admin

The American branch of the All Progressives Congress demanded in a letter sent on Monday that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kelvin McCarthy, and the President of the United States, Joe Biden, disregard a petition purporting to undermine the 2023 presidential election and written by some irate Nigerians.

The request comes three days after the US administration gave some diasporans in the nation permission to use its park on April 3 to demonstrate against the results of the Nigerian presidential election of 2023.

The permit allows only a hundred protesters to converge at the iconic Lafayette Park in Washington D.C. for just four hours.

There was a clear warning on the permit that the participants must “comply with all of the conditions of this permit and with all reasonable directions of the United States Park Police.”

The planned demonstration is expected to be led by a group in diaspora under the aegis of Nigerian American Coalition for Justice and Democracy Inc., under the leadership of Franklin Ekechukwu.

In a prior memo, Ekechukwu stated that the demonstration was their own means of protesting INEC’s failure to “follow their standards and the rule of law in accordance to democratic values.”

But, Prof. Tai Balofin, the APC chapter chairman in the United States, claimed that Nigeria’s sovereignty since independence had been successful.

The statement read, “We are writing to you regarding a recent petition that has been submitted, calling for the discrediting of the Nigerian presidential election that was deemed free and fair by the Independent National Electoral Commission. As the leader of a country that upholds democratic values, we implore you to disregard the petition.

“The government has faced many challenges threatening the relationship between tribes coloured by religion and politics.

“The coming together of activists against the military intensified the democracy we have untainted since 1999. The great men and women who laid down their lives and resources to make this a reality see Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as an unrepentant front-runner via the NADECO days who fought to make this democracy a reality.”

Balofin referred to Tinubu as a master of political drafting and chess with gaming mastery of political successes and claimed that he became a point of reference and a grandmaster of strategic transformation that nation leaders always turned to for ideas and turnarounds.

“It is imperative to respect the democratic process and the decisions made by the electoral body. It is not the place of any individual or group to call for the truncation of democracy or the establishment of an interim government. Such actions are not only unconstitutional but also undermine the peace and stability of Nigeria.

“They have been calling for actions that go against the laid-down processes for addressing disputes and grievances, which is a subversion of the constitution. Their actions and utterances are not only seditious but also pose a threat to the peace and stability of Nigeria. As such, we urge you to condemn such action and make it clear that the British government stands firmly in support of the democratic process in Nigeria.

“Conclusively, we are available to present more evidence to the US Congress. Thank you for your attention to this matter,” he added.

Mr. Obiajulu Uja, an anti-Tinubu traveler on an Abuja-Lagos flight, has been charged before the Zuba Magistrates’ Court in Abuja and held in custody.

This was revealed by his attorney, Ejike Ugwu, on Monday.

Uja was removed from a Lagos-Abuja aircraft on Friday night after he began a solitary protest asking that Bola Tinubu never be inaugurated in as president on May 29.

In the video that went viral on Saturday, it took no fewer than six airport security officers’ efforts to evacuate him after he had delayed the plane for more than an hour as of 7pm.

According to a copy of the charge sheet seen stated that, Uja was accused of “behavior likely to create a breach of peace pursuant to sections 396, 267, 188, 172, and 144 of the Criminal Code Law,” as well as “public disturbance, resistance to a legitimate arrest, threatening violence, and behaviour.”

The attorney stated, “They misled us because yesterday he was transported to Muhammadu Buhari Police Hospital, Area 11 Abuja, and he was arraigned at the Zuba Magistrates’ Court as a result.”

The attorney said that his client had been admitted at the Muhammadu Buhari Police Hospital, but that neither a psychiatrist nor a psychologist were available to evaluate him there.

However, he claimed that although a physician from the National Hospital in Abuja had been requested to check Uja, the attempt had sadly been in vain.

 “While we were there, it was around 3pm they told us that they wanted  to arraign him in Zuba Magistrates’ Court.

“We reminded the court that the same police invited the doctor to examine him, and the same police instead of waiting for the doctors to examine him hurriedly charged him to court.

“Even with the test we did, we spent almost N40,000 at the Police clinic, all the tests they conducted we abandoned all of them; they have not prescribed any medicine.

“The way the police are handling it is as if they have an interest in the matter because you took somebody to a police clinic, you are coming to court to tell the court you want the person to be remanded in prison because you want to continue the investigation.

“Until now we do not know the result of the test that was conducted in the hospital because they hurriedly took him away from the hospital,” the lawyer said.

Ugwu added that the hearing for his client’s bail application was scheduled for Thursday.