Politics
Kwara By-Election: 43,695 Voters Collect PVCs In Patigi LG -REC
The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Kwara, Malam Garba Attahiru-Madami, has said that 43,695 voters collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) in Patigi ahead of the scheduled by-election into the vacant state assembly seat.
The REC disclosed this on Wednesday in Ilorin during a meeting with the eight political parties that would participate in the by-election and members of Inter-Agencies Committee on Election Security (IACES).
Our source reports that eight political parties have so far signified interest to take part in the March 14, by-election into Patigi state constituency.
The political parties are All Progressives Congress (APC), African Democratic Congress (ADC), People Democratic Party (PDP) and New Nigeria People Party (NNPP).
Others are the Action People Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), African Action Congress (AAC) and Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
Attahiru-Madami promised to be open, transparent and give all the political parties participating in the by-election a level playing ground.
According to the REC, there are 52,233 registered voters in Patigi state constituency, while 51,476 PVCs were received from INEC headquarters.
He added that a total of 43,695 PVCs were collected, leaving 7,781 uncollected PVCs which he said were kept in the vault of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Ilorin.
Politics
Suswam Blames External Forces For Problems In PDP
Former Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, has said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is being undermined by external forces which have rendered the party ineffective as a viable opposition.
Senator Suswam stated this during a live television interview on Wednesday.
He lamented that the party had since after the 2023 general elections failed to live up to expectations of Nigerians as a viable opposition.
Senator Suswam, who blamed the current PDP leadership for the ineffective state of the largest opposition party in the country, said unless there is an overhaul of its leadership, the party would “go nowhere” because the current leadership has lost focus.
He said, “I think there are subterranean forces inferring in the party and they are determining what is going on in the party. And the leadership is acquiescing to it.
“Subterranean suggests that people are trying to control the party from the outside. They are controlling the party from the outside and they are keeping the party in a comatose state.”
The Benue senator accused the party of refusing to call a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting to help resolve some of the issues arising in the party.
He regretted the inability of the party to resolve the fallout of the 2022 presidential primary election which saw a group of five governors work against the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 presidential election.
He added that the inability of the Iliya Damagum-led leadership to discipline erring party members worsened the situation.
Senator Suswam said it was wrong for the party not to have sanctioned the G-5 governors and their allies who openly declared that they would remain in the party and work against its interest.
“They were not sanctioned which made others become emboldened to act anyway they wanted. PDP has been weakened since then,” he said.
He said no serious organisation does that, stressing that, “A serious organisation would apply sanctions” based on the laid down rules as contained in its constitution.
He further accused the acting national chairman of the party, Ambassador Iliya Damagum, of occupying the position which belongs to the North-Central zone, following the removal of the substantive chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, who hails from the zone.
Amb. Damagum, who was the Deputy National Chairman (North), hails from the North-East zone but was, as permitted by the party’s constitution, made acting chairman after Ayu’s removal by a court order.
The party’s law provides that the deputy chairman from the same region as the chairman takes over in the event of the latter’s removal from office.
Senator Suswam further lamented that “PDP is comatose now, and nothing can happen now,” adding that it was regrettable that politicians are now preferring to hold talks with smaller parties and not the PDP.
Noting that the PDP was at the precipice, Senator Suswam said, “Until we provide that leadership, PDP will not be a viable platform. We need to overhaul the leadership of the party. There is no pretence about it, everybody in PDP knows it. Without discipline and reconciliation, the party goes nowhere.”
Politics
Tinubu Congratulates Senegal President-Elect Over Electoral Victory
President Bola Tinubu has congratulated Bassirou Faye on his election as Senegal’s new leader.
President Tinubu’s media aide, Ajuri Ngelale, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.
President Tinubu said Mr Faye’s election comes with great promise and a sterling record and wished him success as he takes on the job of leading the people of Senegal.
The Nigerian leader also congratulated President Macky Sall for overseeing an election that has been widely adjudged as peaceful and transparent.
The president commended the success of the presidential election in Senegal and that of Liberia a few months ago.
He said the two events affirmed his long-held conviction that democracy would be established in West Africa and grow stronger through good governance, justice and fairness to all.
As the chairman of ECOWAS, President Tinubu said the successful conduct of the Senegal’s election boosted the sub-regional organisation’s efforts to promote peace and constitutional order and strengthen ties among member states.
He congratulated the people of Senegal and assured them of Nigeria’s best wishes and support.
Forty-four-year-old Mr Faye, a former tax inspector, pledged to weed out corruption, restore stability, and prioritise economic sovereignty.
The Senegal president-elect said he would drop the much-criticised CFA franc currency pegged to the Euro and replace it with a new Senegalese, or regional West African currency.
Politics
2027: LP Reserves Presidential, Governorship Tickets For Obi, Otti
The Labour Party (LP) has declared Mr. Peter Obi as the preferred presidential candidate of the party in the next general election in 2027.
Mr Obi was also the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 election.
The party also adopted the Governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, as its preferred governorship candidate in the State for the 2027 general election.
Obi and Otti were adopted candidates of the party in the next election circle during the LP national convention held at Grand Season Hotel in Nnewi, Anambra State, last Wednesday.
However, both Obi and Otti were conspicuously absent at the convention.
The Deputy Governor of Abia State, Ikechukwu Emetu, led all members of the State Executive Council (SEC) and members of the National and State Assemblies from the State elected on the LP platform, to the national convention.
No member of the National and State Assemblies from Anambra State elected under the LP platform except the member representing Peter Obi’s Anaocha/Njikoka/Dunukofia Federal Constituency and Deputy Minority Whip of the House of Representatives, Hon. George Ozodinobi, attended the occasion.
Meanwhile, about nine out of the 22 members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the LP, including the National Chairman, Barr. Julius Abure, were re-elected to their positions at the convention.
In the communique issued at the end of the event, delegates who attended the convention said that the decision to adopt both Obi and Otti as LP candidates for the 2027 general elections was because the duo had carried themselves in a rare dignified manner and as such have earned the confidence of the party leadership and its teeming members and supporters.
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