The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Peter Mbah, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as the winner of the Enugu state governorship election.

Maduebibisi Ofo-Iwe, the returning officer in Enugu, who announced the results on Wednesday night, said Mbah polled 160,895 votes to win the election.

“That Mbah Peter Ndubuisi of Peoples Democratic Party, having satisfied the requirement of the law is hereby declared the winner and returned elected,” Ofo-Iwe declared.

Ofo-Iwe said Chijioke Edeoga of the Labour Party (LP) scored 157,552 votes to come second while Frank Nweke II of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) polled 17,983 votes,

Uche Nnaji of the All Progressives Congress (APC) got 14,575 votes.

Mbah will succeed Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, the incumbent governor, whose two terms of eight years end on May 29.

Prior to the declaration of the results, INEC had on Monday, suspended the collation of results in Nsukka and Nkanu east LGAs of Enugu so as to conduct a review of the results from the two LGAs.

The decision of the electoral commission sparked protest in the state as supporters of political parties called for the resumption of the collation process.

Guber polls: US vows visa ban, other tough sanctions for election offenders.

The United States Government on Tuesday renewed its vow of imposing visa ban on anyone found wanting of undermining the electoral process in Nigeria.

The US Government said it witnessed firsthand incidents of voter intimidation and violence in the governorship and house of assembly elections held nationwide in Nigeria on March 18th.
In a statement issued by the US Embassy in Nigeria, Washington however commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the marked improvement in the conduct of the elections.
But it decried the increased violence witnessed during the elections in Lagos, Kano, and other states across the country.

The US urged the Federal Government to probe the reports of violence and threatened to impose visa ban on all individuals found culpable in the efforts at undermining the process.
The statement read: “Nigeria carried out the second round of its electoral process with gubernatorial and state assembly elections on March 18.

“The United States is deeply troubled by the disturbing acts of violent voter intimidation and suppression that took place during those polls in Lagos, Kano, and other states. Members of the U.S. diplomatic mission observed the elections in Lagos and elsewhere and witnessed some of these incidents first-hand.
“The use of ethnically charged rhetoric before, during, and after the gubernatorial election in Lagos was particularly concerning.

“We commend all Nigerian political actors, religious and community leaders, youth, and citizens who have chosen to reject and speak out against such violence and inflammatory language, affirming Nigerians’ commitment to and respect for the democratic process.

“We call on Nigerian authorities to hold accountable and bring to justice any individuals found to have ordered or carried out efforts to intimidate voters and suppress voting during the election process.
“The United States likewise will consider all available actions, including additional visa restrictions, on individuals believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic process in Nigeria.

“The United States renews its call for any challenges to election results to go through established legal processes, which must not be interfered with. We further call for Nigeria’s people to work together as they participate in and continue to strengthen the country’s vibrant democracy.”

NLC To Embark on Nationwide strike over Naira Scarcity.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has directed all workers across the country to embark on strike from Wednesday, March 29, over the current cash crunch in the country.
NLC President, Joe Ajaero, gave the directive during a media briefing at Labour House, Abuja on Wednesday.

He also directed that affiliate unions of the NLC should also be on standby to picket all the branches of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) nationwide.

He said the directive became imperative following the expiration of a one-week ultimatum given to the apex bank to make cash available to Nigerians.

APC Suspends SGF Boss Mustapha Indefinitely.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa State has suspended the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, for losing his polling unit to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the presidential and governorship polls.

The party disclosed that the SGF did not contribute to the victory of its presidential and governorship candidates. Announcing the suspension at a press conference in Yola, the chairman of Gwadabawa Ward said Mustapha was not committed to APC’s victory at the presidential election.

He stated that the indefinite suspension followed complaints from his ward, adding that no individual could be above the party that gave them the platform.

But in a sudden twist to the announcement of the indefinite suspension slammed on the SGF, the State Working Committee of the party under the leadership of the acting Chairman, Chief Samaila Tadawus,  declared the announcement as “unconstitutional, null and void and of no effect.”

The Adamawa State APC SWC, also announced the directive on the local government executive committee of Yola North, to constitute a disciplinary committee to immediately investigate and recommend appropriate action.

Secretary of the party, Dr. Raymond Chidama, who addressed journalists at the party secretariat on behalf of the SWC, frowned at the penchant of party members who were being sponsored by “opposition elements within the party with malicious intent to attack elders of the party through actions that flagrantly disregard the party’s constitution.”

He said, “We hereby state clearly that such suspension is unconstitutional, null and void and is of no effect, because the state working committee has warned the ward executives in the past to desist from this acts of targeting elders of the party and disregarding constitutional provisions, appropriate sanctions will be applied after thorough investigations.”

Illicit  Drugs; Court rules in ABBA Kyari’s suit seeking to stop charges against him.

Court rules in Abba Kyari’s suit seeking to stop charges against illicit drugs
A Federal High Court, Abuja has dismissed an application filed by suspended DCP Abba Kyari seeking an order dismissing the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA’s charge against him.

In his ruling on Wednesday, Justice Emeka Nwite of the court held that the court had the exclusive right and jurisdiction to hear drug-related cases as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the NDLEA Act.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Justice Nwite had, on Jan. 18, adjourned for ruling in the application filed by Kyari and three other co-defendants in the suit bordering on a drug offence.

The applicants are Kyari, ACP Sunday Ubia, Insp Simon Agirigba and Insp John Nuhu.

They had prayed the court to quash the criminal charge against them in fresh motions on notice filed by their lawyers on the grounds that the suit was incompetent.

They urged the court to stop their trial because they had not been subjected to the internal disciplinary action of the Nigeria Police Council (NPC) and the Police Service Commission (PSC), as provided by the constitution.

They said that the failure of the complainant (NDLEA) to await the disciplinary action against them rendered the charge incompetent and deprived the court of jurisdiction to entertain the charge.

But the NDLEA counsel, Mr Joseph Sunday, opposed the application.
He argued that most of the cases cited by lawyers to the defendants did not relate to the Police Service Act, saying the instant charge against the defendant was a criminal matter.
He submitted that the defendants, through their applications, had not, by way of affidavit or legal argument, established any condition precedence required for the filing of this charge.

“To that extent, their application must fail and be bereft of any factual evidence,” he said.

Sunday urged the court to dismiss the application and proceed to the hearing of the matter.
Delivering the ruling, Justice Nwite held that the powers of the Police Service Commission did not supersede the powers of the FHC.
He said that the subject matter of the case was within the jurisdiction of the court.

According to the judge, Section 251(2)(F) and (3) of the Constitution confers the court the power to hear and determine the charge.
Recall that on Sept. 5, 2022, in a fresh suit filed at the federal high court, the NDLEA accused Kyari of non-disclosure of assets.
According to the fresh 24 charges, the NDLEA said Mr Kyari failed to declare his ownership of the property in different locations in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and Maiduguri.
The anti-drug agency also said over N207 million and 17,598 Euro were also found in his various accounts in three banks.

Labour Party’s Alex Otti wine Abia Governorship Election.

Following the announcement of the result from Obingwa Local Government Area, Dr Alex Otti of the Labour Party has emerged as the Governor-elect of Abia State.

Otti scored a total of 175, 467 to defeat his closest rival, Sir Okey Ahiwe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 88,529 votes.

Recall that the announcement f the Abia State Governorship election result was delayed due to the confusion from Obingwa Local Government Area where it was said that the result was manipulated.

The March 18th Governorship election in Abia State, results from Obingwa became problematic after the rest of the 16 Local Government Areas were collated and announced.

A disagreement followed the results submitted from Obingwa as some people parties raised eyebrows about the results stressing that the number of votes scored by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is far more that the number of accredited voters.

The situation led to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deciding that the machines used for the conduct of the election must be reviewed to ascertain what went wrong as alleged.

After the review by INEC, the results were announced as follows: number of registered voters-157390, number of accredited voters-27664, valid votes 20000, Rejected votes 510 and the Total votes cast 20510.

Following the above statistics, the Parties’ results are as follows: ADC-37, ADP-19, APC-721, APGA-1445, APM-18, APP-383, BP-113, LP-3776, NNPP 41, NRM 48, PDP-9962, PRP-12, SDP-55, YPP-3101, ZLP-48.