NEWS
It’s suspicious – Labour Party fumes as tribunal sacks its federal lawmakers
The Labour Party has expressed worries over how its members are being sacked by the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in many states across the country.
WORLD WIDE GIST reports that the tribunal had nullified the elections of many of the elected members of the party in Edo, Abia and other states over the discrepancy surrounding their membership of the party and their mode of nomination.
Reacting to the trend, the party, in a statement issued by its National Chairman, Barr. Julius Abure, opined that the issue of “membership is an internal affair of the party beyond the jurisdiction of courts.”
He said, “We are worried because the reasons for reversing our victories are matters that have been settled by the superior courts in the past.
“It is even incomprehensible and ludicrous when different tribunals give conflicting and diverse judgements on the same matter, a matter that has since been ruled by the Supreme Court and very recently at the Presidential Election Petition Court in APC v Peter Obi.
“The courts have, in a plethora of cases, held that the court has no jurisdiction to intervene in the internal affairs of a political party.
“The issue of nomination of candidates as well as membership are internal affairs of the party beyond the jurisdiction of courts. Only a political party can determine who its members are and who their flag bearer for an election should be.
“The Labour Party Chairman described the judgements as reckless, saying the activities of the judges are suspicious.”
He called on the Nigerian Judicial Council to intervene in the matter by reviewing the activities of the legal practitioners.
“Though the tribunal is not the final court, we frown at the recklessness of our judicial officers in entering a judgement that looks suspicious.
“We are therefore calling the attention of the Nigeria Judicial Council to the injustice ongoing and to review the activities of some of our legal officers who may have been compromised and found wanting in the discharge of their duties.
“Labour Party must be encouraged to widen the political space and end the one party system being vigorously pursued by the ruling party. Pushing the party under a moving trailer will not in any way help anyone,” Abure added.
The Chairman of Abia State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on the recovery of Government Property and Funds, Justice Florence Doruoha-Igwe (Rtd) has issued a Bench Warrant on Anthony Agbazuere and Don Ubani, who served as Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff, respectively, to former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.
This is even as Don Ubani has said that he never received any invitation from the panel.
The Bench Warrant on Agbazuere according to Justice Duruoha-Igwe was because of his alleged failure to appear before the Panel to give evidence in respect to a Toyota Hilux Land Cruiser alleged to be in his possession since he left office.
Justice Doruoha-Igwe (Rtd) who adjourned the matter to January 24, 2024, directed that Agbazuere should be arrested and produced for further cross examination.
The Panel said that the Bench warrant on the former Deputy Chief of Staff to former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, Don Ubani, was because of his alleged failure to appear before the Panel and his inability to file a response to a notice served him on 30th of November, 2023.
Speaking before adjourning the matter to 24th of this month, the Chairman Justice Doruoha-Igwe (Rtd) directed that Ubani should be arrested and produced on January 24, 2024, to defend himself.
But reacting to the development, the former Deputy Chief of Staff to former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, Don Ubani said he was shocked to read that a Bench Warrant had been issued on him, saying that he was never invited by the Panel.
“I am shocked to read that a Bench Warrant could be issued on me without ever being invited to a Panel either by writing or even through a telephone call,” said Ubani who also described the arrest order as ‘false propaganda and political witch-hunt’.
But the former Deputy Chief of Staff also promised to appear before the Panel of Enquiry if he received an invitation.
The National Judicial Council, NJC, has clarified that no date has yet been fixed for the swearing-in of the newly appointed eleven Justices of the Supreme Court.
The Council said that the purported news by an Abuja based media organization suggesting Monday January 16 for the inauguration of the Justices did not emanate from it.
A statement by the NJC’s Director of Information, Barrister Soji Oye clarified that neither the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, who is the NJC Chairman, nor the Council itself authored or endorsed the purported date.
While asking members of the public to disregard the news, the NJC said that the date for the swearing-in of the Justices would be made public at the appropriate time.
NJC’s statement read in part, “The attention of the National Judicial Council has been drawn to a trending story purportedly informing the public that the newly appointed 11 Supreme Court Justices would be sworn in on Monday 16 January 2023.
“The Council by this medium expressly denies the news as it did not emanate from the Council or the Office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman of the National Judicial Council, Hon. Justice Olukayode Ariwoola.
“The date for the swearing-in of the Justices will be made public at the appropriate time. Members of the public should please disregard the trending news.”
The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, Kaduna State, has demanded a probe of alleged extra-judicial killing of their members.
WORLD WIDE GIST recalls that an online report alleged that 11 decomposing corpses of Fulani natives, from Tulde Fulbe, Ladduga Grazing Reserve in Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State, were on Monday discovered in a forest.
They were alleged to have been killed by the Nigerian Army.
But the Headquarters, 1 Division of the Nigerian Army, in a statement on Thursday night, by Lt. Col Musa Yahaya, Acting Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, denied involvement of the Army in the said killing.
However, in a statement by MACBAN Kaduna chairman, Haruna Usman Tugga, he insisted that the organisation as an umbrella body of Fulbe in Nigeria received with serious concern the information.
The statement condemned what they described as “extra-judicial killing of law-abiding Fulbe youths of Tilde Fulbe community and other areas of Ladduga Grazing Reserve in Kachia Local Government Area of the state by military personnel at Kachia, headquarters of Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State.”
He said they called an emergency executive meeting of the association to get to the root of the matter and find out the remote causes, perpetrators and names of the victims.
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