By John Fanimokun In April this year, ahead of the May 29 inauguration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a US-based Nigerian fiction writer, Chimamanda Adichie wrote an open letter to the United States President, Joe Biden basically complaining to him or if you like, chastising him for allowing the US State Department to congratulate then President-elect Bola Tinubu and accusing the US of being compromised! Chimamanda alleged that the elections were flawed and that President Bola Tinubu was not the actual winner of the February 25 presidential election. Her reason? INEC ‘reneged’…
Author: Michael Chibuzo
By Michael Chibuzo A day after the Supreme Court delivered judgment in the appeals filed by the candidates of the PDP and the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Mr. Peter Obi respectively, a retiring Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad has unleashed a parting salvo at the Supreme Court and by extension the entire judiciary. During a valedictory speech as he bowed out of the apex court, Justice Dattijo made some damning verdicts about the institution he has spent 40 years of his career in lamenting that the Nigerian judiciary has…
When people hear NIPOST, their minds naturally get fixated on letters, mails and delivery of documents. Few also link the Nigerian Postal Service to purchase of postage stamps. With the great advancement in information and communication technology that revolutionised the way we communicate, it appeared as if the end of post offices was in sight. In Nigeria, NIPOST naturally went on an inevitable decline with the era of P.O. Box strolling towards extinction. But post offices in other parts of the world especially the developed world are evolving to keep up with the changing times. In the UK for…
Shortly after dismissing the appeal by PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar alongside his motion to tender fresh evidence, the Supreme Court has now dismissed the appeal filed by Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party Presidential candidate for lack of merit. The seven-member panel of the Supreme court led by Inyang Okoro summarily dismissed the appeal saying the appeal raised substantially the same issues in Atiku Abubakar’s was which was earlier dismissed by the court. The court also said in its unanimous judgement that the only different issue in Mr Obi’s appeal, which is the allegation of double nomination of…
The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal filed by Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the PDP for lacking merit and upheld the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal dismissing the petition of Atiku. The lead judgment was read by Honourable Justice Okoro and resolved all the issues raised for determination in the Appeal against the appellants. It further affirmed the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In a ruling before the judgment on the Substantive appeal, the Supreme Court denied the application of Atiku Abubakar urging the…
The Supreme Court has ruled that scoring 25% of the votes cast in the FCT is not a mandatory requirement to be declared winner of a presidential election. This is contained in the lead judgment being read by Justice Inyang Okoro in the appeal filed by Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi challenging the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The PDP presidential candidate, Atiku in his grounds of appeal before the supreme Court argued that the lower court erred when they declared that President Bola Tinubu does not necessarily have to score at least 25% of the votes cast in…
The Supreme Court has ruled that the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission to transmit the election results on the INEC Result Viewing Portal did not affect the outcome of the presidential election. While delivering the lead judgment in the appeal filed by Atiku Abubakar, Justice Okoro said, “When IReV fails, it does not stop the collation of the results. It deprives people of viewing results. The nonfunction will affect the trust of the electorates in the election. “Unavailability of IReV cannot be a ground for the election to be nullified. “The failure did not affect the outcome of…
The Supreme Court has described the attempt by the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar to present fresh evidence at the appellate level in his case against the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a joke. The Supreme Court panel while ruling on the motion filed by Atiku Abubakar to admit what it described as “fresh evidence proving certificate forgery by President Bola Tinubu as contained in the deposition by the Registrar of Chicago State University, Caleb Westberg”, stated that it cannot accept fresh evidence at this level since Atiku failed to raise it at the lower court.…
Following the publishing of a recorded video broadcast on the social media platform X by a popular fake news merchant, David Hundeyin alleging that the Nigerian government had sent a military jet to Ghana to forcefully render him back to Nigeria, it has emerged that the Ghana Refugee Board on 1st October, 2023 wrote a letter to Hundeyin, who is on self-exile in Ghana dispelling such claims. On 21st September 2023, Mr. Hundeyin took to his X handle (formerly twitter) and posted a video recording where he claimed that the federal government was putting pressure on the Ghanaian government…
On 21st August, 2023, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo strolled into the office complex of the Federal Ministry of Interior to kick start what may be correctly described as the fastest and most visible transformation of a government ministry, department or agency in Nigeria’s recent history. In his maiden interaction with the heads of agencies and parastatals under his ministry, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo was blunt about his mission. He said, “I am here to work, but in working we must have a good environment. The work of this ministry affects everyone, whether you are rich or poor. I am here to…