Tinubu govt does not exist, it is illegitimate – Afenifere leader, Adebanjo
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The leader of the Yoruba socio-political organization, Ayo Adebanjo, has said President Bola Tinubu’s administration does not exist.
Adebanjo made the remark while describing Tinubu’s administration as illegitimate.
He explained that the election which brought Tinubu was flawed, hence he can’t be recognized as president.
Speaking on Arise Television, Adebanjo said the presidential election was inconclusive with the ongoing presidential Election Petition Tribunal.
According to Adebanjo: “Afenifere’s stance, for now, is not to comment on Tinubu’s administration because we believe that the elections are not completed yet; it’s still in progress, that is why we are in court, so commenting on someone who is there and who we don’t believe should be there until the final decision of the court will be probative and reprobative.
“We are not talking about his ability, we are talking about the process of his getting there, which is flawed. How can you build something on nothing, he is enjoying a lacuna, nothing is settled until it’s finally settled, that’s our stance.
“I refuse to comment on somebody that is not existing yet until the final arbiter of the court, our party may be wrong but that is our own stance. I can’t recognize him in an office that I believe doesn’t exist.”
Presidential Tribunal: INEC closes defence in Obi’s petition
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The Independent National Electoral Commission, on Tuesday, opened and closed its defence in Peter Obi’s petition challenging the result of the February 25 presidential election.
Recall that Bola Tinubu was declared the winner of the election and was sworn in as the president on May 29.
Obi of the Labour Party is urging the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja to set aside Tinubu’s victory on the grounds that the Independent National Electoral Commission failed to comply with the electoral laws.
At the resumed proceedings on Tuesday, counsel for INEC, A.B Mahmoud, SAN, proceeded to close its defence in the petition after calling the first witness, Lawrence Bayode, an assistant director in charge of its ICT department.
Bayode had also testified yesterday in aid of the commission’s defence against the petition filed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party.
He was led in evidence by the commission’s lead counsel, A.B. Mahmoud, SAN, who also tendered some documents in the course of the proceedings.
The witness, under cross-examination, said that even if blurred documents were downloaded from INEC’s Result Viewing portal, it will not affect the physical results as recorded in the polling units results, otherwise called form EC8A.
Obi, Atiku scores not affected by technical glitch – INEC
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Mr Lawrence Bayode, a witness of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has said the technical glitch experienced in the uploading of elections results during the February 25 presidential election did not affect the actual scores of the presidential candidates.
Bayode, who is the Deputy Director of ICT of INEC spoke as witness of the Commission in the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku against the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the presidential election.
He was led in evidence by INEC’s lead counsel, Mr Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN.
However, under cross examination by counsel to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Wole Olanipekun (SAN) the witness, asserted that the presidential election was free, fair, credible and conducted in compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022.
He added that the technical glitch did not affect the scores of the candidates as the results were manually computed by polling officers in the forms EC8As at the different polling units.
According to Bayode, INEC does not have an electronic collation system and results of the presidential election were manually collated and not electronically collated.
2023 elections: ‘Imperialist agenda’ – MURIC faults EU report
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The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has faulted the final report of the Union Election Observer Mission (EU EOM) team on Nigeria’s 2023 general election.
The MURIC Director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, on Tuesday in a statement described the report as an imperialist agenda.
The statement partly reads, “The Chief Observer of the European Union Election Observer Mission (EU EOM), Barry Andrews, at a news conference in Abuja last week presented its final report on the 2023 general election in Nigeria. The report was an undisguised indictment of Nigeria’s electoral system.
“We are nonplussed by this blatant attempt to push an imperialist agenda down the throat of Nigerians. The report is a premeditated attempt at inciting anarchy in the country with the hope of gaining political and economic influence at the outbreak of commotion.
“The EU EOM’s final report is the odd one out when juxtaposed with those of other election monitoring groups. We saw nothing close to this in the report of the US-based International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI).
“NDI/IRI came with 40 observers from 20 countries led by Dr Joyce Banda, former president of Malawi. They did not sow any seed of confusion,” Akintola said.
The MURIC chief noted that 229 different observer groups deployed 146,913 domestic and international monitors with 33 of them being international observer missions which deployed 2,113 observers and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) threw its doors wide open for them.
He said, “Why is the EU EOM report a different cup of tea? Is this group trying to tell the world that the Commonwealth Observer Group led by Thabo Mbeki which also covered the elections is blind? The African Union had its team and so did the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) observer team led by Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan.
“Nigerians should not allow the EU EOM to destabilise the country. Imperialists will never teach you what will benefit your country but what will make you despise it. The aim is divide et impera. MURIC rejects this EU EOM report. It is jaundiced,” he added.
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