IMO BREAKING NEWS BLOG

The Department of State Services (DSS) has debunked the rumored tenure elongation earlier reported by Sahara Reporters, an online media platform that the 2023 general election may not hold. This is contained in a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer, Dr Peter Afunanya in Abuja.  DSS described the report titled “Nigeria’s Secret Police, DSS Tests the Water on Tenure Elongation for Buhari, Tells Journalists, CSOs 2023 Elections May not hold” as misleading and mischievous.

In the said report, the Service was accused of informing participants at its April 6th brainstorming session with CSOs/NGOs that the 2023 general elections might not hold due to insecurity. It further stated that the session was a ruse to sell tenure elongation to the public. The service said “It is curious that the session which was applauded and described as innovative by participants including credible civil society groups would be misrepresented by SaharaReporters that was neither invited to nor participated in the exercise.

“The Online paper, in its characteristic gutter journalism, had initially claimed that participants at the session were harassed. When the fake news did not garner the expected attention, it resorted to another gimmick aimed at dragging the Service into an unnecessary term elongation debate. However, the presidency its definite stance to hand over power to a new president on 29th May 2023, has vindicated the Service and countered the deliberate effort by SaharaReporters to create confusion.

“While the Service, in the circumstance, aligns with the Presidency urges the public to disregard the lies of SaharaReporters and its promoter whose activities are usually antithetical to a decorous environment. "It is common knowledge that SaharaReporters is mischievously desperate and takes delight in promoting negative narratives against Government and its officials". The paper has not only remained biased and sensational in its reportage, it has sustained seditious attacks against security institutions and particularly the Service which may not hesitate to seek legal redress in the face of continued misrepresentation

The service further advised politicians and highly placed to desist from making unguarded statements capable of derailing efforts to deepen the country’s democracy as well as mobilise citizens for national unity and stability.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said "a beautiful game was destroyed" as his side suffered a damaging blow in their top-four hopes with a north London derby defeat at Tottenham. Spurs won 3-0 to move within a point of their rivals with two games remaining.

Tottenham's opener came from the penalty spot before Arsenal had Rob Holding sent off. "If I say what I think I am suspended for six months," said Arteta when asked about the officiating. "I don't know how to lie so I prefer not to say what I think. I cannot say what I think. "I am not unhappy with my players. I am proud of my players. I want the referee to come in front of the camera and explain his decisions. It's a shame because such a beautiful game was destroyed.

"The decision was made. We can't change it. The referee has to make a decision in football."Tottenham manager Antonio Conte declined to add his opinion on the decisions but did not hold back on his opposite number. "He complains a lot," the Italian said of Arteta. "He has to focus more on his team. He has to focus more on his work.

"He has to continue to work because he's a very good [coach]. To hear someone complain all the time is not so good.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has not resigned as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). This is according to the National Publicity Secretary of the main opposition party, Debo Ologunagba, who spoke during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily monitored by Core TV News.

“As far as today, I am not aware of his resignation from the membership of the party [PDP]” he said on Friday amid speculations that the former Nigerian leader is joining the All Progressives Congress (APC) to vie for the presidential seat in next year’s poll. “I would assume it is safe to say that he is a member of the party,” the PDP spokesman maintained. “If events follow thereafter, we can speak to that.”

According to him, the party would not respond to rumours about Jonathan’s defection, saying there are no facts to prove such. Ologunagba said questions about the former president’s defection speculations should be channeled to him and his ward in Bayelsa State.

“Membership of the party is personal. Membership of the party is at the ward level,” he added.

By Chidiebube Okeoma, Owerri

Justice Maureen Onyetenu of the Federal High Court in Owerri, Imo State, on Thursday, awarded a N200m court judgment against the Nigerian Army for killing a businessman, Noel Chigbu.

Delivering the judgment, the jurist agreed with the applicant’s request that the Nigerian soldiers were liable for the killing of the businessman at Amakaohia flyover in Owerri on April 30, 2021.

Although counsel for the applicant, Brigadier Gen. G.O. Anyalebechi (retd.), demanded N1bn in compensation for the killing of the businessman, the court settled for N200m.

Briefing our correspondent after the judgment, Anyalebechi said that he was satisfied with the court verdict.

The counsel said, “I am satisfied with the judgment. Though we asked for N1bn, the court awarded N200m. The court found the Commander of the 34 artillery Brigade Command, Nigerian Army Obinze, and the Chief of Army Staff, liable.

“But the governor of Imo State and the Chief of Defence Staff were not found liable. This is so because, even though the governor of Imo State invited the military to Imo State, he was not the commanding officers of the soldiers who killed Noel Chigbu. The Chief of Defence Staff is not also the commanding officers of the soldiers who killed the businessman.

“In military jurisprudence, the Chief of Army Staff and the commander of 34 artillery Brigade Command Obinze are the commanding officers of the officers who killed Noel Chigbu. They are liable for what their subordinates did.

“Instead of the Chief of Army Staff and the commander of the 34 artillery Brigade command Obinze to punish the erring officers, they endorsed their actions. I am satisfied with the judgment but I am ready to meet them at the higher court if they want us to wash our dirty clothes in the public.”

The applicant and elder brother to the deceased, Tobechi Chigbu, said that though no amount of money could equate the life of their brother, the judgment was a relief to his family.

The deceased eldest brother and spokesperson for the family, Tobechi Chigbu, had informed journalists that some soldiers shot dead his brother on the day he took delivery of his new Toyota Camry car and was driving home at the close of work.

The distraught Tobechi said Noel was killed after dropping off his friend and heading home at Amakaohia in Owerri.

He had said that the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of operations in the state told the family that the soldiers said they shot his brother dead because he violated their checkpoint rule.

Tobechi had said, “Noel was one of my younger brothers. He would have been 39 on May 18, 2021, unfortunately, he was shot dead on the day he took delivery of his new vehicle. His corpse was dumped at the Federal Medical Centre in Owerri by the soldiers who killed him.”

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday insisted that any primary election conducted after June 3, 2023 remained null and void.

The commission said it will not accept the outcome of such primaries, noting that provisions of the 2022 Electoral Act would be observed to the letter in the prosecution of the 2023 general elections.

Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of INEC in Delta State, Monday Udoh-Tom, reiterated this unwaivering stand in Asaba at a one-day Media/Civil Societies Organisation (CSOs) round table on the 2022 Electoral Act organised by the Commission in collaboration with Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) and Delta State Civil Society Forum (DENGOF).

Udoh-Tom said the resolve to stick with the provisions of the Electoral Act was an evidence of the commitment to bring sanity into the nation’s electoral system.

He explained that the Electoral Act was not only intended to offer legal cover for the series of commission’s past and present innovations, which over the years, often suffered technical defeats in the courts, but also to further deepen transparency and reduce ambiguity and the use of discretion by both INEC and stakeholders in the electoral process.

According to him, operationalization of the Act began with the “publication of Notice of Election, by the Commission on  February 28, 2022, in line with section 28(1) , which inter-alia provides that, ‘the commission shall,  not later  than 360 days before the day appointed for holding of an election under this Act, publish a notice in each state of the Federation and the Capital Territory – (a) Stating the date of the election; and (b) Appointing the place at which nomination papers are to be delivered.

“Consequently, other timeline activities have since followed, including on-going party congresses and primaries, for the nomination of candidates, in which Section  29(1-8) provides for the list of candidates to be submitted to the commission by political parties, 180 days before the 2023 General Election, and in this instance, before the Presidential and National Assembly elections, fixed for February 25, 2023.”

He stressed that the Electoral Act as signed into law on February 25, 2022; the constitution of Nigeria; and INEC guidelines would provide framework for the conduct of the 2023 elections.

“This round table in my understanding is to bring all key players in the electoral process to the table, to take a slice of the Act, examine its ramifications for each player in their corner, with the overall goal of informed and enlightened value added political discuss, activism and reportage, which of course will ultimately benefit the out come of the 2023 general election.

“It is important for all participants to agree from the onset of this meeting, the necessity of detailed understanding of what the Act says, in every sphere of activity of the electoral process, so as to arrive at a pre-determined end of knowledge driven out come, with the consequence of less acrimony, fake news and litigation at the end of the 2023 general election,” he added.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, has directed the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, ambassadors, heads of agencies, and other government appointees with political ambition to step down. 

In a circular issued on Wednesday, the directive affected the CBN Governor who is among the heads of extra-ministerial departments. “For the avoidance of doubt, this directive affects all Ministers, Heads, and Members of Extra-Ministerial Departments, Agencies and Parastatals of Government, Ambassadors as well as other political appointees who desire to contest for elective offices,” read the circular issued hours after President Muhammadu Buhari’s ordered members of the cabinet seeking offices in next year’s poll to resign.

The SGF noted that those affected should hand over to the most senior persons next to them.

“For smooth running of the machinery of government and our foreign Missions, affected Ministers are to hand over to Ministers of State where they exist or to the Permanent Secretary, where there is no Minister of Ambassadors shall hand over to their Deputy Heads of Mission or the most senior Foreign Service Officer in line with established practices,” he explained.