Politics
Soludo: ‘INEC Must Redeem Self’
The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to redeem itself and recognise ‘legitimate’ candidates of the party in the November 6 governorship election.
National Chairman of the party, Mr Victor Oye , who made the call on Saturday while briefing newsmen in Abuja said that there was only one APGA, which was led by him, with Labaran Maku as National Secretary.
The Tide reports that INEC had originally received the names of Chukwuma Soludo and his running mate, Mr Onyekachi Ibezim as candidates of APGA.
However, citing a court ruling, the electoral umpire dropped the names and replaced them with Chukwuma Umeoji and Obiageli Orogbu as the new candidates of APGA.
Reacting to the development, the APGA national chairman faulted the action of INEC in recognising an illegal body and illegal candidates.
He said that the party was one, had no faction and its leadership which came on board in May 2019 was the legitimate body of APGA at the national level.
“Our leadership was duly elected on May 31, 2019, in a well organised national convention in Awka, and attended by all the organs of the party expected to be at the convention.
“On the roll, we have 608 members of NEC but what you saw on June 25 was a contraction, they gathered men and women from the streets not up to 50 and they called it NEC meeting .
“Again, what INEC did, we were the first political party that uploaded the particulars of our governorship candidate and deputy to INEC on July 2, in accordance with the electoral act.
“According to section 313, of the electoral Act 2010 as amended, INEC is expected to have published that name within seven days of uploading of those particulars but they waited till July 15, 13 days after to concoct what they did on July 16, 2021.
“For me, the only way INEC can redeem their image is to reverse itself immediately, they should not wait for one minute.
“After all, there is a court judgment from Awka that has given them a soft landing, the judgment from Awka was very clear .
“The judgment solved all the legal puzzles you could ever think of, so what is holding INEC from implementing that,” he said.
He expressed hope that INEC in its proposed meeting on Tuesday, would reverse itself and recognise the right candidates.
Oye used the opportunity to stress that there was no crisis in the party, adding that APGA remained one and united.
He described those parading as a faction of the party as mere invaders.
“The thing is that we have invaders, they invaded our party, street urchins ‘with a master plan to destroy the party for the benefit of a particular aspirant’.
He said the aspirant in question had bought forms, attended the screening and was screened out, wrote a petition which was dismissed before resorting to forming a phantom group which he called the opposition of APGA.
“APGA has no other national chairman and no other national leadership except the one led by me as national chairman and his Mr Labaran Maku as the National Secretary.
“No other faction so to speak has the right, constitutional, legal or legitimate right to speak for our party.
“So the truth of the matter is that, out party is waxing stronger and stronger despite the distractions because the whole essence of what is happening is to distract us from focusing on victory in Anambra.
“They know that a united and undistracted APGA will win the election massively, they knew what happened in 2017 so they are afraid it will be repeated in 2021,” he said.
The APGA chairman, however, stressed that the party was taking due steps to ensure the right thing was done by INEC.
He said the party under his leadership had served INEC the court order which he noted that the commission had minuted to the relevant quarters.
“We have also written the Chairman of INEC, drawing his attention, calling all the legal odysseys, we had embarked upon from 2019 till date.
“Do not forget that we have a subsisting court judgment flowing from the Anambra Judiciary Awka division,” he said.
“The judgment was given in November 2019, giving the legality to the national convention conducted by our party that the convention that produced us as national officers of the
party, held on May 31, 2019.
“Why did INEC not bank on that judgment to publish the names of our candidates, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo and his deputy Dr Onyeakachi Ibezim.
“Why should INEC consider a judgment from Birnin Kudu Jigawa, 9,046 kilo meters from Akwa.
“That judgment did not say anything about me, the judgment was talking about Edozie Njoku. So the court sacked Edozie Njoku, it did not sack me. Edozie Njoku has never been the national chairman of APGA .
“There was a court order from Federal High court Awka, directing INEC to maintain the status quo and publish Soludo’s name as given to it on July 2, 2021 but INEC did not obey that court order.
“We served INEC the court judgment from Awka on November 2020, it did not obey it. INEC must do the right thing and publish the names of legitimate candidates of the party,” he said.
Lawyers representing the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the ongoing local government election tribunals in Benue State have written to the panels’ chairmen over growing security concerns at the tribunal venues.
The lawyers expressed their fears in three separate letters signed by Matthew Burkaa (SAN), Mohammed Ndarani (SAN), and Sunday Ameh (SAN) for Zone A, B and C senatorial districts, addressed to the tribunal chairpersons and made available to journalists in Makurdi.
The local government councils election petitions tribunals were all sitting in Makurdi, the state capital.
In their letters titled “Re: Notice of Tribunal Sitting on Monday 24th February 2025, and Our Security Concerns”, the lawyers urged the court not to sit because of the security concerns.
Mr Burkaa, who is representing the Zone B senatorial district in his letter, said he and his team were representing 294 respondents in all the pending 104 petitions before the tribunal in the zone.
He stated that they received notice through the tribunal secretary, Emmanuel Awuhe, via the ‘Local Government Petition Tribunal Makurdi’ WhatsApp group of the tribunal’s intention to sit on February 24.
Mr Burkaa said the lawyers had received a directive that the tribunal would not sit on February 21, the initially scheduled date and would be heard Monday, February 24.
“We hereby, with regard to the hearing notice against Monday, state our reservation against the said sitting of the tribunal on the following grounds:
“We have noted the brewing tense security situation around the court premises and within the state in the past few days.
“The state of affairs has created a serious security concern for us, as we fear for the safety of our team of lawyers and our clients should they attend the sitting on the said date.
“Consequent upon the above, we hereby respectfully request that the tribunal sitting be adjourned to a further and tentative date when adequate security measures would have been put in place to guarantee our collective security.
“We will be delighted if our request is granted with immediate and adequate consideration,” he said.
Also, Mr Ndarani, representing respondents in the 93 petitions pending before the Zone A senatorial district tribunal, aligned completely with Mr Burkaa.
Mr Ameh, counsel for Zone C respondents in the pending petitions at the tribunal, said the issue of security raised in his letter was a serious one.
A member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Marvis Ossai, on Monday prayed a Federal High Court in Abuja to declare the Delta North Senatorial seat vacant, following the defection of Sen. Ned Nwoko to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Mr Ossai, filed the suit marked: FCH/ABJ/CS/325/2025, seeking the lawmaker’s removal, having defected from the party on which platform he came into the Senate.
The plaintiff also urged the court to direct the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to, within 60 days from the delivery of judgement in the matter, conduct a by-election into the Delta North Senatorial District.
Aside from Nwoko, the INEC, PDP and the Senate, were cited as defendants in the matter.
Specifically, the plaintiff, through his team of lawyers led by Mr. Johnmary Jideobi, posed a lone question for the determination of the court.
He prayed among other reliefs, for: “An order of this Honourable Court, directing the INEC (the 2nd defendant) to conduct a bye-election into the Delta North Senatorial District of the Nigerian Senate within sixty (60) days from the date of the delivery of judgment herein.
“An order of this Honourable Court declaring vacant the seat of Ned Munir Nwoko and cancelling his Certificate of Return issued to him by INEC.
“An order of this Honourable Court mandating the 1st Defendant, Nwoko, to refund into the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, forthwith, all the salaries, emoluments and allowances received by him since January, 2025 until the date of the final judgment in this matter.
“An order disqualifying the 1st defendant from standing election into any elective post under the amended 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria until and unless he complies with every terms of the judgment in this suit.
“An order mandating the 4th defendant (Senate) to immediately give effect to the judgment of this Honourable Court.”
In a five-paragraph affidavit deposed to by one Ibrahim Isa, the plaintiff, told the court that Sen. Nwoko had on Jan. 30, resigned from the PDP which was the political party on whose platform he was elected to occupy the Delta North Senatorial seat till 2027.
According to the plaintiff, who told the court that he is from Oshimili North Local Government Area in Delta North Senatorial District, Sen. Nwoko’s continued stay in office after his defection, would amount to a gross violation of the constitution.
“That since when the 1st defendant decamped from the PDP up to the present moment of initiating the instant suit, there is never any division in the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“That the ideology of the 1st defendant’s new party, APC, to which the 1st defendant now fully subscribes, does not bear any similarity or represent the political philosophy of the PDP (which is the basis upon which the Plaintiff resolved to cast his vote for and elected the Defendant in 2023).
“That the conduct of the defendant in defecting from the PDP to APC has dealt a major blow to the fortunes of the plaintiff’s party, the PDP.
“That the conduct of the 1st defendant being challenged herein if not condemned and upturned by this Honourable Court will continue to encourage political harlotry, legislative rascality and destroys the reasons for the laws made to regulate the defection of National Assembly Members by the Constitution of Nigeria itself.
“That the continuous stay of the 1st defendant at the Federal Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria does no longer represent the Plaintiff’s interest or that of thousands of other members of our constituency who voted him in on the basis of our faith in our Party’s manifesto which they believed the 1st Defendant was capable of representing in the Federal Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“That the defendant is now representing adverse interests of the people who fought the Plaintiff’s party tooth and nail [in the year 2023] to forestall the emergence of the 1st Defendant as the Member Representing Delta North Senatorial District Federal Constituency on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP).
“That time is of the greatest essence in the instant application.
“It will be in the interest of justice for this Honourable Court to grant the prayers contained on the face of this Originating Summons,” the affidavit further read.
The suit is yet to be assigned to any judge for hearing.
President of the Senate, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, on Monday, defended the tax reform bills introduced to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu, saying that the bills would shape the future of the country’s economy.
He spoke in Abuja as the Senate Committee on Finance opened the long-awaited public hearing on the bills, urging all stakeholders to thoroughly examine the bills, considering the impact they would make on revenue generation and redistribution in the country.
The tax reform bills are, The Nigeria Tax Bill (NTB) 2024; The Nigeria Tax Administration Bill (NTAB) 2024; The Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill (NRSEB) 2024; and The Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Bill (JRBEB) 2024.
Sen. Akpabio noted that the misconceptions and fears about the bills were spread mostly by persons and groups that had hardly read the provisions.
He called all those opposing the bills to seize the opportunity of the public hearing to tell Nigerians why they believed the bills were bad for their well-being.
The Senate President stated, “The four bills, some leaders and elders have never read them. They only rush to the television to make comments.
“I call on all Nigerians, who are against the bills, to come and make their contributions. Don’t follow social media commentaries to act, read the bills.
“This is the future of Nigeria, these tax reform bills. All oversights by the Senate are suspended for now for us to devote enough time to the public hearing.”
Sen. Akpabio observed that while discussions or pronouncements about tax scare people, the truth remains that less than 30% of Nigerians pay taxes.
According to him, over-reliance on crude oil revenue has made many Nigerians to assume that paying taxes is unnecessary.
“At a time when oil revenue is dwindling, we have to think out of the box by sourcing money from other areas. This is a fact.
“I don’t think up to 30% of Nigerians pay tax. Yet, everyone wants good services and good governance.
“This is Nigeria. Nobody believes in the rule of law and nobody believes that tax works”, he added.
A long list of stakeholders attended the opening of the hearing on Monday.
