TheNewsGuru

Tag: guber polls

  • INEC extends voters registration in Ondo, Edo

    INEC extends voters registration in Ondo, Edo

    The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) on Monday extended the Continuous Voter Registration, CVR for the forthcoming gubernatorial elections in Edo and Ondo states.

    The extension will only last for four days.

    Sam Olumekun, the National Commissioner & Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, in a statement, said the Commission took the decision after its meeting on Tuesday.

    He said the CVR, which was scheduled to end Wednesday, June 5, has been extended to Sunday, June 9, 2024.

    Apart from the extension the electoral body also extended the duration of the exercise from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm daily.

    It added that the number of centres for the registration has also been increased to enable eligible voters to register for the election, stressing that 36 local government offices in the two states have been included.

    “More machines will also be deployed to areas identified to have peculiar needs such as difficult terrain or communal issues”, the statement added.

    The Ondo and Edo guber polls will be held in November 2024.

  • Ondo: Protesting APC youths storm party secretariat to ask for cancelation of guber primary election

    Ondo: Protesting APC youths storm party secretariat to ask for cancelation of guber primary election

    Placards carrying protesters bearing various inscriptions such as “Ondo APC rejects Kangaroo primary election,” “No primary held in Ondo,” and “We want a fresh election,” among others stormed the APC secretariat in Ondo state to ask for fresh guber primary elections.

    The party youths stormed the APC secretariat same day  aggrieved aspirants were having a meeting with the National Working Committee  NWC of the party as they were being appealed to  so they can reconcile and support the declared winner, Aiyedatiwa ahead of the governorship election holding in November.

    The leader of the protesters, who is also a party youth leader in Akure South, Kolawole Johnson, declared that only a rerun election could pacify their people back home in Ondo.

    Addressing journalists

    In his address to newsmen on Thursday in Akure concerning the issue, Johnson  appealed to President Bola Tinubu and other party leaders to prevail upon the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to inaugurate a new election committee chairman to oversee the fresh poll.

    He posited that:  “How can you claim to ratify the outcome of a primary and declare a candidate? It indicates foul play. Ondo is APC, and APC is Ondo State. We won’t sit idly by and allow opposition parties to seize Ondo from us.

    “That’s why we urge the party to annul the primary. There must be a rerun, and we demand a new person to lead the committee overseeing us. What occurred was not a primary election; it was the sale of the APC ticket. We demand a rerun because we are dissatisfied with the process.

    “We, therefore, implore President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to intervene in this matter. We cannot allow the opposition to assume control of Ondo State.”

  • Ondo 2024: INEC reveals political parties that will partake in polls

    Ondo 2024: INEC reveals political parties that will partake in polls

    The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) has revealed that 19 political parties will be participating in the November 16 governorship election in Ondo State.

    This was made known by the Ondo State Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Mrs Oluwatoyin Babalola, saying that the political parties have notified the Commission of their readiness to participate in the poll.

    Speaking during a meeting with the representatives of political parties in Akure, Babalola added that the parties have notified the Commission about the conduct of their primaries for the governorship election.

    She added that All Progressives Congress, APC, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Accord Party, Action Alliance, African Action Congress, African Democratic Congress, ADC, African Democratic Party, ADP and All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA.

    Others are Allied Peoples Movement, APM, Action Peoples Party, Boot Party, Labour Party, LP, New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, National Rescue Movement, Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, Social Democratic Party, SDP, Youth Party, Young Progressives Party, YPP and Zenith Labour Party, ZLP are the 19 political parties duly registered for the polls.

    Babalola noted that the meeting was an opportunity to engage with political parties on the upcoming party primaries, adding that the role of political parties in ensuring the success and integrity of the process cannot be overemphasized.

    She tasked all parties to adhere strictly to their guidelines, rules, and the regulations in their constitutions in the conduct of their primaries next month.

    The commissioner advised parties to entrench the principle of internal democracy in the conduct of their primaries to reduce tension, division and pre-election cases that may arise after the conduct of the primaries.

    Babalola charged them to ensure that their primaries are conducted in a peaceful, orderly, and transparent manner to ensure the credibility of the outcomes.

  • Guber Polls: President Tinubu calls for free, fair elections in Imo, Bayelsa, Kogi

    Guber Polls: President Tinubu calls for free, fair elections in Imo, Bayelsa, Kogi

    Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu has called on the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidates for the November 11 election to give room for a free and fair process.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) would conduct governorship election in Bayelsa, Kogi, and Imo states on November 11.

    While Timipre Sylva is representing APC in Bayelsa State, Governor Hope Uzodinma is the party’s flagbearer in Imo State. Usman Ododo is APC’s candidate in Kogi State.

    However, Tinubu appealed to the APC candidates to ensure the November 11 governorship election is free, fair and credible.

    Jagaban as President Tinubu is fondly called made this call e on Thursday in Abuja.

    Tinubu said: “All I am pleading for is for free and fair election. I believe we will do well.”

    He expressed optimism about the party’s chances at the off-cycle election.

    He said that the collective efforts of the party officials and supporters, coupled with

  • Guber Polls: Labour Party will win Imo state – Peter Obi boasts

    Guber Polls: Labour Party will win Imo state – Peter Obi boasts

    The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi has boasted that his party will win the November 11 governorship election in Imo State, saying that the party is known for performance and excellence.

    Obi made this known in Owerri, the State capital, on Tuesday, during the flag off of the party’s gubernatorial campaign.

    He added that the people of Abia State now have hope and are witnessing good governance because a “first-class brain” who knows what he is doing is now the governor of the State.

    He described the LP governorship candidate, Athan Achonu, as the only candidate of the party in Imo State, and Julius Abure, as the only duly recognized and authentic national chairman of the party, describing the process that produced Achonu as the party’s governorship candidate as credible.

    “LP wants to change Nigeria. We are asking Nigeria for the opportunity. Give us a chance in Nigeria, there will be change. In Abia State today, there is hope, that is what is called governance.

    “We want Nigeria to have leaders that will do what they preach. We know what it takes to change Nigeria. That is why we are here. We know what it takes to change Imo,” he said.

    The 2023 Imo State gubernatorial election will take place on 11 November 2023 due to the belated inauguration of incumbent Governor Hope Uzodinma in 2020.

  • Guber election 2023: Why Deltans rejected Omo-Agege

    Guber election 2023: Why Deltans rejected Omo-Agege

    By Akpomudiare Justin

    On March 18th 2023, when the people of Delta State went out to vote for a civilian governor, the greater majority may have heeded the advice of an erudite French poet who urged that virtuous minds should actively and vigorously scorn the vices that wicked minds stimulate, it was therefore not surprising that the majority of voters in Delta state rejected Senator Ovie Omo- Agege, the face behind the stealing of the national symbol of Legislative authority in the National Assembly in full glare of a global audience. Furthermore, voters in Delta State have several other reasons for an outright rejection of Senator Omo Agege that bear further explication.

    At first there were some Deltans who were willing to embrace the democratic notion of such a politician entering the race for the highest office in Delta state, if only in the hope that reelection concerns might motivate other political actors to behave in the voters’ best interest, but the entry of Senator Ovie- Omo Agege into the race further allowed closer scrutiny of his public records. Under public scrutiny it was unearthed that he had a fuzzy and shady past record in the United States of America where he was reportedly disbarred from practicing Law in the United States of American for an offence he committed in 1995 which involved a case of forgery and fraud for which he was charged in the Los Angelese County Superior Court with case number BA111331hich indicated in the charge sheet that on or about March 7, 1992 h3 committed the crime of forgery of check in violation of Penal Code section 470, felony. Where he signed a check in the name of Elpert Defrietas in the amount of $890 and attempted to pass the said check as a true and genuine check knowing that the check was forged with the intent to defraud the Bank of America, Ahined Mahome and Elpert Defrietas among other counts. He was convicted for Forgery on November 30, 1995 and in April 12, 1998 the state bar court issued an order suspending him from practicing Law in Carlifornia for two year effective May 30, 1996.

    Many Deltans were keenly aware, unlike in the United States where he could not escape accountability and the Law that he escaped accountability in Nigeria owing to the protection he received from his principals and the reward he received for debasing democracy, receiving the position of a Deputy Senate President for stealing the national legislative mase in the chamber of the national Assembly, he thus became a poster boy for all the policy missteps and governance mishaps of the APC regime in the eyes of Deltans, the failings of the Government became his failings, and they were ample; such as the Naira Re- design a policy that brought so much anguish to voters that they took unabated into the polling units.

    The hardship of the naira re-design was accompanied by many others, including unrelenting fuel queues, the severe insecurity of lives and property where many Deltans could not farm or fish in their homelands, while those who harmed them were protected by the same people that Omo-Agege served and venerated. By all metrics, it was clear to all Deltans that voting for Omo-Age was like bringing the ant-infested wood into the Government House in Delta state.

    While, these burdens weighed heavily on Senator Omo-Agege with respect to accountability, which is requirement that elected leaders or public officials have to answer to the common citizens regarding their actions, decisions or indecisions during the time they are or were occupants of the public offices, the test for transparency, which is allow for public scrutiny of what a public official did or does in and out of public office, was even a more difficult test for Senator Omo-Agege; many Nigerians and particularly Deltans were shocked that Ovie Omo-agege voted against E-transmission of polling units results using BVAS after boasting and lying to the whole world that he single-handedly wrote the 2022 Act. Having claimed to have authored the Act he vehemently and publicly voted against the most important part of the Act that the public yearned for.

    Furthermore, although he was voted into the Senate to represent the entire Delta Central Senatorial Area, he concentrated most of the constituency benefits he obtained from the office in his home town Orogun, which in the annals of Urhobo history contrasted completely from the template of even development for Urhoboland which the foremost urhobo leader, late Chief

    Mukoro Mowoe demonstrated, when he influenced the location of Eku hospital Urhobo College and the Government College Ughelli which spread development even across the length and breadth of the community.

    Like the community, individuals were not also spared his narcissistic venom, Urhobos and Deltans alike who could have been helped to attain higher pedestals were set back by the personal ambitions and vengeful desires of Omo-Agege to be the pre-eminent and only force in Delta, both, strong grounds for this premise is laid by reports that he lobbied against excellent performers from Delta state including , Sir Richard Odibo: who after his nomination for the position of National commissioner for the Board of Census Commission, he clandestinely instigated petitions to have him removed until other Deltans strongly intervened to block his petition; he was similarly involved in lobbies against illustrious Delta sons such as Barr. Mike lgini that Nigerians have generally acknowledged and applauded for his incorruptibility competence and integrity throughout his service in INEC; within the political patronage circles that elevated him, he turned his back against Great Ogboru, the force of whose political whirlpool swept him into political prominence and in the same way he turned his back against Chief Joe Omene whom he described as an insurgent leader after riding on his support.

    It therefore did not come as a surprise that he was rejected at the polls by most Deltans because of his personal, community and national failings, indeed,Senator Omo-Agege was never really a serious contender for the position of governor of Delta state, his opportunistic dalliance in the APC could not deceive the Delta people who knew him well for what he truly stands for, a man that stimulates scorn due to his many vices.

    Dr Akpomudiare Justin
    Writes from Ughelli in Delta state

  • UK lists observations on March 18 elections

    UK lists observations on March 18 elections

    The UK Government has listed its observations during the March 18 Governorship and House of Assembly elections across Benue, Enugu, Kano, Lagos, Oyo and Rivers states.

    This was disclosed in a statement issued by Atinuke Akande-Alegbe, Senior Communications and Public Diplomacy Officer at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, British High Commission, on Wednesday.

    It said that a team was sent out by the British High Commission to observe the elections.

    According to the Commission, they observed improvements around elections logistics by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) during the governorship elections, particularly when compared to the presidential elections.

    It said more polling units opened on time, there was greater evidence of BVAS and IREV working and results uploaded in real time from polling units and collation centres.

    It said these were positive markers to build on for future elections.

    The commission, however, said there were notable points of concern, adding that members of the observation mission personally noticed violence and voter suppression in numerous voting locations.

    “We witnessed and received credible reports from other observer missions and civil society organisations of vote buying, voter intimidation, hijacking of election materials and the general disruption of the process in numerous states including Lagos, Enugu and Rivers.

    “In addition, we observed incidents of harassment of journalists. Freedom of speech and a free press are crucial for a healthy democracy, and journalists must be able to go about their work without being threatened,” it said.

    The commission said that the UK was concerned by the use of inflammatory ethno-religious language by some public and political figures.

    The UK called on all leaders not just to distance themselves from this kind of language, but to prevent those who speak on their behalf from doing so in this way.

    The commission said it was a testament to their commitment to democracy that many Nigerians were prepared to vote in spite of being faced with intimidation and hostility.

    The UK Minister of State for Development and Africa, Andrew Mitchell MP, was quoted as saying on Feb. 21 that the UK was prepared to take action against those who engage in or incite electoral violence and other anti-democratic behaviours.

    Mitchell said the action could include preventing people from obtaining UK visas or imposing sanctions under their human rights sanctions regime.

    The UK minister said there was confirmation of collating relevant information, with a view to taking action against some individuals.

    “We urge any party or individual who wishes to challenge the process or outcome of the elections to do so peacefully and through the appropriate legal channels. We will be observing the course of legal challenges made.

    “The 2023 elections are not only important to Nigeria and Nigerians, but to Africa and the world as a whole.

    “As a long-term partner, the UK is committed to strengthening the ties between our countries and peoples, including by supporting democratic development,” the commission said.

  • Guber polls: U.S to impose visa sanctions on election offenders

    Guber polls: U.S to impose visa sanctions on election offenders

    The United States Government says it will impose visa sanctions and available actions on those who undermined the Gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly elections held on March 18.

    The Public Affairs Department of the U.S. Embassy in Abuja disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.

    This is also as the U.S government urged the Nigerian authorities to hold accountable and bring to justice any individuals found to have ordered or carried out efforts to intimidate voters and suppress voting during the election process.

    The statement read “Nigeria carried out the second round of its electoral process with gubernatorial and state assembly elections on March 18.

    “The United States is deeply troubled by the disturbing acts of violent voter intimidation and suppression that took place during those polls in Lagos, Kano and other states.

    “Members of the U.S. diplomatic mission observed the elections in Lagos and elsewhere and witnessed some of these incidents first-hand.

    “The use of ethnically charged rhetoric before, during, and after the gubernatorial election in Lagos was particularly concerning.

    “We commend all Nigerian political actors, religious and community leaders, youth, and citizens who have chosen to reject and speak out against such violence and inflammatory language, affirming Nigerians’ commitment to and respect for the democratic process.

    “We call on Nigerian authorities to hold accountable and bring to justice any individuals found to have ordered or carried out efforts to intimidate voters and suppress voting during the election process.

    “The United States likewise will consider all available actions, including additional visa restrictions, on individuals believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic process in Nigeria.”

    According to the Embassy, following the Feb. 25 national elections, the United States joined other international observers in urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to improve voting processes and technical elements that experienced flaws in that voting round.

    The Embassy stated that the March 18 elections appeared to have had significant operational improvements, as polling stations generally opened on time and most results were visible on an electronic viewing platform in a timely manner.

    “The United States renews its call for any challenges to election results to go through established legal processes, which must not be interfered with.

    “We further call on Nigerians to work together as they participate in and continue to strengthen the country’s vibrant democracy,” the Embassy stated.

  • Guber Polls: PDP’s Mutwang elected governor of Plateau state

    Guber Polls: PDP’s Mutwang elected governor of Plateau state

    The Peoples Democratic Party  PDP guber candidate in Plateau State, Caleb Mutfwang has been declared the winner of the Saturday election.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC made the declaration on Monday.

    The INEC Presiding Officer, Musa Yusuf, after collating the votes scored by parties in the elections, said Mutfwang had the highest votes beating the All Progressives Candidate, Nentawe Yilwatda.

    Details Later….

  • Guber Polls: Funke Akindele reacts to election loss on Instagram

    Guber Polls: Funke Akindele reacts to election loss on Instagram

    Famous Nollywood actress cum politician, Funke Akindele has reacted to the loss of her party during the just concluded gubernatorial election in Lagos state.

    The actress deleted all political-related posts shared on her Instagram page prior to the elections.

    Akindele, the running mate to the Lagos State governorship candidate under the umbrella of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Abdulazeez Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, deleted the posts hours after her defeat.

    Checks show that all her political engagements during the electioneering process and photos from her campaign rallies were absent.

    This comes after the incumbent governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, defeated PDP in the just concluded March 18, 2023, gubernatorial elections.

    Sanwo Olu won with 762,134 votes, defeating the Labour Party candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, who scored 312,329, followed by Abdul-Azeez Adediran with 62,449 votes.