PRESS STATEMENT OF FESTUS KEYAMO ON LEGAL IMPLICTIONS OF DEATH OF AUDU ABUBAKIR

PRESS STATEMENT ON THE REPORTED DEATH OF PRINCE ABUBAKAR AUDU AND THE LEGAL IMPLICATIONS. November 23, 2015 News 

"The reported death today, Sunday, November 22nd, 2015, of the APC candidate in the Kogi State Governorship elections, Prince Abubakar Audu, is extremely shocking and sad. I would like to express my condolences to the entire family of Audu and to the people of Kogi State.

However, the real question agitating the minds of everybody is the legal implication regarding the inconclusive Governorship elections at the time of his demise. To state it correctly he was said to have died AFTER the announcement of the results by INEC and after INEC had declared the elections inconclusive.

Admittedly, this is a strange and novel constitutional scenario. It has never happened in our constitutional history to the extent that when an election has been partially conducted (and not before or after the elections) a candidate dies. What then happens?

This is a hybrid situation between what happened in the case of Atiku Abubakar/Boni Haruna in 1999 and the provision of section 33 of the Electoral Act, 2010. In the case of Atiku Abubakar/Boni Haruna [which is now a clear constitutional provision of section 181(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended)] the Supreme Court held, in effect, that “if a person duly elected as Governor dies before taking and subscribing the Oath of Allegiance and oath of office, or is unable for any reason whatsoever to be sworn in, the person elected with him as Deputy governor shall be sworn in as Governor and he shall nominate a new Deputy-Governor who shall be appointed by the Governor with the approval of a simple majority of the house of Assembly of the State”.

In the case of section 33 of the Electoral Act 2010 it provides, in effect, that if a person has been duly nominated as a candidate of his party and he dies before the election then the political party has the right to replace him with another candidate and not necessarily the Deputy Governorship candidate.

Now, does the Kogi situation fit into section 181(1) of the Constitution as quoted above or section 33 of the Electoral Act mentioned above? My simple position is that the Kogi situation fits more into section 181(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and as such James Abiodun Faleke automatically becomes the governorship candidate of the APC. 

This is because even though the election in inconclusive, votes have been counted and allocated to Parties and candidates. As a result the joint ticket of Audu/Faleke has acquired some votes already. James Abiodun Faleke is as much entitled to those votes already counted as much as the late Abubakar Audu. He has a right to cling to those votes going into the supplementary election.

There is only one problem, though. Who nominates Faleke’s Deputy? Unlike section 181(1) of the 1999 Constitution, he cannot approach the House of Assembly of the State to approve a nomination by him of a Deputy. This is because, in reality, he is not duly elected yet.

 Therefore it is only reasonable to conclude that it is APC (Faleke’s political party) that should submit the name of a fresh Deputy Governorship candidate to INEC for the supplementary election.

This is the only position in this situation that accords with reason and good sense."

FESTUS KEYAMO, ESQ. London, 9:40pm Sunday, November 22, 2015.

SENATOR MURRAY BRUCE TWEETS AGAIN ON NEW NIGERIAN MINISTERS

Senator Murray Bruce a Nigerian Senator elected on the platform of PDP from Bayelsa State has yet again made another set of tweets. This time he tweets on the new Ministers of the President Muhammadu Buhari led Government, who are to be sworn in as Ministers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by tomorrow Wednesday November 11, 2015.

Senator Murray Bruce can be termed as one of the most outspoken Senators of Nigeria and his latest tweets on the new but yet to be sworn in Ministers by the Buhari led government of Nigeria are as follows:

HOW SENATOR AISHA ALHASSAN WAS DECLARED WINNER OF TARABA STATE GOVERNORSHIP ELECTIONS OF APRIL 2015 BY ELECTION TRIBUNAL

History can be said to have been made in Nigeria as on Saturday November 7, 2015 Senator Aisha Jummai Alhassan was declared winner of the Governorship elections held in Taraba State of Nigeria on April 11 2015, by the the Taraba State Governorship Elections Tribunal sitting in Abuja.

As the Petitioner who contested the Gubernatorial Elections, Senator Aisha Alhassan, was declared as the rightful winner of the Governorship elections over the PDP candidate Mr. Darius Ishaku who had earlier been declared as winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and had since been sworn in as Governor of Taraba state since May 29, 2015.

According to our source, the details and the rationale for the decisions arrived at by the judgement is predicated on the following;

Section 138 of the Electoral Act (2010) as amended stipulates 4 grounds upon which a valid election petition can be founded upon as follows:
(1) Whether the election was marred by substantial non compliance or corrupt practices.
(2) whether the petitioner was unlawfully excluded.
(3) whether the petitioner scored the highest number of lawful and valid votes cast at the election.
(4) Whether the candidate that won the election was qualified to contest the said election.

It is clear that the election petition in Taraba state was decided on the 4th ground aforementioned. The law has gone ahead to stipulate what amounts to non qualification of a candidate. The candidate must posses at least a WASC. The candidate must not have been convicted for fraud by any court of competent jurisdiction. The candidate must be a Nigerian citizen. The candidate must be up to the required age for election into the office he or she is contesting for. The candidate must have been duly sponsored by a political party.This last point appears to be the gravamen in the decision of the Tribunal.

The tribunal held specifically that the Governorship primaries purportedly conducted by the PDP in the State was done in violation of Section 78(b) (1) & (2) of the Electoral Act which guides parties nominations to the position of Governorship candidate. It held that; contrary to the provision of the section, PDP conducted the purported primaries at it's National Secretariat at Wadata Plaza, Abuja with no clear delegation from the local government areas from Taraba State.

"The tribunal sustained the testimony of INEC head of election monitoring that the commission was not aware of any primaries in line with the provision of the electoral Act which produced Mr. Darius Ishaku as the PDP Governorship candidate and flag bearer".

"Section 78(b) (1) (2) of the Electoral Act states: in the case of nomination to the position of Governorship candidate,a political party shall where they intend to sponsor candidates:

(i) hold special congress in each of the local Government Areas of the States with delegates voting for each of the aspirants at the congress to be held in designated centers on specified dates.

(ii) the aspirant with the highest number of vote at the end of the voting shall be forwarded to the commission as the candidate of the party for the particular state."

"The tribunal held that the defence by the PDP that, the primaries were shifted to Abuja because of security challenges in the state was rejected by the tribunal. It sustained the evidence of the INEC official that there was no primaries election in the state and the emergence of Mr. Ishaku through the purported primaries in Abuja was after the statutory stipulated time for party primaries had elapsed."

"It held that since Mr. Ishaku was not duly sponsored by the PDP, the party had no candidate in the Governorship election in the eyes of the law. The tribunal therefore voided the votes of the PDP and Mr. Ishaku in the Gubernatorial elections of Taraba State saying; "it is a waste and declared the APC and it's candidate, which came second, as the valid winner of the elections."

It seems wrong to compare this case with the locus classicus of AMAECHI v. INEC (2008) 5 NWLR (pt. 1080) p.227. Whereas the issue in Amaechi's case was on who was the lawful and rightful candidate of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) as between Mr. Celestine Omehia and Mr. Rotimi Amaechi. The question in the Taraba's case is whether the PDP participated at all in the election in the eyes of the law.

By the provision of Section 140 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), where an Election Tribunal or court determines that a candidate who obtained the highest votes was not qualified to contest the election, it shall not declare the candidate with the highest votes as elected, but it shall order for fresh election. On the other hand, where the Tribunal or court determines that the candidate who was returned as elected did not score the majority of votes at the election, it shall declare the candidate with the highest valid votes as elected.

On the issue of whether the judgement is determined on the basis of a pre-election matter, the law is now settled that qualification/disqualification is both a pre-election and post-election matter with concurrent jurisdiction exercisable by both the Election Tribunal and the High Court. The process of nomination of a candidate touches on qualification of the candidate and qualification is on the four grounds recognizable by Section 138 of the Electoral Act earlier on given.That these four grounds may be questioned at the tribunal. See recent cases of; GWEDE v. INEC (2015) 242 LRCN 138 and; AKPAMGBO-OKADIGBO v. CHIDI (No. 2) (2015) 10 NWLR (pt. 1466) 124.

This Means that the law has endorsed the hybrid status of qualification/ disqualification of a candidate in an election. Therefore, if that be the case, it will be wrong for anyone to say that how PDP nominated her candidate, does not concern the tribunal or the petitioner or the APC her party.

That the main issue in the case is beyond the qualification of the PDP Candidate, Mr. Darius Ishaku, but whether the PDP as a political party can be said to have participated in the April 2015 Gubernatorial election in the eyes of the law.That is the crux of the matter.

Although, the Supreme court held in Amaechi's Case that it is a political party that it voted for in an election and not the candidate, the law is explicit that a party cannot participate in an election without validly nominating a candidate. The fact that the purported PDP primary election was held outside the stipulated time as stated by the INEC staff whose testimony was accepted by the Tribunal is conclusive of the fact that the PDP never validly nominated a candidate as required by law. In essence, the PDP did not participate in the election.

Having regard to Section 143 of the Electoral Act, Mr. Darius Ishaku will vacate the office as Governor of Taraba State for the swearing in of Mrs. Aisha Alhassan of the APC except he appeals against the decision of the tribunal within 21 days of the delivery of the judgement.

It is therefore presumed that the Tribunal's Consequential Order declaring Mrs. Alhassan of the APC as the winner of the election is plausible, inviolable and in obedience to the provision of Section 140 of the Electoral Act given that she scored the majority of valid votes at the elections.

The above are the summary of the point s and rationale behind the tribunal's judgement but however, the PDP and it's candidate are likely to appeal against this decision as is their lawful right to exercise.

PORT-HARCOURT CHICKEN HUNT

These are pictures gotten from our sources of what is happening in Port-Harcourt as at this week. The pictures herein displayed  are of people who are supposedly residents of the City of Port-Harcourt in Nigeria, hunting and exhuming frozen chickens which are already destroyed by the officers of the Nigerian Custom Service.

According to our source, the Nigerian Customs seized some trailer loads of contaminated frozen chickens from smugglers in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State of Nigeria, dug a pit and deposited the cartons of frozen chickens therein and thereafter poured diesel and petrol of the said frozen chickens and buried them.

As shown in the pictures, after the Nigerian Custom Officers must have left the scene, people were seen to be exhuming the already burnt, destroyed and buried chickens with the intention of probably consuming and selling the exhumed chickens.

The pictures are indeed very disturbing and it took the blogger some time to decide to share this post. however, the intention of the blog post is to bring this information to the general public that; these frozen chickens are harmful, they are unsafe for human consumption and has great consequences as regards public health.

Nigerians, most especially the residence of Port-Harcourt city should be more careful in buying their frozen chickens during this period as these same frozen chickens may be sold in the market and may be offered at even ridiculously cheaper rate. However, Nigerians are advised not to be tempted in buying or consuming these chickens, for it may mean the death or grave sicknesses for whomsoever may consume them.

Overall, this post raises the issue of grave poverty and underdevelopment which the Government of Nigeria seriously needs to address for the betterment of the Nigerian society. This is something that the Government agencies, the custom officers, men of the Nigerian Police force, should be able to put an immediately stop to. People will not condescend to exhuming contaminated frozen chickens which have already been burnt, destroyed and buried in such manner, if not for poverty. The Nigerian Government should address the issues of poverty in the country and continue dealing with it, until the complete eradication of poverty is achieved in Nigeria.











 

OBAMA GRANTS STATE PARDON TO JACK MUSA GOWON AFTER 22 YEARS

No doubts there exist evidence and products of great prison reforms in countries where; prisons facilities have been preserved as correctional facilities, with the inmates having access to almost the same quality of life as those outside the prison walls, if not better.

The need for better prison reforms in Nigeria is no less buttressed by the story of; Musa Jack Ngonaadi Gowon who was recently granted a state pardon by the American President Obama, after spending 22 years in a Californian Prison in the United States.

Musa Jack Gowon is the son born to the former Nigerian head of state General Yakubu Gowon by the late Edith Ike Okongwu. Musa Jack Gowon had been living with his mother before his arrest and detention in prison in the United States.

Before his arrest and subsequent incarceration; Jack Musa have witnessed the separation of his parents and relocation of his mother to America carrying him along to live with her. Generally, it was alleged that General Yakubu Gowon was said to have severed all ties with Musa, as long as he remained with his mother.

Eventually, Musa was alleged to have been one of the business partners of a Colombian drug cartel. He lived a rich and flamboyant lifestyle until he was caught and arrested. Jack Musa Gowon was sentenced by the Jury although he protested vehemently that he was innocent through his legal team, but nevertheless he was harshly sentenced to 324 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release.

As an inmate of Taft correctional facility, Musa Jack Gowon was said to be a role model and a legal adviser to all the inmates. He was loved by both the fellow inmates and prison wardens.

While in prison Musa enrolled in one of the universities around and successfully graduated with a degree in law as a prison inmate. This commendable act of leadership earned him several rewards by the prison authorities.

Musa's family has never stopped fighting to get him out of the prison and calls for his release began to grow louder. President Obama heard the calls for Musa's release and acted in that regard by granting him a parole. Musa walked out of Taft correctional facility Bakersfield California as a free man on Tuesday November 2, 2015. Musa is at the time of this publication reported to be at ICE Detention Center Bakersfield CA where he will be subsequently deported back to Nigeria at any moment.

Musa Jack Ngonaadi Gowon, is grateful to his Dad General Yakubu Gowon, his friends and his relatives from his maternal side who stood by him and supported him also all through the period of his unjust incarceration that he did not commit the crime which he was wrongly accused of. Musa is expected to eventually narrate his ordeal and give his own version of the story very soon and he is said to have expressed his gratitude to God who kept him alive and well to see his release from prison.

This is one sure miracle of prison reform that is undeniable. The fact that there's access to higher education sponsored, allowed and funded by the Government in countries such as the united states is something to be emulated.

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MINISTERS WITHOUT PORTFOLIO IN NIGERIA - HOW CONSTITUTIONAL?

The Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in his recent visit to Dehi the Indian Capital city, has revealed in his speech that there would be no jobs for some screened ministerial nominees, saying that although the constitution stipulates 36 ministers, the available ministries were not up to the number.  

The Nigerian President he has also reiterated this on position on Tuesday November 2, 2015, while receiving the list of screened and confirmed Ministerial nominees which were about 36 in number from the Nigerian Senate President.This came as the senate president, Dr. Bukola Saraki said that the idea of having ministers without portfolio was not entirely novel in the Nigerian political system. Though the Nigerian President gave his support to the constitutionally mandatory 36 ministerial slots, he also reiterated that the economy was too  battered to accommodate the number.

President Buhari confirmed this position which he had earlier revealed, when he received the second and last batch of the screened nominees from the senate president at the presidential villa in Abuja.

On The Constitutionality of Having Ministers Without Portfolios in Nigeria -

Chapter 6, Part 1, Section 147 Sub Sections (1) (2) & (3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended)  provides:

(1) There shall be such offices of Ministers of the Government of the Government of the Federation as may be established by the President.

(2) Any appointment to the office of Minister of the Government of the Federation, shall if the nomination of any person to such office is confirmed by the Senate, be made by the President.

(3) Any appointment under subsection (2) of this section by the President shall be in conformity with the Provision of Section 14 (3) of this Constitution: - provided that in giving effect to the provision aforesaid the President shall appoint at least one Minister from each state, who shall be an indigene of such state.

Section 14 (3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, provides thus;

(3)The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of  persons from a few State or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.

From the combined provisions of Section 147 (1) (2) & (3) and Section 14 (3) of the Nigerian Constitution it seems like the Nigerian President is in conformity with the appointment of at least a Minister from each of the 36 states in Nigeria. The constitution is very silent as to whether or not the Ministers so appointed should have a definite portfolio or not. Therefore, it is safe to agree with the position of the Nigerian President as to Ministers not having a definite portfolio.

On the contrary, the practice most especially in the immediate past administration is to have both Senior and Junior Ministers in some of the Ministries. The Senior Minister is appointed as the Federal Minister over seeing such Ministries while the Junior Minister is appointed as a Minister for States over seeing the Ministry at the State level. it will be very safe and will promote better efficiency if the Nigerian President should continue with this practice for some of the Ministries that are very tasking instead of having some set of Ministers with no portfolio at all and with nothing to do.

However, on the question of the entire composition of the Government under the current Nigerian President it is left to be seen on the achievement of balance with regards to Federal Character even with the appointment of the Ministers, bearing in mind the mandatory compliance with Federal Character as stipulated by the Nigerian Constitution that there should the absence of a predominant ethnic group in the entire composition of the Government.

I AM TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ECONOMY - SAYS NIGERIAN PRESIDENT

Economic reforms which will promote Nigeria as an investment friendly country is surely needed and this fact is more real than ever and has been acknowledged by the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari himself.

In reaction to recent and widespread criticisms particularly from the opposition party, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) that; the Nigerian President has not been projecting the country in good light internationally as an investment friendly country with honest people based on  his speeches on, the indebtedness and economic crisis of the country largely due to corruption of it's citizens and corruption of those who previously were in power, the President has defended himself thus;

"I think that the economy as I have seen it now since my sitting here for the last four months, that we are so much battered. Although some people are saying I am giving bad publicity and scaring away investors.
Any investor who is interested in investing in Nigeria will seem to know more about the economy more than ourselves. So when I come and tell the truth about the position of the economy of the country, I am going out looking for investors.
“But I am confirming to them that we are truthful, that we need them to come and help us help ourselves by getting in industries, manufacturing and services. They know our needs. The economy of human resources, I believe will make them eventually come and help us."

Aware that the he had come under heavy criticism following his statement on the state of Nigeria’s economy, the Nigerian president said he would continue to speak the truth about the economy.

This response by the Nigerian President was given while accepting the list of  Ministerial nominees from the Nigerian Senate President on Tuesday November 2, 2015. The said list of Ministerial nominees are containing the names of about 36 persons who have been recently screened and confirmed to work with the Nigerian President and serve under his cabinet as Ministers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.



 

NNPC MAKES HUGE LOSES IN TWO MONTHS

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) surely needs some reforms as -

A total loss of about N120bn in the months of August and September 2015 has been reported to have been incurred by the NNPC.

The fact and details of this loss is gathered from the latest NNPC Group financial reports which has given the loss incurred by the NNPC in August 2015 to be about N60.67 billion and N59.4 billion incurred in September 2015, by the Country's oil corporation.

The financial reports specifically stated that the NNPC revenue in August 2015 was N146.617bn while it's expenses were put at N207.287 bn. In September, the  total expenses of the corporation were N171.914bn while it's revenue is about N112.514bn.

Reports noted that these loses were incurred before subsidy and that the highest loss is recorded by the Products and Pipeline Marketing Company (A subsidiary of the NNPC). The PPMC is reported to have incurred a loss of about N34.275bn in the month of August 2015 and the sum of about N57.677bn in September, 2015.

The Financial report have shown that the four government owned and managed refineries in Nigeria through the NNPC were still not making any profits, despite claims that the facilities had started producing refined products for public consumption.

However, as can be recalled the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the NNPC,  Mr Ibe Kachikwu has recently stated that; he has a mandate to get the refineries running by December 2015. The ultimatum was given mandating all the Refineries to begin full production before the expiration of this deadline.

According to the GMD of the NNPC, "if any refinery produces below 60% then it is not in production, because the performance capacities of refineries world wide are 90% and and above categories, that only then can it be said to be a profitable refinery".

As can be recalled during the recent Ministerial screening before the Nigerian Senate, the GMD of NNPC categorically stated: that nonperforming Refineries would be shut down at the expiration of the 90 days performance deadline.

 

SENATOR BEN MURRAY BRUCE TWEETS TO BUHARI

Senator Ben Murray Bruce who is currently elected as a Senator from Bayelsa State, have made several tweets on his Twitter account in the early hours of this morning to the Nigerian Presidential Muhammadu Buhari.

The tweets are majorly on the need for the Nigerian President to stop blaming his former predecessor in office and past administration continuously over the country's misfortunes. That it's too late to keep blaming the former administration, that instead the President of Nigeria should get on with the business of governance.

The exact tweets which he made to convey this message are shown as tweeted below.