TheNewsGuru

Tag: 2023 Polls

  • Incredible! Ronaldo scores four goals for New club Al-Nassr

    Incredible! Ronaldo scores four goals for New club Al-Nassr

    Five-time Ballon d’Or winner, Cristiano Ronaldo has expressed joy after scoring four goals to help his side Al-Nassr defeat  Al-Wehda in the Saudi Pro League.

    The Portuguese reached 500th career league goal after notching his fourth goal against Al-Wehda

    The Portugal captain received the ball inside the penalty area, took a couple of touches before firing a left-footed shot past the opponent goalkeeper.

    Ronaldo then added another before half-time as he also scored two goals in the second half.

    Reacting, Ronaldo, in a tweet via his Twitter handle, said he felt great.

    Ronaldo tweeted: “Great feeling to have scored 4 goals and reached my 500th league goal in a very solid win by the team!”

    Ronaldo’s 503 league goals have come across five clubs – 311 for Real Madrid, 103 across two spells with Manchester United, 81 for Juventus, three for Sporting and now four with Al-Nassr.

  • President Buhari campaigns for Tinubu in Katsina, says he’ll consolidate on my achievements

    President Buhari campaigns for Tinubu in Katsina, says he’ll consolidate on my achievements

    Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari has urged Nigerians to vote for the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other candidates of the party in the forthcoing general elections in the country.

    Buhari added that Tinubu will consolidate on the achievements of his administration.

    The President made the plea at the APC mega rally held at Muhammadu Dikko stadium in Katsina.

    He regretted that from the inception of his administration, the revenue that accrued to the federal government dropped significantly due to the activities of criminals that engaged in crude oil theft and vandalization of oil pipelines and other installations.

    Continuing, he said that his administration has executed several infrastructural and human development projects across the country.

    Buhari also condoled with the government and people of the state over the killing of one hundred vigilante operatives by armed bandits in Kankara Local Government Area of the state over the weekend.

    He said the federal government will not relent in its fight against armed banditry and other acts of terrorism while citing some efforts in the ongoing fight against Boko Haram insurgents in the north east.

    In his remarks, the APC Presidential candidate, Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said he was poised to bring about socio-economic transformation of the country as he did when he served as Lagos State governor from 1999 to 2007.

    He urged the electorate in the state, the North west zone and other parts of the country to mobilize support and vote for APC candidates in all elective positions to sustain good governance at all levels.

    According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the presidential and National Assembly election  will hold on the 25th of February 2023, while Gubernatorial and state Assembly election will hold on March 11 2023.

     

  • 2023 polls: Buhari directs NIS to tighten security around borders

    2023 polls: Buhari directs NIS to tighten security around borders

    President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to tighten security around the nation’s borders before and after the general elections.

    Interior minister Rauf Aregbesola disclosed this in Katsina on Tuesday while inaugurating the Katsina State headquarters of the service.

    “The order from the President Muhammadu Buhari is that between now and the time we will conclude elections, you must make sure our borders are secured.

    “You must make sure that our borders are perfectly secured from illegal immigrants who may want to come in to create problems during elections, or illegally participating in the elections.

    “The service should live up to the directives of Mr President,” he said.

    The minister also tasked them on ensuring the documentation of all migrants.

    Aregbesola said that Katsina State had 400 kilometers border lines and 14 border positions which the service needed to protect.

    He said that government was upgrading the capacity of the NIS to effectively control the nation’s borders.

    “We are deploying electronic digital technology to ensure 24/7 surveillance of the 5,000 kilometers border lines.

    “We have already awarded the contract, so, very soon, the Comptroller-General, from his office, will be able to see what is happening anytime at any border point,” he said.

    In his remarks, Gov. Aminu Masari, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Muntari Lawal, commended the NIS for the project and affirmed the administration’s readiness to support the service to secure the nation’s borders.

    Also speaking, the State Controller, Mr Bello Garba, who reiterated the commitment of officers and men to their responsibilities, said that the service currently had 688 officers and men across the state.

    He listed key functions of NIS including issuance of traveling documents to qualified Nigerians, controlling the movement of migrants after entering, and preventing illegal migrants from coming in.

    Other functions include warding off persons seeking to come into Nigeria through illegal routes, and apprehending human traffickers.

  • I look forward to peaceful polls, retirement, says Buhari

    I look forward to peaceful polls, retirement, says Buhari

    President Muhammadu Buhari says he looks forward to the peaceful conduct of this year’s general elections, and retirement since he has satisfied the constitutionally required two terms in office.

    The president said this at the State House, Abuja when he hosted the Special Envoy of President Evariste Ndayishimiye of the Republic of Burundi, who came with a message, in the course of the week.

    Buhari said Nigeria would support Burundi in diverse ways as necessary, saying this would be in the spirit of African solidarity and brotherliness.

    The Minister of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning of Burundi, Mr. Audace Niyonzima, said his president sent goodwill for the New Year to Nigerians and President Buhari.

    He also wished the country well in the general elections scheduled for February and March this year.

    “We pray that the polls would be peaceful and successful, so that Nigeria would maintain her reputation as a bastion of peace and stability,” the Special Envoy said.

    On the request for assistance in the area of energy provision, particularly fuel, by the Burundi leader, President Buhari said he knew what it felt like for a country to suffer from energy shortage.

    He, therefore, promised that he would get the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. to look into the request.

  • 2023: It’s disrespectful to mention Funke Akindele in my presence – Tinubu

    2023: It’s disrespectful to mention Funke Akindele in my presence – Tinubu

    The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has warned his supporters not to mention actress Funke Akindele in his presence, saying it’s very disrespectful to do that.

    Akindele is the deputy governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the Lagos state.

    Tinubu made this statement during a campaign in Lagos on Thursday.

    The former Lagos State governor while campaigning for himself also used the opportunity to do so for the Lagos state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu who’s seeking re-election.

    At the political outing, his supporters had sung a campaign song, describing Akindele as a political ‘ant’ compared to Sanwo-Olu.

    The song goes thus “Who is Funke Akindele before Sanwo-Olu of Lagos? She is an ant,” the supporters sang.

    But Tinubu fumed: “Don’t even bother to mention her name in my presence. It is an insult. It is disrespectful.”

  • 2023 Polls: Labour party deputy chairman dumps party for PDP

    2023 Polls: Labour party deputy chairman dumps party for PDP

     

    The Deputy Chairman of the Labour Party in Oyo state,  Mayoress Olubukola Olayinka, has  defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), with scores of her followers.

    Olayinka noted that her official defection came after a wide range of consultations with friends, associates, political peers and leaders, noting that she left the LP because of an internal crisis among the leaders in the state.

    While declaring her defection, the former LP Deputy Chairman attacked the leadership of the Labour party in Oyo state, while describing the PDP presidential candidate as a unifier who will unite the country based on his political ability and experience.

    She said, “In the spirit of sincerity, love and progress, I wish to openly announce my exit and that of my followers from the Labour Party. Hundreds of my followers who believe in my political mentorship and I are also on this noble course.

    “As an advocate of peace, whose life is driven by unity of purpose, I have done all my best as the Deputy Chairperson of Labour Party in Oyo State even in the face of sheer persecution, but all went down the drain as some people in the party believed they’re powerful than the political institution with their quisling mentality.

    “As a result of this, my people and I have decided to cease our memberships henceforth with immediate effect. We strongly believe that the security of lives and properties of all Nigerians will be better guaranteed under the leadership and Government of Atiku Abubakar.”

  • Osun governorship candidates sign Peace Accord ahead of poll

    Osun governorship candidates sign Peace Accord ahead of poll

    Ahead of the July 16 governorship election in Osun state, candidates from all political parties contesting in the  election have  put pen to paper to sign a peace accord.

    National peace committee convener, Rev. Bishop Mattew Hassan Kukah, noted that violence is a fundamental threat to the country’s democracy.

    He, however, charged the aspirants and politicians to see the signing of the peace accord as a symbolic commitment to democracy adding that Nigeria desperately needs a peaceful environment.

    Also speaking, the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu appealed to all political parties, candidates and other actors to play their part in supporting the Peace Accord. It is not enough to simply sign the Peace Accord.

    Speaking on the peace accord earlier in the week, the chairman of the National Peace Committee(NPC) and former Head of State, General Abdusalami Abubakar (rtd), urged all aspirants to exhibit good attitude on election day.

    Abubakar also called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC)  and all stakeholders to consolidate on the success of the recently held Ekiti State governorship poll.

    He equally appealed to the electorate to come out en masse, exercising their civic rights to vote, without fear of violence and with the understanding that the structures for growth are dependent on peace, and also expressed concern over the growing trend of vote-buying.

    The NPC further called on all stakeholders in the traditional institutions, media, and civil society to be alert to their responsibilities as envoys of democratic values which are the means to attaining good governance, resulting in the nation’s collective growth and development.

    “The INEC, the elections ombudsman, security agencies, and other government agencies that facilitate the conduct of the electoral process should do so with transparency, particularly because the entire nation and the world are watching. All contestants – irrespective of their political platform, should be treated with fairness and equity. We call on INEC and the security agencies to ensure inclusivity, facilitating an electoral exercise where the electorate is not disenfranchised because of gender, religious beliefs, ethnic affiliation, or disability.

    ” It is important that public trust in the process is continually built and reinforced through free, credible, and transparent elections in the state. We particularly urge that appropriate procedure are implemented to ensure the unhealthy and seemingly pervasive practice of voter inducement, commonly called “vote-buying”. The law in all its capacity and requirements should be applied to those involved in such a criminal act, both the buyer and seller,” Abubakar added.

  • Nigerian politicians no longer interested in solving security challenges, their attention focused on 2023 polls – CAN

    Nigerian politicians no longer interested in solving security challenges, their attention focused on 2023 polls – CAN

    The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has called on Nigerians to pray for God’s mercy in 2022.

    In a New Year message signed on Friday by CAN President Samson Ayokunle, the group said Nigerians irrespective of their religious affiliations should “cry for the mercy of God” that can preserve the nation and bring an end to all insecurity.

    “I call on all Nigerians, irrespective of their religious affiliations, to rise up and cry for the mercy of God that can preserve us and bring an end to all these pains. It appears as if our governments have got to their wit end over the menace of insecurity. Their major focus now is on the 2023 general election. Can the 2023 election happen if the nation is overrun by criminals? Our nation must survive first and be at peace before an election can take place.

    “Except for the mercy of God to intervene divinely and miraculously, we would be like Sodom and Gomorrah. It is only God who can make the 2023 general election a reality. It is only God in his own way who can teach our leaders the right step to take. It is only God who can send us help from above. Because of the desperate situation, we are in, some governors are already calling for self-defence and declaration of the state of emergency! This is unprecedented,” the statement read in part.

    Looking back to the activities of 2021, Ayokunle said, “Glory be to our God who helps us to escape all dangers and threats of the Year 2021 occasioned by the criminal activities of the bandits, terrorists, kidnappers and other unscrupulous elements amidst us.”

    “2021 was one year too many as a result of the ways and manners these criminals have been operating with impunity as if this is not the country, we have been all these years. It is as if they have taken over the country. They invade communities, markets, churches, and schools. They kill, maim, destroy, and kidnap without much resistance or hindrance.

    “They have turned our roads into death traps where they now kidnap for money, apparently due to the poor conditions of our roads and suddenly kidnapping has become a big business as the innocent people are being kidnapped and ransom in millions are being demanded and paid.

    “Families of kidnapped people are at the mercy of the criminals! Some were not even fortunate as they were killed after the ransom has been paid! Our security agencies have been overstretched and the best done by our government is far from being enough if we must say the truth without deceiving ourselves. The Police have been parading the arrested kidnappers on the television but surprisingly, it appears as if they are too busy with their investigations to prosecute them!,” the CAN President lamented.

    He stressed further that the call for help from the developed world and the United Nations over rising insecurity got little attention as “they seem to be more occupied and busier with COVID-19 than pay attention to the daily destruction of lives going on in Nigeria.”

    He called on denominational and church leaders to use the opportunity of the New Year Fasting and Prayers programme of churches to rescue Nigeria from those who are hell-bent on destroying it by deliberately praying for the mercy of God over our unfortunate situation.

    “For the Lord, our God is a merciful God. He will not leave us or allow these heartless criminals to destroy us. We serve a God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

    “It was in His mercy that He rescued the family of Noah against the Great Flood; He delivered Lot and his family in Sodom and Gomorrah shortly before the destruction of those cities. By his mercy, he delivered Israel from Egyptian captivity without Israel fighting any battle. The list of God’s merciful intervention in human affairs is endless. That same God will surely have mercy on our country in Jesus’ name,” he said.

  • Insecurity: INEC voices concern over 2023 polls, says adhoc workers jittery of deployment to troubled areas

    Insecurity: INEC voices concern over 2023 polls, says adhoc workers jittery of deployment to troubled areas

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed its concern over the possibility of a challenging 2023 general elections especially as the security challenges in the country seem to be on the rise.

    According to the electoral agency, the mounting security challenges and electoral impunity cannot guarantee a conducive atmosphere for the electoral process.

    INEC said the fear of deployment to conflict areas by adhoc staff is worrisome, adding that many of the over one million non-permanent workers, who participated in the 2019 polls, showed apprehension.

    Threats to peaceful elections highlighted by the commission include communal conflicts, farmer/ herder conflicts, insurgency, secessionist agitations, banditry kidnapping, and “plain criminality”.

    However, the agency assured that it would find ways of navigating through the challenges.

    INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye said the challenges are real.

    He said the country must break the circle of impunity, violence and identity theft to have peaceful polls.

    Okoye said: “There will be challenges for the 2023 elections. There will be challenges of heightened insecurity in most parts of the country and the commission must find ways and means of navigating through these challenges. These become difficult in situations where ad-hoc staff members are nervous at being deployed to conflict areas as they are not sure of their security.

    “The country must also break the cycle of impunity accentuated by electoral violence and make our elections as civil as possible. The commission must also find ways and means of populating some of the newly created Polling Units. The commission will therefore, accelerate voter education around the communities and also engage in batch transfer of voters.

    “There is also the challenge of trust and confidence in the electoral process. The commission has increasingly deepened democracy through the use of technology and those that are engaged in multiple voting and identity theft will have a hard time during the 2023 general elections.

    “There are different dimensions to the security challenges in the country. We have communal conflicts, we have farmers/ herders conflicts, we have insurgency, we have secessionist agitations, we have serious cases of banditry, we have breaches of territorial integrity of the country, we have cases of kidnapping and plain criminality in different parts of the country.

    “The commission has offices in the 774 local government areas of the country and we have information on the different problems and challenges in the country.

    “The law gives the commission the power to do all that is possible to enable persons displaced by one challenge or the other to vote. We will remain confident and courageous and maintain robust consultation and engagement with the security agencies in degrading security challenges in the country.

    “INEC has been conducting elections in difficult and challenging circumstances. Presently, we have 176,846 polling units in the country and these polling units must be serviced during elections.”

    Okoye, who recalled that 73 political parties participated in the 2019 elections, said new parties may be registered while some existing ones may be deregistered.

    He added: “During the 2019 general elections, the Commission engaged over a million ad-hoc staff and these staff must be deployed, their allowances paid and they must be housed.

    “As you know, a total of 73 political parties fielded candidates during the 2019 general elections, and the commission printed ballot papers and result sheets for 84 million registered voters.

    “The commission also registered and created polling units for Internally Displaced Persons in various parts of the country and made sure that they voted during the election.

    ”The management and organisation of a political party is a serious venture. In Nigeria, and as far as the commission is concerned, all political parties are equal and have the same incidents of registration.

    “The fact of application does not automatically result in registration. A political association wanting to transmute to a political party must satisfy constitutional, legal, and administrative requirements.

    “Only associations that satisfy that qualifying threshold will be registered. The commission also has the constitutional and legal right to deregister political parties that are not productive. Our resolve is to remain within the context and ambit of the law.”

  • We can’t conduct 2023 polls with N100bn, INEC chairman tells NASS committee

    We can’t conduct 2023 polls with N100bn, INEC chairman tells NASS committee

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Friday, insisted that the N100billion provision in its 2022 budget is not enough to conduct the 2023 general elections.

    This is even as the commission said the forthcoming Ekiti and Osun states Governorship elections will cost N7billion. The National Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu made this known when he defended the agency’s 2022 budget estimates before the Joint National Assembly Committee on INEC and Electoral Matters in Abuja.

    He said that the N100billion represents the first tranche of funds for the general elections and that the agency expects additional funding in the 2023 budget. Yakubu said: “The N100billion is the first tranche of funds for the 2023 general elections while N40billion is our normal budget for 2022. N189billion was appropriated for the 2019 general elections. So, it cannot be N100billion only for 2023. We are already in touch with the Federal Ministry of Finance on the additional requirements for the 2023 general elections.

    “Either we come to the National Assembly to defend the budget before the committee or we would do what we did in 2019 when the executive just submitted the proposal to the National Assembly and we came to defend it. We would need more money because we’ve expanded our polling units and we are introducing new technology for elections among many other new innovations. The number of registered voters will increase beyond the 84 million for the 2019 general elections.

    “Some of the things we needed would require four months, some five months while some would require seven months. We will start early preparations now that we have the money early enough and we will just procure sensitive materials for the election. We hired 34, 000 vehicles for the 2019 elections so we have plans to also outsource the material distribution in 2023 because we cannot afford the cost of buying such huge number of vehicles and engage the drivers that would drive them.

    On the breakdown of INEC’s N40billion budget proposal for 2022, Yakubu said: “Electoral operational and administrative cost is N23.3bn, Election technology cost is N61.1bn, Electoral capital cost is N15.4bn. Electoral operational and recurrent cost (conduct of polls) is N7.3bn for the procurement of non-sensitive materials and logistics. We also budgeted N7bn for the conduct of Ekiti and Osun governorship election including the possibility of runoffs. We made a provision of N2.6bn for Ekiti State with a population of over one million registered voters and N4.4bn for Osun with 30 local government areas. We are earmarking N4.2bn for the continuous registration exercise in 2,700 centres.”

    He said the Commission will expend the sum of N169million for monitoring of party congresses and campaign activities. “I am not sure it would be adequate. We are monitoring party congresses and primaries right from the ward levels by direct means. We have 8,809 wards and 18 political parties. We have types of elections. Presidential, senatorial, House of Representatives, and States constituency primaries. If they would be done by direct means, we have to make preparations for it. We have 993 state constituencies, so, if parties are going to nominate their candidates we are going to monitor in all the locations – 109 senatorial districts, 360 House of Representatives and 28 governorship elections because eight are being conducted off season. We will monitor party primaries for the nomination of candidates in over 1,400 constituencies so the cost would be enormous.”

    The Commission, according to him has earmarked the sum of N2billion for litigation and prosecution. “This has become a real burden on the commission. In the last 27 elections we have conducted, none has been successfully litigated in court including Edo and Ondo. There are more litigations arising from the conduct of party primaries,” he said. He added that voter education and enlightenment around new polling units recently created and its new innovations would cost N1billion.