₦airaland Forum

A mammoth crowd of thronged the Sokoto stadium on Wednesday as President Muhammadu Buhari held his reelection campaign rally in the state.

Buhari, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), pledged to protect the integrity of Nigerians and safeguard their trust at all times

He said his administration had successfully succeeded in its three cardinal objectives of fighting corruption, revamping agriculture and improving security.

“We have succeeded in fighting Boko Haram, our farming system has tremendously improved and corruption has generously been addressed,” he said while addressing the crowd.

“I want to assure you that our party will continue in this direction in order to ensure that we successfully protect the integrity of Nigerians and our country.”

The president thanked the people of Sokoto state for their massive turnout to welcome him to the state.

Source: New Telegraph report

National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, yesterday, took former President Olusegun Obasanjo to the cleaners over the latter’s criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Tinubu, who rose in defence of the Buhari administration following Obasanjo’s allegation that the President is preparing to rig the forthcoming general elections, said Obasanjo should be the last to complain about election rigging.
Obasanjo, had at the weekend, accused Buhari of using security institutions to fight all critics and opponents of his administration, adding that the president was desperate to rig the coming poll.
But, in his riposte on yesterday titled: “Chief Obasanjo – At War Against His Own Deeds,” Tinubu declared that the former president lacked the moral justification to criticize Buhari.

Tinubu, who is Co-Chair of the APC Presidential Campaigns, described Obasanjo as an election rigger without peer. According to him, Obasanjo, with his missives against the president, was only projecting on the APC the misconduct he would perpetrate if still in power.
His words: “There is no election which occurred under Obasanjo’s watch or in which he participated that did not involve cheating on his part. Even the late President Umaru Musa Yar‘Adua admitted he was the beneficiary of a flawed election engineered by none other than today’s vociferous complainant.

“Obasanjo thinks he is more than the greatest Nigerian. He thinks himself greater than Nigeria itself. Unless he is allowed to lead the procession, he will groan, grouse and grit.”
The former governor of Lagos State, however, assured that the general elections will be free and fair contrary to the doomsday predictions by critics.
He maintained that neither President Buhari nor the APC have much use for Obasanjo’s reactionary policies and his megalomaniac ways.
His words: “Chief Obasanjo should be the last to complain about election rigging. His administration was an unalloyed miscarriage of justice and of the best aspirations of the Nigerian people.
“We all know he was not elected in 1999. He was handed Nigeria on a silver platter; perhaps because Nigeria was so easily given that he went about treating the nation as if it was a less than precious thing; he thought it was a cheap give-away not a privilege to govern this nation.
“This man should have positioned himself to be the father of the nation. All the goodwill that could be granted a political figure was bestowed on him. The global economy was such that it fueled our growth.

“Everyone wanted Nigeria to succeed after emerging from years of noxious military rule. Despite the flawed exercise that rendered him president, we all bit our tongues in hope that he would say and do the right things that would move Nigeria forward.
“Instead of being a unifying figure as Commander-in-chief, he lowered himself to being a divisive, vindictive conniver. There was no table which he neared that he did not upset and overturn. There was no one who came into his company for any period of time with whom he did not fall out if he expresses a thought contrary to one of his.

“He tried to convert our young democracy into a one party state. His PDP boasted that they would rule for 60 uninterrupted years. Never did they boast that they would govern us well during even one year of the sixty.
“He could have placed the economy on the path to durable growth and shared prosperity through diversification, industrialization and creation of a social safety net for the poor. Instead, he handed the economy over to a tight group of cronies, turning what should be a modern economy into a version of the mammoth trading companies that dominated the 17th and 18th century.

“The Transcorp conglomerate was intended to be a throwback to monopolistic enterprises such as the East Indian Company wherein a select handful would control the national economy’s strategic heights.
“We hoped that Obasanjo would personify statesmanship, thus showing the way to a more benign political culture. Instead, he bickered and feuded with his vice president and mostly anyone who dared remind him that he was human and thus infallible.
“Given the vast margin between the good he could have achieved and the nebulous feats that comprise his true record, Chief Obasanjo is the person most responsible for the flaws in the Nigerian political economy since 1999. His ego is as expansive as the firmament but his good deeds would fit into a modest sachet with ample room to spare.

“The worst of Obasanjo’s record, I have yet to describe. When it comes to elections, he has been a rigger without peer. There is no election which occurred under Obasanjo’s watch or in which he participated that did not involve cheating on his part. Even the late President Umaru Musa Yar‘Adua admitted he was the beneficiary of a flawed election engineered by none other than today’s vociferous complainant.

“For Obasanjo to lament over electoral malpractice is tantamount to the ocean complaining that a few raindrops are causing it to get wet.
“In his writing, Obasanjo alleges the Osun election indicates rigging will take place in the coming contests. Let’s go straight to the truth, Obasanjo has no grievance with the process. His personal history suggests fair process is the least of his concerns.
“What knocks Obasanjo off kilter is that he could not dictate the result in Osun. He told those in the PDP that he held sway in Osun and throughout the Southwest. They believed him. He led them to defeat notwithstanding the almost impossible voter turnout in PDP strongholds in that state. Obasanjo can only win an election when has the final say over the final vote tally. Otherwise, he is a troubled man.”

Tinubu noted that Obasanjo could have placed the nation’s economy on the path to durable growth and shared prosperity through diversification, industrialization and creation of a social safety net for the poor, but he bungled the opportunity and handed the economy over to a tight group of cronies.

“He and Atiku were champions of trickle-down economics. If anything good trickled down to the poor it was by accident. Obasanjo left the poor unattended because he cared nothing for them. Poverty increased under his cold indifference. Not one meaningful social program was established during his watch.

“The banking and pension deregulation he brought were geared to profit the wealthy CEO’s and managers of these financial entities. The malpractices attendant to these deregulation fiascos extinguished the savings of millions of Nigerians.
“In reliance on these artifices of Obasanjo and his ilk, many Nigerians were thrust down the lower rungs of the poverty they so desperately sought to avoid. Obasanjo’s allies gobbled the savings of the poor and still feast on them to this day.
“Chief Obasanjo is one of the last people to preach to anyone about using public funds to care for the poor. He had the gall to fret that funds should not be given to the urban poor because they are not poor enough. But his grouse does not show any defect in the administration’s program. His complaint shows the defect in Obasanjo’s humanity or lack of it.

“To complain that some people are not poor enough for his liking is to reveal that seeing human suffering does not motivate him to cure it. He would rather that people suffer it the more. Your unease and distress becomes his entertainment or at least evidence he is superior to the common man. Watching a laborer struggle against penury is no more than a spectator sport for Obasanjo.

“The most fantastic of all his claims is that this administration has returned Nigeria to the days of Abacha. If this were true, the press would be constantly closed. Obasanjo would be constricted in writing such letters. Elections would not be upon us. Atiku would not be able to freely campaign and the diversity of opinion in the public space would be suppressed.

“For Obasanjo to utter such an outrage is that he hopes lighting strikes twice. He was ushered into office after Abacha’s demise. He thinks if he can invoke Abacha’s name, the same thing will happen again.
“By hook, crook or utter fantasy, Obasanjo seeks to return to Aso Villa, not as an irritating, importuning guest but as a long-term resident. He wants to be back in control. If he cannot be president, then the president better carve from his office a special room for Obasanjo,” Tinubu said.

Source: Thisday Newspaper

Super Eagles Captain, John Mikel Obi has completed his move to Middlesbrough after passing a medical yesterday.

According to UK’s Sun, the former Chelsea midfielder, 31, travelled from London to the north-east yesterday after agreeing personal terms.

Two-time Premier League winner Mikel will join up with his new team-mates this morning after spending the past two years at Tianjin TEDA in the Chinese Super League.

Even with a year left in his contract with the Chinese team, the Nigerian captain was not ready for life in the lower league in the Far East but would rather play in the Championship in England. He parted ways with TEDA on mutual consent.

Roma and Wolfsburg are two other European teams that showed interest in the midfielder who spent over a decade at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge.

Mikel is believed to have weighed the option of a return to England because his wife and two young children are based there.

The UEFA Champions League winner will be part of a Tony Pulis side looking to bring Premier League football back to the Riverside next season.

Boro currently sits fifth in the Championship table and seven points off leaders Leeds.

Pulis’ men host Newport County on Saturday in their fourth round FA Cup clash before travelling to promotion rivals West Brom on February 2. Boro isn’t short of central midfielders but Pulis believes the physical, imposing and experienced Mikel can further strengthen the department. Mikel has played as both a holding midfielder and in a more advanced No.10 role for both club and country in the past.

He left Chelsea for Tianjin Teda two years ago but didn’t settle in China and still believes he’s got plenty to offer in a challenging and competitive division, while accepting English clubs won’t be able to offer anywhere near the lucrative salary he was earning in Asia.

Mikel hasn’t played for Nigeria since last summer’s World Cup but is being urged to return to the national scene ahead of this summer’s African Cup of Nations.

Mikel’s Coach at both the Under-20 World Cup and the Rio Olympic Dream Team, Samson Siasia said yesterday that the gangling midfielder wants to get back to proper fitness before the AFCON 2019 in Egypt.

“One thing we should know is that Mikel has not played for a while now, and he is trying to move to another club. I believe he wants to secure his job situation before he will worry about the Super Eagles.”

Mikel has vast experience of the English game, having played more than 350 games for Chelsea during his 11-year stay at Stamford Bridge.

He has quite the CV, having won two Premier League titles, three FA Cups, the League Cup, Champions League and Europa League.

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Source: Daily Sun Newspaper

Minister of Interior Lt-Gen Abdulrahman Dambazau (retd) has taken a swipe at the immediate past Inspector General of Police, IGP Abubakar Idris, accusing him of severing the relationship between the Nigeria Police Force and its supervising ministry during his reign.

Speaking when the acting IGP Mohammed Adamu paid him a courtesy visit, the minister lamented that out of the 25 memoranda the ministry took to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for deliberations, none involved the police under ex-IGP Idris.

He said he had urged IGP Adamu and his management team to look into the lingering issue of community policing, promising to provide all the assistance he needed to succeed as IGP.

“I want to first congratulate you on this position you are elevated to and add my prayers that God grants you success. I also want to appreciate your coming here on a courtesy visit, recognising the significance of the Ministry of Interior in terms of its supervisory mandate to the police and other agencies including its mandate in terms of internal security and public safety,” the minister said.

“We are happy that you took this step because since early 2016, shortly after I came in as Minister in November 2015, I had a very cordial relationship with the then IGP, Solomon Arase, but when Arase left, there was the severance of relations between the police and the Ministry of Interior.

“It was not completely though because most of our dealings in terms of internal security and public safety were with the DIG Operations and because we must do everything possible to ensure that we not only carry our supervisory mandate in terms of policy but also to ensure that police as an institution does not suffer,” he noted.

Speaking further, the minister said: “We are indeed glad that you came in with an absolutely different idea regarding this relationship. Throughout three years, we have presented more than 25 memoranda to FEC that have to do with policies concerning the country, but none of them involved the police except few that came from Police Academy, Wudil.

“So, this is the kind of thing that we must be able to avoid because you need the parent ministry to represent you at the FEC. That related with us here. We need to work together with the kind of security challenges we are experiencing in this country as you mentioned. I will appreciate the idea and concept of community policing. There are so many things in terms of policy you can drive from here.

“Ours stop at making policies because the implementation is absolutely yours. We will not interfere in that area at all. We have capable and experienced hands in the ministry that can make lots of inputs, particularly in this democratic environment that you need this process. I want to reassure that this ministry will give you all the support you need to succeed.

“We will not pretend about it; there are security challenges in the country, but they must be tackled and we must put heads together to ensure we succeed in providing for Nigerians, the security they deserve. We do hope that this is just the beginning of our working together to ensure that you succeed,” he promised.

Speaking earlier, the acting IGP pleaded for forgiveness, promising that, having retraced their steps, they would not want to be left out of the activities of the ministry.

“It is really a privilege to be received today. Since my appointment as the new acting IGP, my thought was to first visit the Ministry of Interior which is the parent ministry where Nigeria Police belongs. I have not gone anywhere on courtesy call except this one and now that I have been here; I am now free to go to other places.

“We are aware of the fact that most of the policy issues concerning police operation come from the Ministry of Interior. We don’t want to be left out. We want to be deeply involved in the activities of the ministry. We want the minister to know that we are 100 per cent ready to participate in every activity of the ministry that involves security.

“We do have challenges involving security within the country. They are challenges that can be surmounted and we can easily overcome them with the full support of the parent ministry. If we were not participating in the past the way we should, we have now retraced our steps to return and do the needful for the benefit of the country and benefit of everybody. That is the reason for our coming,” he said.

In his entourage included seven deputy inspectors generals of police (DIGs) and an assistant inspector general of police among others.

Tinubu bombs Obasanjo over attack on Buhari, APC, makes revelations [Full statement]

Source: Daily Post Nigeria

More criticisms have come the way of former president Olusegun Obasanjo over his letter where he chastised President Muhammadu Buhari and his administration, claiming the president was preparing to rig the 2019 poll.
In his response to the letter on Tuesday, former Lagos governor and Co-Chair of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaigns, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, said Obasanjo was projecting unto the APC the misconduct he would perpetrate if still in power.
“Yet, the ways of Obasanjo are not those of the APC. And this difference has meant the better for Nigeria,” Tinubu said in the strongly-worded letter.
Asiwaju described the former president as an election rigger without peer.
“There is no election which occurred under Obasanjo’s watch or in which he participated that did not involve cheating on his part. Even the late President Umaru Musa Yar ‘Adua admitted he was the beneficiary of a flawed election engineered by none other than today’s vociferous complainant,” he said.
Tinubu’s riposte personally signed by him, titled “CHIEF OBASANJO – AT WAR AGAINST HIS OWN DEEDS”, reads: “Former President Obasanjo is many things to many people; but he is all things unto himself. His recent contribution to our political discourse wherein he alleges plots to steer the coming elections shows he benefits from an exceedingly faulty memory, is purely shameless or has a most wicked sense of humor. Perhaps all three are facets of his makeup and were equally on display in his latest prosaic display.
“The crux of his long tirade was the allegation that INEC is poised to cook the election results. Chief Obasanjo should not get his dander up and waste good ink for nothing. This election will be a free and open exercise of the people’s right to choose their leaders. Obasanjo makes fiery allegations against this right but offers no corroborating evidence; he presents only reams of words. This is because Obasanjo is projecting onto the APC the misconduct he would wrought if still in power. Yet, the ways of Obasanjo are not those of the APC. And this difference has meant the better for Nigeria.
“Moreover, Chief Obasanjo should be the last to complain about election rigging. His administration was an unalloyed miscarriage of justice and of the best aspirations of the Nigerian people. We all know he was not elected in 1999. He was handed Nigeria on a silver platter; perhaps because Nigeria was so easily given that he went about treating the nation as if it was a less than precious thing; he thought it was a cheap give-away not a privilege to govern this nation.
“This man should have positioned himself to be the father of the nation. All the goodwill that could be granted a political figure was bestowed on him. The global economy was such that it fueled our growth. Everyone wanted Nigeria to succeed after emerging from years of noxious military rule. Despite the flawed exercise that rendered him president, we all bit our tongues in hope that he would say and do the right things that would move Nigeria forward.
“Instead of being a unifying figure as Commander-in-chief, he lowered himself to being a divisive, vindictive conniver. There was no table which he neared that he did not upset and overturn. There was no one who came into his company for any period of time with whom he did not fall out if he expresses a thought contrary to one of his.
“He tried to convert our young democracy into a one party state. His PDP boasted that they would rule for 60 uninterrupted years. Never did they boast that they would govern us well during even one year of the sixty. He could have placed the economy on the path to durable growth and shared prosperity through diversification, industrialization and creation of a social safety net for the poor. Instead, he handed the economy over to a tight group of cronies, turning what should be a modern economy into a version of the mammoth trading companies that dominated the 17th and 18th century. The Transcorp conglomerate was intended to be a throwback to monopolistic enterprises such as the East Indian Company wherein a select handful would control the national economy’s strategic heights.
“We hoped that Obasanjo would personify statesmanship, thus showing the way to a more benign political culture. Instead, he bickered and feuded with his vice president and mostly anyone who dared remind him that he was human and thus infallible.
“Given the vast margin between the good he could have achieved and the nebulous feats that comprise his true record, Chief Obasanjo is the person most responsible for the flaws in the Nigerian political economy since 1999. His ego is as expansive as the firmament but his good deeds would fit into a modest sachet with ample room to spare.
“The worst of Obasanjo’s record, I have yet to describe. When it comes to elections, he has been a rigger without peer. There is no election which occurred under Obasanjo’s watch or in which he participated that did not involve cheating on his part. Even the late President Umaru Musa Yar ‘Adua admitted he was the beneficiary of a flawed election engineered by none other than today’s vociferous complainant. For Obasanjo to lament over electoral malpractice is tantamount to the ocean complaining that a few raindrops are causing it to get wet.
“In his writing, Obasanjo alleges the Osun election indicates rigging will take place in the coming contests. Let’s go straight to the truth, Obasanjo has no grievance with the process. His personal history suggests fair process is the least of his concerns. What knocks Obasanjo off kilter is that he could not dictate the result in Osun. He told those in the PDP that he held sway in Osun and throughout the Southwest. They believed him. He led them to defeat notwithstanding the almost impossible voter turnout in PDP strongholds in that state. Obasanjo can only win an election when has the final say over the final vote tally. Otherwise, he is a troubled man.
“In an attempt to relieve his trouble, Chief Obasanjo makes reference to a joke about INEC. He says, “The INEC was asked if the Commission was ready for the election and if it expects the election to be free, fair and credible. The INEC man is reported as saying in response, ‘we are ready with everything including the results.’” The joke has a touch of humor; we are glad that Obasanjo is not completely devoid of this most human of traits. However, he makes a telling omission by failing to give you the vintage of this bit of sarcasm.
“The jest was not born last week. It’s vintage is circa 2003- a time when a certain President Obasanjo rode roughshod over INEC. He would summon the nervous INEC chairman to the Villa, proceeding to hector the man until he gave way to Obasanjo’s demands. At Obasanjo’s urging, INEC improperly published fake election results on the gubernatorial race in Lagos. Not until a public outcry did INEC back away from rigging Lagos. A similar attempt was made in Lagos in 2007. In essence, for Obasanjo to laugh at this joke means he has belatedly developed the ability to laugh at himself.
“If Obasanjo was so committed to free elections, how could he countenance Atiku’s recent boast of single-handedly rigging elections in the Southwest. Atiku claimed that he took all states for the PDP but left Lagos alone due to some misguided affinity for me. By this statement, Atiku publicly admitted to rigged elections in the SW. Beyond resort to wholesale rigging, Atiku could never deign to be more popular and potent in the Southwest than the panoply of good and decent leaders that guided the defunct AC. Moreover, I can assure you that we did not need Atiku’s false beneficence to win the elections in Lagos. The people voted for us and their votes countered the ill-designs Obasanjo and Atiku set in motion. Thus, if Obasanjo cannot chastise Atiku for publicly boasting that he rigged elections, then Obasanjo’s display of righteous indignation is but a magician’s trick.
“His fine words and sentiments come a dozen years too late. These noble things would have greater effect had he placed them into practice when he was at the helm of affairs. At that time, he was powerful so he did as he might. Now that he lacks power, he has taken to preach that which he never did.
“In his commentary, he mentions that INEC has a record of past rigging. I wonder if he understands the admission he makes. No other president has exercised such tight control over INEC for as many years as Obasanjo. No president has had the domineering relationship with INEC that Obasanjo enjoyed. If there are reports of past INEC rigging, those reports are of Obasanjo’s making. It is the irony of ironies for Obasanjo to complain of the fruit on the table when his was the hand that planted the tree.
“Chief Obasanjo tries to further confuse matters by pointing to the case of the CJN’s assets declaration as evidence of future vote-rigging via tampering with the judiciary. Again, Obasanjo goes into a personality shift. For years, Obasanjo has boasted of himself as our corruption fighter nonpareil. The very aim of this current letter is to attack imagined INEC malfeasance. Yet, with regard to the CJN, he blithely ignores the large cache of dollars in the CJN’s account and the millions of dollars that passed through the accounts. Obasanjo seems unbothered by the unexplained presence of such sums. Perhaps Obasanjo’s nonchalance regarding the money is that he expected the funds there because he knows both the origin and reasons for the trove.
“Chief Obasanjo sinks so low as to suggest that the VP, during the exercise of his official duties, was taking the PVC numbers of market women and traders. This statement reveals the bilious nature of the man. Obasanjo even quotes the notorious Bode George in claiming that the VP was “gutting our collective treasury” by giving loans of N10,000 to market women under the administration’s empowerment programs.
“What? Giving money to poor people to enhance their lives and escape the maw of poverty is, by PDP metrics, gutting the collective treasury. If helping the poor is gutting the treasury, Atiku’s privatizing large chunks of the economy into his own pocket must have been seen by the PDP as a vital public service. Jonathan and his Petroleum Minister’s siphoning government coffers of several billion dollars to enrich the already-rich must have been viewed by the PDP as the epitome of a social safety net. Obasanjo’s and the PDP’s disdain for the common person could not be clearer.
“Obasanjo should be ashamed to even raise this issue. When he was president, the economy was on an easy sledding due to positive global trends. Obasanjo did not raise a finger to do anything for the poor. He and Atiku were champions of trickle-down economics. If anything good trickled down to the poor it was by accident. Obasanjo left the poor unattended because he cared nothing for them. Poverty increased under his cold indifference. Not one meaningful social program was established during his watch. The banking and pension deregulation he brought were geared to profit the wealthy CEO’s and managers of these financial entities. The malpractices attendant to these deregulation fiascos extinguished the savings of millions of Nigerians. In reliance on these artifices of Obasanjo and his ilk, many Nigerians were thrust down the lower rungs of the poverty they so desperately sought to avoid. Obasanjo’s allies gobbled the savings of the poor and still feast on them to this day.
“Chief Obasanjo is one of the last people to preach to anyone about using public funds to care for the poor. He had the gall to fret that funds should not be given to the urban poor because they are not poor enough. But his grouse does not show any defect in the administration’s program. His complaint shows the defect in Obasanjo’s humanity or lack of it. To complain that some people are not poor enough for his liking is to reveal that seeing human suffering does not motivate him to cure it. He would rather that people suffer it the more. Your unease and distress becomes his entertainment or at least evidence he is superior to the common man. Watching a laborer struggle against penury is no more than a spectator sport for Obasanjo.
“The most fantastic of all his claims is that this administration has returned Nigeria to the days of Abacha. If this were true, the press would be constantly closed. Obasanjo would be constricted in writing such letters. Elections would not be upon us. Atiku would not be able to freely campaign and the diversity of opinion in the public space would be suppressed.
“For Obasanjo to utter such an outrage is that he hopes lighting strikes twice. He was ushered into office after Abacha’s demise. He thinks if he can invoke Abacha’s name, the same thing will happen again. By hook, crook or utter fantasy, Obasanjo seeks to return to Aso Villa, not as an irritating, importuning guest but as a long-term resident. He wants to be back in control. If he cannot be president, then the president better carve from his office a special room for Obasanjo.
“Obasanjo thinks he is more than the greatest Nigerian. He thinks himself greater than Nigeria itself. Unless he is allowed to lead the procession, he will groan, grouse and grit. However, neither President Buhari nor the progressive APC have much use for his reactionary policies and his megalomaniac ways. Thus, we shall be forced to endure more of his letters. But enduring such missives is vastly superior and small price to pay for not having to endure a repeat of his unenlightened misgovernance”.

Source: NAN report

The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, on Monday, declined the request by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, to make an order stopping the Code of Conduct Tribunal from proceeding with his trial.

The Code of Conduct Tribunal had on January 14 fixed January 22 for hearing in the six counts of false assets declaration filed by the Code of Conduct Bureau against Justice Onnoghen.

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), had also filed a motion asking for an order directing Onnoghen to step down as the CJN pending the conclusion of his planned trial before the CCT.

Two non-governmental organisations – Centre for Justice and Peace Initiative; and International Association of Students – had approached the Federal High Court in Abuja, praying for orders quashing the charges against the CJN.

In response to the NGOs, Justice Evelyn Maha of the Federal High Court, Abuja had issued two separate orders directing that status quo should be maintained in Justice Onnoghen’s case before the CCT.

In furtherance of the steps to stop Justice Onnoghen’s proposed arraignment before the CCT, his lawyers, led by Chief Adegnoyega Awomolo (SAN), went before the Court of Appeal to obtain another restraining order against the CCT.

Awomolo told a three-man Court of Appeal panel, led by Justice Abdu Aboki, that the restraining order was necessary to preserve the subject matter of the case at the CCT.

But Federal Government’s counsel, Emmanuel Omonuwa, said he was only served with the court process by Justice Onnoghen’s legal team on Monday morning and he needed at least three days to reply.

After a short deliberation among themselves, the three Justices of the appeal court declined granting Awomolo’s prayer to halt the CCT proceedings against the CJN.

“We are of the view that no form of order shall be made at his stage pending hearing of motion on notice adjourned till January 24,” the panel ruled.

However, the National Industrial Court of Nigeria in Abuja reaffirmed its last week interim order stopping the CCT proceedings against Justice Onnoghen.

The industrial court gave the restraining order in a suit filed by a lawyer, Peter Abang.

On Monday, Justice Sanusi Kado of the NIC reinforced the restraining order following an ex parte application moved by Abang’s counsel, James Igwe (SAN), who said there was difficulty in serving the court’s papers personally on CCT Chairman, Danladi Umar.

The judge directed that all the parties in the suit before him should not take any step that could destroy the substance of the case pending the hearing and determination of the claimant’s motion for interlocutory injunction.

The Kogi State Chapter of African Democratic Congress (ADC) has condemn in totality the continuous attacks on its members and the shambolic disruption of its campaign gathering.

We condemn the continous attacks on our party members by armed thugs of the All Progressive Congress(APC) in Kogi State. This violent trend is unacceptable and unfortunate. This trend must stop and be condemn by all. The security agencies in Kogi State must be aware.

The Kogi State Chapter of African Democratic Congress(ADC) therefore called on Kogi State Police Command to, without delay, address and halt further attacks on its members by rampaging and sponsored alleged APC thugs in Kogi State.

Bashir Ibrahim Ellah, ADC Publicity Secretary in Kogi State states this in Lokoja on Monday.

In a statement issued on Monday, the party said the continous attacks on its members by ADC thugs is condemnable and unacceptable.

"Barely 48 hours(Saturday) that our campaign train, buses and members were ambushed and attacked in Agbenema in Ayingba, another group of thugs have attacked ADC members in EJULE, OFU LGA, yesterday Monday.

"At the moment, members of our party have been seriously injured and properties destroyed.

The security agencies in Kogi State should perform their constitutional duties of securing lives and properties of the citizenry and ensuring a peaceful environment for everyone’s choice of association.

Bashir calls on Kogi State government to provide an enabling environment for issue based campaign not an act of waging war with the opposition party

We enjoined all ADC members and supporters to resist the urge of initiating any reprisal attack as ADC is a peace loving party and the party intend to maintain that, the statement reads.