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Uzodimma’s victory illegitimate, Ugochinyere alleges

Published

1 year ago

November 13, 2023

Uzodimma’s victory illegitimate, Ugochinyere alleges

The Director General of the Imo State Peoples Democratic Party Governorship Campaign Council and the House of Representative member representing Ideato North and South, Ikenga Ugochinyere, has described the votes ascribed to the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Hope Uzodimma, in the Saturday governorship election as unlawful.

Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission on Sunday announced Uzodimma as the winner of the state governorship election.

The state Returning Officer for the election, Prof. Abayomi Fasina, declared Uzodimma of the APC winner, with 540,308, votes while Samuel Anyanwu of the PDP came a distant second with a total of 71,503 votes.

Ugochinyere who stated this in a post-election press conference on Monday in Abuja, declared the outcome of the election announced by INEC as illegitimate.

He alleged that the election was marred by wanton rigging, allocation of votes in private homes, declaration of false results and nonuse of the Biometric Voters Accreditation System.

The lawmaker who insisted that the PDP candidate scored the majority of the legitimate votes, urged INEC to review the results announced as required by law and declare Anyanwu the winner.

Ugochinyere who doubles as the spokesperson of the Coalition of United Political Parties alleged that there are ongoing moves to commence the upload of fake accreditation numbers on the BVAS to tally with the results declared.

In his words, “The outcome of the election is illegitimate and the person declared the winner of the election, Senator Hope Uzodimma, was not duly elected by the Imo voters because the majority of the votes ascribed to him were invalid, void and unlawful votes. Hence we declare him a self-imposed Governor of Imo State.

“We have already exposed evidence of massive overvoting from the result of BVAS machine accreditation which showed very low turnout and results showing high turnout. Moves are on currently in the IT Department of INEC to illegally upload accreditation figures into the BVAS machine to tally with fraud that was committed on Saturday.

“More than 90% of the votes allocated to Hope Uzodimma were not votes that passed through the accreditation process as the turnout in the election was very low and this could be because of the insecurity in Imo State.

“Thugs backed by security agencies were maiming, shooting and destroying private property in a bid to cow the people to allow them to announce already written figures without accreditation or credible election.

“Based on credible intelligence that the results from Okigwe, Oru East the governor home, Oru West, Onuimo, Orsu, Oguta, Ohaji, Nwangele, Orlu, Ideato South, Ideato North, Obowo, are the biggest electoral jokes that will ever come out of Africa. Over 90 per cent of the results or votes did not happen as there was no accreditation, those with less than 5 per cent accreditation ended up having 80 per cent voter turnout.”

Uzodimma’s victory illegitimate, Ugochinyere alleges

Headlines

Kano inaugurates 14-member committee to review education policies

Published

2 days ago

January 16, 2025

Saadatu Sahabo

The Kano State Government has inaugurated a 14-member committee tasked with reviewing existing education policies in the state.

Inaugurating the committee on Thursday in Kano, the Commissioner for Education, Dr Ali Makoda, said that the committee was constituted by the Kano State Executive Council to assess the state’s education policies.

“This committee was originally scheduled to be inaugurated by the governor, but due to prior engagements, he has delegated the responsibility to me so that we can begin our work immediately,” Makoda stated.

The Commissioner outlined the committee’s terms of reference, which include reviewing the four existing education policies in the state to assess whether they align with the cultural and religious beliefs of the people.

“Evaluating the feasibility of implementing the policies, and making recommendations to strengthen the state’s education system.”

He noted that the four policies to be reviewed include the Kano State Girls’ Education Policy, Kano State Gender Equity and Social Inclusion Policy, Kano State Non-State School Policy, and Kano State Teacher Development Policy.

Makoda announced that the committee has been given three weeks to submit its report, and urged the members to leverage their expertise to produce recommendations that would enhance the state’s education sector.

In his response, the committee chairman, Malam Abdullahi Dutse, assured the commissioner of the committee’s commitment to work collaboratively to meet the expectations placed on them.

“Considering the diverse expertise of the committee members, I believe the government has selected individuals with the right skills to address the challenges facing education in the state. We will work diligently to provide the necessary report,” he said.

The committee’s members include Malam Abdullahi Dutse (Chairman), Prof Abdallah Uba -Adamu, Habibu Dan Almajiri, Alhaji Danlami Garba, Kano State Commissioner for Women, Children, and Disabled Affairs Hajiya Amina Abdullahi, and Isa Ahmad.

Other members are Prof Tijjani Naniya, Malam Kabiru Hanga, Munzali Mustapha, Prof Auwal Halliru Arzai, and Dr Bashir Aliyu -Umar.

The remaining include the representatives of the Emirate Council and Civil Society Organizations, and Ibrahim Bawa, Director of Archives and Publications, who will serve as Secretary of the committee.

Headlines

U.S commends Nigeria over Galactica funds repatriation efforts

Published

2 days ago

January 16, 2025

Saadatu Sahabo

The U.S. Deputy-Secretary of State, Kurt Campbell, has extolled Nigeria’s partnership in the successful repatriation of funds linked to forfeited luxury real estate and Galactica Star Superyacht. (more…)

Headlines

Tinubu congratulates Nigerian scientists, engineers on making Biden’s honour list

Published

2 days ago

January 16, 2025

Saadatu Sahabo

Tinubu commiserates with Rashidi Ladoja over wife’s death

President Bola Tinubu has congratulated six Nigerians named by President Joe Biden among the 400 recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in the United States.

This recognition, established by former President Bill Clinton in 1996, is the highest honour bestowed by the United States government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their careers.

This year’s awardees, announced by Biden on Jan. 14, are employed or funded by 14 participating United States government agencies, Mr Bayo Onanuga, the President’s Spokesman, said in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.

The Nigerian honourees include Azeez Butali, Gilbert Lilly Endowed Professor of Diagnostic Sciences, College of Dentistry, University of Iowa; and Ijeoma Opara, Associate Professor of Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences), Yale School of Public Health, Yale University.

Others are: Oluwatomi Akindele, Postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; and Eno Ebong, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Biology at Northeastern University;

The rest are: Oluwasanmi Koyejo, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University; and Abidemi Ajiboye, Executive vice Chair of the Case School of Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Case Western Reserve University.

Tinubu commended the awardees for their achievements in science, technology and engineering.

He noted that recognising the talents of the awardees underscored Nigerians’ vast potential to excel both at home and on the global stage.

Tinubu looked forward to the honourees sharing their multidisciplinary expertise to benefit Nigeria’s development efforts under the Renewed Hope Agenda. (more…)