Politics

BREAKING: Court Orders Service Of Petitions On Tinubu Through APC

Published

3 years ago

March 24, 2023

The Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja, on Friday, ordered that the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, should be served with copies of petitions seeking to nullify his election, through substituted means.

A three-man panel of the court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh, directed that the petitions should be served on Tinubu, through his political party, the All Progressives Congress, APC.

The ruling followed separate ex-parte applications that were brought before the court by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar and his counterpart in the Labour Party, Peter Obi.

The duo accused the President-elect Tinubu, of deliberately avoiding the service of their petitions on him.

They told the court that several attempts they made to effect service of the petitions on Tinubu, proved abortive.

According to the petitioners, the President-elect deliberately made himself elusive with a view to frustrating their effort to hand him copies of the petition as required by the law.

Consequently, relying on Section 6(6a) and 36(1) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, Section 15 of the Court of Appeal Act, as well as Paragraph 8 of the First Schedule of the Electoral Act 2022, the petitioners sought the intervention of the Court.

Both Atiku and Obi further supported their ex-parte motions dated March 23, with affidavits of urgency and non-service, even as they persuaded the court to hear the applications, outside the pre-hearing session of their substantive petitions.

While Atiku’s application was moved on Friday by his legal team led by Mr Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, that of Obi and LP was moved by Mr. Ikechukwu Ezechukwu, SAN.

“Having heard the applications by counsel to the petitioners including the affidavit in support, the applications are hereby granted”, the Justice Ikyegh-led panel ruled.

The panel equally granted leave to the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, to also serve its own petition on Tinubu, via substituted means.

It will be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had on March 1, declared Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, as the winner of the presidential poll, ahead of 17 other candidates that contested the election.

According to INEC, Tinubu, scored a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku who polled a total of 6,984,520 votes and Obi of the LP who came third with a total of 6,101,533 votes.

However, both Atiku and Obi rejected the outcome of the election which they insisted was rigged in Tinubu’s favour.

Aside from accusing INEC of acting in breach of its own electoral Regulations and Guidelines, the petitioners equally argued that Tinubu was not legally qualified to participate in the presidential contest.

More so, they argued that he did not garner the highest number of lawful votes cast at the election, adding that votes credited to the APC candidate amounted to wasted votes by reason of corrupt practices that marred the election.

Atiku further alleged that the electoral body deployed a third-party device he said was used to intercept and divert votes to the APC and its candidate.

While both Obi and Atiku separately claimed that they won the election, they asked the court to either declare them winners or in the alternative, order a fresh election.

Both petitioners urged the court to compel INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return it earlier issued to Tinubu of the APC.

The court had earlier ordered INEC to grant Tinubu, who is currently out of the country, access to all the electoral materials it used for the presidential poll, to enable him to prepare to defend his election victory.

Politics

APC Clears Wike Loyalists, Disqualifies All Fubara-aligned Aspirants For State Assembly

Published

2 days ago

May 11, 2026

Editor

Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has released the list of cleared and disqualified aspirants ahead of the party’s primaries for the 2027 general elections.

According to the list, 33 aspirants were cleared to participate in the primaries, while 65 others were not cleared.

Notably, all 32 aspirants believed to be aligned with the camp of Governor Siminalayi Fubara were disqualified from the exercise.

In contrast, incumbent members of the Rivers State House of Assembly loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, were cleared.

In a statement issued by the State Publicity Secretary of the party, Chibike Ikenga, members who purchased the House of Assembly Expression of Interest and Nomination forms were advised to verify their status on the notice board at the party’s state secretariat located at No. 268B Aba Road, Port Harcourt.

Ikenga further stated that appeals arising from the screening outcome should be submitted through the party secretariat.

He added that the appeal process is scheduled to hold on Tuesday, May 12, by 10 a.m. at the party secretariat.

Meanwhile, in a report released by the screening committee, it listed several reasons for the disqualification of affected aspirants.

Among the reasons are: “Nominations by persons who are not financially up to date members of the Party, contrary to Article 9.3 of the Party Constitution, inducement and attempted bribery of Committee members, submission of unsworn affidavits, failure to present voters cards, failure to present Party membership slips or cards, conflicting dates of birth, failure to confirm payment of membership dues by nominators, irregular party membership numbers of nominators, inconsistencies in names appearing in submitted documents, insufficient nominators with required numbers which fall short of three nominations per ward, invalid affidavits that failed to disclose material particulars relating to NECO certificates.”

Politics

BREAKING: NDC Zones Presidency

Published

4 days ago

May 9, 2026

Editor

The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has zoned its presidential ticket to Southern Nigeria for a single 4-year term.

The motion was moved at the National Convention of the NDC by the member representing Ogbaru Constituency of Anambra State in the 10th National Assembly, Afam Victor Ogene and was adopted by the delegates.

It was also resolved that after the four years single term, the Presidential ticket will be automatically zoned to the north.

This decision has cleared the way for the former governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi and other southern aspirants to processd and purchase the presidential form of the party.

Details later…

Politics

Crisis Hits APC Govs Forum As 18 Rejects Uzodinma’s Removal

Published

5 days ago

May 8, 2026

Editor

A serious crisis is currently brewing in the Progressive Governors’ Forum following the sudden removal of the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, as its chairman.

Reports had it earlier that a cross-section of All Progressives Congress, APC, governors removed Uzodinma and installed the Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, as its chairman.

Although the Director-General of the forum, Folorunso Aluko, in a statement on Friday, said the reports of Uzodinma’s removal were fake and misleading, sources privy to the matter confirmed to DAILY POST that some governors met on Thursday night and removed Uzodinma.

The meeting, according to reports, was led by the Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, and was held at the Ogun Government Lodge.

However, in a swift move to counter the decision of the Abiodun-led group, 18 other governors met behind closed doors at the Imo Lodge on Friday and passed a vote of confidence in Uzodinma.

Some of those present at the meeting included the governors of Ondo, Kaduna, Taraba, Sokoto, Ebonyi, Borno, Lagos, Kogi, Kano, Yobe, Kebbi, Benue and Jigawa states, while Nasarawa State was represented by its deputy governor.

Speaking on the unfolding events, Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State said: “All of us woke up to that very unfortunate story, which was virtually in all the media in Nigeria. But the truth of the matter is that the APC Progressive Governors’ Forum is very united.

“We are stronger now than at any other time. And, of course, we are all supporting the president for what he has been doing.

“We also want to assure everyone that the APC is united, the governors are united, the forum is united, and there is no problem at all.”