File Photo The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the October 2020 governorship election in Ondo State, Mr Eyitayo Jegede, and his party, on Wednesday, closed their cases at the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in the state. Jegede is challenging the outcome of the election in which Governor Rotimi Akeredolu was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission. One of the grounds in the Jegede’s petition was that Akeredolu was not eligible to contest the election. The PDP and Jegede had initially listed 400 witnesses and other exhibits before the tribunal while they had requested for additional nine days to defend their case before the court. However, at the proceeding on Wednesday, the counsel to the petitioners, Mr Onyechi Ipeazu, said the petitioners were...
One of the Louisville police officers who shot Black emergency medical technician Breonna Taylor, and the officer that prepared the warrant for the botched raid during which she was killed, were told on Tuesday that the department aimed to fire them. Taylor’s death when police entered her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky, early on March 13 was one of a string of killings of African Americans that fueled mass protest demonstrations across the United States in 2020. Taylor’s boyfriend, who was with her when police burst into the home, fired once at what he said he believed were intruders. Three police officers responded with 32 shots, six of which struck Taylor, killing her. Lawyers for Detective Myles Cosgrove, one of the officers who shot Taylor, and Detective Joshua Jaynes, who prepared ...
Ghana’s main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), which has been crying foul about the results of the 7 December presidential and parliamentary elections, says it is ready to contest the outcome in court. A member of the party’s legal team, Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor, said on Saturday that the election petition against the results declared by the Electoral Commission (EC) will be filed by Wednesday. “We’ll go to court. We’ve made that clear… Certainly, by Wednesday, all these matters would be placed before the court,” Dafeamekpor was quoted by the local media as saying. Under the electoral laws, the aggrieved party has 21 days to file its petition at the court. This will be the second time in the Fourth Republic, which started in 1992, that the outcome of a presidential election ...
Former Governor of Zamfara State, Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima, says there has never been any agreement in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to zone the presidency to the South-West region in 2023. Yerima made this known in Abuja on Wednesday, December 16, 2020, at a media briefing, where he declared his interest to contest for president at the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure in 2023. Yerima said he had on three occasions stepped down to allow Buhari to win the presidential ticket of defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) as well as the All Progressives Congress. The former governor said he attended all meetings involving President Buhari and the National leader of the ruling party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, saying there was no meeting where it was agreed that the presidency ...
President Akufo-Addo says the sustenance of the country’s peace is a shared responsibility for all Ghanaians and has therefore entreated citizens to play their part in keeping the country united even after a fiercely contested election. The President’s comment comes after pockets of violent clashes and vandalism by some elements who feel aggrieved following the declaration of the election results by the chairperson of the Electoral Commission led to a few deaths across the country. Addressing the Muslim community at a thanksgiving service at the Central Mosque in Accra Friday, President Akufo-Addo expressed hope that the Ghanaian people will find a way to come together as one people. “I’m confident that the good sense of the Ghanaian people will make sure that the peace and stability of ou...
Nigerian National Assembly spends billions of naira on constitution review
The perennial constitution amendment exercise by the National Assembly is characterised by proposals that keep resurfacing despite gulping billions of naira yearly, an analysis has shown. The federal parliament had from the 5th to the current 9th National Assembly made several attempts to amend some provisions of the 1999 Constitution to no avail. At every session, the parliament officially spends N1 billion shared equally between the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are reports that the lawmakers spend more than what is appropriated for the exercise. While some amendments were successful, several others suffered serial failures but kept appearing in new proposals. Considering the huge spending, lawyers and civil society groups have pointed out that no significant amendments ...