IMO BREAKING NEWS BLOG

May 11, 2022

…Ex-president’s supporters buckle, move to complete nomination form before deadline

…Jonathan meets with Fulani community for two hours, considers demand to run

…APC begins aspirants’ screening Friday, rakes in N2.63 bn from presidential forms

By Soni Daniel, Dapo Akinrefon, Henry Umoru, Johnbosco Agbakwuru, Omezia Ajayi, Peter Duru, Ibrahim Hassan-Wuyo Davies Iheamnachor

AFTER two hours of meeting with leaders and members of Fulani community, who procured the N100 million presidential nomination forms for him, former President Goodluck Jonathan, is considering running on the ticket of the All Progressives Congress, Vanguard learned, authoritatively last night.

The former president reportedly met with the Fulani pastoralists between 11p.m on Monday and 1a.m on Tuesday to sort out issues regarding their purchase of the presidential nomination forms without his consent, a development, which made him to reject the offer and denounce those involved in the action.

“We wish to categorically state that Dr. Jonathan was not aware of this bid and did not authorise it,” Jonathan had said in a statement by his media aid, Ikechukwu Eze.

However, it was learned that at the meeting with the Fulani community in Abuja, the leader of the team that procured the form for him, Dr. Ibrahim Abdullahi, apologised to the former president and pleaded with him to pardon their indiscretion and accept the offer to run.

The pastoralists are reported to have told Jonathan that they bought the form for him as a demonstration of their appreciation for the N60 billion investments he made for the Almajiris during his tenure in the form of schools and investment opportunities.

A source at the meeting pointed out that after listening to the Fulani community, Jonathan reluctantly accepted their plea to consider running for the APC ticket as suggested by them and promised to give them a feedback as soon as possible but did not however, give a specific date.

The Court of Appeal Abuja Division has set aside the judgment of the Federal High Court in Umuahia which voided the provision of Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act 2022.

While delivering judgment on Wednesday, the three-member panel headed by Justice Hamma Barka held that the Federal High Court, Umuahia, had no jurisdiction to have entertained the case as the plaintiff, Nduka Edede, lacked the locus standi to have filed the suit in the first instance.

The court added that Mister Edede did not establish any cause of action to have warranted him approaching the court on the issue because he did not establish that he was directly affected by the provision. The Court of Appeal struck out the suit which Edede filed before the Umuahia court.

Determining the appeal the appellate court, however, held that the provision is unconstitutional because it violates Section 42 (1a) of the Constitution and denied a class of Nigerian citizens their right to participate in an election.

Manchester City suffered one of the most remarkable Champions League collapses as Real Madrid came back from the abyss to set up a final showdown with Liverpool.

City were two goals ahead on aggregate going into the 90th minute after Riyad Mahrez's strike had added to their 4-3 first-leg win last week. And then Rodrygo happened. The Brazilian substitute turned home Karim Benzema's left-wing ball from close range in the final minute - with Real's very first shot on target.

And 90 seconds later he levelled the tie with a header into the top corner after Marco Asensio flicked on Dani Carvajal's cross. That sent an already rowdy Bernabeu into absolute euphoria.

City, who thought they were going through to a second consecutive all-English Champions League final, were shell-shocked.

Manchester City's Champions League collapse should not be seen as a failure, says manager Pep Guardiola. In the second leg of their semi-final with Real Madrid, City led 5-3 on aggregate in the 90th minute, but Real scored twice to force extra time.

The hosts then clinched a 3-1 win on the night to keep Guardiola waiting for his first Champions League win with City after six years at the club. "If people say it's a failure then I disagree," said the Spanish coach, 51. As a coach, Guardiola won the Champions League twice with Barcelona, in 2009 and 2011.

However, although City have won the Premier League three times under Guardiola, the closest they have gone to European glory is reaching last season's Champions League final, where they lost 1-0 to Chelsea. "The people in the squad know how difficult it is, but they accept it," Guardiola added. "I'm not going to make a debate. In the club the feeling we have is we try to do it again.

"We are sad, of course, because we were close - but not close enough. Madrid deserve it.

Leaders in the South East have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to release the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu. They made the plea on Friday at a meeting with the President who is on a two-day visit to Ebonyi State.

The Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the South East, Reverend Father Abraham Nwali, made the plea on behalf of the South East leaders in his address at the Ebonyi State Stakeholders’ Forum held at the Government House in Abakaliki, the state capital.

“We plead for a political solution that as a father; a kind father, a forgiving father, to grant Nnamdi Kanu freedom,” he said. “We say that he should be granted pardon.

“And we call on all agitators to cease all forms of hostilities and rather demand a nation where the plights of the poor, the weak, the oppressed will be addressed.”

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has extended the ongoing strike by twelve weeks, the president of the union, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke said on Monday. 

In a statement he issued after an emergency National Executive Committee meeting of the association at the University of Abuja on Sunday, the ASUU president said the decision was to give the government enough time to resolve all outstanding issues with the lecturers.

“After extensive deliberations, noting the Government’s failure to live up to its responsibilities and speedily address all the issues raised in the 2020 FGN/ASUU Memorandum of Action (MoA) within the additional eight-week roll–over strike period declared on 14th March 2022, NEC resolved that the strike be rolled over for twelve weeks to give Government more time to satisfactorily resolve all the outstanding issues,” the ASUU president’s statement read.

“The roll-over strike action is with effect from 12.01a.m. on Monday, 9th May 2022.”