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The Oyo State
governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, and his other colleagues fielded as
candidates of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had their day at the
Appeal Court in Ibadan on Tuesday as two rulings of the court were made
in their favour.

The appellate court
threw out an application requesting a shorter timeframe within which
the involved parties could file their briefs. This would have allowed
an accelerated hearing of the suit against their emergence as the
party’s candidates for elections in Oyo.

Wole Oyelese, Lekan
Balogun, Azeem Gbolarumi and 34 others filed the suit to appeal against
the decision of Jonathan Sharkharo of the Federal High Court in Ibadan
to set aside his earlier interim order restraining the Independent
National Electoral Commission and the PDP from recognizing Mr
Alao-Akala and others as the party’s candidates.

Also the court
granted the prayers of Lateef Fagbemi, lawyer to Dejo Afolabi, the
state PDP chairman, for the amendment of the records of proceeding and
permission to allow the use of documents brought by him as complements
to the record of the Federal Court, in order to adequately guide the
appellate court in its proceedings.

Mr Fagbemi had, at
the last sitting, sought the relief of the court to allow him to
include exhibits B and C, which comprise his jottings and newspaper
cuttings, respectively, on what transpired at the lower court, to
augment the ‘incomplete’ record from the lower court.

New records acceptable

The three-man
panel, comprising Stanley Alagoa, Sidi Bage and Modupe Fasanmi, ruled
that the additional records are important and would be helpful in the
course of the proceedings.

However, Mr Alagoa,
the presiding judge, refused to allow the inclusion of photocopies of
some national dailies as part of the court records, saying they were
neither certified as genuine copies nor the original versions of the
papers.

The court also
overruled an objection raised by Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), lead
counsel to the aggrieved PDP member, that Mr Fagbemi should not have
been the one to file the application for amending the court’s records
since his client had withdrawn from the case at the lower court and has
been excused ever since. The court said the lawyer has the right to
present the additional record because he was a party to the original
suit.

“The applicants are challenging the completeness of the records of
the court. What he sought to be amending is simply an order to add
exhibits B and C and the leave is hereby granted to use exhibits B and
C as supplementary records,” Mr Alagoa said.

For a greater part
of yesterday, the freedom of Theophilus Osim Onyuku, the Cross River
State gubernatorial candidate of the Labour Party (LP) was denied him
as he was holed up at the Atakpa police station in Calabar answering
questions bordering on alleged anti-party activities and his subsequent
suspension from office as the chairman of the party in the state.

Mr .Onyuku, who was
invited by the police last Monday, showed up yesterday morning only to
be detained by the police. He is the embattled state chairman of the
party in Cross River who also won its governorship primary to become
its candidate.

Last week, the
national leadership of the party suspended Onyuku, a psychiatric
medical doctor, for anti-party activities. It also directed him to
vacate the office of chairman of the party and hand over all documents
and property of the party to the vice-chairman, pending investigation
into allegations leveled against him.

Two persons, Onyuku
and Imah Nsa Adegoke, have been parading themselves as the
gubernatorial candidate of LP, with their posters competing for
attention in the state. The duo are jostling to represent the party in
the governorship election coming up next year, following the tenure
elongation granted the incumbent state governor, Liyel Imoke.

Mr Onyuku reacted
swiftly to the purported suspension, saying it had no place in law
since due process was not followed. He also denied involvement in
anti-party activities of any kind, saying the fact that he comes from
the same local council as Mr Imoke does not mean he was working for him.

“The police have
been asking me to explain my level of involvement in purported
anti-party activities. I have told them everything that I know. At no
time did I align with the PDP (People’s Democratic Party) nor work for
Governor Imoke. Those who know me know that I’m an unrepentant critic
of the state government. The allegations against me are absurd and
cannot be proved beyond reasonable doubt. This is a party affair. If
there is any crisis in Labour Party, its chieftains and stalwarts
should be allowed to resolve it themselves. .”

‘Due process candidate’

Mr Onyuku, who
described himself as the authentic candidate of LP for the governorship
election in Cross River State, said he emerged through due process and
challenged any person parading herself as candidate to prove when and
how she got elected as candidate.

His interrogation at the police station attracted the sympathy of other opposition politicians in the state. company.

The police said they invited him based on a petition sent to them
that Mr Onyuku should stop parading himself as the state chairman of LP
because he has been suspended from office over anti-party activities.

The Adamawa State
government has sacked the chairman of Michika Local Government Area of
the state, Steven Nuhu. According to a release signed by the secretary
to the state government, Kobis Ari Thimnu, Simon Vandu, a retired Air
Force officer, is to take over the administration of the council as the
new sole administrator. The statement directed security agencies in the
state to give the new administration all the necessary support.

Assumption

Although the state
government did not give any reason for the dissolution of the executive
council of the local government, the action may not be unconnected with
the violent protest which broke out in the state by youth protesting
the victory of president Jonathan.

The violence
resulted in wanton destruction of lives and property in the state. It
was particularly bad at Michika, where religious worship areas were
torched and some deaths recorded.

Mr Nuhu has been
engaged in a running battle with Mr Nyako. He had earlier accused the
governor of being behind his inability to pay council employees for
several months when the governor came to Michika to campaign. He said
illegal deductions by the state government of local government
allocations was behind the poor financial state of the local council.

Mr Nuhu is also known to be a supporter of Buba Marwa who is seeking to unseat the governor.

Some of Mr. Nuhu’s supporters claimed his sack is political and had nothing to do with violence in the area.

Polling stations holding more than 300
voters are to be fragmented into smaller voting centres for next week’s
gubernatorial and state house of assembly elections, the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) said yesterday.

Observers have warned that although the
parliamentary and presidential elections held yet remain one of
Nigeria’s fairest, congestion at polling centres across the federation
stands out as a problem requiring immediate attention as other
elections draw near.

At many voting areas, balloting dragged
into the night after material and officials were clearly outsized by
voters’ figures averaging about 1,000.

An earlier directive by the commission
to state resident electoral commissioners that large centres be reduced
to sizeable units was not fully implemented ahead of the presidential
elections last Saturday.

The European Union election monitoring
group said in its assessment of the election that for 633 randomly
observed polling units across the 36 states, only 14% were split as
INEC directed, with the rest having an average of 860 voters.

A spokesperson for the electoral body
said yesterday that any such flouting was “in default”, insisting that
the commission’s policy remains that, amongst its 120,000 polling
units, those averagely more than 300 be split into sub-units for
voting. “That has not changed and the electoral officers have been so
instructed again at a meeting today,” Kayode Idowu, spokesperson for
the chairman, Attahriu Jega, said after Mr Jega reviewed the
presidential elections with the state resident electoral commissioners
in Abuja on Tuesday.

Mr Jega and his team have earned praise
for the elections so far. Still, foreign and local observers have
expressed concerns about a “complicated and multi-tiered” collation
process, inducement of voters and overpopulated stations.

Multiplicity of units

Mr Idowu said the new voting points are not to be confused with the polling units whose creations are only permitted by the law.

Under the new arrangement, voters in a
particular polling unit in excess of 300 are to be assigned fresh
voting points which still come under the original polling unit. “This
does not breach the law,” Mr Idowu said. “For collation purposes, the
voting points come under the same PUs (polling units).” With each
existing polling unit numbering over 1000 registered voters, the
commission said it is aware that the decision is likely to affect
almost all polling units in the country.

The move is certain to escalate cost and the number of personnel
required for the governorship poll, deemed a crucial part of a series
of nationwide polls. The electoral body said the implication was
factored into the planning and that provisions for sufficient materials
and workforce have been made.

International
observers have applauded the conduct of Saturday’s presidential election
but have cited several areas that need to be improved upon ahead of the
governorship polls next week.

The Commonwealth,
National Democratic Institute (NDI), European Union (EU) and the
International Republican Institute issued separate post-election
assessments yesterday amid reports of violent protest against the
outcome of the election in Kano, Kaduna and Bauchi states.

The Commonwealth
mission said the April 2011 elections marked a “genuine celebration of
democracy” in Nigeria saying that previous notions that the nation can
only hold flawed elections be discarded.

Mr Mogae admitted
that the parliamentary polls had procedural problems although there were
improvements. Asked whether he would advise Nigerians to accept the
outcome of the polls, he said: “I say yes,” adding that the
imperfections noticed do not point to deliberate “mischief.” The NDI
said its observation unveiled the inadequacies of the “complicated and
multi-tiered” collation process which the mission said was vulnerable to
human error and manipulation as tabulation proceeds from the polling
unit to the electoral office.

As the statements
were read on Monday in Abuja, fears mounted about the breakdown of law
and order in the Federal Capital Territory as clashes erupted in Dutse,
Mararaba areas of the Federal Capital Territory with no certain number
of casualties.

Already, the NDI led
by the former Canadian Prime Minister, Joe Clark, said its coverage of
the pre-election and the election days, showed there have been 135
politically-motivated deaths.

The election
monitoring teams condemned the renewed unrest yesterday urging aggrieved
candidates in the polls to seek judicial redress.

“Any post election
violence will be regrettable,” said Festus Mogae, the chief observer of
the Commonwealth team and former president of Botswana. “If it is
happening, it is regrettable.”

Assessment

The monitors praised
the poll on the one hand and on the other, criticised series of
processes from the accreditation to counting of results although they
agree the setbacks were minimal to affect the wider result for the
entire nation.

The teams complained
about overcrowded polling stations despite claims by the Independent
National Electoral Commission that sub voting units will be established
for centres beyond 300 voters.

The EU team observed
that for 633 random polling units it monitored across the 36 states,
only 14% were split as INEC directed with the rest having an average 860
voters.

Attempts to induce
voters were noticed in 17 percent, while party agents interfered in 26%.
In spite of these, counting was overall evaluated positively in 91%, it
said.

Commonwealth observers, currently
monitoring the general elections in the country have attributed what
they dub “Nigeria’s credible elections and creditable elections” to the
resilience and doggedness of Nigerian citizens.

At a media briefing in Abuja, the Chair
of the Commonwealth Observer Group, former Botswana President Festus
Mogae said “We noted the deep-seated public frustration at the history
of deficient elections and the desire to make a new beginning. Across
the length and breadth of the country, the people of Nigeria
demonstrated exemplary dignity, responsibility and forbearance, waiting
the entire day peacefully and patiently under the hot sun, or in heavy
rain, to exercise their franchise.” They also commended the efforts of
security agents and the National Youth Service Corps Ad hoc staff saying
that their concerted efforts contributed to the success of the
elections.

“The April 2011 elections marked a
genuine celebration of democracy in Africa’s most populous country and a
key member of the Commonwealth” Mr Mogae said.

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Some election
observers have accused the special assistant to the Kwara State governor
on Electoral Matters, Musa Abdullahi, of maltreating them and have
resolved to go to court for justice.

According to the
leader of the Committee for Democracy and Right of the People, Abdul
Ganiyu Saheed Olaide, their attackers had approached them at the Ajikobi
Ward where the governor, Bukola Saraki, had also voted asking for their
identification and later ordered that they be beaten up.

Mr Abdullahi,
however, denied the allegation, saying “I cannot do such a thing. Not
me.” He refused to make comment further on the issue.

The President of
the Observer group claimed that four of them: Abdulsalam Abdulfatai,
Ibrahim Lukman Bukola, and Akaje Ibrahim were beaten up and had their
clothes torn. “All our cameras, laptops and money were also looted.”

Set for the court

“They should know
that this cannot be swept under the carpet. The commissioner of police
invited me this morning and was pleading with us to forget it. But, to
forget what? I was treated like an animal and treated like a thief. Even
if a thief had been caught, would they treat him like that?

“Someone came to
tell us that they were thumb printing for PDP and that we should come
and catch them. We told the person that we were just observers but that
we can see what the situation is. So we went there, only to be turned
into a fake observer, despite that ID cards on us and we were
mercilessly beaten up,” Mr Abdullahi said.

According to Mr
Abdulfatai, who is also a student leader in a university, “We are
talking with our lawyers and we are going to see to the end of this. We
are just observers and do not have anything to do with any of the
political parties. So we don’t know why we were beaten up and if not for
God who saved us, the government thug could have killed us.” Dabo
Ezekiel, the Police Command spokesperson, however, told NEXT that he was
not aware of any meeting between the group and the police commissioner
and asked them to be calm and follow the path of justice.

A correspondent of
Vanguard newspapers in Kano State, Abdulsalam Muhammad, and his family
escaped death by their whiskers when they ran into hundreds of rioters
along eastern by pass in Kano yesterday.

Mr. Muhammad was
travelling on the highway with his entire family to his residence in
Naibawa quarters of the municipality when they ran into hundreds of
hoodlums.

The hoodlums who
were mainly teenagers were being supervised by a man in his early 40s,
and without provocation descended on them and in the ensuing melee, his
wife Safiya Lawal was attacked with weapons.

Others who sustained
injury in the attack include Umi Zabaida Muhammad( 6) and his younger
brother Muhammad Naziru Muhammad (3) sustained various degree of injury.

His personal car was vandalised while trying to escape the furry of the rioters.

Several other
motorists travelling on the highways suffered the same fate as no fewer
than 8 burnt vehicles littered the entire stretch of the strategic
highways.

Three house owners
in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, have sued the MTN Nigeria
Communications Limited and one Sangotokun Banji for erecting a mast in
their neighbourhood without caring about the implication on the
residents’ health.

The applicants, Messrs. Oluwadare James, Ogundipe Kamoru and Mrs. M.A. Ogundipe, have houses at Idi-Isin, in Ibadan.

They alleged, in
their separate statements on oath, that Mr. Banji sold his half plot of
land to the telecommunication firm for the purpose of erecting a GSM
mast in the predominantly residential area without minding what becomes
of the health situation of those who live within the place.

According to them,
they had earlier reported the matter at the Akobo Divisional
Headquarters of the Nigeria Police where they were advised to go to
court to seek appropriate redress.

They further claimed
that the Landlords and Residents Association of the area also wrote the
state commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, whose
ministry is responsible for the erection of masts across the state, for
necessary actions to stop the impending environmental disaster.

The claimants added
that their lawyer, F.A.Bello and Co., had written on their behalf to MTN
through her Chief Liaison Officer at Bodija, Ibadan, to suspend the
construction of the mast due to proximity to their houses.

But in spite of the effort, the defendants went on with the construction, violating their right to decent living.

The claimants said
they were well aware of the danger posed to the residents when mast is
erected in their area, which, they said, included loss of memory, sleep
disorders, tiredness, and cancer. They further claimed that the health
crises are associated with radiation effects from telecommunication
masts like the one under contention.

They said they were
sure that the MTN Nigeria Communications Limited did not acquire the
requisite approval before embarking on the construction of the mast.

Mistura Oladeinde, a
judge of the Oyo State High Court has been assigned to adjudicate in
the matter, and has adjourned till May 4 to allow the telecommunication
firm file its defence.

Former commanders of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) yesterday during a news conference in Abuja, said, “The outbreak of violence in the northern states and the Federal Capital Territory following President Jonathan’s victory in the presidential election is an invitation to chaos.” It specifically warned that incitement of youths to violence by some northern leaders was an attempt to provoke them to return to hostilities.The group, which spoke through its national cordinator, Sobomabo Jackrich, aka General Egbere Papa, wondered why the North “which had always received the support of the South-South and indeed southern Nigeria in previous elections should be wasting innocent lives and property because President Jonathan of South-South extraction has won an election.”The North thinks it will remain in power perpetually. From the inception of this country, the South-South region had given the North all the necessary support in previous elections in spite of the fact that we produce the wealth of the nation.Why will the North not reciprocate even in the face of what is now known as the freest and fairest election? We all queued up to vote and we know the election was free and fair. INEC is still announcing election results and people are on rampage killing and maiming,” the group noted.

The group, therefore, warned: “We will not fold our hands and watch. We know how to defend ourselves and our resources. By this violence, the North is clearly pushing us and we have a way with violence. Even when we were in the struggle, we never wasted innocent lives. President Jonathan’s victory at the polls must remain sacrosanct. General Buhari should call his supporters off the streets before it is too late.”