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Why we’re staying away from APC parley – Buhari, Osinbajo
Former President, Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, both stayed away from the National Caucus meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC), scheduled for August 2 and 3, the first the party would be holding since winning the 2023 presidential election, which produced Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President.
Buhari and Tinubu, had changed the baton on May 29, with Osinbajo doing the same with incumbent VP, Kashim Shettima, even though their declaration as winners of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission is being challenged by both Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT), in Abuja.
The party, which also called for the National Executive committee (NEC) meetings on Thursday August 3, at the Transcorp Hilton, had earlier held the NCM, at the Presidential Villa on Wednesday.
But Buhari, who spoke through Garba Shehu, his spokesman in office, had notified the party, on Wednesday, of his inability to attend the meeting due to commitments he earlier made, while sending his apologies.
The statement, said: “Former President Muhammadu Buhari has explained his inability to be present at the caucus meeting and the National Executive Committee (NEC), meetings of the All Progressives Congress, APC, to which he has been invited. He has conveyed his apologies, indicating that he is unable to attend due to commitments earlier made.
“The former President used the opportunity to express his support and commitment to the party, at the same time wishing it a good meeting, as the leaders take decisions on issues of importance to the party and the nation.”
Osinbajo, in a statement through Laolu Akande, his spokesman said he absent from the parley, because he was out of Nigeria for some engagements to which he had long been committed, but reaffirmed his commitment to the party.
He said: “In a letter of apology for his absence addressed to the Acting Chairman of the party (Abubakar Kyari), the former VP explained that he was already abroad for engagements to which he had long been committed, when he received the invitation to the meeting,” the statement partly read.
“He had in fact cancelled some of his engagements abroad to be available for the two previously scheduled caucus meetings of the party which had to be postponed due to exigencies.
“While wishing the party fruitful deliberations, he expressed his commitment to the Party and his availability for future meetings and activities of the party.”
Also absent from the meeting was former President, Muhammadu Buhari.
The former president through his spokesman, Garba Shehu, however, explained he was unable to attend the meeting due to commitments he earlier made.
The APC caucus meeting is a prelude to Thursday’s National Executive Committee meeting where the perennial crisis rocking the party, the nomination of former Governor of Kano State, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, and Spokesperson for the ninth Senate, Senator Ajibola Basiru, are expected to be on the front burner.
The development, came with Ahmed El-Marzuk, National Legal Adviser, becoming the third member of the National Working Committee (NWC) to step down from their roles after the former National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu and Iyiola Omisore, announced their resignations a fortnight last week.
Chidi Odinkalu, Nigeria’s fiery lawyer, law teacher and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), is emphatic that President Bola Tinubu is pushing to perpetuate himself in office, beginning with gaming the electoral process in 2027.
Odinkalu, Professor of Practice in International Human Rights Law at the Fletcher School, told his host Naija Unfiltered, a popular Nigerian podcast programme, that he was as sure as death that the President would not exit office in 2031, if he succeeded with his current gambit to remain in power beyond next year.
Hear him: “Yes. But as I said, let me repeat myself. There’ll be a third term. President Tinubu has not done all of this just for another four years. There will be a third term. And anybody who is doing, ‘it is not our portion,’ is not reading the evidence.”
To achieve this aim, the activist, who was also emphatic that the National Assembly, would play a role, added: “The current National Assembly is anything but national or an assembly. And if it’s an assembly, it’s not a parliamentary one. Many people have called it a rubber stamp, but I think that is actually abusive of rubber stamps. I think this National Assembly is a disgrace.
Citing how bizarre and completely compliant the national legislature had become to Tinubu, the ex-NHRC’s boss, stated: “If you can change your national anthem in less than 24 hours with no public hearing, no public consultation, no public involvement, it tells you you don’t have a country because a national anthem is fundamental to the construction of a national identity.”
Also referring to the current move by the President to introduce state police, Odinkalu, wondered how the Nigerian Senate would introduce the bill to that effect and proceed towards the first and second readings, as well as committee stage and passage in less than two hours, questioning how that was possible in normal clime.
Hear him: “Once we finish our elections, we’re going to amend our Constitution, introduce a single six-year presidential term. The current incumbent will be elected until 2031. In 2031, what will happen? The question will be, will he be entitled to run on the six-year term or will he not?
“You will then get the best Senior Advocates in Nigeria telling you the law is not retrospective. That is why the administration is supporting the litigation over President Jonathan’s tenure—not because the Constitution is not clear, but because they will say there is precedent. There will be a third term, and I’m prepared to bet on it.”
“If we continue to pay ransom, we are encouraging these criminals to kidnap more people. The cycle will only continue unless we stop rewarding criminality,” were the words of Dauda Lawal, Governor of Zamfara State, with which he blamed those in the habit of paying ransoms as the major factor fuelling the current wave of kidnapping incidents across the country.
Lawal, on Thursday at the ARISE News/THISDAY Town Hall Conference on State Police and National Security in Abuja, told his audience how he flatly refused to pay a ₦300 million ransom demanded by kidnappers who abducted his brothers in 2019.
Reiterating his opposition to negotiating with bandits and renewed his support for the establishment of state police, Lawal, while recounting the incident, said: “My own brothers were kidnapped in 2019, and the kidnappers demanded about ₦300 million. I told them I was not going to pay a dime. If they wanted to kill them, they could go ahead.”
Stating that his brothers were eventually released without any ransom being paid, he argued that paying ransom usually emboldened criminal groups by providing financial incentives for further kidnappings.
He added: “My position on ransom payments remains unchanged. I will not negotiate, and I will not pay ransom to any criminal, no matter what happens.”
Endorsing the move for the establishment of state police, to enable governors have greater operational authority over security within their states, he regretted that the current constitutional arrangement left governors with responsibility for security without corresponding powers to direct security agencies.
His words: “In as much as I am called the chief security officer of the state, I do not have the command-and-control authority to direct the operations of the security agencies. I’m prepared to support the funding of state police if the proposed policing structure is established. I’m confident that decentralised policing will improve intelligence gathering, response time and the overall fight against insecurity.”
Exactly seven years, two months and four days after he forced Walter Onnoghen, the 16th Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) out of office, Danladi Umar, former Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), on Thursday, found himself in Kuje prison.
Justice Peter Kekemeke, of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting in Maitama, handed the ex-CCT boss the unwelcome package on Thursday, following his arraignment by the Federal Government on a four-count corruption charge.
Umar’s ordeal began after an investigations revealed that he abused his official position by conferring an undue advantage on himself while serving as head of the tribunal, having in 2021, reportedly using his wife’s bank account to collect the sum of N5.5 million from a contractor engaged to paint the headquarters of the CCT in Abuja.
He was also accuse of using the same account to collect another N6million on January 25, 2024, from a contractor who handled the digitisation of the CCT’s records and yet another N2.43 million a contractor paid as tuition fee of his daughter at Baze University, Abuja.
After pleading not guilty to offences, said to be punishable under section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, Christopher Mshelia, lawyer to the FG, prosecuting the matter, applied for his remand in a correctional facility, while urging the court to set a date for the commencement of trial.
His pleas to be freed on bail pending the determination of the case, was opposed by the prosecution, which drew the court’s attention to the fact that it had just been served with the bail application, saying it needed time to respond to it, forcing Kekemeke to adjourn the case till July 15 for hearing while the former CCT boss remained behind bars.
Umar, had as CCT Chairman, on January 23, 2019, issued a controversial ex parte order that led to the removal of a serving Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen.
Following the ex parte order, the late President Muhammadu Buhari, on January 25, swore in the next most senior jurist of the Supreme Court, Justice Tanko Muhammad, to take over the leadership of the judiciary as Acting CJN.
Even though Onnoghen later voluntarily resigned his position as CJN on April 4, Umar went ahead and convicted him on April 18, 2019, on the federal government’s allegation that he had failed to properly declare his assets as required by law.
He gave the federal government the go-ahead to confiscate all monies in five accounts belonging to the former CJN, and also removed him as Chairman of both the NJC and the Federal Judiciary Service Commission (FJSC).
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