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Tinubu’s dual citizenship, perjury, drug case a waste of time – Aondoaka
Nothing will come out of the issue of Tinubu obtaining the passport of Guinea, which makes him a citizen of the West African nation and a dual national of both Nigeria and the country, as well as the allegation of perjury following it as both factors can no longer be part of the on-going cases at the election petition tribunal against him over the February 25 presidential election.
The victory of Tinubu, who was declared the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on March 1, and expected to assume office on May 29, is being challenged by both Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) in the same election.
Weighing on the matter, Michael Aondoakaa, former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF-MoJ), on Tuesday maintained that it would be a waste of time for anyone to pursue both grounds as a basis for ending Tinubu’s victory, saying it would at best be a wild goose chase, given the Nigerian laws.
A guest on The Morning Show, a breakfast programme on Arise Television, Aondoakaa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), argued that dual citizenship could not disqualify Tinubu as long as it was proven that he was born a Nigerian citizen, while perjury, apart from being difficult to prove, was not a ground for electoral petition.
Hear him: “Perjury is not a ground of a petition. The grounds of a petition are contained in the constitution and the electoral act and I want to point it out to you that if the grounds exist in the electoral act, which are in conflict with in qualification or disqualification, in the constitution, that of the electoral act would be of no moment.
“Of course, the electoral act has not introduced any other ground except the grounds of qualification and disqualification as contained in the constitution. Perjury is not there and therefore there is nothing you can do about it.
Apparently alluding to Tinubu’s alleged drug case, the former Minister argued that anyone convicted in a criminal matter would be eligible to contest election after 10 years under the Nigerian constitution, implying that even if Tinubu was convicted of drug offences that made him forfeit $460,000, he would still be eligible to contest the election.
“The criminality specified in the constitution, which relates to dishonesty relates to a period of 10 years, whether convicted in a Nigerian court or anywhere. If you’re serving a jail term, the 10 years grace is not applicable because you cannot come from prison to contest to be a President. But if after the conviction, 10 years has elapsed, you can still come and contest.
“You cannot expand anything that is contained in the constitution as a requirement for contesting an election of the presidential or any election conducted by INEC. You cannot subtract anything from disqualification. That is the position of the law. When the constitution specifies condition-precedent, you cannot come and introduce another extreneous matter. It must be there.
“If there is condition specified in the constitution, you cannot add. So, perjury is not one of the grounds. I give you an instance. People were being disqualified on the ground of not paying tax. But when the matter went to the Supreme Court, it held that that was not a requirement, all those judgements were upturned because that was not a requirement.
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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