Politics

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

Published

2 years 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

Egyptian court upholds ex-presidential candidate Ahmed Tantawy’s sentence

Published

14 hours ago

December 18, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Former presidential candidate, Ahmed Tantawy, and his campaign manager, Mohamed Abou El-Diar, were found guilty of faking election paperwork, and given a one-year jail term with labour by an Egyptian court, Tantawy’s legal team announced Tuesday.

Last year, Tantawy was the most well-known candidate to run against Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for a third term, winning 89.6% of the vote.

To avoid receiving the necessary number of public endorsements to be on the ballot, he halted his campaign before to the election, alleging harassment and arrests directed at hundreds of his family members and associates.

Egyptian authorities criticised Tantawy’s tactic of distributing unapproved copies of endorsement forms to garner popular support, but they denied any misconduct.

Egypt’s Misdemeanour Appeals Court upheld the May court ruling on Monday, which prohibits Tantawy from seeking public office for five years and mandates that he pay a fine of 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($395).

Tantawy’s defence team member and well-known human rights attorney Khaled Ali said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that the appeals procedure was riddled with anomalies.

Ali said lawyers struggled for months to confirm court dates, with hearings appearing absent from official schedules and case files missing from court registries.

The public prosecution was not immediately available to comment on the ruling or on Ali’s allegations over the process.

Politics

Court orders Uganda to compensate LRA war crimes victims

Published

14 hours ago

December 18, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Uganda’s tribunal has ordered the government to pay up to 10 million Ugandan shillings ($2,740) to each victim of Lord’s Resistance Army commander, Thomas Kwoyelo, the first senior rebel leader to be convicted.

Kwoyelo, a mid-level LRA leader, was sentenced to 40 years in jail in October for war crimes like murder, rape, slavery, torture, and kidnapping.

Kwoyelo’s “indigent” status prevented him from compensating the victims, thus the court ordered the government to compensate.

Kwoyelo’s crimes were “a manifestation of failure on the part of the government that triggers a responsibility on the state to pay reparations to the victims,” the verdict added.

The court also ordered various financial compensation to Kwoyelo’s property destruction and theft victims.

From strongholds in northern Uganda, the LRA brutalised Ugandans under Joseph Kony for over 20 years while it fought the military to destroy the government.

The militants raped, abducted, cut off victims’ limbs and mouths, and bludgeoned them to death using crude implements.

Under military pressure, the LRA withdrew to lawless forests in South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic in 2005 and perpetrated civilian atrocities.

Although assaults are rare, Kony and splintered groups are reported to dwell there.

Kwoyelo was taken by the Ugandan military in 2009 in the northeastern Congo, and his case made its way through Ugandan courts until he was found guilty in August.