Senator Ovie Omo-Agege (Delta Central) said the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance forbids President Muhammadu Buhari from signing the Electoral Bill.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker gave this insight in a phone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday night.

Article 2 of the protocol forbids member countries from making “substantial modification” to their electoral laws less than six months to elections “except with the consent of a majority of political actors”.

Omo-Agege, who is a staunch supporter of the President, noted that with the elections less than three months away, signing the bill would violate the ECOWAS instrument.

NAN reports that the presidential and National Assembly elections are slated for Feb. 16, 2019, while those of governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections will hold on March 2.

Omo-Agege said, “I have yet to see the president’s letter to the Senate, but this bill means so much to Mr President. On a good day he would want to sign it.

“However, without even seeing the reasons he has advanced so far, I am aware of the challenges posed by the ECOWAS protocol.

“I don’t know if that is part of the reasons he has advanced, but with the bill coming two months or thereabout before the election, assenting to it will breach the protocol.”

NAN reports that Buhari did not mention the ECOWAS instrument as part of his reasons for declining assent to the bill for the fourth time.

The president’s latest decision came in a letter dated Dec. 6, 2018 and addressed to both chambers of the National Assembly.

He said signing the amendment bill with elections close by could “create some uncertainty about the legislation to govern the process”.

“Any real or apparent change to the rules this close to the elections may provide an opportunity for disruption and confusion in respect of which law governs the electoral process,” he stated.

Buhari, therefore, asked the National Assembly to specifically state in the bill that the amended Electoral Act would come into effect after the 2019 general elections.


Reacting to the development, Sen. Peter Nwaoboshi, who represents Delta North on the platform of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said the reasons given by the president were “untenable”.

“It is not a good reason for him not to sign the bill because the Senate worked with INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) in preparing that bill.

“If INEC felt otherwise, they would have advised us when we were working on it.

“You are aware of the controversy that this issue of amendment of the act has generated, with people accusing the Senate of not wanting to amend the act.

“We amended it, but he declined assent the first, second and third time; he made certain observations, which we agreed with.

“We sent it again, and the reason he is giving now is that it will disrupt the election. It is really unfortunate,” he said.

An Abuja-based lawyer and civil rights campaigner, Mr Frank Tietie, said the credibility of the 2019 elections was at stake without the compulsory use of card readers as proposed in the bill.

Although, INEC has been using the card reader for elections since 2015, there is no provision for the technology in the extant electoral law, making its use optional.

Tietie said, “Without the card reader and electronic transmission of results, our elections have been subjected to might, brute force and the power of money.

“Card readers and electronic transmission of results have totally eliminated that, and there is need for a legal force to that.

“This is what the amendment seeks. Buhari’s refusal to allow the card reader and electronic transmission of results will only lead to electoral compromise,” he said.

In September, Sen. Ita Enang, Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant (SSA), said the president had no problem with the use of the card reader contrary to allegations by the opposition.

https://www.today.ng/news/politics/ovie-omo-agege-muhammadu-buhari-breached-ecowas-protocol-signing-electoral-bill-176909/amp?__twitter_impression=true

zlantanfan:
Lol, this one looks like a worst slave that can even wash plates for saraki wife.


It seems anytime APC makes a statement dem saraki would go into panic mode since bye election, osibanjo presence yesterday has made this hagg to arrange 50 paid supporters plus give each a sponsored placard

Look at their faces they are not exited

If the passage into law is very important, PDP should direct Saraki and Dogara to mobilise two third majority of the house to veto Buhari.

If Saraki is that powerful, let him gather two third majority is Senate and veto the president.

Ucheosefoh:
2nd to the last poster is a PDP man campaigning with Atiku and the last poster is fake which Shehu has denied, stop adding misleading information.

You didn't see that they cut off Atiku? Why because he isn't sellable

Buhari is sellable

mrvitalis:
Buhari is the king of the north, one politician can insult him and be successful elections in the north

The truth is with out buhari pdp has the north but as long as buhari is on the ballot it's a different story

2023 is pdp best chance If they can get it right

That's the truth some people hate.

Everybody dissociating itself from Atiku. Even in Adamawa, Campaign posters are dissociating themselves from Atiku.

JubrilBuhari:
Thanks to Photoshop, Jubril from Sudan is all over the posters on the internet...

But why are they cutting away Atiku from posters even in Adamawa?

Why isn't anybody campaigning with Atiku?

From an angle they don't want us to see.

Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC) has asked the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, to categorically state whether he will do just one tenure, to convince them that his six-year policy statement will not truncate the 2023 Igbo Presidency Project.

In a statement after a meeting in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, yesterday, the secretary-general, Okwu Nnabuike, said that OYC had studied diligently the six-year plan of Atiku to make Nigeria work again, but insisted that the Wazirin Adamawa must state that he will only rule for four years, if elected.

He maintained that the South East and Igbo votes from the 36 states and Abuja would be the swing votes in the 2019 presidential election, a reality major contenders know.

“Election will take place in 2019 in the south east, and the governors should put their house in order to avoid the repeat of 2003 episode where opposition Alliance for Democracy (AD) governors agreed to vote for Olusegun Obasanjo and later lost their seats.

“As Igbo watchdogs, we believe that irrespective of our support for south east governors seeking second term, we will vote out any governor who betrays the Igbo interest and agenda, which will be decided by January 2019,” OYC stated.

Meanwhile, the primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, has appealed to Nigerians not to mortgage their future by selling their votes during the 2019 general elections.

He also urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that the elections are not only credible, free and fair, but also that the outcome reflects the people’s wish.

Addressing the youths of the church in Abuja, Okoh observed that the credibility of the forthcoming elections would depend on the integrity of INEC, security agencies and the courts.He told the youths not to allow themselves to be manipulated, but to stand for the whole country and not for sectional or group interest.
https://t.guardian.ng/news/state-clearly-if-you-will-do-one-term-ohanaeze-youths-tell-atiku/

Atiku na so life be

NaijaRoyalty:
No sane Niger Deltan will convass for Buhari

Stop deceiving yourself

Keep deceiving yourself. So a sane Niger Deltan would support Atiku that plan to buy NNPC. Later there would be agitations that Hausa Fulani owns NNPC, NLNG and all oil Installations after Atiku achieved his plans.

Hehehehe they haven't seen anything.

By the way, I heard some people are surprised that Atiku want to sell NNPC. How do they expect the business man to recoup the trillions of naira he would spend without acquiring NNPC and NLNG?

Just in

Shayetet13:
The presidency and those föōls without brains above, all the commissioners of police during Obis tenure have told you countlessly that Obi did not deport any northerner. Yet, you talk like föóls that you are. Do you now know better than the commissioners of police during Obis Tenure? Moreso, if Obi report El Rufai to SSS and he is detained and so what? When did El rufai become all the northerners? What is El rufai business in Anambra on election day when he does not live in Anambra? El rufai is pained he was detained. He should not bring in other Northerners. My problem is those zombies above. I have developed pity for them and as a result trying to find a cure to the virus affecting them.

The commissioners of police also said he didn't destroy mosques, but here is a 2012 tread about a mosque destroyed by Obi

https://www.nairaland.com/1002371/plan-demolish-mosque-onitsha-muslims

blackbeau1:
We are not resisting the decision of the state government to beautify the Bridgehead but the plan to demolish our place of worship is more political and could result in breakdown of law and order because no Muslim would stand by and watch their place of worship demolished for no just cause

That sounds to me like a threat.dear Gov peter obi,pls level the mosque and if any moslem stands in the way,level him too.so,now their mouths are working.y haven't they led a protest March against their brothers back at home who are busy demolishing churches? Fools

No one knows tomorrow

Introduce the attestation in 2015, so he couldn't have applied for it for the other elections.

benuejosh:
south votes will divide. Especially Akwa Ibom and Rivers. I keep saying it.

If you know the man called Great Ogboru, you will know Delta is divided too.

Very true

If you wish to know if Atiku is corrupt, Contact the current Publicity Secretary of PDP.
He did the investigation and issued his findings.

Islamic apex body in the country, Nigerian Supreme Council For Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) has reacted to recent comments made by the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Mathew Hassan Kukah, at a book launch in Abuja.
The book launch was organized by Premium Times Books on Wednesday and the cleric in his speech had among other statements said “Christians (are) not allowed places of worship in some northern tertiary institutions.”
The NSCIA however on Friday, 24, August, in a statement titled “KUKAH’S VIRULENT INTOLERANCE AND SELECTIVE AMNESIA”, and signed by Aselemi Ibrahim its Public Relation Officer said: “That one of the major problems assailing Nigeria as a corporate entity is situated within the religious and pseudo-religious elite is a fact that does not require any shred of evidence to the discerning.
“Nothing illustrates the foregoing submission more than the usual hoopla from the stable of a supposed Christian cleric and public intellectual, Matthew Hassan Kukah, who has a penchant for heating the polity with his bigoted premises and warped conclusions. The context of his latest misguided vituperations was the book launch organised by Premium Times Books last Wednesday in Abuja, as reported by the online newspaper in the story, “Christians not allowed places of worship in some northern tertiary institutions” on August 16, 2018.
“According to Premium Times, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto characteristically berated Muslims generally and Northern Muslims in particular that they orientate their children to be violent. He falsely claimed that Christians are not allowed places of worship in northern higher institutions and he invoked the same mantra of marginalisation that has been used, abused and overused by dissident groups and political desperadoes.
“One strategy of Bishop Kukah’s, is to play the underdog in highlighting their pathological hatred and undisguised intolerance for Muslims in this country. Though objectivity is a core requirement of scholarship, Bishop Kukah is passionately opposed to it. He recently ventilated such noxious thoughts of his at an international forum where the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) stood to educate him that the issue is neither one-sided nor as simple as portrayed. But he has chosen
another platform to play voodoo on the minds of the unwary and the undiscerning.
“Without any fear of contradiction whatsoever, the irrefragable truth is that no religious group faces the persecution that Muslims face in Nigeria. From the usual hijab saga to religious witch-hunting in private and public establishments, Muslims have always been subjected to the same treatment the colonial masters made them to suffer. But rather than consider it what it is in the hands of the Christian neo-colonialists, the patriotic zeal to keep Nigeria together has often made Muslims elect to see the injustice against them as aberration.
“In addition, we do not know why the respected Bishop has developed a proclivity for negativity and falsehood, instead of the things that unites us. For example, the Catholic secretariat is only a-three-minute drive from the sultan’s palace in Sokoto. Also, when the said Cathedral was being opened, the state Governor – a Muslim, was present at the event. The Sultan who was out of town at the time, sent a powerful delegation\to represent him.
“These and many more are glorious examples of the peaceful and tolerant disposition of Muslims toward their Christian neighbours in the heart of Muslims’ lands. Conversely, Bishop Kukah uses every opportunity to throw tantrums at Muslims and talk of marginalisation in the North, where he superintends over several churches worth billions of Naira, he conveniently ignores the emasculation of Muslims in the South to the extent that they don’t even have a voice as Christian Governors and leaders ride roughshod on their rights. Islam is reduced to the status of an unwanted visitor as successive Governors in cahoots with the intolerant religious leadership there ensure that no breathing space is allowed Muslims. CAN leaders in the South openly sign statements in support of one candidate or the other whereas if a. Muslim does in the North, heaven will be made to fall. The Governors in the South East and South South can conveniently spend millions of Naira on covering live church activities on television from public funds without a whimper from the rabble-rousers but if a Muslim Governor elsewhere sponsors a pilgrim with a fraction, they are quick to mount the rooftops and shout of Nigeria’s secularity.
“In other words, in the whole South East and South South Geo-political zones, including some parts of the South West, Muslims are treated like lepers. They are denied and their ramshackle places of worship are routinely destroyed. Yet, Muslims have not been using every available podium to castigate and demonise their Christian tormentors even when they are aware that Kano alone has thousands of churches operating without let or hindrance, just like many other places in the North.
“One or two cases will aptly demonstrate Kukah’s hypocrisy and insincerity as he is in position to be aware of the scenario. Rivers State University of Science and Technology is a Nigerian public university, yet the institution illustrates and symbolises the intolerance, bellicosity and colonial mentality of the Christian establishment in the Southern part of Nigeria.
“While the authorities of the university granted more than six different places of worship to six Christian sects or denominations on campus, they blatantly refused to grant one to Muslim students. The makeshift mosque the students erected to worship God was demolished and its materials have been confiscated by the university since January 25, 2012.
“Rather than take the laws into their own hands as many students are wont to do when confronted with such provocation, the Muslim students approached the courts after exhausting all diplomatic channels to make the university authorities see reason. The case, with SUIT No. FCH/PH/CS/150/2012 was brought before the Federal High Court in Port-Harcourt and the students were granted the reliefs sought by the court on February 19, 2013.
“The authorities of the universities did not toe the line of reason but rather chose to appeal the judgement in order to prolong the persecution of Muslim students. The appellate Court in SUIT No. CA/PH/614/2013 nullified the appeal on March 31, 2017 and upheld the right of the Muslims to be allocated a plot for worship on the Campus. Yet, rather than put a stop to its illegality, the university authorities still approached the Supreme Court where the case is pending hearing. The tactic is to postpone doing the right and constitutional imperative to punish the peace-loving Muslim students and deny them their constitutionally-guaranteed rights as Nigerians.
“The stark reality of Nigeria is that some Christians, goaded on by their overfed leaders like Kukah do not want Muslims to exist. When they shout that christianity is under threat, it is a manner of expressing their Islamophobic tirades as just done again by Kukah.
“It took the intervention of the Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN) to point out the composition of the so-called Afenifere that parades itself as the council of elders in Yorubaland. In the entire body, no single Muslim is found old enough to be a member. A region boasting of nationally and internationally acknowledged icons like Prince Bola Ajibola, Hon. Justice Bola Babalakin (rtd.), Alhaji S.O. Babalola, Prof. Daud Noibi, Prof. T. G. O. Gbadamosi and a host of other accomplished and elderly Muslims does not have a single Muslim in its socio-cultural group because it must be an all-Christian affair.
“It is convenient for Kukah to pontificate as if he was in Mars when the late Bola Ige was terrorizing Muslim students in Oyo State just because of the clamour to enjoy a semblance of religious rights granted Christians in public schools. It is easy to forget the various infractions wrought upon Muslim students in particular and Muslims in general in many parts of North Central Nigeria.
“The fact that no sponsored Islamic programme is tolerated on Channels Television despite request from even Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, is no issue to Kukah, but Late M.K.O Abiola’s policy of not allowing advertisement of alcohol in his then Concord Newspapers was considered fanatical.
“Denying people places of worship in the North and the South is an aberration. Those who see it otherwise or rather play ethno-religious cards in a mischievous manner are the true enemies of Nigeria.
*Nigerians should not fall for their gimmicks as their stock-in-trade is distortion of facts, religious intolerance and intentional amnesia as demonstrated for the umpteenth time by Bishop Kukah at the event cited in the report under consideration .”

http://dailypost.ng/2018/08/25/nscia-replies-bishop-kukah-lists-ways-muslims-suffer-discrimination-christians/

Atiku2019:
Atiku we Know

He might not get the ticket, Tambowal has top backers.

Recall that Tambuwal , a former Speaker of the House of Representatives , is one of the political heavyweights who recently defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the PDP.
The choice of Tambuwal , according to our findings , is borne out of the belief that he has a larger clout to pull through the race than Dankwambo.
Sources closed to the governor told our correspondents that based on the pressure mounted on him and the support now given to Tambuwal , the Talban Gombe is now considering running for the senatorial seat of Gombe North.
“ This is why there is no serious aspirant in the senatorial race for the zone . The seat is reserve for him ” , a close associate of the governor who did not want his name in print said .
Besides, Tambuwal ’ s visit to Gombe where he commissioned a street named after him last weekend has added fillers that it may also be a sign that Dankwambo would align himself with the Sokoto State governor.
LEADERSHIP reliably gathered that Hon Yusuf Manu Swa , a close political associate of Dankwambo and a member of his cabinet presently serving as commissioner of cooperative, has been appointed to coordinate Tambuwal ’ s presidential campaign in the state .
One of our sources said many of those calling on Dankwambo to step down believe that Tambuwal ’ s candidacy will be a boost to efforts being made by the PDP to defeat the APC in the fortycoming general election.
According to him , the thinking is that a strong candidate from the same Northwest zone where President Mohammadu Buhari comes from stands a better chance of defeating APC.
“ Tambuwal is unarguably the most experienced politician in the zone at the moment whose sagacity in political scheming, intrigues and tactics have garnered for him respect and admiration in the domains of Nigeria politics ”, he said .
It was also gathered that Dankwambo expressed some doubts a few days ago about the possibility of him emerging victorious should he continue with his presidential aspiration .
Efforts by our correspondent to speak with some of Dankwambo ’ s close political allies , including Manu Swa , since he has no spokesman in his team proved abortive .
But Governor Dankwambo yesterday evening denied that he was under pressure to step down for Governor Tambuwal .
Speaking through the Gombe State commissioner for Information, Alhaji Umaru Nafada, the governor said there is no iota of truth in the story, stating that he is not going to abandon his presidential ambition by stepping down for any other aspirant .
Nafada said , “ Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo has declared to contest the presidential election and as far as he and a lot of Nigerians are concerned , he is the most suitable aspirant for that position from PDP. So , he has no intension of withdrawing or stepping aside for anybody , not even Tambuwal ” .
The commissioner assured that Dankwambo ’ s quest to clinch the presidential ticket of the PDP was on course , stressing that he has no reason to quit at this point.
He said the governor has demonstrated his seriousness about the presidential race by making wide consultations across the country and reaching out to people .
Nafada noted that if Dankwambo were not interested in pursuing his presidential ambition, he wouldn ’ t waste time, energy and money moving around.
He added that Dankwambo has the acceptability and clout to win as well as the knack to organise the party and make it a formidable force against the APC.
On Tambuwal ’ s visit to the state , Nafada said it was like the visit of any other PDP leader to the state to commission a project.

https://leadership.ng/2018/08/13/2019-pressure-mounts-on-dankwambo-to-step-down-for-tambuwal/
https://www.naija.ng/1185960-2019-pressure-mounts-dankwambo-step-tambuwal.html

Jombojombo:

Zomhie check the date

MuM.u it was published 2 months ago

Old news this happened in June.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-bfPDgAPTI

Mynd44:
This guy has my respect. He has passion and belief in what he is doing amd he is taking the loss as his personal failure.

The agent of the winner should be magnanimous in victory and strech a hand of friendship to him and not mock him like that twitter user is doing

Look at the pic well, I am not sure he is an agent, he is just mocking PDP.

Kemi Adeosun that is holding one of the highest position in the land with a fake NYSC certificate, is giving people worthless certificates.

Many thanks to those who bought our macropropagated suckers. Those those who have been calling to place order and those who intend to, I am sorry we do not have any for now, next planting season by God's grace, your macropropagated suckers would be available.

Thank you.