and a list of names of people who had allegedly voted.

Those arrested were paraded at the Oke Ori Omi Area Division of the Nigerian Police Force.

Also, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) seized a huge parcel of money which was meant to buy votes at Polling Unit 09, Ward 10, Ikere LGA.

CSOs React

CSOs have reacted to the rampant cases of vote-buying in the Ekiti governorship election.

The CSOs hailed security operatives for the arrests made and demanded that those arrested should be prosecuted.

The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, a coalition of over 70 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) led the call for the police authority to prosecute those it arrested

Also, the Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, called on the officials of EFCC deployed to ensure full prosecution of individuals caught in the act of vote-buying.

“We commend the EFCC for the arrests made of people buying votes. We call on the officials of EFCC deployed to ensure full prosecution of individuals caught in the act of vote-buying/voter inducement,” Itodo said.

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Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Lekan Balogun, on Saturday, conferred traditional titles on the Kano State governor, Umar Ganduje and his wife, Hafsat.

They were honoured with the Aare Fiwajoye and Yeye Aare Fiwajoye of Ibadan land titles.

Ekitidecides2022: Voting Commences At Ekiti Governorship Election

Nigeria’s Labour Party has named Doyin Okupe as the Vice Presidential candidate to the party’s flag bearer Peter Obi, but in a placeholder capacity to beat the Friday deadline set by INEC.

“The party’s style of democracy in OYO state kills my conscience” : Politician and Entrepreneur Shina Peller says as he dumps APC.
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Ahead of tomorrow’s governorship election, police/army storm the streets of Ekiti to display their readiness for the polls.

Human rights activist, Deji Adeyanju has lambasted some of the supporters of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, who accused him of having received bribes for criticising the politician.

Adeyanju had in several tweets called out Obi’s supporters, describing them as ‘crazy online fans’ who go about bullying others, especially those who are against Obi’s candidacy.

Obi had announced his departure from Nigeria to Egypt to understudy the Egyptian Power Sector, Education, Planning and Finance Sectors.

However, Adeyanju took to his Twitter handle to condemn this move, noting that it had come at the wrong time. He stated that Obi should have been on his way to Ekiti to support the governorship candidate of the Labour Party in the election. 

Adeyanju, in other tweets, also condemned Obi’s political strategies as he advised him to form an alliance with Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party for election victory against the candidates of the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party. He also advised Obi to avoid online campaigns. 

The activist had come under fire for uttering such statements but he insisted that Obi had declared his intention to run for a public office and public office holders are subject to criticism. 

Meanwhile, some supporters of Obi accused Adeyanju of having received bribes which allegedly fuelled some of his criticisms of their preferred candidate.

Reacting in a now-deleted tweet, Adeyanju debunked the allegation, adding that he met with Obi recently and the latter offered him money which he rejected.

His tweet reads, “To the supporters of Obi saying may be I got alert that is why I’m now criticizing him, go and ask him; I meet him recently. He offered me money and rejected it. I told him money has never been my problem and can never be my problem. Na we dey even bring money to support people.”

Adeyanju, in another tweet, said he deleted the tweet because it was not necessary as he advised Obi’s supporters to focus on how to sell their candidate without resorting to bullying or insulting others online.

He tweeted, “Had to just delete those tweets. Completely unnecessary. You all should just market Peter Obi without insulting anyone. Also, accept criticisms from those who criticize him. Try to win people over with strong arguments and not insults.

He also explained that not everyone who criticises a candidate has been paid for doing such.

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The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore, has decried the poor electricity generation in Nigeria, adding that the miserable 3000mgw of electricity the Gencos and Discos are currently managing would never engender development for global competition.

Sowore, stated this while featuring on Arise TV programme, The Morning Show, adding that if he was elected as president, he would tackle power generation by unbundling the power sector to allow individuals and companies to generate and sell power.

“But currently our system has broken down in terms of electricity. There is no way we can continue with miserable 3000mgw of electricity that the Gencos and Discos are managing.”
He said that Nigeria needed to elect leadership that would fix the country’s numerous problems in 2023; to create jobs for the youths that would turn around the economy.

He said, “There is nine billion cubic feet of gas in Ogoni land alone that can be tapped to also generate electricity. There is also potential for us to generate 4500mw of electricity out of northern Nigeria because of the preponderance of sunshine in that part of the world.
“There is also possibility for us to expand our hydro-electric generation capacity. There’s possibility for biogas if we use the droppings of cows; if we go into commercial ranching for instance and we keep all our 20 million cows in ranches across the country. Or not necessarily across the country whatever we can afford to place them.

“The droppings alone can generate over 1000mgw of electricity. We are just thinking progressively. It is not expensive and one other thing we need to do is break down the national grid. It is obsolete; it is no longer working for us and has isolated many grids across the country. So if you are generating from Kano, you supply Kano first and everybody can also get into the business of selling electricity.

It took Egypt less than two and a half years to generate 14,000MW at N500,000 per megawatt of power. It’s the cheapest in the world. Here we can even do it cheaper because we have plenty of cheap labour; I’m not saying we’re going to abuse labour. pic.twitter.com/D35jnKAepg— Omoyele Sowore (@YeleSowore) June 15, 2022

“Electricity that comes from say solar doesn’t have to come from the government alone, you can have your roof plastered with solar panels and you can sell to gencos, for example a disco whichever way they are described. But currently our system has broken down in terms of electricity. There is no way we can continue with miserable 3000mgw of electricity that the gencos and discos are managing. And there’s no way we can continue with our broken transmission system that is not taking us anywhere.

“So, I don’t want to discuss what we have currently, it’s not sufficient, it’s not going to serve the purpose we need and cannot use that to create a new economy that we are talking about that will generate over five million jobs that will bring about prosperity in this country and make us competitive even in the African subregion or sub-saharan African region.”

He had earlier tweeted in his Twitter handle @YeleSowore that “it took Egypt less than two and a half years to generate 14,000MW at N500,000 per megawatt of power. It’s the cheapest in the world.

“Here we can even do it cheaper because we have plenty of cheap labour; I’m not saying we’re going to abuse labour.
“And it’s the same Siemens who came to Nigeria to do the same thing and people were asking them for bribes that went to RASCOM, a state-owned power generating company in Egypt to do the same. This is public information. We need leadership; we don’t have it. That’s the problem. We need innovation. Assignment well-done!”

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The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, has urged the electorate in Ekiti State that they will not get paid if they do not vote.

Tinubu, who was in Ekiti State on Tuesday said this at an APC rally while campaigning for the party’s governorship candidate, Biodun Oyebanji ahead of the election slated for Saturday, June 18, 2022.

He also boasted that he has never failed in an election before.

Tinubu said, “I’ve never failed an election before.”

While speaking in Yoruba, APC national leader said, “To ba t’eka, o le te owo” meaning, “if you don’t vote, you can’t hold money.”

Tinubu also said the “Peoples Democratic Party is a poverty development party,” urging the people of the state to vote for the APC in the state and in the 2023 presidential election.

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Presidential candidate of the. Labour Party, Peter Obi, has travelled to Egypt.

Tweeting about the trip on Tuesday, he said it would be an educational one for him.

He said, “I just departed for Egypt on a 3-day visit as part of my detailed study of comparable countries to Nigeria. In Egypt, I am expected to understudy, among others, the Egyptian Power Sector, Education, Planning and Finance Sectors. -PO”

Human rights activist and presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore, has called on a former Anambra Governor, Peter Obi, to join the AAC in order to enjoy electoral victory.
Obi is the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, after he dumped the Peoples Democratic Party shortly before the party’s presidential primary.

Sowore, during the Democracy Day live broadcast, said Obi could not clinch the number one position if he remained under the Labour Party which had no structure.

According to Sowore, during the 2019 elections, the AAC secured 33,000 votes in the presidential election while the Labour Party had just 5,000 votes.

The activist further queried Obi if when he was governor of Anambra State, he built standard hospitals and schools.

He also asked if Obi ensured the construction of quality roads in the state.
Sowore explained that he was not inviting Obi over to the AAC for religious or sensational politics but for liberation of the Nigerian masses from bad and corrupt leadership that had enslaved the people over the years.

He stated, “Labour Party has become an orphanage for politicians that are homeless, it didn’t take long when our man ran there when he became homeless.

”The Labour Party should not have in its company, someone who managed 13 months of workers’ strike in Anambra State. The reason Obi left PDP was because they outplayed him with transactional politicking.

“Where is the structure of the Labour Party? In 2019, the Labour Party presidential candidate got 5,000 votes. I got 33,000 votes. If you look at it, a structure that delivered 33,000 votes is better than the other that delivered 5,000 votes.

”The Labour Party and Peter Obi should come and join us. We will stand up for you, you said you were governor of Anambra State, when you were governor, did you build any school, university, hospital? Did you build any school that your children could attend? Did you build any hospital in that state that you can go for treatment if you fall sick? Did you do any quality road? We are not here to do religious politics; I’m here for the liberation of the Nigerian people.”

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Human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore says he had plans with the late Chief Moshood Abiola, popularly known as MKO Abiola, for a future that would be a truly democratic society. Abiola was the winner of June 12, 1993, presidential election annulled by the Ibrahim Babangida-led military junta. Sunday makes it 29 years since the historic event. 

Omoyele SoworeBBCSowore, who was a students’ leader during the political struggle that followed the annulment, on Sunday shared a video on Twitter, showing as Abiola was being interviewed with his supporters (including Sowore) behind him.  The presidential aspirant of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 general elections said those enjoying Nigeria’s democracy are the same elements who annulled the 1993 election.  He said, “During the June 12, 1993, election saga I was a 22-year-old university student at the University of Lagos (here with Chief MKO Abiola the winner of the historic election).

We had plans for a future that was about a true democratic society, now largely stunted by the same elements that annulled the election.  “All the struggle(s) fell on our shoulders to defend democracy which the military led by Ibrahim Babangida and his civilian collaborators were sabotaging. Today is a reminder of what we as young people did to bring an end to military dictatorship and the call of duty again to ensure that the enemies of our “democracy” are not emboldened again to keep abusing our democracy. “By 2023, it would have been 29 years since these struggles started and were consistently fought! Don’t let us forget how we got here and why we must not travel further with those who directly participated or those who were and have remained complicit in these acts against our collective humanity! #WeCantContinueLikeThis #SoworeForPresident #GetYourPVC.” 

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