Good morning Nigeria, welcome to Rant HQ roundup of top newspaper headlines in Nigeria for today, Friday, 31st March 2023
The presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in the just-concluded presidential, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of manipulating the outcome of the general elections in some states, especially the presidential election.
The former Kano State governor and Senator slammed President Muhammadu Buhari, saying the President did not do enough to provide for free, fair, and credible polls.
Rant HQ reports that Kwankwaso, who is the National Leader of the NNPP, stated this on Thursday, in Abuja, at the first post-2023 election meeting of the party’s National Executive Council (NEC).
He noted that in civilised countries of the world, with the level of alleged vote buying, use of guns to intimidate the people and with the level of irregularities recorded, the elections would have been cancelled.
The former Defence Minister charged the judiciary to always remain the last hope of the common man and not a repeat of number four person becoming number one courtesy of the Supreme Court.
He urged the leadership of the NNPP to use the opportunity provided before the next round of election in 2027 “to tighten their belts, go back to constituency and work better.
The Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle has alleged that he lost his re-election bid in the March 18 polls because of his stand against the naira redesign policy of the federal government.
According to him, he had gotten reports of plans to deal with him and other Governors who instituted a suit against the naira redesign policy initiated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The Governor explained that the soldiers who were deployed to the state about three days before the election prevented supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from voting.
Speaking during an interview on Wednesday with DW Hausa, Matawalle alleged that the soldiers who arrived in the state in about 300 vehicles prevented residents from voting for him during the March 18 governorship election and beat up those who wanted to vote for the APC.
He submitted that if the soldiers had been deployed to fight insecurity in the state, Zamfara State would have been free from insurgents.
The Governor however added that he is waiting for the next line of action from his party regarding the outcome of the governorship election.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has squashed the suspension slammed on Governor Samuel Ortom, former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim, former Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose and others.
Rant HQ reports that the leadership of the PDP also reversed the suspension order on former Governor Ibrahim Shema (Katsina).
Ortom, who was referred to the party’s disciplinary committee, has also had the summons reversed.
This was made known in a statement on Thursday by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba.
The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) has expressed readiness to investigate an alleged use of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) by former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, to siphon public funds for his personal use during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
A former aide to Atiku, Michael Achimugu, had alleged earlier that the 2023 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate used SPV as Vice President between 1999 and 2007 to convert N100 million allegedly paid into his account by former Plateau State Governor Joshua Dariye.
According to Achimugu, what the PDP flagbearer told him during a conversation about the fund shocked him.
In a press release on Thursday (today), the CCB moved to begin an investigation on how Atiku allegedly diverted the said public funds using SPV.
The Bureau has also invited the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, to come forward to adopt his petition and help it secure the presence of the whistleblower, Achimugu, to assist in the investigation.
On his part in a Twitter post on Thursday, Keyamo assured that the crusade for accountability regarding this issue was not a campaign gimmick as he promised to follow it through to a logical conclusion, even after the victory of the President-Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The Labour Party (LP) on Thursday declared that the party and its members would never be a part of any insurrection plans in the country.
The Labour Party spokesperson, Yunusa Tanko made the submission during an interview on Channels Television’s Lunch Time Politics.
He however added that the party would protect the interest of Nigerians as touching the outcome of the 2023 presidential elections but would do so without going against the provisions of the law.
Tanko spoke against the background of the alarm raised on Wednesday by the Department of State Services (DSS) over a plot by some politicians to scuttle Nigeria’s democracy and install an interim government.
But the LP spokesperson told the agency to count the party out of such plans.
He also accused the DSS and other security agencies of not protecting the interest of the Nigerian state during the 2023 elections, claiming some of the party’s supporters were disenfranchised in parts of the country.
The Igyorov Ward Exco of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Gboko Local Government Area of Benue state have been suspended with immediate effect.
Rant HQ reports that the Benue State Working Committee of the PDP on Thursday suspended the excos over the issue bothering the suspension of the embattled party’s National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu.
It would be recalled that Ayu was suspended on Sunday by the Ward Executive of the PDP in Igyorov Ward of Gboko Local Government Area, LGA.
Addressing pressmen on behalf of Kashi Philip, the Ward Chairman, the Ward Secretary Mr. Vangeryina Dooyum explained that Dr. Ayu was suspended by the Executive for alleged anti-party activities.
The Secretary stated that the decision to suspend the National Chairman was reached after the leadership reviewed his conduct at the end of the just concluded general elections.
Data from the Debt Management Office (DMO), reveals that the nation’s public debt stood at N46. 25 trillion, as at the end of December 2022.
This is as the country’s debt position has risen by 22.4% higher than the year before.
Rant HQ reports that the DMO data which was released on Thursday indicates that the debt profile include that incurred by the federal and state governments, as well as, the Federal Capital Territory.
The document shows that the nation’s debt position as at December 2022 was about N6.69 trillion.
The increase according to the DMO translates to a 22.47% higher when compared to the end of December 2021 figure which was N39. 56 trillion.
A suit filed by a former Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, seeking to void the participation of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 presidential election has been dismissed by the Supreme Court.
Rant HQ reports that a five-member panel of the apex court on Thursday ruled that the appeal by Nwajiuba and a group, the Rights for All International (RAI), was statute barred and had become academic.
The appellants had approached the Supreme Court seeking to disqualify both Tinubu and Atiku by requesting a court order voiding the party primaries that produced them as presidential candidates.
However, Justice John Okoro, who presided over the panel, dismissed the appeal after the appellants’ lawyer applied to withdraw the case.
Before heading for the Supreme Court, Nwajiuba and RAI had lost at both the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal in Abuja.
At the Federal High Court, Justice Inyang Ekwo, dismissed the suit, saying the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the suit on the grounds that the plaintiffs do not have the locus standi (the right) to file the suit.
The President-Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has asked the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to sanction Channels Television for allegedly breaching the Nigerian Broadcasting Code.
Tinubu made the demand in a petition dated March 30th signed by the Director, Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga on behalf of the Special Adviser, Media, Public Affairs and Communications, APC Presidential Campaign Council.
He accused the Labour Party (LP) Vice Presidential candidate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, of making several incendiary comments impugning the integrity of the 25 February 2023 Presidential elections during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has distanced itself from the recent declaration of a planned sit-at-home order issued to the Igbo community in Lagos State.
Rant HQ recalls that on Tuesday, Simon Ekpa, the Finland-based supporter of Nnamdi Kanu, declared that there would soon be a sit-at-home in Lagos Igbo community.
But the IPOB has come out to state categorically that it knows nothing about the said report and Ekpa is not a member of the group.
The separatist group, in a statement signed by its media and publicity secretary, Emma Powerful, on Thursday, said any media organization which associates Ekpa to IPOB would be dragged to court.
Those are the top Nigerian newspaper headlines for today. Read more Nigerian news on Rant HQ. See you again tomorrow.
