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Wike cautions PDP’s NWC against siding with any presidential candidate

Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has warned members of the People’s Democratic Party’s National Working Committee (NWC) against siding with any presidential candidate in the forthcoming primaries.

He charged them to be fair in their conduct of election in order to avoid unnecessary grievances from members.

Wike, who stated this while speaking to members of the National Working Committee at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja on Tuesday, said that the opposition party could not afford to say the convention was not transparent and credible.

“We must not make the mistakes of putting people in the convention committee who are obviously supporting A, B or C. If we do that, some of us will challenge it.

“It is good you do what everyone will be happy with. You should do a better convention now”, he added.

Wike hinted that Nigerians are watching to see who will become the party’s flag bearer, stressing that any candidate to emerge must be someone with the capacity to deliver the country from the maladministration of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

“Today, terrorists and bandits have taken over the country. It’s not only Yobe and Borno State. It is now in all the 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory.

“So don’t give tickets to those that will leave the party when they fail tomorrow. Ensure that the person has a track record of a good leader”, Wike advised.

News

INEC To Conduct Mock Accreditation Of Voters In February 4

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced its plan to carry out mock accreditation of voters on February 4.

The commission said the exercise will take place at 436 polling units across the country.

Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, spoke on Friday at a meeting with the resident electoral commissioners (RECs) at the INEC headquarters, Abuja.

Yakubu said INEC is ready to conduct field tests with actual voters, having delivered and tested the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) machines.

“For this reason, and in readiness for nationwide deployment, the commission is conducting a mock accreditation of voters similar to what was done ahead of the recent Ekiti and Osun State governorship elections,” he said.

“The mock accreditation will hold on Saturday 4th February 2023 in 436 polling units nationwide. Twelve polling units have been designated in each state of the federation and four in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on the equality of the country’s 109 Senatorial Districts for the exercise.

“A comprehensive list of the polling units, including their names and PU Code numbers, as well as their distribution by state, senatorial district, local government and registration area (Ward) will be uploaded to the commission’s website shortly.”

Yakubu, therefore, appealed to registered voters in the affected polling units to appear on the scheduled date with their PVCs for the mock exercise.

“Doing so will help to reassure the public of the robustness of our system and to strengthen our processes ahead of the general election,” he said.

News

IGP Recommends New Police Commissioners For Lagos, Ogun

The inspector general of police (IGP), Alkali Baba has recommended the redeployment of two commissioners of police.

The affected commissioners are Frank Mba and Idowu Owohunwa.

In a letter dated January 24, 2023, and signed by Hafiz Inuwa, assistant inspector general of police to the Police Service Commission (PSC), they were recommended for posting to Ogun and Lagos states.

While Owohunwa would be replacing Abiodun Alabi in Lagos, Mba is expected to take over from Lanre Bankole in Ogun.

The proposed redeployment comes less than a month before the elections.

Ikechukwu Ani, spokesperson of the PSC, revealed that the IGP made a recommendation on the matter to the commission.

Ani said the commission is expected to consider the recommendation.

“The Inspector-general of police is deploying the under-mentioned commissioners of police to strengthen the strategic and operational control of the commands”, the statement read in part.

Mba, prior to his posting to Ogun, was the commissioner of police in charge of the border patrol force, Force Headquarters, Abuja.

Owohunwa was the principal staff officer of the IGP.

News

Tribunal Sacks Adeleke As Osun Governor

An Election Petition Tribunal chaired by Justice Tertse Kume has sacked Ademola Adeleke as Governor of Osun State.

The tribunal sacked Adeleke following claims of overvoting in some polling units across the State.

In the majority judgement issued by two judges against one, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ordered that the Certificate of Return issued to Adeleke be withdrawn and issued to Adegboyega Oyetola.

The majority judgement which was read by the Chairman, Justice Tertse Kume said Oyetola scored the majority lawful votes of 314,931 against Adeleke’s 219,666.