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Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai has threatened to name former governors who are accused of embezzling state funds and stashing them in the United Arab Emirate (UAE) and other major cities in Europe and America where they bought real estate.

He claims that before he became governor and converted the road into a dual carriageway, one of the past governors was allegedly implicated in a lost N500 million contract to reconstruct the well-known WAFF Road.

The governor claimed that “They plundered the money, the person they handed the WAFF road contract to is dead” in an interview with Kaduna State Media Corporation’s Hausa Service.

But, he singled out former vice president Namadi Sambo, who, while serving as the state’s governor, began construction on a 300-bed specialty hospital in Kaduna but was unable to finish it because of the political pressures that led to Sambo’s election as the nation’s vice president.

“They are all looters. I know how they were before and look at their current status. One has built a big mansion in Kaduna at Jabi.  I challenge anybody who has knowledge of our government collecting 10  percent  commission from contractors .But these people were collecting 10 percent commission. I am a Quantity Surveyor, I know the quality of work they have done. 

“I’m happy that we constructed quality roads that would last for years. Not those kinds of roads they have constructed in the past which after two years, after two rainy seasons the roads would go bad.

“We still have work to do. We want all roads in Kaduna to be tarred. Anyone who comes to Kaduna would not see a muddy road. Every part of the town you visit will have tarred roads and solar powered street lights. That’s what we envisaged everywhere in Kaduna, in Kafanchan, in Zaria and in all Local Government Areas such as Soba, everywhere. That is what we want to see.

“However, we could not realized all our development plans because of the situation this government met. In fact we had to seek for loan to execute those projects.”

“The people can see that we executed those projects with the loan we secured. We did not siphon the money to Dubai and bought houses or go to Jabi Road and build a mansion. We know them, they are neither the children of Dantata( legendary Kano billionaire) nor the children of Dangote. We know them right from our school days. Where do they get the money to build those houses? What was their profession?”

Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s nominee for president, has pleaded with Nigerians not to accept the results of a rigged election as God’s will.

He claimed that over the years, Nigerians had a problem with embracing what was wrong and inappropriate as God’s intention for the nation.

Obi gave his speech on the same day that members of the Labour Party’s legal team met with INEC authorities to check election-related materials for the February 25 presidential election.

In the midst of this, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, promised the Labour Party LP’s legal team that the commission was prepared to give them any papers they needed to support their case before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.

Obi responded to certain Nigerians’ opinion that the results of the presidential election on February 25, 2023, should be viewed and accepted as God’s will when he appeared as a guest on Arise Television Morning Show interview program yesterday.

The LP candidate emphasized that the Obedient Movement was working to change bad things in the country since God doesn’t wish bad things for His people.

He said; “The problem of Nigeria is accepting what is unacceptable. That’s not God’s wish. God’s wish is when you do the right thing. Is it God’s wish that we remain poor as a country, despite it’s abundant blessings on us?”

Obi claimed that Nigeria had continued to slide morally into decency. Nigerians kept embracing wrongdoing and involving God in it.

Yet, he pointed out that the Obidient Movement, which he represented, was working to alter the status quo and establish an egalitarian society.

The former governor of Anambra State expressed his disappointment that, 63 years after being a nation, Nigeria was still unable to hold elections that passed the bar for minimum acceptable standards.

Given that the Election Law of 2022 was passed to guarantee free, fair, and credible elections, he termed the February 25 presidential election as the worst in Nigeria’s history.

While Obi said he was pursuing his mandate by lawful and nonviolent ways, he found it discouraging that the Independent National Election Commission, or INEC, a public organization supported by tax dollars, was treating the rule of law lightly.

In addition, he clarified that there was nothing personal behind his choice to oppose the past election’s abuse of the system and that he had no intention of changing his mind until the right thing had been done.

He claimed that since independence, Nigeria has been struggling because people had been doing and accepting the wrong things.

On Sunday night, tragedy struck when a Lexus SUV plowed into a building on 2, Iyewa Street in Lagos’ Isolo neighborhood, killing two siblings and critically injuring another kid at the hospital.

The dead siblings, Abibu Bello, 17, and Bolaji Bello, 14, were the children of Mr. Toyin Bayero, a high-ranking member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

According to witnesses, the children were playing when the tragedy occurred on Sunday at 7:40 p.m.

According to a resident, who gave his name as Muyideen, “The Lexus SUV with number plate, LSD 356 GU, first crashed into a kiosk in front of the building before crashing into the building, at the spot where the children were playing.  

“The children were rushed to the Isolo General Hospital, but the politician’s two children died, while the third, a neighbour’s son legs were broken and is still in the hospital.

“The vehicle, which was driven by a lady with one occupant just left a hairdressing salon a few metres from the scene, when it suddenly lost control.” 

Yesterday morning, Mr. Olasoju Bayo, the state’s chairman of the Isolo Local Government Area, and a few council staff members went to the location to assess the occurrence firsthand.

The entire street was surrounded by people who were upset over the terrible situation, mostly ladies.

Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, bowed to pressure on Monday and formally ordered commercial banks to follow the Supreme Court’s ruling, which ordered the use of old N, 1000 and N 500 notes as legal tender until December 31, 2023.

Additionally, he declared that the old N200, N500, and N1,000 will continue to be accepted as payment until the end of the year.

Emefiele claimed that the choice was made in response to a Sunday meeting with the Bankers’ Committee.

The misunderstanding regarding the legitimacy of the old naira notes has been resolved as a result of the development. The move is also anticipated to lessen the suffering of Nigerians who have experienced great challenges due to a shortage of new naira notes in the wake of the contentious restriction on the use of older notes.

The latest development was announced in a statement headed “Old N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes remain legal money – CBN” by Isa AbdulMumin, acting director of corporate communications.

The statement read, “In compliance with the established tradition of obedience to court orders and sustenance of the rule of law principle that characterised the government of President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and by extension, the operations of the Central Bank of Nigeria, as a regulator, Deposit Money Banks operating in Nigeria have been directed to comply with the Supreme Court ruling of March 3, 2023.

“Accordingly, the CBN met with the Bankers’ Committee and has directed that the old N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes remain legal tender alongside the redesigned banknotes till December 31, 2023. Consequently, all concerned are directed to conform accordingly.”

The Federal Government and the CBN were criticized earlier on Monday by the Nigerian Bar Association and the Nigeria Labour Congress for disobeying the Supreme Court’s ruling over the old naira notes.

In a statement released on Sunday, the Arewa Consultative Forum warned that Buhari’s government’s reputation would suffer if it disobeyed the Supreme Court.

Abubakar Malami, the Attorney-General of the Federation, and the President both received harsh criticism from the NBA for disobeying the Supreme Court’s ruling.

The old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes were made legal tender until December 31 by the Supreme Court in its decision from March 3.

The head of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has promised the Labour Party, LP’s legal team that the commission is prepared to give the party all the papers it needs to pursue its case at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.

On Monday, when he met with the group of 60 attorneys led by Livy Uzoukwu, Yakubu gave the guarantee.

Yakubu, speaking to the group, stated that the Commission would also meet with its Resident Electoral Commissioners, or RECs, in the states to determine the specifics of the materials inspection process there.

“INEC has nothing to hide. Documents available at the headquarters will be given immediately.

“We are meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners today and we will discuss how other documents at the state level could also be made available to you speedily,” he stated.

The legal team for the Labour Party was at the INEC headquarters to talk about how to get the documents.

Remember that the party already won a court ruling ordering the electoral umpire to permit it to see the materials used for the voting on February 25.

Also, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS, that INEC utilized for the presidential election was approved for reconfiguration by the Presidential Election Petition Court, or PEPC, which convened last Wednesday at the Court of Appeal in Abuja.

A three-judge panel of the court ruled unanimously that preventing the electoral authority from redesigning the BVAS would have a negative impact on Saturday’s elections for governor and state parliament.

It disregarded the concerns the Labour Party, LP, and Mr. Peter Obi, the party’s presidential candidate, had about INEC’s decision to reorganize all of the BVAS.

The court stated that granting Obi and his party’s objections would “tie the respondent, INEC’s hands.”

Additionally, it mentioned that INEC had stated in an affidavit it submitted to the court that the accreditation data contained in the BVAS would be kept and easily retrievable from its authorized back-end server, guaranteeing that they could not be altered or destroyed.

Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the elections on February 25, has alleged that Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State, spoke out against him throughout the election.

The electorate knew what he stood for, according to Obi, who said that those who supported him did not do so on the basis of their ethnicity. He continued by saying that Lagos natives gave him more votes than so-called “visitors.”

Obi said while featuring on Arise TV on Monday, “In the South-East, it is a similar situation, people know me, people know what I stand for, people know I have kept my promises. People know I’ve kept to what I have said.

“It is a simple thing, people go about and say, oh! he got votes in Lagos because of the Igbo, and I ask how many Igbos live in Lagos? I got more votes from indigenes in Lagos than those who you can call visitors.

“Are the Igbo in Nasarawa, are the Igbo in Plateau, are the Igbo in Abuja? In Rivers, where you know that the governor came out against me and everything, I still… If the real votes of Rivers were counted, Reuben, I won. I had over 50 something per cent of the vote.

“The other two parties were sharing the others.”

The Senate and House Representatives postponed plenary on Monday to Tuesday, March 21, 2023.

The two chambers had already postponed plenary till today Tuesday, March 14, 2023 to allow legislators to participate in the governorship and state assembly elections that had been originally scheduled for Saturday, March 11, 2023, but were later moved to March 18, 2023.

A statement on Monday by the Clerk of the Senate, Chinedu Francis Akubueze read, “This is to inform all Distinguished Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that the resumption of the Senate in Plenary has been rescheduled from Tuesday 14th March, 2023 to Tuesday 21th March 2023. 

“All Distinguished Senators are by this notice requested to resume sitting in plenary on Tuesday 21th March, 2023 by 10:00 am prompt, please. “

In response to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s announcement as the winner of the 2023 presidential election by the Independent National Election Commission, INEC, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi, said he has no beef with t president-elect.

This was said by Obi during a Monday interview on Arise TV.

He said; “I have no issues with Tinubu. He is somebody I have so much respect for as a brother and regard as a father.

“I am only challenging the process through which INEC declared him as the President-elect. I have no issues with his declaration as the President-elect.”

“We are committed to a new Nigeria. We must do everything that is right.

“We need to build strong democratic institutions that will teach people what their job requires and what government is all about,” he said.

On Monday, the Court of Appeal in Abuja reserved judgment over the appeal for the governorship of Osun State brought by Governor Ademola Adeleke.

Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party filed an appeal in response to a tribunal’s decision invalidating his election as governor of Osun State..

At around 10 am, the three-judge panel chaired by Justice M.F. Shuaibu began hearing the appeal. In the appeal identified as CA/AK/EPT/GOV/01/2023, Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress are the first and second respondents, and Adeleke is the appellant.

In addition, the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission have been added as the third and fourth respondents, respectively.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal nullified the election that elected Adeleke of the PDP as governor on July 16, 2022, on January 27.

A total of 403,371 votes were cast in the race, and INEC declared Adeleke the victor. According to reports, he won in 17 out of the state’s 30 local government units.

However, in its ruling, the tribunal presided over by Judge Terste Kume ruled the election unlawful and named Mr. Gboyega Oyetola of the APC as the legitimate victor.

The court ordered INEC to revoke the Certificate of Return that had been given to Adeleke and his appointed replacement, Kola Adewusi.

However, it stipulated that Oyetola should receive the Certificate of Return in its place.

According to Justice Kume, the governorship election was not conducted in accordance with the Nigerian Electoral Act. The panel concluded that there was excessive voting in the governorship race. According to the report, Oyetola received 314, 921 votes overall after the extra votes were subtracted.

As a result, the panel mandated that Oyetola be reinstated as governor of Osun State.

According to INEC’s earlier results, which were reported by NAN, Oyetola won the July 16, 2022 governorship election in 13 LGAs with 375,027 votes.

There were fifteen candidates running for the election, which was hotly contested by Adeleke and Oyetola.

The state’s recently-departed governor, Oyetola, said in his plea that there was over voting in 749 of the polling places during the election.

Additionally, he contended that Adeleke submitted false academic credentials to NEC in order to run for office.

A few weeks after the governorship election in August 2022, the tribunal had already begun to meet. Oyetola and the APC were the petitioners in the case, and their principal attorneys were Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, and Akin Olujimi, SAN.

The first defendant was INEC, the second defendant was Adeleke, and the third defendant was PDP.

The hearing was still ongoing as at the time of filing the report.

Prof. Akin Abayomi, the state health commissioner for Lagos, announced Tuesday that 53 victims of the bus/train disaster in Lagos have been released.

Abayomi provided an update on the tragic tragedy, stating that the victims were responding to care and that there were 43 patients in as of yesterday.

The general hospital in Odan-Lagos, two at the general hospital in Gbagada, and 39 of the patients, he claimed, are at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, or LASUTH.

He stated that six people had died as a result of the disaster, which resulted in 102 casualties.