The Edo Election Petitions Tribunal says it has received 13 petitions from aggrieved parties and candidates in the just-concluded National Assembly and State Assembly elections.

The Tribunal Secretary, Mr Muazu Sanusi, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Benin.

Sanusi said that the petitions were filed within the 21-day period allowed by law.

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He said that the petitions were filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, All Progressives Congress and Labour Party as well as their candidates.

He said,  “As at today, the tribunal has received a total of 13 petitions.

“Out of the 13 petitions, three are on senatorial election, 10 were received with regard to House of Representatives election.

“One petition is, however, emanating from the conduct of the state House of Assembly election, and the results were announced on March 21, 2023.”

The secretary said that the petitions were expected to be filed on or before 21 days after declaration of results.

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Sanusi said that the time within which to file petitions as regards the House of Representatives and Senatorial polls had lapsed.

The secretary said, however, that the tribunal was still expecting petitions from aggrieved candidates and parties in the Edo House of Assembly election.

Sanusi could not say exactly when the tribunal would begin sitting.

According to him, it will start sitting when processes have been exchanged among the petitioners and the respondents.

Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Mr Festus Keyamo SAN has petitioned the State Security Services SSS, demanding the arrest and prosecution for “incitement and treasonable felony”, the Labour Party LP Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates, Messrs Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed respectively for comments he described as incendiary and capable of causing rebellion.

In the petition addressed to the Director General State Services DGSS and dated March 23, the minister who is the Chief Spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress APC Presidential Campaign Council PCC said in a post-election period such as this, there is a need to soothe frayed nerves, lower the temperature and begin the healing process.

“The President-Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu issued a statement to this effect a few days ago. However, it appears the President and Vice-Presidential Candidates of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed are not prepared to toe this conciliatory path for the sake of peace and national cohesion, whilst exercising their rights to pursue duly laid down constitutional means of addressing their grievances”, he stated.

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Keyamo noted that since the declaration of the Presidential election results, the duo have been hopping from one media house to the other making incendiary comments and claims about the declaration of the President-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC.

According to him, “These comments and claims are made, not just within the boundaries of exercising their rights to freedom of speech and the freedom to air their grievances publicly, but they have since crossed the line to call for the outright truncation of democracy by insisting on the adoption of other processes outside the contemplation of our Constitution.

“In some cases, their privies have even called for the establishment of an Interim Government.

“The latest of such are the comments made by Datti Baba-Ahmed on behalf of himself and Mr. Peter Obi on Channels TV on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, wherein he threatened that if the President-Elect is sworn in on May 29th, 2023, it would ‘signal the end of democracy’. Posing as an accuser, a judge and a jury all by himself, he unilaterally declared the duly elected President-elect as ‘unconstitutional’ and, in a subliminal manner, threatened mayhem if the President-Elect is sworn in on May 29th, 2023.

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“I also have it on good authority that Mr. Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed have camped some youths in a popular hotel in Abuja with the sole aim of instructing them to push out inciting messages everyday on social media in order to cause panic and fear within the federation and to incite people to riot and social unrest.

“It is noteworthy that Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed have submitted Elections Petitions to the courts for adjudication, but their conducts and utterances amount to a subversion of the processes they have instituted in court and a subversion of our Constitution and the laid-down processes for addressing disputes and grievances. These conduct and utterances are a build-up to something more sinister and it is important you rein them in now!

“In the circumstance, I submit this petition in my personal capacity as a patriotic Nigerian to invite/arrest, interrogate and after investigation, if necessary, charge both individuals to court for their conduct which amounts to incitement and treasonable felony”.

The Federal Government of Nigeria has presented a new curriculum on Child Rights Reporting for Polytechnics in Nigeria for effective dissemination of information by the media.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed at a two-day media training organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF said the instructional guide was developed to fill the knowledge gap on children’s rights for journalists and communications schools.

Mohammed said the new curriculum ”will facilitate the movement of all journalists from the present level of Child Rights awareness to a certain degree of knowledge bringing about the needed paradigm shift in reporting issues as it affects children.”

He said knowledge of the curriculum and its factual reporting will expose children to their rights to survival, development, protection and participation.

Meanwhile, the Chief of Field Office, UNICEF in Enugu, Juliet Chiluwe said communicating children’s rights remains a challenge considering the broad range of abuses against children as a result of ignorance of what constitutes the rights of children.

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She said the media reserves a critical role in communicating and ensuring the wider spread of information on issues of the Child Rights Act.

”I am proud to say that the media remains UNICEF’s very close ally in ensuring the wider spread of information on issues of children’s rights.

”Let me also use this opportunity to congratulate the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU), Awka, Anambra State for taking the first step to mainstream child rights curriculum, by electing the CRRC as a general studies course, making it compulsory for in-school mass communicators.

”This great opportunity will help broaden the scope of knowledge and exposure of the communication students and practitioners of Mass Communication by way of infusion of the Child Rights concerns, which are also topical concerns for human development.”