Politics

Nigeria: Abuja residents file suit to stop swearing-in of president-elect, Tinubu

Published

12 months ago

May 12, 2023

Five residents of Nigeria’s capital city, the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja have filed a suit demanding an order to stop the swearing-in of Nigeria’s president-elect, Bola Tinubu on May 29.

The suit, filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja prays to stop the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, any other judicial officer and/or any other authority or person from swearing in any candidate in the February 25 presidential election as President or Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The five applicants —Anyaegbunam Okoye, David Adzer, Jeffery Ucheh, Osang Paul and Chibuike Nwachukwu—who identified themselves as registered voters of the FCT, want “a declaration that no candidate in the February 25 presidential election in the country may validly be declared elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria without that candidate obtaining at least 25% of the votes cast in the FCT, Abuja.”

The suit also seeks to extend the reign of incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari beyond May 29, pending the resolution of the suit.

“A declaration that following the February 25 presidential election and until a successor is determined in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and sworn in, the term of office of His Excellency, Muhammadu Buhari, GCON, as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria subsist and endures in accordance with the provisions of section 135 (1) (a) of the Constitution”.

Nigeria had its presidential elections on February 25 in which the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were won equally by the three leading candidates, twelve states each.

According to the distribution of states won, the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) won twelve states, the Labour Party (LP) had twelve states too, while the Peoples Democratic Party also won twelve states, leaving the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) with the remaining one state.

However, there have been controversies around Mr Tinubu’s victory at the polls, including allegations of electoral malpractice and a failure to meet the legal threshold. A notable legal controversy surrounds the interpretation of Section 134(2)(b) of the Nigerian constitution which states that:

“A candidate for an election to the office of President shall be deemed to have been duly elected where there being more than two candidates for the election … he has not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election each of at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”

Mr. Tinubu did not get 25% of the votes in the capital city. This is one of the grounds for the legal challenge to his victory.

Related Topics:Bola Tinubu Featured Nigeria

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Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

1 hour ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

Politics

S’Africa lengthens troop deployment in Mozambique, Congo DR

Published

2 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech that South Africa’s military would keep sending troops to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are both in the middle of wars.

The extension will leave 1,198 members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in eastern Congo for an unknown amount of time. They are there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force helping Congo fight rebel groups.

The statement also said that 1,495 members of the SANDF would keep working in Mozambique, where they have been since 2021 helping the government fight dangerous extremism in the north.

After two SANDF troops were killed and three were hurt by a mortar bomb in Congo in February, South Africa’s military operations abroad have been looked at more closely at home this year.

Meanwhile, the major opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, said that Ramaphosa sent troops into a war zone without being ready.
Under the supervision of the UN, the SANDF has taken on many dangerous and difficult peacekeeping tasks over the years to help war-torn African countries stay stable and peaceful.

In 2003, South Africa was one of the first countries to send troops to Burundi to help the peace process. During the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peacekeeping mission in 2000, the SANDF led attempts to stabilize the country’s politics, rebuild and improve infrastructure, and train DRC troops.