Elections
Report: Many Delta residents not aware of ongoing council poll
Some residents of Asaba and its and environs on Saturday said they that they were not aware of the local government poll taking place across Delta State, according to a report by newsmen. Agnes Afam, a business centre operator, said, “I never knew today is election. I only came out to discover that today election.” Sunday Ugwu, a carpenter who lives on Ibusa Road, said that he was not aware that there was an election, and as such, would not go to vote. Others have also complained that their polling units were far from their homes and would not participate in the election as a result. Okechukwu Onu told newsmen that he lived around ULO Ibusa Road and his polling unit was at the College of Education, Asaba, a distance he considered too far. “I advise the people in charge of elections to brin...
Ex-President Jonathan enlists colleagues to mitigate electoral crises in West Africa
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has enlisted the support of other ex-presidents and Prime Ministers in West Africa to mitigate elections-related conflicts to promote peace in the region. Mrs Ann Iyonu, Executive Director, Goodluck Jonathan Foundation (GJF) announced this at a news conference in Yenagoa on Friday. Iyonu said that the former leaders’ group christened West African Elders Forum (WAEF) was inaugurated by Jonathan at a virtual meeting held on Thursday. She said that WAEF was an initiative of the GJF aimed at harnessing the goodwill, expertise and experiences of former leaders to promote peaceful elections and deepen democracy in West Africa. According to her, the forum comprises three former leaders of Nigeria, Ex-President Jonathan, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Retired Gen. A...
Senator Saraki urges President Buhari to include opposition, others in fight against insecurity
A former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, on Tuesday, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to include opposition parties and the international community in the fight against insecurity in Nigeria. He spoke with newsmen shortly after he met with a former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, behind closed doors at his penthouse residence located within the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, Ogun State. Saraki, who is the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Reconciliation and Strategy Committee, was joined in the meeting by former Governors, Ibrahim Dankwanbo (Gombe), Olagunsoye Oyinlola (Osun), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Ibrahim Shehu Sema (Katsina) and former Majority Leader, House of Representatives, Mulikat Akande Adeola. Speaking after about two hours c...
Senator Omo-Agege: Delta council polls can only be rigged if electorates sleep
Ahead of the March 6 Delta State local government council polls, Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, weekend, reiterated that the elections could only be rigged if electorates go to sleep, insisting that “every vote must count”. Speaking at Oviri-Ogor, Ughelli North Local Government Area, Delta State, while commissioning a 20 lock-up-store market built by community, Omo-Agege said: “They will tell you that results are written in local government elections, that it is over. It is a lie. “You can only write results, you can only rig elections when everybody has gone to sleep. On that day we are going to insist that everybody must cast their votes; every vote must count.” Urging the people to vote massively for the chairmanship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in ...
Nasarawa assures electoral agency of total independence
Nasarawa State has assured its internal electoral agency of a free hand to run elections into the 13 local councils. The Deputy Governor, Emmanuel Akabe, disclosed this on Friday while declaring open a two-day training workshop organised for members and staff of the Nasarawa State Independent Electoral Commission (NASIEC). Akabe, who represented Governor Abdullahi Sule at the event, assured that the state government would not interfere in the conduct of council elections, but support the complete independence of the commission to conduct free, fair and credible council elections. “In a society like ours, free, fair and credible election constitutes the basic principle of democracy. In this regards, electoral administrators are the drivers who ensure that the tenets of democracy are greatly...
Myanmar police fire rubber bullets, wounding three, as hundreds of thousands protest
Supporters of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi clashed with police on Friday as hundreds of thousands joined nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations in defiance of the military junta’s call to halt mass gatherings. The United Nations human rights office said more than 350 people, including officials, activists and monks, have been arrested in Myanmar since the Feb. 1 coup, including some who face criminal charges on “dubious grounds”. The U.N. rights investigator for Myanmar told a special session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva that there were “growing reports, photographic evidence” that security forces have used live ammunition against protesters, in violation of international law. Special Rapporteur Thomas Andrews urged the U.N. Security Council to consider imposing sanctio...
PGF chief: Femi Fani-Kayode’s botched defection an attempt to manipulate APC leadership
Director-General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum PGF, Salihu Moh. Lukman has said the recent attempt to accept Chief Femi Fani-Kayode into the fold of the All Progressives Congress APC was a clear attempt by some partisans to manipulate the leadership of the ruling party into doing the wrong thing. There were reports earlier in the week that Fani-Kayode, a chieftain of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party PDP was set to join the APC following a meeting with the Chairman of the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee CECPC, Gov. Mai Mala Buni, and Kogi state Governor, Yahaya Bello who chairs the Mobilization Committee of the party. In a statement titled, “APC and the Question of Values”, Lukman praised the insistence by many APC members and leaders that Mr. Fani-Kayode ...
INEC intensifies consultation on new polling units
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has intensified consultations with stakeholders on the creation of new Polling Units (Pus), across the country. The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, who held a meeting with the media in Abuja, yesterday, said that existing 119, 973 PUs, created 25 years ago had become grossly inadequate, leading to crisis situations during elections. He said, “Nigeria has a critical problem of voter access to Polling Units. The country currently has 119,973 Polling Units established a quarter of a Century ago in 1996 by the defunct National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON). At that time, the voter population was projected at 50 million. “The voters’ register increased to 84,004,084 by 2019. We envisage that by the next General Election in 2...
2023: APC’ll win Delta if leaders are less cantankerous – Cairo Ojougboh
Immediate past Interim Executive Director of Project, EDP on the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Dr Cairo Ojougboh, has said the All Progressives Congress, APC has a better prospect to win Delta State in 2023 if the leaders of the party could cooperate, began to be less cantankerous and do not match their ambition with hostility with other party members. Ojougboh who stated this while speaking on the sidelines of sensitisation of party members in Ika South on the registration/revalidation exercise of the party said the APC remained the most popular party in Delta but lamented that members have not been able to utilise such popularity to win elections over the years because of squabbles among leaders. Hear him: “APC is the most popular party in Delta State for a very ...
Somali opposition leaders ‘no longer recognise president’
Jack Hill/Reuters Somalia’s opposition leaders have announced that they no longer recognise President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, after his term expired without a political agreement on a path toward elections to replace him. The Horn of Africa nation was supposed to hold indirect elections before February 8 but the deadline was missed as the central government and federal states failed to break a deadlock over how to proceed with a vote. It now confronts a political crisis alongside a violent Islamist insurgency, a locust invasion and serious food shortages. A coalition of opposition candidates urged the president, better known by his nickname Farmajo, to “respect the constitution” and ensure a peaceful transfer of power in the fragile country. “Starting from 8th February 2021, the council...
China joins calls for IWF to publish list of election candidates
Nations from around the world have written to the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) to express their dismay at the governing body’s failure to publish the list of candidates for forthcoming elections. There have been complaints of poor governance, a lack of transparency, and giving an unfair advantage to certain candidates on the current IWF Executive Board who have the information that is denied to others. For the last elections in 2017 the list was published five days after the nominations deadline. This year, eight days have passed already and there is no sign of the IWF naming the candidates for President, first vice-president, vice-president, and a place on the Executive Board. The IWF is entitled, under current regulations, to wait until 30 days before the elections – Febr...
Senator Saraki: Former governor committed to PDP victory in 2023
Former President of the Senate and Chairman, National Committee on Reconciliation and Strategy of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bukola Saraki, has said that former governors under the platform of the party are committed to the victory of the PDP in the 2023 general elections. Saraki also said that although the PDP doesn’t make noise about who is joining the party, but many, even those, who left the party are coming back to join the PDP. Addressing newsmen shortly after meeting with the former governors in Abuja, Saraki said, “yesterday we met with one of our former Presidents. Today we are consulting with our former governors who are key stakeholders and leaders in their states. “There is no way we can talk about consultations and unity of the party without consulting them. We have b...