A large gathering of Christian Clerics and various religious faithfuls launched a 40 days prayer session on Wednesday for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari come 2019 and for lasting peace and security in Nigeria.
The gathering made up of several persons from various religious sects drawn from various parts of Nigeria said the programme was put together in order to commit the country into the hands of the Almighty as the Nation prepares for the next round of elections.
The Convener of the Prayer Session, Bishop Bishop Sunday Garuba said It is a statement of fact that before President Muhammadu Buhari assumed leadership of the country, it was on the brink of collapse.
He said these were the lot of Nigerians before God sent a helper in President Muhammadu Buhari to our rescue.
“And now, the elections are around the corner again. And in line with the excellent work carried out by President Muhammadu Buhari, the National Inter-Faith and Religious Organisations for Peace (NIFROP) is organising this 40-day prayers, tagged “Buhari Shall Come Back in 2019”
“This is especially on the heels on the grand plot by agents of darkness to take Nigeria back to the bottomless pit. But by God’s grace, that would not happen”he said
Speaking on the theme of the gathering which is “Let Nigeria be Great and Let Nigeria be Delivered.” the Bishop said, ” In the book of Exodus, we read the epic story of God’s power to free his people from slavery. In chapter 14, we get to the climax of the story: the crossing of the Red Sea. Before the people of Israel cross over the sea, they come face to face with their enemy. Their enemy is strong, and they are weak—but God is stronger.
“I, therefore, stand before you as a servant of the highest God that the enemies of Nigeria shall be defeated”he declared
He added that an array of soul-enriching activities to make the event worth the while have been lined up.
“We shall commence this programme with worship and praise by guest singers and choirs. After which we shall begin Intercessory prayer session for Nigeria, prayer session for President Buhari and his cabinet, prayer for the Nigerian troops at the war front, intercessory prayer for the upcoming General Election and peaceful conduct by all citizens, and Intercessory prayer for our dear president and his victory at the poll.
” We shall also hold a special Thanksgiving session with praises to appreciate God for the defeat of Boko Haram and the political killers who came to torment the citizens of our dear country.
“A prayer against evil men on the Plateau and other forces of evil across Nigeria that have continued to encourage bloodletting in recent times.
“There shall also be a different representation of members of the various faiths gathered, as well as messages of solidarity to the good people of Nigeria.
“Pauls letter to the Ephesians is about Gods marvellous plan to bring peace, unity and salvation to all Peoples-Jews and Gentiles alike.
“My dear brothers and sisters gathered here, we are gathered to pray and fervently. We are gathered to pray against evil forces. We are also gathered to pray for the betterment of our dear country Nigeria.
“God in his infinite mercies would make this event a huge success and also, by his grace alone President Muhammdu Buhari shall return in 2019″he said.
Tag: election
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Clerics, faithfuls launch 40-Days prayer for Buhari, Nigeria ahead of 2019 Polls
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2019: Oshiomhole dares INEC, insists APC will field candidates for elections in Zamfara
The ruling All Progressives Congress has faulted the Independent National Electoral Commission’s declaration that the party was ineligible to present candidates for the Governorship and National Assembly elections in Zamfara State, on the basis that primary elections were not held.
National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, in a letter to the INEC which he signed in Abuja, on Wednesday, said the electoral management body acted in error by basing its decision to bar the APC from presenting candidates on a false premise.
Oshiomhole said contrary to INEC claims, primaries were held in the state and candidates emerged. The APC insisted that it would present candidates for the 2019 governorship and national assembly elections and it would do so before the expiration of the INEC date for the submission of names of candidates.
Recall that INEC had in a letter written to the APC declared that the APC was ineligible to present candidates for the 2019 elections in Zamfara State.
Read Oshiomhole’s letter below:
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Ogun: Former deputy, Adesegun joins governorship race
A former deputy governor to the governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, during his first term tenure(2011 to 2015), Prince Segun Adesegun, on Friday declared his intention to contest the governorship of the state.
He made the declaration at the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Ogun State Council Secretariat, Oke Ilewo, Abeokuta.
Adesegun who had also served the state as a Commissioner for Works and Housing twice, said he made the move after consulting with the leadership of the All Progressives Congress in the state.
He said he had all the requisite experience to govern the state.
He said, “Ogun State deserves the best and having been involved at all levels, I cannot pretend not to know our problems from far-flung Imeko-Afon Local Government Area to Ijebu Waterside Local Government Area or from Ipokia Local Government Area to Odeda Local Government Area.”
Adesegun, who acknowledged that the task was huge, said he would key into the manifesto of the APC, adding that Article 7:7 of the party Constitution sought to promote social, political, economic freedom in ensuring peace, freedom, and dignity of labour.
He said to achieve this, the government must be re-structured to be more efficient through adequately compensated public service.
Adesegun added that if given the mandate to govern the state, he would invest in agriculture, improve the educational and health sectors, and revisit the Olokola project.
Talking about the zoning of the governorship slot to the Yewa-Awori, the former deputy governor rued the idea, arguing that what those canvassing such idea were doing was making pleas and not directives.
He said every zone had the right to contest the exalted position for the good of the people of the state.
He said, “I have partaken in everything in this state to know about zoning. It is just normal for people to be thinking where(which zone) the governorship slot should go.
“Ogun State is an amalgam of the Egba/Ijebu province. The government is in four divisions- Ijebu, Egba, Remo, and Yewa. People may just be thinking that because one zone has produced the governor, next time it should go to another zone.
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PDP strategizes on ‘rigging elections’ head to head with APC
The Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) said it will henceforth contend with the All Progressives Congress (APC) head to head, means to means, scheme to scheme, shenanigan for shenanigan, in all ramifications and magnitude in ‘rigging elections’.
TheNewsGuru reports the PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan made this known on Tuesday in a statement, while also stressing that beginning with the Osun State governorship election next month, the party will vehemently dismantle all APC rigging machinery.
The PDP said it has thoroughly reviewed all infractions, barefaced suppression, unleashing of violence and unabashed use of security forces and compromised electoral officers to rig elections against it since the assumption of office of President Muhammadu Buhari and vowed to never again allow the APC and the Federal Government to continue to use foul means to usurp power as it has done in the past and merely ask the PDP to go to court.
“The PDP has particularly reviewed the rigging of Edo state governorship election in 2016, the blatant rigging of the July 14, 2018 Ekiti state governorship election and the last Saturday’s federal constituency bye-elections in Bauchi, Katsina and Kogi states.
“The review shows that the PDP won in all the elections but was viciously manipulated out by the APC- controlled Federal Government through the instrumentality of violence against PDP agents and supporters, vote buying, use of thugs, ballot snatching, harassment, arrests, maiming and even killing of PDP supporters in addition to use of compromised electoral officers to cancel votes belonging to the PDP, alter results from polling centers and then return APC candidates as winners.
“Henceforth, we will vehemently dismantle all APC rigging machinery in future elections, beginning with the Osun governorship election next month.
“Now that it has become manifest to Nigerians and all parties that the APC is only interested in rigging elections brazenly, we will henceforth contend with APC, head to head, means to means, scheme to scheme, shenanigan for shenanigan, in all ramifications and magnitude, to discomfit them in all coming elections in the country.” the PDP statement read.
The statement further read: “We take very strong consideration of the open boasts and chest-thumping on the use of thugs by officials of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s presidency and the APC, particularly on their rigging of the Ekiti governorship and the federal bye-elections in Bauchi, Katsina and Kogi states, where APC thugs were allowed to freely use weapons against PDP supporters.
“This is in addition to the unholy convergence of APC governors and security goons in constituencies where elections are held to supervise the free distribution of funds to buy votes, bribe electoral officers and openly intimidate the people.
“The PDP therefore resolves that in as much as it remains a law abiding political party, conducting its affairs strictly within the ambit of our nation’s electoral laws; the party will henceforth directly and physically confront and resist the desperate and greedy power grabbers from always having a field day in seizing our democratic institutions and circumventing the rules during elections.
“Consequently, the PDP directs all its state governors, officials at state and zonal chapters, national and state assembly members and all other elected leaders at all levels to get ready to move into Osun state and provide all support necessary and germane in all the nooks and crannies of Osun state in the forthcoming election.
“Similarly, the PDP directs all its presidential aspirants to move all their political machinery into Osun State within this period, as well as get prepared to physically participate in the election process.
“Our insistence as a party is for a level playing ground, a free, fair and credible electoral process, where all votes will count just as our party provided for General Buhari in 2015, that enabled him to be elected as president.
“However, we will not accept our respect for democratic tenets to be taken as a mark of cowardice or weakness”.
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How 11-year-old Emmett Brewer hacked into replica US vote website
Emmett Brewer, an 11-year-old boy has hacked into a replica of Florida’s election results website in 10 minutes.
TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Emmett Brewer was able to change names and tallies during a hackers convention, organisers said, stoking concerns about security ahead of nationwide votes.
The boy was the quickest of 35 children, ages 6 to 17, who all eventually hacked into copies of the websites of six swing states during the three-day Def Con security convention over the weekend, the event said on Twitter on Tuesday.
Here’s the DefCon Voting Machine Hacking Village roundup of discoveries for the day! Day 1 / Part 1 pic.twitter.com/ovQs7uX7jK
— DEF CON VotingVillage (@VotingVillageDC) August 11, 2018
The event was meant to test the strength of US election infrastructure and details of the vulnerabilities would be passed onto the states, it added.
The National Association of Secretaries of State – who are responsible for tallying votes – said it welcomed the convention’s efforts. But it said the actual systems used by states would have additional protections.
“It would be extremely difficult to replicate these systems since many states utilise unique networks and custom-built databases with new and updated security protocols,” the association said.
The hacking demonstration came as concerns swirl about election system vulnerabilities before mid-term state and federal elections.
US President Donald Trump’s national security team warned two weeks ago that Russia had launched “pervasive” efforts to interfere in the November polls.
Participants at the convention changed party names and added as many as 12 billion votes to candidates, the event said.
“Candidate names were changed to ‘Bob Da Builder’ and ‘Richard Nixon’s head’,” the convention tweeted.
The convention linked to what it said was the Twitter account of the winning boy – named there as Emmett Brewer from Austin, Texas.
A screenshot posted on the account showed he had managed to change the name of the winning candidate on the replica Florida website to his own and gave himself billions of votes.
The convention’s “Voting Village” also aimed to expose security issues in other systems such as digital poll books and memory-card readers.
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APC wins Bauchi South senatorial by-election
Ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Lawal Yahaya Gumau has won the Bauchi south senatorial by-election held yesterday across seven local government areas of Bauchi state.
While declaring the results, the Returning Officer of the by-election, Professor Ahmed Sarki Fagam announced that the APC candidate polled a total of 119,489 votes out of the total number of 256,763 votes cast in the by-election.
The results further indicated that opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Ladan Saliu poled a total of 50,256 votes while the candidate of the Green Party of Nigeria (GPN) who is the immediate past Governor of the state, Isa Yuguda poled a total of 33,479 votes to emerge third.
The Returning Officer further announced that ADC polled a total of 1754 votes, APP polled a total of 11,717 votes, DA polled a total of 467 votes, KP polled a total of 240 votes, MMN polled a total of 429 while MPN polled a total of 322. Others are: PDC 1203 votes, NNPP 22,896 votes and SDP 3800 votes.
Ahmed Sarki Fagam disclosed that the total number of registered voters for the seven local government areas that make up the Bauchi senatorial district is 877,160 out of which a total of 271,703 voters were accredited for the by-election while a total of 256,763 votes were cast out of which 11,111 votes were rejected in accordance with the electoral act due to various electoral defects.
After announcing the results, he stated that “I, Professor Ahmed Sarki Fagam is the Returning Officer for the Bauchi South Senatorial By-election. That Lawal Yahaya Gumau, the candidate of the APC having polled the highest number of votes cast is hereby declared as the winner of the Bauchi South senatorial by-election and is hereby so elected.”
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Kogi bye-election: SDP candidate’s supporter stabs APC supporter to death
A supporter of the Social Democratic Party in Kogi State (names withheld) has stabbed an APC supporter in Lokoja, Yahaya Umoru to death over resistance to ballot box snatching.
Pandemonium ensued when some SDP thugs chanting “Imam must win” stormed a polling unit in Lokoja and attempted to snatch the ballot box at the Unit. APC supporters at the polling unit resisted the attempt, leading to the stabbing of Yahaya Umoru. He was confirmed dead at the hospital.
Yahaya Umoru was the son of an APC House of Assembly aspirant for Lokoja 1 Constituency and was visible throughout the electioneering in the build up to the election.
Police authorities in the state have vowed to apprehend the perpetrators of the dastardly act, urging the youth of the area to maintain calm as the long hand of the law will soon catch up with the murderer.
Sources close to the scene of the event told our reporters that the thugs were armed by one of the aspirants in the election.
“When they came, they said they were ready to kill to ensure the victory of their candidate in the election. It was unfortunate that they were able to carry out their threats.
“The Police must ensure this case is not swept under the carpet. Our politicians should desist from arming youth when their children are in good schools. I am a member of the PDP and I am not happy that we are losing the election. But I can’t kill because of anyone”.
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NBA shifts election to August 19
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has shifted its election due to commence midnight of August 6 to August 19 and August 20 due to difficulties encountered by members with the verification process.
The NBA President, Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), announced this on Monday in Abuja at a press conference.
Mr Mahmoud said the shift was due to wide spread complaints by members about the security of the verification process being undertaken by Chams Plc.
He said upon the review of the process so far, it became necessary to disaggregate the entire electoral process into three stages: pre, during and post election.
Mr Mahmoud further said it also became pertinent to appoint a new service provider to manage a more secured verification process that would strengthen the confidence of members in the electoral process.
To this effect, he said that the NBA appointed CRENET to undertake the development and deployment of sophisticated technology with high level securities to ensure that all members were duly verified.
“To ensure that our members are not disenfranchised during the electoral process, the NBA has instructed CRENET to suspend the current verification process and introduce a simplified process.
“This is to enable all outstanding members eligible to vote, but unable to verify their details to do so through a simplified form that will be made available for completion and submission online.”
He explained that based on the introduction of the new process, the electoral committee would reopen the verification process on Aug. 8.
According to him, each eligible member of the association should complete their verification form between August 8 and August 11.
The NBA boss said that the reconciliation of verified data by CRENET would be done by August 11 and August 15 while publication of the final voter list would be out by August 16.
Mr Mahmoud added that transfer and testing of the voting platform would be done on August 18 while the election proper would hold on August 19 and August 20.
The president affirmed NBA’s commitment to conduct free, fair and credible election, adding that he was aware that the election ought to hold in July but the shift would be rectified by congress.
He said Chams had so far verified 5,500 members who were not to take part in the fresh verification to be done by CRENET.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the NBA Electoral Committee, Auwalu Yadudu has refuted reports that he had resigned his position as chairman of the electoral committee.
Mr Yadudu denied authoring the resignation letter which had his signature, adding that it was forged by mischief makers.
He said the NBA would investigate and punish those responsible for issuing and publishing the purported resignation letter.
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Zimbabwe opposition leader, Chamisa rejects ‘fake’ election results
Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Nelson Chamisa on Friday slammed the “fake results” of the country’s historic election that returned incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa to power.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s “scandal of releasing unverified fake results is regrettable,” the 40-year-old leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said on Twitter.
“ZEC denied our election agent access to results be4 announcement. ZEC must release proper & verified results endorsed by parties,” Chamisa tweeted.
Results released overnight Thursday gave Mnangagwa 50.8 percent of the vote and Chamisa 44.3 per cent.
While Mnangagwa welcomed the results and called for peace, Chamisa rejected the outcome outright.
“The level of opaqueness, truth deficiency, moral decay & values deficit is baffling,” the MDC leader said.
During the televised presentation of the results, Chamisa’s spokesman attempted to give a speech but was heckled and booed offstage by locals who said they wanted to hear from the commission.
Harare – which voted heavily for Chamisa – was quiet Friday with no signs of celebration.
There had been an uneasy calm in the city since a brutal crackdown on protesters by security forces on Monday, in which six people were killed.
The poll was the first in almost four decades without longtime leader Robert Mugabe on the ballot.
Mugabe, 94, had grown increasingly unpopular for his repressive rule and the country’s economic malaise.
He was ousted in a military coup in November and replaced by erstwhile ally Mnangagwa.
“This is a new beginning. Let us join hands, in peace, unity & love, & together build a new Zimbabwe for all!” Mnangagwa tweeted after winning.
dpa/NAN
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Mali presidential poll mostly peaceful – UN peacekeeping wing
The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations said that Sunday’s presidential election in Mali was conducted in most part of the country in a peaceful manner.
The UN department said it hoped that the vote tally would be held in a transparent manner leading to results acceptable by all.
Incumbent President Ibrahim Keïta is seeking a second and final five-year term.There are 23 other presidential candidates, including Soumaila Cisse who faced him in a run-off in the last election, former Prime Minister Modibo Sidibe, Dramane Dembele, retired Brig.-Gen. Moussa Sinko Coulibaly, and a woman candidate, Djeneba N’Diaye.
About eight million people were eligible to vote in the election and a candidate must get more than 50 per cent of the vote to win.
If not, a run-off would be held between the two candidates with the most votes, while the winner of the run-off only needs a sim
However, a number of violent incidents and other difficulties prevented voting from taking place in 644 of 4,632 polling stations in the north and centre of the country, according to the Government.In addition, the UN Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) reported that on Sunday afternoon, unidentified armed men launched 10 mortar shells against the MINUSMA camp in Aguelhok, Kidal Region.
It said no casualties or damage was reported as a MINUSMA Quick Reaction Force and other security personnel already patrolling outside the city were dispatched to the area.The UN peacekeeping mission in the country had been providing logistical support to the Government, especially in the restive north and centre, where an alliance of militant Islamists and Tuareg rebels have been launching attacks with increasing frequency and ferocity against government troops and UN peacekeepers.
When Keïta was elected in 2013, his administration replaced a transitional government which had wrested back control – with international support – of the outlying regions following a failed coup, that saw the iconic and ancient city of Timbuktu occupied by militants.
Dozens of UN peacekeepers have made the ultimate sacrifice defending Mali’s fragile recovery in recent years.
On Friday, the head of UN mission, Mahamat Annadif, said that while tensions were high and the threat of attacks persisted, the result had to be respected if democratic rule was to be viewed as “irreversible”.The mission has been providing transportation to candidates, training and support for officials involved in the democratic process, and distributed 200 tonnes of electoral material, mainly to remote areas where the political process is most vulnerable to abuse, and voters are most likely to feel intimidated going to the polls.