TheNewsGuru

Tag: 2023 Elections

  • BREAKING: iREV is not Collection Center – Tribunal rules

    BREAKING: iREV is not Collection Center – Tribunal rules

    The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) has ruled that the result viewing portal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is not a collation system.

    The tribunal held that there was nothing in the INEC regulations that showed that the results were to be collated electronically and that the iREV portal is not a collation system.

    The tribunal in its judgement also held that it is not compulsory for INEC to use electronic transmission and that the commission was at liberty of using manual mode for transmission of results.

    According to the tribunal, Peter Obi and the Labour Party failed to establish that INEC deliberately refused to upload results to the iReV in order to manipulate the election result in favour of President Bola Tinubu.

     

     

    Details shortly…

  • BREAKING: Tribunal rules INEC at liberty to define mode of results transmission

    BREAKING: Tribunal rules INEC at liberty to define mode of results transmission

    The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) has ruled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is at liberty to define the mode to transmit results of elections.

    The tribunal decided in its judgement that by the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022, it is not compulsory for INEC to use electronic transmission.

    The court ruled that INEC has the liberty of using manual mode for transmission of results.

    “By the provision of Section 52 and Section 65 of the Electoral Act, INEC is at liberty to prescribe the manner in which results can be transmitted.

    “INEC cannot be compelled to electronically transmit results,” the tribunal held.

    Details shortly…

  • HAPPENING NOW: Presidential Election Petitions Court delivers judgment

    HAPPENING NOW: Presidential Election Petitions Court delivers judgment

    All is set for the Presidential Election Petitions Court to deliver judgement today in petitions brought before the court contesting the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports there is currently tight security at the Court of Appeal Complex located in the Three Arms Zone, Shehu Shagari Way, Central Business District of Abuja.

    The Court of Appeal Complex houses the Presidential Election Petition Court.

    The judgment is in three cases challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.

    Coming about a month after the court heard the closing arguments of parties to the petitions and about two weeks to the expiration of the statutory 180-day lifespans within which the cases filed in March must be heard and determined.

    All roads leading to court of the appeal complex is being manned by multiple security operatives, drawn from various arms, including the armed forces, police, men of the Department of State Service (DSS) and the Civil Defence.

    The same formation has been placed within in the court complex.

    The Chief Registrar of the Court, Mr Umar Bangari in a statement on Monday said that everything had been put in place to ensure that the judgment in the three petitions pending before the court were delivered hitch free.

    Bangari said adequate security had been put in place and that only the invited members of political parties and the general public would be allowed into the court room.

    This he said was to avoid congestion and security breaches.

    He also said that media houses that wish to televise the judgment live would be allowed to do so but at no cost to the court.

    As at 7.30 a.m., lawyers and journalists were being checked in by security operatives.

    Major government buildings, including the Federal Secretariat, the National Assembly Complex and the access into the Presidential Villa were being manned by heavy security personnel.

    Petitions were filed separately by Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, Peter Obi of theL abour Party and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), to challenging President Tinubu’s victory.

    The independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) polled 8.8 million votes to defeat 17 other candidates in what was largely a three horse race.

    Atiku polled a total of 6,984,520 votes in the election to come second, while Obi came behind Atiku with a total of 6,101,533 votes, according to INEC.

  • Kogi 2023: INEC, Police promise peaceful, credible election

    Kogi 2023: INEC, Police promise peaceful, credible election

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Nigeria Police Force on Tuesday pledged peaceful and credible Governorship election in Kogi come Nov. 11.

    Kogi INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr Gabriel Longpet, and Kogi Police Command’s Spokesman, SP Williams Ovye-Aya, gave the assurance during a workshop organised by the International Press Centre (IPC) for 26 journalists in Abuja.

    Longpet said that the Commission has made adequate preparations to consolidate on the last Feb 25 and March 18 polls to ensure that Nov 11 Governorship election is peaceful, hitch free, fair and credible.

    “We hope to ensure that all results of the governorship election in the 3,508 polling units in 239 wards across the state are transmit electronically to do away with any attempt at tampering with manual results on transfer to collation centres.

    “We are in synergy with all stakeholders, including the security operatives, civil society organisations (CSOs) and the Media to ensure we get it right come Nov 11,” he said.

    The REC called on all the 18 political parties and candidates participating in the election to educate and sensitise their members and supporters about the need to conduct themselves orderly for a peaceful conduct of the election.

    Ovye-Aya, on his part, said the Police were prepared to ensure tight security during the Kogi guber election to checkmate activities of criminal elements from disrupting the process.

    The command’s image maker said “security operatives in Kogi are not going to leave anything to chance and will protect all electorates before, during and after the election.”

    “All trouble makers, especially political thugs, should know that we shall deal with them in accordance with the law,” he warned.

    The IPC Media Workshop was aimed at enlightening practitioners in Kogi on their significant roles in the Peaceful and successful conduct of the guber election come Nov 11.

  • All materials used for 2023 general elections were printed in Nigeria, says Yakubu

    All materials used for 2023 general elections were printed in Nigeria, says Yakubu

    Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says all sensitive and non-sensitive materials used for the 2023 general election were printed in Nigeria.

    Yakubu stated this during the commission’s quarterly consultative meeting with the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) on the ongoing review of the 2023 general election held on Monday in Abuja.

    “I am glad to report that the printing of all sensitive and non-sensitive materials for the 2023 General Election was entirely done in Nigeria.

    “This is the first time in 44 years since the transition to democratic rule in 1979 that this great step was taken and achieved.

    “This id in spite of the record number of 93.4 million registered voters and over 500 million ballot papers, result sheets and other documents for the five categories of the main elections and supplementary polls.

    “For this reason, the 2023 General Election was held as scheduled for the first time in the last four electoral cycles without a postponement arising from the non-arrival of materials,’’ Yakubu said.

    He added that other recorded positive development in the election include the repeal and re-enactment of the Electoral Act 2010 into the Electoral Act 2022, which gave INEC opportunity to get prepared on time.

    The chairman said that the new act which provides a period of 180 days for political parties to conclude their primaries and submit the names of candidates and the political parties for the elections.

    This according to him,  also helped INEC to commence the process of producing the election materials  in good time.

    “Furthermore, we were also able to expand voter access to polling units for the first time since the initial delimitation exercise in 1996.

    “Similarly, we introduced many technology-based innovations, including the physical registration and online pre-registration of voters using the INEC Voter Enrollment Device (IVED), the various portals for the nomination of candidates, party agents and the accreditation of observers and the media.

    “We also collected and published data on the distribution of voters not only by age and occupation but also by disability.

    “Within the limits of available resources, we also tried to provide such inclusivity materials as braille jackets and magnifying glasses for some categories of voters with disabilities,’’ he said.

    Yakubu said that nevertheless, there were many challenges encountered before and during the elections including severe cash and fuel situations as well as the perennial insecurity nationwide.

    “Their impact on our deployment plans, compounded by the behaviour of some of our own officials in the field, made logistics management particularly challenging.

    “The deployment of thugs by some political actors made election day administration difficult in a number of places,’’ he said.

    The chairman said that while voter accreditation using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was very successful, the uploading of results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), especially for the presidential election, encountered a glitch.

    Yakubu said that this was explained in the commission’s statement released Feb. 26, adding that INEC is aware that the matter is currently the subject of litigation; hence the commission would reserve its comments for now.

    “Nevertheless, the performance of the technology deployed for the election is part of the ongoing review of the 2023 general election.

    “It will form an integral part of the comprehensive report that will serve as a basis for further engagement with stakeholders focusing on specific actions necessary for the improvement of future elections and electoral activities in Nigeria,’’ he said.

  • Delta Guber: Tribunal dismisses Labour Party’s petition against Oborevwori

    Delta Guber: Tribunal dismisses Labour Party’s petition against Oborevwori

    The Delta State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, sitting in Asaba, Thursday, dismissed the petition of Mr Ken Pela, governorship candidate of the Labour Party, for abandoning his petition.

    Ruling on the petition, Chairman of the Panel, Justice C.H Ahuchaogu, yesterday, said the petition was incompetent and a flagrant violation of paragraph 18 subsection 1 of the 4th Schedule to the Electoral Act 2022.

    Mr Ken Pela, in petition EPT/DL/GOV/01/23, is challenging the outcome of the March 18, 2023 Governorship election in the state and seeking leave of the tribunal to upturn the declaration of Sheriff Oborevwori as Delta Governor.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was joined in the petition as 1st respondent while Gov Sheriff Oborevwori and his Deputy, Monday Onyeme are 2nd and 3rd respondents respectively with PDP as 4th respondent.

    Lead Counsel to the 2nd and 3rd respondents, Damian Dodo (SAN) had argued in an earlier application that Labour Party’s petition had been abandoned.

    He argued that the petitioner failed to avail itself of the seven-day window to apply for pre-hearing notice.

    According to Dodo, the petitioner also failed to apply for another pre-hearing notice effectively rendering his petition abandoned.

    Dodo said the petitioner applied for pre-hearing notice on 19 May before the close of pleadings and as such the petition was premature and incompetent.

    Justice C.H Ahuchaogu ruled that “the petition is incompetent and was issued in flagrant violation of paragraph 18 subsection 1 of the 4th Schedule to the Electoral Act 2022.

    “We resolve this application in favour of the 2nd and 3rd applicants. There is merit in the application seeking to dismiss this petition and accordingly, petition EPT/DL/GOV/01/2023 is hereby dismissed,” Ahuchaogu stated.

  • Presidency rejects EU verdict on 2023 elections

    Presidency rejects EU verdict on 2023 elections

    The Presidency has rejected verdict of the European Union on outcome of the February 25 presidential election, which saw the emergence of President Bola Tinubu as winner.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reported
    the European Union Election Observer Mission in Nigeria (EU EOM) disclosed that the poll was marred due to multiple failures by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    A statement, yesterday, issued by Dele Alake, Special Adviser on Special Duties, Communication and Strategy, also said it “strongly rejects, in its entirety, any notion and idea from any organisation, group and individual remotely suggesting that the 2023 election was fraudulent.”

    Dismissing the verdict, the Presidency berated the EU, saying the organisation merely relied on prejudiced and uninformed social media commentaries and opposition talking heads to arrive at its conclusions. It added that the body failed to provide substantial evidence to impeach integrity of the election outcome.

    The statement reads in part: “Sometimes in May, we alerted the nation, through a press statement, to plan by a continental multilateral institution to discredit the 2023 general elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    “The main target was the presidential election, clearly and fairly won by the then candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu. While we did not mention the name of the organisation in the said statement, we made it abundantly clear to Nigerians how this foreign institution had been unrelenting in its assault on credibility of the electoral process, the sovereignty of our country and on our ability as a people to organise ourselves.

    “We find it preposterous and unconscionable that in this day and age, any foreign organisation of whatever hue can continue to insist on its own yardstick and assessment as the only way to determine the credibility and transparency of our elections.

    “Now that the organisation has submitted what it claimed to be its final report on the elections, we can now categorically let Nigerians and the entire world know that we were not unaware of the machinations of the European Union to sustain its, largely, unfounded bias and claims on the election outcomes.

    “For emphasis, we want to reiterate that the 2023 general elections, most especially the presidential election, won by President Bola Tinubu/APC, were credible, peaceful, free, fair and the best organised general elections in Nigeria since 1999.

    “It is worth restating that the limitation of EU’s final assessment and conclusions on our elections was made very bare in the text of the press conference addressed by the Head of its Electoral Observation Mission, Barry Andrews. While addressing journalists in Abuja on the so-called final report, Andrews noted that EU-EOM monitored the pre-election and post-election processes in Nigeria from January 11 to April 11, 2023 as an INEC accredited election monitoring group.

    “Within this period, EU-EOM observed the elections through 11 Abuja-based analysts, and 40 election observers spread across 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. With the level of personnel deployed, which was barely an average of one person per state, we wonder how EU-EOM independently monitored election in over 176,000 polling units across Nigeria.

    “We would like to know and even ask EU, how it reached the conclusions in the submitted final report with the very limited coverage of the elections by their observers who, without doubt, relied more on rumours, hearsay, cocktails of prejudiced and uninformed social media commentaries and opposition talking heads.

    “We are convinced that what EU-EOM called final report on our recent elections is a product of a poorly done desk job that relied heavily on few instances of skirmishes in less than 1,000 polling units out of over 176,000 where Nigerians voted on election day.

    “We have many reasons to believe the jaundiced report, based on the views of fewer than 50 observers, was to merely sustain the same premature denunciatory stance contained in EU’s preliminary report released in March.

    “We strongly reject, in its entirety, any notion and idea from any organisation, group and individual remotely suggesting that the 2023 election was fraudulent.

    “Our earlier position that the technology-aided 2023 general elections were the most transparent and best organised elections since the return of civil rule in Nigeria has been validated by all non-partisan foreign and local observers. Such are: the African Union, ECOWAS, Commonwealth Observer Mission and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

    “Unlike EU-EOM that deployed fewer than 50 observers, the NBA that sent out over 1,000 observers spread across the entire country for same election gave a more holistic and accurate assessment of the elections in their own report.

    “NBA, an organisation of eminent lawyers and an important voice within the civic space, reported that 91.8 per cent of Nigerians rated the conduct of the national and state elections as credible and satisfactory. Any election that over 90 per cent of the citizens considered transparent should be celebrated anywhere in the world.”
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  • Guber polls: Why we will reclaim Imo, Kogi; win Bayelsa – PDP boasts

    Guber polls: Why we will reclaim Imo, Kogi; win Bayelsa – PDP boasts

    A chieftain of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Emmanuel Ogidi has expressed confidence of the party winning the Nov. 11 governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi.

    Ogidi, a former PDP Vice-Chairman (South) in an interview in Abuja on Thursday, described PDP as a party to beat in the three States.

    He said that PDP and its candidates were already enjoying massive acceptance and support by the majority of the people in those States.

    Ogidi said the party was doing everything possible to quickly reconcile its aggrieved members or any misunderstanding within the party in the three states.

    According to him, this will ensure that the party is united and work together and mobilise for the party’s victory in elections.

    “We have the confident of victory in the elections and that is why we want to quickly talk to one another and reconcile all grievances so that it does not affect our chances,” Ogidi said.

    On the party petition on the 2023 general election ongoing at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT), he expressed hope that the outcome would favour the PDP.

    “The judges must know that whatever one sows today, he reap tomorrow. They should do things according to their hearts,’’ he said.

    Contrary to speculations PDP may not survive if the decision of the judiciary on presidential election did not favour it, Ogidi said it remained a vibrant political party.

    “We are going to bounce back. We have more than 60 members in the House of Reps, 36 senators, over 300 state lawmakers. We are big. There is hope,” Ogidi said.

    Ogidi said though PDP seemed to be passing through some challenges at the moment, the party had its in-built mechanism to resolve any challenges.

    “There is no family without problem, but we have our own in-built machinery to deal with things like that.

    “That is why we recently had a select meeting of National Working Committee to proffer the way forward”, he said.

    He said though PDP was not structured to be opposition party, it must learn to play the role now that it has found itself in that position.

    “One of our setbacks is that when you look at some of the principal persons in All the Progressives Congress (APC) they were previously in the PDP,’’ Ogidi said.

    On the call on the PDP leaders to suspend all members alleged to have worked against the party in 2023 general election, Ogidi said the party would give a fair hearing on the allegations.

    “You need to give them a fair hearing that is why we are contemplating setting up committees to visit each state and find out what happened and the reasons members acted the way they did.

    “Some of them may have genuine reason. If you have genuine reason we can reconcile,” Ogidi said.

  • 2023 Polls: EU’s observations not intended to judge elections credibility – YIAGA

    2023 Polls: EU’s observations not intended to judge elections credibility – YIAGA

    Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth, and Advancement (YIAGA) Africa has described the report by the European Union (EU) Election Observation Mission of the 2023 general election in Nigeria as a welcome development.

    The Executive Director of YIAGA Africa, Mr. Samson Itodo, in a television programme said that the EU’s observations were not intended to judge the credibility of the election process.

    Itodo noted that Nigeria has an existing bilateral relationship with the international communities thus, does not and cannot exist in isolation in its dealings.

    “I don’t think the intent of the EU’s report is to assess and make judgment as to the credibility of the elections process.”

    Commenting on the reports coinciding with the ongoing post-election judicial process, Itodo explained that the reports were in no way whatsoever intended to influence the cases in court.

    “There is nothing wrong with the timing of the European Union’s post-mortem report on Nigeria’s 2023 elections. I don’t think that the intention is to influence the current cases being handled by the court.

    “It is not in any way an attempt to interfere with that process. It is just part of the practice in the election observation ecosystem

    “The EU has a comprehensive framework for measuring and assessing elections based on certain values and principles of the country in our electoral law and constitution,” Itodo said.

    The European Union Election Observer Mission to Nigeria, on Monday, had presented its report on the 2023 general elections to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, in which it had identified six areas for improvement in Nigeria’s subsequent elections.

     

  • INEC to begin review of 2023 general election in July

    INEC to begin review of 2023 general election in July

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it will begin post-election review of the 2023 general election in July.

    This is contained in a statement signed by Mr Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee.

    The statement was issued after the commission’s regular meeting on Thursday in Abuja.

    Okoye said that the decision was in line with the commission’s practice over the years.

    He said that the review would focus on all aspects of the electoral activities before, during and after the elections.

    He said that the review would involve the commission’s officials at national and state levels as well as stakeholders with a view to learning lessons and charting the way forward.

    “The review will commence with a meeting of the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) on July 4 and end with the Commission’s retreat on Aug. 5.

    “At state level, the internal review will involve the Commission’s regular and ad hoc staff, including RECs, the 774 Electoral Officers, Heads of Departments, Administrative Secretaries as well as some presiding officers and collation/returning officers.

    “The external engagement will involve critical stakeholders such as political parties, security agencies, election observers and the the media.

    “Others include service providers such as transporters that facilitated the movement of personnel and materials for the election,” Okoye added.

    He said that INEC welcomes actionable recommendations from stakeholders towards strengthening institutional capacity for the discharge of its responsibilities and the enhancement of processes and procedures.

    He added that a detailed schedule of activities and timelines for the review would be released immediately after the meeting with RECs in July.