August 28, 2023

Press Statement

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) alerts that Nigeria is asphyxiating, in dire straits and fast grinding to a halt under Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The Party laments that Nigeria is at the edge of the precipice under the Tinubu-led APC hold which lacks the acceptability and followership of citizens; a situation that has created an atmosphere and feeling of absence of governance in the country.

Our Party is alarmed that there is a serious disconnection between the government and the citizens arising from ill-planned and hasty implementation of policies that have brought excruciating hardship, horrifying insecurity and a general sense of apprehension that is already threatening the peace, unity and corporate existence of our nation.

The administration’s lack of ingenuity, tact and sensitivity towards the wellbeing of Nigerians in the removal of subsidy and floating of the Naira inflamed unbearable high cost of living, crippled our national productivity, crashed millions of businesses and sparked massive job loss with attendant escalated poverty, hunger, insecurity and hopelessness across the country.

The situation has snowballed into a dangerous loss of investors’ confidence with international companies exiting our nation and leaving millions of Nigerians stranded in the labour market with crippling effect on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) which are the real drivers of our national economy.

It is horrifying that in the last two months, over 150 million Nigerians can no longer afford their daily meals with families now going to bed on empty stomach.

It is appalling that the APC government continues to tout their fraud-prone palliative program of a miserable average 1,200 bags of rice to Nigerians in each State of the country. The APC has expanded its capacity to deceive and defraud Nigerians through phony programmes; a situation that has heightened frustration across the country.

Moreover, the PDP describes as distressing that the APC government had turned a blind eye to the plight of Nigerians with no concrete commitment towards the safety of lives of our citizens despite the killing of over 500 Nigerians in Plateau, Benue, Niger, Kaduna and other States of the federation, with many more abducted since May 29, 2023.

The failure of the APC government to decisively act since the abduction of eight corps members who were on their way to Sokoto State for their one-year mandatory national service is another ugly testament of the APC government insensitivity towards the security, safety and wellbeing of citizens.

More disturbing is the recent downing of a Nigerian military aircraft with attendant loss of lives of our brave and gallant military personnel without corresponding reassuring statement from the APC government.

Currently, under the APC, life expectancy in Nigeria has plummeted. Citizens and residents live in constant apprehension and cannot move freely across the country for fear of being killed or abducted.

Instead of protecting Nigerians, the APC government is desperate to plunge our nation into a needless war in Niger Republic over a conflict in that nation that does not constitute any threat whatsoever to our National Interest.

Our Party is concerned that the general sense of despondency, anxiety, distress and disconnection in the country, if not urgently addressed, could deteriorate into a serious crisis.

The PDP charges Nigerians to remain calm, law-abiding and continue to support one another in their quest for a secure and economically thriving nation.

Signed:

Hon. Debo Ologunagba

National Publicity Secretary

STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE

COST OF GOVERNANCE: PRESIDENT TINUBU DIRECTS NON-INCLUSION OF FGN OFFICIALS WITH NO DIRECT UNGA PARTICIPATION FROM TRAVELING IN NIGERIA’S DELEGATION

As part of a broader effort to reduce the cost of governance in Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu has directed the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs to freeze the processing of visas for all government officials seeking to travel to New York for the United Nations General Assembly without proof of direct participation in UNGA’s official schedule of activities.

To prevent any sharp practice in this regard, the U.S. Mission in Nigeria is accordingly guided on official visa processing while Nigeria’s Permanent Mission in New York is further directed to prevent and stop the accreditation of any government official who is not placed on the protocol lists forwarded by the approving authority.

By this directive of the President, all Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies are mandated to ensure that all officials, who are approved for inclusion in the UNGA delegation, strictly limit the number of aides and associated staff partaking in the event. Where excesses or anomalies in this regard are identified, they will be removed during the final verification process.

The President wishes to affirm that, henceforth, government officials and government expenditure must reflect the prudence and sacrifice being made by well-meaning Nigerians across the nation.

Ajuri Ngelale

Special Adviser to the President

(Media & Publicity)

August 28, 2023

RIGHT OF REPLY: SENATOR OMO-AGEGE’S PETITION AGAINST RT. HON. OBOREVWORI REMAINS ROCK-SOLID AND PROVEN; IGNORE THE ROUBLEROUSERS, AS WE AWAIT THE TRIBUNAL’S JUDGMENT

By Aruviere Martin Egharhevwa, Esq

The general public in Delta State and beyond is seeing through the ongoing irresponsible propaganda scheme now activated by Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori’s media handlers to intimidate and harass the Delta State Governorship Election Tribunal to do their bidding. Their sinister and careless plot to run amok with senseless lies, convoluted facts and vain propaganda orchestrated to undermine the judicial process of the Delta State Governorship Election Tribunal that Oborevwori has submitted himself to for impartial adjudication is beyond the pale and must be stopped.

It is often a sign of severe weakness to use underhand attempts to try to avoid a looming judicial loss. This happens where a party or parties to a judicial process plan and use unfounded media propaganda to pressure, harass and coerce judicial officers to do their bidding. It takes excellent legal knowledge by experienced legal minds with a calm spirit to answer to real facts and legal questions laid bare before an election tribunal for resolution, not the sort of fake news recently planted in and spread by Mideno Bayagbon’s TheNewsGuru courtesy of Bayo Millz and/or Pius Mordi (such a confusing authorship) who suggested that Oborevwori has won a case that is yet to be decided by the Honourable Justices of the Delta State Governorship Election Tribunal. Expectedly, to falsely foist Oborevwori on the minds of Deltans and Nigerians as the winner in the ongoing petition brought by the immediate former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), they must and had to lie without shame.

First, Bayo Millz and/or Pius Mordi opened their orchestrated media scheme to pressure the Honourable Justices of the Delta State Governorship Election Tribunal with a nonsensical claim and pitiable cry that Senator Omo-Agege won in only 4 (out of the 25) Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Delta State while suppressing the incontestable fact that the so-called victory of Rt. Hon. Oborevwori in the remaining 21 LGAs came from unlawful and invalid votes which have now been copiously identified by the Petitioners in their petition and the credible evidence they led during the trial of the petition.

Next, the duo of the confused authors of the fake news on Mideno Bayagbon’s TheNewsGuru (that sees no good in anything Omo-Agege for reasons we prefer to ignore) took a flight of fancy to what is not even before the Tribunal when they claimed that the Petitioners “sought refuge on technical grounds relating to pre-election issues” without pointing their readers to a specific portion of the Omo-Agege/APC petition where such is contained.

As a matter of law, an election petition is only competently founded on one or a combination of grounds enumerated in Section 134 of the Electoral Act, 2022. In the instant case, the petition is filed under section 134(1)(b) and (c) that Oborevwori’s election was invalid due to irregularities and noncompliance with the Act in so many polling units where the election is questioned. For this, the Petitioners contend that it was Senator Omo-Agege (NOT Oberevwori) who received the majority of the lawful votes cast and satisfied the spread required by the 1999 Constitution (as altered) to be declared the elected governor of Delta State. Is it not therefore troubling that Bayo Millz and/or Pius Mordi chose to categorise these grounds of the petition as “pre-election issues” when Omo-Agege/APC is not questioning Oborevwori’s qualification to contest the election?

Continuing in their cheap but dangerous propaganda on their choice platform of hate against Omo-Agege and pretending to be the Honourable Justices of the Tribunal, Bayo Millz and/or Pius Mordi declared with a sense of finality and suffocating quackery designed to arrogantly force a fait accompli on the true Tribunal that the Petitioners’ well-articulated case on pervasive overvoting or non-compliance with the mandatory and proper use of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) “could not be proved”. This level of desperation is just unbelievable! Are they not deluding themselves? If not, how can anyone reasonably say this when the evidence before the Tribunal on the BVAS issue is one that none of the Respondents could impeach, having not provided any set of accreditation data different from what the Petitioners and INEC presented?

The fact is that in all the polling units where the Petitioners questioned the non-use or improper use of the BVAS, the Respondents failed woefully to present a scintilla of evidence contradicting the case made out and proved by the Petitioners. For instance, the Petitioners proved without any challenge from the Respondents that the total votes cast in 109 polling units exceeded accreditation with the BVAS machines and that accreditation figures written on result from 27 polling units are totally inconsistent with accreditation evidenced by the voters’ registers presented by INEC. These are places where Oborevwori and PDP received humongous unlawful votes!

Having deliberately told lies in the media to obviously wet the ground to taint a final determination of the petition by the Tribunal that may not suit their jaundiced prejudices, it is necessary to go a bit further to speak fairly to the facts. We are talking of a petition where the evidence led by the Petitioners and even INEC unambiguously confirm that Oborevwori/PDP received almost 130,000 unlawful and invalid votes from over 1,300 polling units where the identities/serial numbers of the result sheets used are unknown, same having not been duly recorded as authentic INEC’s result sheets in the prescribed documents, and this is clearly contrary to the bare and mandatory provision of the innovative section 73(2) operating together with section 137 and paragraph 46(4) (first schedule) amongst other relevant provisions of the Electoral Act. The evidence also confirms that INEC has no documents to justify results in 306 polling units and that documents mandatorily required to be filled before an election could be conducted were not filled in over 200 polling units. Also, the quantities of ballot papers supposed issued to, used and unused in over 500 polling units are inconsistent with what is falsely stated on the results for those units. Additionally, the votes for Oborevwori/PDP in 17 polling units in Oshimili North LGA where just arbitrarily inflated by 11,045 votes. These are the real facts, not mere conjectures.

The issues are even much more and they are just unprecedented, yet those who think the electoral law is a joke are writing judgments for themselves in the media to satisfy their uninformed fancy. Enough said. Whether the Petitioners’ case has merits or not, it is the exclusive duty of the Honourable Justices of the Tribunal to decide, not rabblerousers who know nothing about our electoral jurisprudence. It is manifest on the evidence now before the Tribunal that Senator Ovie Omo-Agege clearly defeated Rt. Hon. Oborevwori with over 14,000 votes and satisfied the constitutional requirements to be declared the duly elected governor of Delta State having scored at least 25% of the votes cast in 24 (out of the 25) LGAs of the State. We will not sit idly by and watch anyone steal the election a second time.

Finally, like all judicial contestations, election petitions are conducted with solemnity in courts before select judicial panels of honourable jurists, not irresponsible conduct on social media, unattractive partisan micro blogs or the internet in general. Election petitions are serious business because their outcomes have far-reaching implications on society. Every well-trained journalist knows that it is irresponsibility that comes within the ambit of criminal conduct to design and activate media schemes to undermine the outcomes of judicial litigations. We advise the likes of Bayo Millz and/or Pius Mordi (if they exist) and their sponsors to tread cautiously in their new found business of writing the judgment of the Delta State Governorship Election Tribunal before the real panel decides the case based on the law, hard facts and unassailable evidence now before it.

SERAP gives Tinubu 48 hours to reverse ban on Vanguard, Galaxy TV, 23 others from Aso Rock

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Bola Tinubu to use his “good offices and leadership position to immediately reverse the unlawful ban on 25 journalists and media houses from covering the presidential villa and restore the accreditations of those affected.”

SERAP urged him “to publicly instruct the officials in the presidential villa to allow journalists and media houses to freely do their job and discharge their constitutional duty of holding those in power to account.”

According to reports, the Federal Government recently withdrew the accreditations of some 25 journalists from covering activities at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The banned journalists include those from the Vanguard; Galaxy TV; Ben TV; MITV; ITV Abuja; PromptNews; ONTV, and Liberty.

In the letter dated 26 August 2023 and signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said: “Barring these journalists and media houses from covering the presidential villa is to prevent them from carrying out their legitimate constitutional responsibility.”

SERAP said, “Your administration cannot with one broad stroke ban journalists from covering public functions. Citizens’ access to information and participation would mean little if journalists and media houses are denied access to the seat of government.”

According to SERAP, “Media freedom is a cornerstone of Nigeria’s democracy and journalists must be able to hold the government to account. This is a matter of public interest. The government cannot cherry-pick journalists to cover its activities.”

The letter, read in part: “We would be grateful if the recommended measures are taken within 48 hours of the receipt and/or publication of this letter. If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall consider appropriate legal actions to compel your government to comply with our request in the public interest.”

“Nigerians may consider the expulsion of the journalists from the presidential villa as your government’s ambivalence towards media freedom, and citizens’ rights of access to information and participation in their own government.”

“The legal obligations imposed on your government to ensure and uphold media freedom and human rights, and facilitate public access to the presidential villa as a public trust outweigh any purported ‘security concerns and overcrowding of the press gallery area.’”

“Media freedom, access to information and citizens’ participation in the affairs of their own government are the sine qua non of a democratic and rule of law-based society.”

“The withdrawal of the accreditation tags of these journalists directly violates media freedom and human rights including access to information and the right to participation. It would have a significant chilling effect on newsgathering and reporting functions, and may lead to self-censorship.”

“The withdrawal of the accreditations of the journalists would construct barriers between Nigerians and certain information about the operations of their government, something which they have a constitutional right to receive.”

“Media freedom, access to information and the right to participation are necessary for the maintenance of an open and accountable government. These freedoms are so fundamental in a democracy that they trump any vague grounds of ‘security concerns and overcrowding of the press gallery area.’”

“The effective exercise of media freedom, access to information and citizens’ right to participation in their government would preserve and contribute to a free and democratic society, something which is consistent with your constitutional oath of office to defend the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended].”

“Allowing the media to cover the presidential villa would improve the reliability of information available to the public and serve the public interest.”

“Your government reportedly justified this grave constitutional infraction on the pretext of ‘an internal attempt to reduce bloated number of print photographers and overcrowding in the State House.’”

“Your government also cited alleged ‘security concerns raised by State House officials and visiting dignitaries concerning the overcrowding of the press gallery area that blocks the walking path to the President’s Office.’”

“According to our information, your administration on 18 August 2023 withdrew the accreditation tags of some 25 journalists and media houses from covering activities at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.”

“The banned journalists reportedly include those from Vanguard newspaper; Galaxy TV; Ben TV; MITV; ITV Abuja; PromptNews, ONTV, and Liberty. Other media personnel affected by the withdrawal are mostly reporters and cameramen from broadcast, print, and online media outlets.”

“The affected journalists were simply told at the main gate of the presidential villa to submit their accreditation tags.”

“SERAP is concerned that the withdrawal of the accreditations of 25 journalists covering the presidential villa is a grave violation of the Nigerian Constitution and the country’s international human rights obligations.”

“Our requests are brought in the public interest, and in keeping with the requirements of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended]; and the country’s international obligations including under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to which Nigeria is a state party.”

“Under section 22 of the Nigerian Constitution, the mass media including ‘the press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this Chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people.’”

“Section 14(2)(c) of the Constitution provides that ‘the participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.’”

“Similarly, Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights provides that, ‘Every individual shall have the right to receive information. Every individual shall have the right to express and disseminate his opinions.’”

“Article 13 of the Charter also provides that, ‘Every citizen shall have the right to participate freely in the government of his country. Every citizen shall have the right of equal access to the public service of his country. Every individual shall have the right of access to public property and services.’”

“Articles 19 and 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights contain similar provisions.”

“SERAP also urges you to take meaningful and effective steps to ensure respect for the rights to media freedom, access to information and citizens’ right to participate in their own government.”

Kolawole Oluwadare

SERAP Deputy Director

27/8/2023

Lagos, Nigeria

Emails: info@serap-nigeria.org; news@serap-nigeria.org

Twitter: @SERAPNigeria

Website: www.serap-nigeria.org

For more information or to request an interview, please contact us on: +2348160537202