Politics
Nyako, Deputy To Face Probe Panel Today
The seven man
investigative panel set up to investigate the allegation of gross misconduct leveled against Adamawa State Governor, Murtala H Nyako and his Deputy, Bala James Ngilari by the House of Assembly has proceeded with the conduct of its work, unruffled by developments in Abuja.
The proceedings were brief and saw to the dispatch of three invitation letters to all the parties involved. The parties are Nyako, Ngilari and the Adamawa State House of Assembly.
The panel ordered that since Governor Nyako was not in town and the Government House remained sealed, the governor’s invitation letter be pasted on the Government House gate which has since been done.
Deputy Governor Bala James Ngilari was served in his office and the letter was received by the office secretary. The Assembly clerk has also received the House’s letter of invitation.
The invitation ordered the governor, the deputy governor and the State House of Assembly to appear before it at the venue of the proceeding which is the Usman Iya Medical and Health Workers of Nigeria House located on Gibson Jalo way, Army Barracks Road, Jimeta, Yola.
By the invitation, the panel has directed that all the parties involved appear by 2:00 pm.
Meanwhile, Security operatives at the residence of Adamawa State Governor, Murtala Nyako, last Wednesday prevented a member of the panel from delivering the invitation letter.
The panel secretary, Binanu R. Esthon, told newsmen that when all attempts to deliver the letter to Nyako failed, the panel members met and directed that the letter should be pasted on his gate.
“If you go to the governor’s house now you will see the invitation letter pasted on his gate, the deputy governor’s secretary received the letter on behalf of his boss”, he stated.
Esthon said that the panel would commence full sitting today since the governor and his deputy had been served with their letters of invitation.
However, Nyako has expressed confidence that he would survive the ongoing impeachment move against him, insisting that he won’t resign.
Nyako’s political trauma got worsened last week when the High Court sitting in Yola presided over by the Acting Chief Judge, Justice Ambrose Mammadi, dismissed his application, asking it to stop the lawmakers from continuing with the impeachment process.
All the 25 members of the Adamawa House of Assembly are in the PDP, but five of them did not sign the impeachment notice.
In his ruling, Mammadi said that Nyako’s application lacked constitutional backing, pointing out that the Assembly members fully complied with all the sections under Section 188 of the 1999 constitution as amended.
Speaking to State House correspondents after the launch of the Presidential Safe School Initiative aimed at providing conducive and safe environment for school children in the North East, Nyako remained upbeat about his chances of surviving the ongoing impeachment proceedings against him.
His appearance at the Presidential Villa was the second in two days since the battle to remove him began. He had also attended the Council of State meeting chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan in the Villa last Tuesday.
Nyako, who claimed that the state was calm, noted that since the issue was before the court, he expected the lawmakers to obey the rules in anything they do.
He said, “Well, it is in the court and the court said it was not well done. We are hoping that if they want to do it, they will do it following the normal process in whatever they want to do.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has insisted on the conclusion of the Continuous Voter Registration exercise yesterday (Sunday) despite calls by some opposition political parties and civil society organisations for an extension over concerns that millions of citizens could be excluded from the 2027 general elections.
In a notice issued on its X (formerly Twitter) handle on Saturday, the commission reminded the public that the exercise would end on Sunday, July 26, with designated registration centres open from 9am to 3pm.
“Your future won’t wait. Neither should you. The Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise ends Sunday, 26 July 2026,” the Commission stated.
INEC also reminded prospective voters that they could complete the registration process online through its dedicated CVR portal or visit designated INEC offices and registration centres nationwide for physical assistance.
The new Electoral Act stipulates that INEC is required to stop voter registration, updating and revision of the voters’ register 90 days before an election to allow for data clean-up, the printing of Permanent Voter Cards and other logistical preparations.
The law also requires the Commission to display the voters’ register for claims and objections within the stipulated period to enable eligible Nigerians to challenge omissions and errors and help ensure the credibility of the final register for the polls.
The INEC National Commissioner on Information and Voter Education, Mr Mohammed Haruna, told The Tide source that the Commission would not extend the deadline, stressing that the registration exercise had to close to allow the electoral body to begin cleaning the data already collected.
“By midnight on Sunday, voter registration ends. There won’t be any extension. There are so many things that we need to do at the back end. We have to draw a line; otherwise, we won’t be able to produce a clean copy of what has been posted,” he said.
Mr Haruna explained that the commission’s Information Technology team and the Voter Registration Department would begin processing the data immediately after the closure of the registration window.
He said INEC would deploy its Automated Biometric Identification System to detect and remove multiple registrations before the provisional voters’ register is displayed for public scrutiny.
“We have this automatic biometric system that will check whether somebody has registered more than once. They will publish the register for claims and objections. That is, if anybody thinks a name shouldn’t be on the register, or if he has some claims, for instance, that his name has been omitted or some of his details are incorrect,” he said.
According to him, the final number of newly registered voters would only be known after the biometric verification and the claims and objections process.
“So, it’s after all that has been done that we will have a final figure, which we will now add to the existing 93 million or so. That will then become the voters’ register. We are mandated to give every political party a copy ahead of the election,” Mr Haruna added.
Responding to concerns over the number of Nigerians who may be excluded from the 2027 electoral process by the closure, the national commissioner said INEC could only account for eligible citizens who presented themselves for registration.
He added that the commission had recorded registrations through its online platform, physical registration centres and INEC offices across the 774 local government areas.
According to a public announcement signed by Mr Ariyo Rufus, Head of Department, Voter Education, Publicity, Gender and Inclusivity on behalf of Mr Oluwatoyin Babalola, the INEC Osun State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), the said exercise is aimed at assessing its operational readiness and testing the efficiency of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) ahead of the governorship poll.
INEC stated that the exercise would simulate Election Day accreditation procedures but clarified that no voting would take place during the exercise.
The commission explained that “the mock accreditation would be conducted in selected polling units spread across the three senatorial districts of Osun State, covering Osun Central, Osun East and Osun West.
“In Osun Central Senatorial District, the selected local government areas are Osogbo, Olorunda, Ifelodun and Boripe, with designated polling units identified for the exercise.
“For Osun East Senatorial District, the exercise will take place in selected polling units across Ilesa West, Ilesa East, Oriade and Obokun local government areas.”
INEC also listed Egbedore, Ede North, Ede South and Ejigbo local government areas as the selected councils for the mock accreditation exercise in Osun West Senatorial District.
The commission urged all registered voters whose polling units were selected to participate in the exercise, stressing that only holders of valid Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) would be accredited.
“This exercise is designed to test the functionality and efficiency of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) under conditions similar to Election Day. There shall be no voting during the exercise,” the Commission stated.
INEC reaffirmed its appreciation to residents of Osun State for their continued cooperation and support throughout the electoral process.
INEC also assured political parties, the media, civil society organisations and other stakeholders of the Commission’s commitment to conducting a free, fair, credible, transparent and inclusive governorship election in Osun State.
Mr Dare made the remark while criticizing Alhaji Abubakar for hiring a United States of America lobbyist with $1.2 million, in preparation for the 2027 elections.
In a statement he personally signed, Mr Dare said the former vice president can’t take Nigeria down the path of self-destruction.
The statement read in part: “Worse still, for a man who presumes to offer leadership to Africa’s most populous nation, his recent resort to grievance offshoring, outsourcing political warfare to Washington and reportedly paying $1.2 million to an American lobbying firm to peddle petitions against a sitting Nigerian President, stands as an affront to Nigeria’s sovereignty and a vote of no confidence in its democratic institutions.
“It is also a stinging slight, an implicit condescension directed at generations of Nigerian journalists, policy analysts, academics, and public intellectuals who have spent decades analysing, critiquing, and carrying the burden of the nation’s democratic evolution.
“The Atiku Abubakar of today cuts a pitiable figure, a grotesque portrait of what a politician becomes when ambition overwhelms judgment and every political faculty becomes programmed for self-destruction.
“No, Atiku cannot take Nigeria down that path with him. He must travel it alone. But first, Nigerians deserve Atiku Abubakar’s report card. Charity, they say, begins at home, not in Washington.
“Nigerians deserve to know whether the Atiku Abubakar who has long presented himself as a democrat is, in reality, a politician of many colours. He has erected for himself a throne built simultaneously on sand and bayonets. It is time to explode the bayonets.”