The Gbong Gwom Jos and Chairman Plateau State Joint Traditional Council, His Royal Majesty, Da (Dr) Jacob Gyang Buba, CON has paid condolence visit to High Royal Highness the Emir of Kanam, Alh. Muhammadu Babangida Muazu at his Palace in Dengi, Kanam LGA to sympathize and empathize with him and the entire Local Government Area over the demise of an Elder Statesman and Secretary General of JNI Plateau State, Alh. Alhassan Shuaibu. The Gbong Gwom said the deceased will be greatly missed for his immense contributions to humanity. The Gbong Gwom Jos also visited the Mishkagham Mwaghavul, HRH Da Nelson Bakfur to condole him, the hospitable people of Mangu and the entire State over the gruesome murder of his subjects in Kulben Village, Kombun District of Mangu LGA, Plateau State. His Royal Majesty, Da Jacob Gyang Buba, CON described the killings as barbaric, inhuman and wicked. He call on the security agencies to intensify efforts toward arresting the culprits that perpetuated the dastard act. He prayed for the reposed of their souls. The traditional Rulers in their separate remarks thanked the Paramount Ruler to his show of love and empathy and appreciated him for the roles he is playing to foster unity and peace in the State and nation at large.
It is indeed a perplexing paradox: Hope Uzodinma may not have won the 2019 Imo State gubernatorial election, yet the Supreme Court, on the facts, was right in declaring him the winner of that election in law. The error was not the Supreme Court’s, but that of Governor Emeka Ihedioha’s legal team; and it was a crucially fatal error.
What happened was this: during the governorship election in Imo State, apparently concocted results, perhaps not having any basis whatsoever in reality, BUT SIGNED BY INEC PRESIDING OFFICERS, were turned in from more than 350 polling units, giving Hope Uzodinma of the APC an incredibly unassailable lead. When those results were transmitted to the wards collation centres, the collation officers, who had no power in law to cancel or reject them, rejected the said polling units results, and refused to collate them, thereby effectively excluding them from the total tally of the governorship result that was eventually declared by the Returning Officer. In the aftermath of the said exclusion, the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Governor Ihedioha the winner of the election.
The exclusion of the results of those polling units was the fulcrum of the petition presented at the Tribunal by Hope Uzodinma. Ever since David Mark V. ABUBAKAR USMAN, and DOMA V. INEC, the law has been settled that neither collation officers nor a returning officer, has the power in law to exclude a polling unit result duly signed by the presiding officer at the polling unit; only the election tribunal possesses the power to cancel or exclude such a result. So, at the point of its presentation, Senator Uzodinma’s petition was potentially viable, in spite of the apparent dubiousness of the polling units results on which it was anchored, there being a REBUTTABLE presumption of regularity and correctness, by virtue of both the Electoral Act and Evidence Act, enuring in favour of any result declared by a presiding officer.
The backbreaking and fatal error made by Ihedioha’s legal team was in not filing a CROSS PETITION fiercely challenging the integrity of the suspect polling units results upon which Uzodinma was relying, and praying the election tribunal to formally nullify the said results. Without a cross petition, none of the grounds under section 138 (1) of the Electoral Act for questioning the elections conducted in those polling units in which Uzodinma “won” could have been competently raised by Governor Ihedioha in his defence to Uzodinma’s petition. This was the ratio decidendi of the old Court of Appeal decision in IDRIS V. A.N.P.P.(2008)8 NWLR(PT.1088) Page 1. In the recent Court of Appeal decision in ATIKU ABUBAKAR V. BUHARI, the Court of Appeal again invoked the principle in dismissing Buhari’s contention that Atiku ABUBAKAR was born in Cameroun to parents who originally were Camerounians, and thus disqualified from contesting the election. Dismissing the contention, the Court of Appeal held that the issue was incompetent, since Buhari did not file a cross petition.
Ihedioha indeed did set up facts in his Reply to the petition rehashing the serial infractions that led to the exclusion of the results of the said 300 plus polling units. But that was legally not enough, in the absence of a cross petition. Besides, such renditions by a Respondent in a mere Reply or Statement of Defence are clearly incompetent. The reason for the incompetence was was made clear by the Court of Appeal in NATIONAL JUDICIAL COUNCIL & ORS V. HON. JUSTICE JUBRIL BABAJIDE ALADEJANA & ORS(2014) LPELR – 2413 (CA) Page 31, paras C – F, at ratio 3 thus –
“The law is that it is a plaintiff who by his statement of claim primarily nominates issues to be tried in a suit and which he relies on to have the judgment of the Court. For a defendant, it is only necessary to resist the plaintiff’s claim on the facts pleaded. It is not for a defendant to set up facts which would convey that it is not just setting up a defence but setting up a new case of his own. He can only do so by way of a counter claim…”
Shorn of the legalese, what the above authority is simply saying is that since the issue nominated for trial by Hope Uzodinma was the unlawfulfulness or otherwise of the exclusion of the results of the 300 plus polling units by the ward collation officers, Ihedioha’s defence was therefore necessarily restricted by law to showing that those who excluded the results had the power in law to exclude them. Without a cross petition praying for the nullification of those results, the law forbade Governor Ihedioha as respondent from raising the issue of the alleged serial corrupt practices and irregularities marring the said results, in a mere statement of defence; that was a new issue not nominated by Uzodinma as petitioner. Ihedioha, being a Respondent, could only have competently raised them via a cross petition, being a new issue not nominated by Uzodinma, the petitioner.
Tragically, Ihedioha’s legal team forgot to include the pivotal cross petition. And in the absence of a cross petition, the Supreme Court was right in law, painfully though it may seem, to rely on the presumption of regularity and correctness enshrined by both the Electoral Act and Evidence Act in favour of the said results, and to reckon with them and add them up to the final result, since Ihedioha’s legal team had woefully failed to effectively attack the results and rebut that presumption. For the Supreme Court, this was the legally correct conclusion to come to, having found that INEC had no power in law to exclude polling units results duly affirmed by the various polling units presiding officers!
The Supreme Court has declared Senator Hope Uzodimma as governor of Imo State. The seven-member panel of justices today held that Emeka Ihedioha was not duly elected Governor. Uzodimma had challenged the decision of the Court of Appeal which upheld the election of Ihedioha. The Court of Appeal in Abuja in November 2019 dismissed three appeals challenging the election of Ihedioha.
A five-member panel of justices presided by Justice Oyebisi Omoyele dismissed the appeals by the Action Alliance (AA) candidate, Uche Nwosu; All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Hope Uzodinma and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Ifeanyi Ararume challenging the election of Ihedioha. While the appeal by the AA and APGA were dismissed by unanimous judgements, that of the APC was decided by a four to one split judgement. The appellants had in their appeal against the judgement of the Imo State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in Owerri contended that the election was marred by corrupt practices, non-compliance with the electoral laws and failure to secure the majority of lawful votes cast. But the appellate court upheld the findings and conclusions of the tribunal in the March 9 election where Ihedioha polled 273,404 votes to emerge victorious. The panel fined Ararume, Uzodinma and Nwosu N500,000 each. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC had declared Ihedioha winner of the guber poll in Imo as he polled 273, 404 to defeat the candidate of the Action Alliance (AA), Ugwumba Uche Nwosu who got 190, 364, leaving a difference of 83, 040. The candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Senator Ifeanyi Araraume got 114, 676, followed by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Hope Uzodinma, who polled 96, 458. In the results announced by the Returning Officer, Prof. Francis Otunta, out of 2, 210,008 registered voters, 823, 743 were accredited out of which the election had 741, 355 valid votes cast and 25, 130 rejected votes.
200 HUNDRED EMPLOYMENTS: A BIZARRE RANTS AND ISSUES OF LIES
My attention has been drawn to a write-up trending in the social media which prompted my revered Member, Rt Hon.Yusuf Adamu Gagdi to share the piece on some of the platforms.
It took me some days pondering on the blantant lies raised by the author of such a write-up. Ordinary, I wouldn’t have joined issues with the author, but the gullible members of the public who may take it as right is my concern.
Therefore, the need to put the record straight and address these issues of lies and incongruent rant for the general public not to fall prey to the twisted logic is necessary.
Who in Kanam are the beneficiaries of the 200 employments that were given by the predecessor of Hon. Gagdi, prompting this writer to claim that it was skewed to a particular religion and which has consequence now? The time of ethnic, religious rule and divide is over with Hon.Gagdi. I challenge you to reel out those names.
I want to say without mincing words, quote me anywhere, that the people of PKK Federal Constituency had not seen the dividends of democracy so well than within this span of 7 months of Hon.Gagdi. This is a fact and it should warrant a descent acceptance.
The Ngas Nation needs the Kanam man and vice versa when it comes to central zone politics as closed neighbours and that’s why Hon.Gagdi showed magnanimity to helped Golu to defeat his kinsman in 2015.
This should serve as a lesson. We need each other and not the crass notion of an agenda or “ridiculed beyond measure by our minority neighbours as being shameless and bought over with a meal of venison” as the writer ignorantly puts it.
You need the Kanam people if your permutation is the governorship in 2023 and I will advise you to start consultation with Hon.Gagdi and it will not cause you anything if you do for the Ngas psyche as you posits.
The counsel of this great columnist; Katdapba Yunana Gobum who happened to be a great Ngas man and elder will serve as an admonishment to us that we need each other and the role of Rt.Hon Gagdi in an article he wrote entitled; Gagdi: From Whence are these acerbic attacks he says;
“We have since left that station. Indeed we could do more and be counted if the people matter. Even if I am not a beneficiary, the direction the Rt. Hon. Yusuf Adamu Gagdi has taken matters in great measures to the people. Let us encourage what is good and set a tone for those who are yet to come to terms with causes of their constituents”
This is the submission of those who have seen the truth and not blinded by sentiments.
Hon.Gagdi team is a formidable one and the hand of Esau is in it and its focus is a long-term that will change the narrative not destruction both to kanam man and Ngas people that we see in the almost 200 gainful employees across PKK within 7 months of representation and by the Grace of God you will see the roll call.
The sharing and distribution of rice I think shouldn’t be a problem because during a time like this, a period of merriment of gift to show love, Hon. Gagdi pronounced to replicate it during Sallah. That his predecessors couldn’t do it is just a matter of leadership style.
I will like to conclude by saying that Hon. Gagdi is not competing with anyone as he said. But we are candidly saying and seeing what he is offering to us in PKK and not issues of lies in defence of others.
CONDOLENCE MESSAGE: Rest In Jannah Baba Alhassan Shuaibu.
With excruciating grieve, but total submission to the supreme will of Allah, I join millions of Nigerians to commiserate with the royal family of Kanam Emirate, the good people of Kanam LGA and the entire Ummah, on the sad news of the demise of Alh. Alhassan Shuaibu, a technocrat, politician and pius religious leader who answered the ultimate call in the night of Sunday, 12th January, 2020 at Abuja.
Alh. Alhassan Shuaibu was a rare blend of royalty, religious leader and politician who had paid his dues in all facets of humanity. He was a down to earth promoter of peace and development of his father land who had served this nation in many capacities without any blemish.
He was the Chairman of Warri refinery of the NNPC, one time APP Chairman in Plateau State and one time Secretary of Jammatul Nasril Islam in Plateau state, where he worked selflessly to inculcate peaceful coexistence and religious tolerance among adherents of various religions in the state.
Even though he retired from active politics as a statesman that he truly was, late Alh. Alhassan Shuaibu was ever willing and ready to contribute meaningfully to give political direction to the people of Kanam LGA.
His fatherly role and guidance shall be greatly missed, but we take solace in the fact that he had discreetly mentored a lot of upcoming politicians beyond the boundaries of Kanam politics who would give direction to the political course of Kanam LGA and beyond.
I pray Almighty Allah to console the immediate Shuaibu family for this irreparable lost, rest his gentle soul and grant him Jannatul Firsaus; Amin!
Rt Hon Yusuf A. Gagdi
Chairman Comittee on Nigerian Navy and Member Reps
Pankshin/Kànke/Kanam
Dan malikin Kanam/Dan Majan Jahr.
Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou has replaced the head of the army after two of the country’s deadliest attacks in living memory killed at least 160 soldiers, the government said.
This had prompted a rethink in the battle against militant groups, the official added.
Ahmed Mohamed led the army for over two years, a period marked by a steep rise in attacks by militants linked to Islamic State and al Qaeda.
This had culminated in a daytime raid on a remote army base on Thursday that killed at least 89 soldiers.
That attack came less than a month after another on an outpost that killed 71 soldiers and raised questions about Niger’s ability to contain the spread of militant groups across its western border from Mali and Burkina Faso.
Salifou Modi, a major general, was appointed Mr Mohamed’s successor on Monday, the government announced after a cabinet meeting.
Niger said it would launch a new military offensive against militants, but past campaigns have failed to curb violence in spite of the presence of French and American troops.
Attacks in Niger have raised fourfold over the past year, killing more than 400 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a non-profit research organisation.
Military campaigns by armies in the Sahel, a semi-arid swathe of land beneath the Sahara, have also been marred by human rights abuses, which analysts say have pushed some civilians into the arms of the militants.
In addition to militant attacks, countries in the region, especially Mali and Burkina Faso, have struggled to cope with deadly ethnic clashes between rival farming and herding communities.
Following vacancies advertisement by the Nigeria Customs Service last year and the disturbing attempts by internet fraudsters to hack and discredit the recruitment process. The Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd) has expressed dismay over the criminal activities of these elements and gave assurances of his determination to preside over a recruitment process that will be credible, transparent and smooth from the beginning to the end. Accordingly, after a painstaking short-listing process, a total of 162,399 have been short-listed out of 828,333 candidates that applied. In-line with our earlier stated guideline, those shortlisted are being notified via their e-mail addresses and telephone numbers. Consequently, all those notified will do their aptitude tests at a date and centre indicated in their respective notification slips, they are expected to print from their e-mail account. For the avoidance of doubt, NCS recruitment process requires NO monetary payment, hence any such request from any quarter should be regarded as fraudulent and ignored. All short-listed candidates coming to the centres are to come along with the notification slips and identity card. They are to be in their best behaviors and comply with all instructions during the aptitude tests as doing the contrary could lead to instant disqualification. Signed: DC, Joseph Attah Public Relations Officer For: Comptroller-General of Customs
Plateau state Government on Monday has awarded the sum of 50 million naira for the construction of the Akila Machunga (Utonkon -Keana ) road with spur to Abattior Commissioner Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning in Plateau ,Mr Sylvester Wallangko made this known while addressing newsmen at the 2020 budget breakdown . He said ” For lands ,Housing and Urban Development, the sub sector has been allocated the sum of 5 billion naira representing 7.26 % of the approved capital budget ,government is determined to make the sector a major revenue earner of the state . Some of the key projects considered in the 2020 budget in this subsector includes ,implementation of the Greater Jos Master Plan ,construction of Angwan Rogo roads , dualization of zaira crescent and Tafawa Balewa street , construction of Kabong Satellite Market -Tudun wada spur to Mado tourist hotel and Sabo Gari, , Rehabilation and expansion of Rwang Pam street, construction of Kangang – Rantiya road , rehabilation of Tina junction – Fudawa and part of etobaba road network , construction of roads in Jos south , construction and rehabilation of Jenta Adamu road with spur to Jenta Mangoro
Plateau State Governor Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong mourns the passing of Alh Alhassan Shuaibu elder statesman and community leader who passed away on Monday 13th January 2020 after a protracted illness. Lalong in a statement describes the death of Alhaji Alhassan as a great loss to the Kanam Emirate, Plateau State and the nation as a whole. He recalls the many contributions of the deceased to the development of Plateau State and the nation through various responsibilities he carried out including his tenure as Permanent Secretary in the Plateau State civil service and as Board Member of the NNPC. While commiserating with the immediate family of Late Alhaji Alhassan, and the Kanam Emirate Council where he was a prince, the governor says the legacies he left behind will remain indelible in the hearts of many who came across him and witnessed his benevolence, compassion deep knowledge and sacrifices. During his burial at the Gudu cemetery Abuja, Governor Lalong was represented by a delegation led by the Secretary to the Government of Plateau State Prof. Danladi Abok Atu. The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon. Idris Ahmed Wase was also among several sympathisers at the graveside. It would be recalled that Governor Lalong visited the late Alhaji Alhassan at his residence in Abuja on 7th January, shortly after he was discharged from the hospital.
Dr. Makut Simon Macham ANIPR Director of Press & Public Affairs to the Governor of Plateau State. 13th January 2020.
NORTHERN GOVERNORS FORUM CONDOLES SHEIKH DAHIRU BAUCHI OVER LOSS OF WIFE
The Northern States Governors Forum has condoled with Sheikh Dahiru Usman Bauchi, prominent Islamic scholar and leader of the Tijjaniyya Movement in Nigeria over the demise of his wife Aishatu Tahir Usman Bauchi. In a condolence message, Chairman of the Forum and Governor of Plateau State Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong described the death of the late wife of Sheikh Bauchi as a huge loss not only to the family but to many who depended on her love and goodwill. He said the Northern Governors share in the pain and grief of Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, his family and the entire Tijjaniya Movement as her death has created a vacuum that will be difficult to fill. The Northern Governors Forum said the legacies left behind by the deceased will continue to be cherished and her memory honoured for all the good deeds she engaged in particularly by touching the lives of the poor and less privileged. Lalong urged the revered Islamic Scholar and members of his family to accept the sad development as the will of Allah, trusting that Allah will comfort them and give the family the fortitude to bear the loss.
Dr. Makut Simon Macham ANIPR Director of Press & Public Affairs to the Executive Governor of Plateau State & Chairman, Northern Governors Forum 13th January 2020.
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