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Obi to Senate: Why bring confusion to Nigeria? Joins #Our votes must count protest!
Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, on Monday, raised a fundamental question to the Nigerian Senate – why are you bringing confusion to Nigeria.
He did, when he joined a group of protesters to the National Assembly Complex in Abuja over the Senate’s rejection of real-time electronic transmission of election results, a development which has generated a lot of outrage across the country.
Staged by student and civil society groups, politicians and members of the Obidient Movement — a group of his supporters, the former governor of Anambra State, told a horde of supporters who besieged him: “All we want is simple transmission. Allow the elections to go through the normal process. Whoever wins, we would accept. So why are you bringing all sorts of confusion.”
Obi, who said he joined the protest to ensure the message was brought home to the Senators, due to reconvene on Tuesday to take votes and proceedings, necessary for harmonisation of the final act, that would form the clean copy to be sent to President Bola Tinubu for accent, stated that he would wait the outcome of the plenary before deciding whether to join further protests.
Against the backdrop of a rash of agreements on several provisions, the Senate, had out real-time transmission of election results by donating the right of discretion to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as provided for in the 2022 Electoral Act.
The resolution had sparked off immediate outcry, with groups, including the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), threatening to call out Nigerian workers on to the streets to protest the development, which they claimed was antithetical to democracy.
The proposed amendment, contained in section 60 (3) of the new act, reads: “The presiding officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the IREV portal in real time, and such transmission shall be done after the prescribed Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the presiding officer and/or countersigned by the candidates or polling unit agents, where available at the polling unit.”
It clearly stated that this must occur after Form EC8A has been signed and stamped. Form EC8A is used to record political party votes at the polling units.
This amendment intends to make electronic transmission compulsory, ensure it is in real-time, and link same directly to IReV. In other words, it would have transformed electronic transmission from a discretionary exercise into a legal duty.
But the senate rejected this proposal. Instead, it adopted section 60(5) of the existing Electoral Act 2022, which says: “The presiding officer shall transfer the results, including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot, in a manner as prescribed by the Commission.”
Both Afam Osigwe, President and the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), expressed concern over the development, insisted that such a move by the legislature, would spell doom to Nigeria’s march towards credible elections.
Osigwe, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said while the Bar was worried about the pace of the National Assembly, the delay would not necessarily derail the 2027 general elections if INEC and stakeholders worked with the existing legal framework.
“The process itself has not really started. But if those amendments can be brought in, and they improve credibility, it will be better. You can pass the best laws, and if the judicial interpretation is anything but progressive, we have still not achieved anything,” Vanguard quoted him as saying.
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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