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Electronic transmission: Shame on them! *LP slams Senate *Okorie raises battle-cry
To the Labour Party (LP), nothing could be more shameful than the decision of the Senate to truncate the dreams of Nigerians who had hoped that the mandatory electronic transmission of results would save Nigeria from the nightmare of electoral fraud.
Ken Asogwa, Special Adviser to Nenadi Usman, Interim National Chairman of the party, who made known the position of the party hours after the development was quoted as describing the rejection of the proposal, which had earlier been passed by the House of Representatives in 2025, as a shameful betrayal of Nigerians by persons elected to represent them.
Reports in Vanguard, quoted him as saying: “The decision of the Nigerian Senate to reject the electronic transmission of election results from polling units to the INEC server is one of the most retrogressive and anti-people decisions taken by the Nigerian legislature since the return to democracy in 1999.
“Since the 2023 general elections, the singular and consistent clamour of the Nigerian people has been for the electronic transmission of results, as a means of checking the irregularities and hiccups witnessed during the last polls.
“What, then, are lawmakers amending in the 2022 Electoral Act if the very clause required to improve transparency and credibility in our electoral process is deliberately rejected? Only those bent on rigging the process would scorn reforms aimed at strengthening electoral integrity.
“What makes the present lawmakers think they would always be beneficiaries of a flawed system? Those who refuse to do the right thing today for narrow partisan interests may ultimately become victims of their own actions tomorrow. A defective process spares no one.
“That said, we will continue to urge Nigerians not to waver in the face of setbacks such as this. With sustained vigilance and collective resolve, the outcome of the 2027 elections can still reflect the true will of the Nigerian people.
“Through determination, unity, and alertness at the polls, the people can still defend their mandate and our democracy.”
Chekwas Okorie, founding National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), described the Senate action as an affront on the sensibilities of Nigerians, wondering why the National Assembly chose to live in the Stone Age while the rest of the world is making steady progress towards technology and modernisation.
His words: “I’m not surprised but disappointed that the Senate has decided to be a cog in the wheel of Nigeria’s democratic progress. This National Assembly has since its inauguration in 2023 left no one in doubt that it swore an oath to be a rubber stamp of the current executive.
“While they are at it, they must bear in mind that Nigeria is better than all of us, it is bigger than the ruling party and every trick it is plotting to use to deny Nigerians the right to freely elect their leaders come 2027.
“This is a call for all Nigerians to be vigilant because vigilance is the eternal price we must pay to protect our democratic rights. We will mobilise, organise and ensure that the sanctity of our votes is protected from the polling booths to the units, wards up till the collation centre. No glitch will be allowed to deny Nigerians the right results.”
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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