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Oyetola, APC, INEC urge Appeal Court to uphold Osun election
….Court reserves judgments on four appeals
The Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have asked the Court of Appeal in Abuja to uphold the victory of Oyetola and APC in the governorship election held in the state on September 22 and 27, 2018.
Their request is contained in three separate appeals they filed against the majority judgment given by the Osun State Governorship Election Tribunal on March 22, 2019.
The tribunal had, in the majority judgment, given by two of its three members upheld the petition by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the election, Senator Ademola Adeleke and voided Oyetola and APC’s victory.
In their appeals, argued on Wednesday, Oyetola, the APC and INEC prayed the five-man panel of the Court of Appeal, led by Justice Jummai Sankey, to set aside the majority decision of the tribunal, uphold their appeals and dismiss the October 16, 2018 petition by Adeleke and the PDP.
They equally urged the court to dismiss the cross-appeal filed by Adeleke, on the grounds that it is unmeritorious.
In the appeal by Oyetola, his lawyer, Wole Olanipekun (SAN) faulted the reasons given by the tribunal in reaching the judgment appealed against, arguing that the decision was not supported by the evidence led by the petitioners.
He urged the court to void the judgment because the judge, Justice Peter Obiorah who wrote and delivered it, did not participate in all the proceedings of the tribunal.
Olanipekun noted that “the judge, who did not sit, came to write the leading judgment and reviewed the evidence of the February 6, 2019 proceedings where he was absent.
“Adjudication is like video watching. It cannot be done by proxy. The judge cannot analyse the evidence of a witness, whose demeanor he did not observe. The judgement should be declared a nullity on this ground alone”
Olanipekun, who said he and some named senior lawyers were at the tribunal on February 6, 2019, faulted the argument by lawyer to Adeleke and the PDP that it was not clear from the record of proceedings, whether or not Justice Obiorah was absent on the particular day.
He argued that the judge’s failure to sigh at the end of the proceedings on February 6, 2019 was enough evidence to justify the appellant’s claim that Justice Obiorah was absent on the day in question.
Olanipekun also faulted the tribunal’s cancellation of results in 17 polling units in the state, and noted that the petitioners did not tender any result of the election before the tribunal.
“If there was no result before the tribunal, the tribunal could not have cancelled what was not before it. Since no single result was submitted and could not have been cancelled,” he said.
He argued that the tribunal went beyond its powers by annulling results in the 17 polling units in order to justify its the judgement it gave in favour of the petitioners.
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Lawyer to the APC, Akin Olujinmi (SAN), while arguing the party’s appeal, contended that the tribunal was wrong to have allowed the petition, which was incurably incompetent.
“The 1st and 2nd respondents sought to be declared winner of the election, held on September 22, 2018, which was declared inconclusive. They also asked the tribunal to void the rerun election held on September 27, 2018, because they believed it was unlawful.
“You cannot say you should be declared a winner on the election that you said was unlawful and void,” he said.
Olujinmi accused the tribunal of exceeding its jurisdiction when it engaged in amending the petitioners’ reliefs to make them grantable.
“No tribunal has the jurisdiction to reframe, amend or formulate reliefs for the petitioners.
“On realising that the reliefs could not be granted, they (members of the tribunal) amended the reliefs and granted it by themselves.
“We are saying the tribunal has no power to amend a petitioner’s reliefs. The much they ought to do, on realising that the reliefs could not be granted, was to have dismissed the petition.”
He further faulted the tribunal for holding that the petitioners proved its case of non-compliance in respect of the polling units where it voided results.
Olujinmi added: “The tribunal was wrong. They cannot use the allegation of non-compliance directed at the election of September 27 against the election of September 22.
“The tribunal relied on certified true copy of Form EC8A, which they said were dumped on the tribunal. This was what they still relied on to nullify results in the polling units in which they said malpractices were proved. The so called non-complaince did not affect the result of the election,” Olujinmi said.
He argued that the tribunal went outside its powers and contravened Section 140(2) of the Electoral Act when it engaged in the deduction of votes from the outcome of the election to arrive at the decision it gave.
Lawyer to INEC, Yusuf Ali (SAN) who argued in similar manner, contended that the tribunal erred in its majority judgment, particularly as regards the issue of non-compliance.
He noted that the tribunal, having found that accreditation was properly done and that all witnesses agreed that the votes scored were not affected by the omissions noted in some result sheets, ought not to have voided any results.
Citing Section 134 (b) of the Electoral Act, Ali argued that non-compliance means not compliance with the provision of the Act, not an act of omission on the part of INEC officials, which are not contrary to the provision of the Act.
Ali also argued that since the tribunal held that the petitioners did not prove over-voting and non-compliance, it ought not to have turned around to void votes in some polling units.
On the question of why INEC did not call it witnesses at the tribunal, Ali said it was unnecessary because the petitioners did not discharge the burden of prove placed on them by the law to warrant INEC to call fresh witnesses.
Ali added: “There is no law that said INEC most call witnesses, since the petitioners could not discharge the responsibility of proving their declarative reliefs, there was no need for INEC to have called its own witnesses.”
Lawyer to Adeleke and the PDP, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN) faulted the three appeals and the arguments proffered by Olanipekun, Olujinmi and Ali.
Ikpeazu argued that the tribunal was right in its decision to have declared Adeleke and his party as the winner of the election.
He faulted the argument that Justice Obiorah did not participate in all the proceedings of the tribunal, arguing that there was no sufficient evidence to that effect.
Ikpeazu urged the court to dismiss the three appeals and uphold the judgment of the tribunal.
Kehinde Ogunwumiju (SAN), who argued Adeleke’s cross-appeal, urged the court to allow his client’s appeal and reverse the portion of the judgment, where the tribunal rejected the evidence the petitioners lead in relation to six polling units.
Ogunwumiju argued that the tribunal wrongly excluded some of its evidence, because while it called 23 witnesses to prove it’s allegation of non-compliance in 23 polling units, the tribunal only upheld 17 where it voided elections.
Olanipekun, Olujinmi and Ali argued that the cross appeal was incompetent on several grounds and urged the tribunal to reject it.
At the conclusion of proceedings that lasted over eight hours, the presiding judge, Justice Sankey said judgments would be reserved till a later date.
She told parties that the date of the judgment would be communicated to them by the court’s Registry.
Other members of the court’s five-man panel are: Justices Abubakar Datti Yahaya, Ita George Mbaba, Isaiah Olufemi Akeju and Bitrus Sanga.
No President Bola Tinubu received in audience the Permanent Representative of Nigeria to UN, Ambassador Jimoh Ibrahim after he presented the proposed $14 billion UN budget for 2027.
President Bola Tinubu has received copies of the proposed 2027 United Nations budget from Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Jimoh Ibrahim.
Ibrahim, who chairs the UN committee responsible for budgetary and administrative matters, presented the seven-volume document to the President at the State House, Abuja.
Speaking to journalists after the presentation, Ibrahim described the occasion as historic, saying it was the first time in 66 years that a Nigerian president had received the proposed UN budget through the process.
He said, “This is the presentation of the United Nations proposed budget for 2027 that was presented to me by the General Assembly, by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to the Fifth Committee, and that budget has seven volumes.
“So it has to be presented to my country because my country is a member of the United Nations. I share the budget at the committee, so the appropriate thing to do is to bring the budget home and deliver it to the President.
“This is the first time in 66 years that Nigeria will share budget in the committee. The first time. So I don’t know when we’re going to do that again in history.”
Ibrahim added, “President Bola Tinubu is making history to have been able to receive that budget, being the first President in 66 years that will receive such budget from the United Nations, and it’s not a small issue for a country to receive the whole UN budget.”
He said the proposed budget covered the organisation’s regular activities and peacekeeping operations, with approximately $3.4bn allocated to the regular budget and $8.5bn for peacekeeping.
Ibrahim put the total at about $14bn, although the figures he cited for the two components add up to $11.9bn.
He stressed that the document was still a proposal and had not received final approval from UN member states.
“The budget still has to be approved. This is a proposed budget. It’s at the proposed stage. You submit it to your country, and thereafter the budget is finally discussed. Figures are adjusted, and then finally the final budget is approved and spending commences,” he said.
Asked about the support Nigeria could receive from the UN, Ibrahim said discussions on the proposed budget were ongoing and declined to specify what Nigeria might benefit from it.
He also cited the construction of a $267m UN conference centre in Kenya as an example of the organisation’s investment in facilities in member states.
The proposed budget will undergo further scrutiny and adjustments before member states approve the final figures and spending begins.
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Abuja-Kaduna Train: Opeifa Denies NRC’s Involvement in Ticket Racketeering, Blames Scammers and High Demand
……..NRC Introduces Double Verification to Curb Racketeering
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Dr Kayode Opeifa, has denied allegations that the corporation deliberately creates artificial scarcity of train tickets on the Abuja-Kaduna Train Service (AKTS) to facilitate their resale at inflated prices through unauthorised agents.
The controversy followed a viral social media video by Instagram blogger Faizah Raji, who operates under the handle @wearegst, alleging that the corporation deliberately withholds tickets from its official electronic ticketing platform and makes them available through agents at exorbitant prices.
In the video, titled “The NRC Is Stealing Its Own Tickets to Resell,” the blogger claimed that she was unable to obtain a ticket through the official booking portal but subsequently purchased one from an agent at twice the official price.
Responding to the allegations, the NRC management described the claims linking the corporation to the alleged racketeering as misleading, insisting that the corporation does not directly buy or sell tickets on the Abuja-Kaduna corridor.
According to the management, electronic ticketing on the standard-gauge rail services operates under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, with private concessionaires responsible for ticket sales.
SecureID/TPS handles ticketing for the Abuja-Kaduna Train Service, while Global Software Digital Solutions (GSDS) manages the Lagos-Ibadan Train Service. Fane Warri-Itakpe Ticketing Solutions Limited is responsible for ticketing on the Warri-Itakpe Train Service.
The NRC said the concessionaires were approved by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) and the Federal Executive Council (FEC) before 2023.
Explaining the persistent difficulty passengers face in securing tickets, the corporation attributed the situation largely to a significant imbalance between passenger demand and the number of seats available.
According to the NRC, demand for train services on the Abuja-Kaduna corridor has exceeded available capacity by more than tenfold, putting considerable pressure on the ticketing system.
The management maintained that the reported experience of purchasing a ticket through an agent did not, in itself, establish that the corporation was responsible for creating artificial scarcity or facilitating the alleged resale.
It also warned passengers against patronising unofficial ticket agents, stressing that those who purchase tickets outside approved channels do so at their own risk.
The corporation explained that the Federal Government introduced the National Identification Number (NIN) requirement for train ticket purchases following the 2022 Abuja-Kaduna train attack, as part of measures to improve passenger identification and curb ticket racketeering.
However, it said suspected fraudsters had devised ways of obtaining multiple NINs to purchase tickets for resale to unsuspecting travellers.
To address the challenge, the NRC introduced a double-verification process in 2025, requiring passengers to undergo NIN verification and present personal identification before boarding.
The corporation said its ticketing and verification system is integrated with the database of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), enabling officials at Idu and Kubwa in Abuja, as well as Rigasa in Kaduna, to verify the identity and photograph associated with the NIN used to purchase a ticket.
The management, however, acknowledged that the Rigasa station in Kaduna lacks an adequate access-control system, a shortcoming it said could occasionally allow agents linked to ticket scams to overwhelm security personnel.
The introduction of a second verification process, modelled on the system used at Terminal 2 of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, is intended to strengthen checks and prevent passengers from travelling with tickets purchased using another person’s identity.
As part of efforts to address complaints about ticket availability, the NRC said the electronic ticketing concessionaires had been directed to improve access to their online platforms and ensure compliance with established ticketing procedures.
The corporation also reiterated that purchasing tickets from third parties using another person’s NIN or name was unacceptable, describing the practice as economic sabotage.
It stressed that passengers should book through approved portals and avoid sharing their NIN details and other personal information with agents or third parties who could exploit such information for fraudulent transactions.
The NRC management declared zero tolerance for ticket racketeering, warning that any staff member found participating in or colluding with individuals involved in the practice would face disciplinary action.
The corporation said it remained committed to protecting the integrity of its operations, improving customer service and ensuring that passengers have access to safe, affordable, reliable and convenient rail transportation.
While the allegations have renewed public debate over ticket availability and the effectiveness of the electronic ticketing system, the NRC maintained that the immediate challenges include rising passenger demand, limited seating capacity and the activities of individuals exploiting the system.
The corporation urged passengers to use only approved ticketing platforms and cooperate with verification procedures to help curb fraud and protect the railway system.
The NRC said it would continue working with relevant stakeholders to strengthen its ticketing processes and improve the passenger experience across its rail corridors.
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Ondo Sports Council Chairman Declares 2026 ADU Unity Cup Open as Ijapo Ages FC Edges Odigbo LG FC
The Chairman of the Ondo State Sports Council, Hon. (Coach) Abimbola Oladimeji, has officially declared the 2026 ADU Unity Cup open, marking the commencement of another edition of the football competition aimed at promoting unity, sportsmanship and grassroots football development.
The opening ceremony attracted football enthusiasts and supporters who gathered to witness the start of the tournament and celebrate the spirit of competition among participating teams.
In the opening match, Ijapo Ages FC secured a narrow 1–0 victory over Odigbo LG FC in an entertaining encounter, giving the team a winning start to its campaign in the competition.
The ADU Unity Cup continues to provide a platform for players to showcase their talents, foster unity among communities and contribute to the development of football at the grassroots level.
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