2023 ELECTIONS
2023 Elections: Our actions are guided the electoral acts- INEC
This weekend’s gubernatorial elections will signify the end of the 2023 general elections. As such, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says its operations are guided by the Electoral Act .
This was made known to the media yesterday by INEC’s public relations officer Ayo Gabriel. The body was reacting to calls by the Social Democratic Party to sign the election result sheets. These are the papers for Saturday Governorship and state houses of assembly elections in advance.
The official said INEC doesn’t follow the commands of political parties but rather the electoral law. He petitioned to every political party to stop interfering with the pre-election apparatus.
SDP had argued that the measure would help in checking and preventing irregularities during the election.
“I see this as an expression of fear on the part of the political party that is making such a demand”
“Why not intensify your campaigns by going house-to-house ahead of the contest instead of staying behind to dictate to INEC to do your bidding. “INEC is not under any obligation to act according to the dictates of any political party but will operate according to guidelines for the conduct of elections”. Ayo Gabriel concluded.
“I’m disappointed with INEC’s performance“
The founder of Stanbic IBTC Atedo Peterside has said that he is completely disappointed with the Independent National Electoral Commission’s performance in the elections. This was the election which produced Ahmed Bola Tinubu as the president-elect.
Peterside said that the result uploaded by the commission during the presidential election is an insult to anyone’s intelligence.
He made this disclosure in an interview on Tuesday on Arise TV. The CEO commended the steps taken by Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar of the Labour Party and Peoples Democratic Party, respectively, to challenge the result in court.
Citing that whatever is agreed upon in court, Nigerians would accept. Most especially after the judiciary would have done the right thing and be seen to be fair.
Speaking on what to expect for Saturday’s Governorship and state house of assembly elections; Peterside said that the electoral commission can’t afford to repeat the same mistakes that questioned its credibility, competence and impartiality in the presidential elections.
Political cartels in Lagos are all against me – Jandor
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, gubernatorial candidate in Lagos spoke to the media. Dr. Olajide Adediran, popularly called Jandor has exposed moves by cartels in Lagos. He claimed godfathers in the All Progressives Congress, APC, are working against his victory. He is referring to the March 18 Governorship election in the state. Jandor however expressed confidence to triumph at the end of the day. He claimed he will win against all odds.
“This election is to send the ruling APC packing. Remain steadfast and calm down because the battle is of the Lord. We will win this election. The battle is of God and not of Jandor or of any godfather.”
“To the electorate and PDP faithful, I urge you not to succumb to their threats and intimidation. We will protect our votes. Our votes will count this time. Come out on Saturday, en-masse to exercise your rights.” Jandor ended.
OTHER NEWS
Seventeen people have died after a fatal road accident occured in Gamawa, Bauchi State. The crash which happened on the Zaki-Gamawa road involved 25 people, killing 17 and leaving 8 seriously wounded.
A commercial passenger vehicle with plate number KTG 13 XF and a Toyota bus belonging to Himma Express collided. The passenger vehicle had a tyre blowout before crashing into the Toyota.
The Federal Road Safety Corps of the Azare and Gamawa command are already present at the scene.
President Muhammadu Buhari swears in ICPC board members in Abuja
President Buhari has sworn in seven board members for the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related offences, ICPC.
The swearing-in took place shortly before the commencement of the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting at the State House in Abuja on Wednesday.
Some Ministers, who physically attended the meeting, include the Attorney General and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami. Information and Culture; Lai Mohammed, Labor and Employment; Chris Ngige. Agriculture; Mahmood Mohammed, Environment; Mohammed Abdullahi, Minister of Power; Abubakar Aliyu. Finance, Budget and National Planning; Zainab Ahmed, Water Resources; Suleiman Adamu, Science and Technology; Ogbonnaya Onu and the Minister of State for Health; Olorunimbe Mamora.
El-Rufai to pay N920 million pensions, gratuities to civil servants
The Kaduna State Governor, Mal Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai has started paying the civil servants their pensions this year. The Kaduna government disclosed that the pensioners and retired civil servants would get N400 million, while their counterparts from the local government service would receive N520 million.
According to the statement, the payment, under the contributory pension scheme, would be done by the Pension Funds Administrators, PFAs.
CASH POLICY
Calm as banks, stakeholders accept old naira notes
The widespread rejection of the old N500, N1,000 yesterday melted as banks and Nigerians began to accept the notes. This is in compliance with the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. The CBN on Tuesday directed banks to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling. The ruling was that the old notes remain legal tenders alongside the redesigned notes till December 31st, 2023.
Consequently, banks yesterday began to accept the old N500 and N1,000 notes from customers. They did this without requesting for the CBN cash return reference code.
CASH POLICY: STAKEHOLDERS IN CONFUSION ALL OVER THE COUNTRY
It was learnt that stakeholders amongst others, who visited bank branches were left disappointed as they could not withdraw the amounts they wanted.
The Central Bank of Nigeria is yet to release the old N1000 and N500 notes to banks despite asking commercial banks to commence their recirculation.
On Monday, The CBN had directed commercial banks to issue and accept the old Naira notes from Nigerians. This is coming weeks after it was mopped out of circulation. While some said they were only given between N5,000 and N10,000. Others managed to get N20,000, which indicated that the CBN is hoarding old notes.
FOREIGN
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, FB,I revealed that Americans lost $10 billion to numerous internet scams last year. This was disclosed according to an FBI report published this month. The report stated that the 2022 losses were the highest in five years.
According to ABC News on Tuesday. The Bureau’s Internet Crime Complaint Center lodged more than 2,000 complaints per day.
Phishing is “the use of unsolicited email, text messages and telephone calls from a legitimate company purportedly. It requests personal login credentials. It is frequently successful. This is because phishing emails often resemble those from people victims know personally, which prompts them to click on unsecured links.
Data breaches and non-payment scams were the next most common internet scams in 2022. It claimed 58,859 and 51,679 victims respectively, per the report. In total, the aged lost $3.1 billion to internet scams in 2022, the most of any age group.
Interestingly, the FBI has a 73% success rate in getting victims their funds back, according to the report.
TURKEY AND SYRIA EARTHQUAKE
Rescue teams continue searches for survivors from the magnitude 7.4 earthquakes that rocked Turkey a month ago. Operations already started weeks ago as cranes remove debris from destroyed buildings.
To make matters worse, torrential rains have hit two of the provinces that were devastated by last month’s earthquake. These rains have led to floods and the flood killed five people today. This has increased the misery of thousands who were left homeless by the earthquake.
Quite a number of people are reportedly missing in the Wednesday floods as well. Several people were evacuated from a drenched campsite in Salifular where earthquake survivors were sheltering in tents. Patients were also evacuated from a hospital.
Television footage from there also showed floodwaters surging along a street and sweeping away cars.
The powerful earthquakes that struck parts of Turkey and Syria on February 6, killed more than 52,000 people. The vast majority in Turkey. More than 200,000 buildings in Turkey either collapsed or were severely damaged.
ENTERTAINMENT
Mr Macaroni serves Lege Miami with ₦50 million lawsuit for defamation
Popular comedian Adebowale Adedayo, aka as Mr. Macaroni has filed a lawsuit against actor Kehinde Adams, aka Lege Miami, in the early hours of today. This happened when Lege Miami accused Mr. Macaroni of always trying to put the current Nigerian Government in bad light.
In a now deleted post, Lege Miami said “Debo what’s your problem, ki lo fe. Your Oga don do one, you wan start another thing. If our government no good, the Hausas wouldn’t support us. Some parts of Igbos supported us and this is Lagos State“
“You are giving them wrong information. Mr devil, what’s your information, can’t you leave the youths alone. Are you the only youth? You are even older than me so you aren’t a youth anymore. You are old, stop all the things you are doing“.
Macaroni didn’t react to it lightly and has now informed Lege Miami of his decision.
SPORTS
Manchester City and Inter Milan move into quarter finals.
Manchester City sealed their place in the quarter-finals of the Uefa champions league last night. It was an emphatic 7-0 victory against Leipzig of Germany. Erling Haaland scored five times on the night to take his tally of the season to 39 in all competitions.
The English side now awaits the draws to see who they will face in the next round. The citizens are aiming to win the title for the first time in their history having lost to Chelsea in the 2020 finals. Inter Milan also made it to the quarter-finals after edging Porto 1-0 on aggregate.
There are matches tonight in the Uefa champions league as defending champions Real Madrid host Liverpool. Italian side Napoli host German team Eintract Frankfurt. Both home teams are huge favorites to make it to the next round after their huge first leg wins.
Thanks for reading.
