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Prominent Monarch, Alaafin Of Oyo Joins Ancestors; Palace Denies His Passage

By
Ayodele Oni
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Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III

By Ayodele Oni

Signs that prominent Yoruba Monarch, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, has joined his ancestors were noticed in the ancient town early Saturday morning.

Alaafin Adeyemi, the third from the Alowodu Ruling House, was reported to have died in the late hours of Friday at the Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti.

The remains of the top Yoruba traditional ruler were brought to Oyo in the early hours of Saturday and traditional rites began, palace sources revealed.

Aged 83, Oba Adeyemi is the longest reigning Alaafin ever, having ruled for 52 years.

The Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, is expected to make an official announcement upon receiving the report of the Monarch’s passing from the Bashorun of Oyo, Yusuf Akinade, the Head of the ‘Oyo Mesi’, who will now lead Oyo before a new Alaafin is installed.

The Monarch had been sick and a plan had been made to fly him abroad before he passed on late Friday night.

A source familiar with the medical travel plan said his tickets and those of a few wives were already procured.

His death came after the two other senior Oyo State Monarchs, the Olubadan of Ibadan, Saliu Adetunji, and the Soun of Ogbomoso, Jimoh Oyewumi died.

One of the last engagements of the boxer turned-Monarch was his presence at a meeting in Ibadan, Oyo state, to broker peace between Minister of the Interior, Rauf Aregbesola and National leader.of the All Progressive Congress, (APC) Bola Tinubu.

Palace Denies Passing

But a statement from the media office of the Aalafin has, however, denied the rumoured passage of Oba Lamidi Adeyemi.

The statement signed by Bode Durojaye, Director Media and Publicity, stated that “it has come to the notice of the Office of the Director of Media and Publicity to the Alaafin of Oyo  a fake report making the wave in the social media,  by a disgruntled group of bloggers, about the imaginary death of His Imperial Majesty, IKu Baba Yeye, Oba (Dr.) Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, the Alaafin of Oyo.

“Members of the public are hereby urged to disregard the unfounded report , as the Paramount Ruler is hale and hearty .

“Precisely on Monday and Tuesday this week, Oba Adeyemi, accompanied by  some of his wives (Ayabas), children, aides and well wishers was at the Durbar Stadium ,Oyo, for physical fitness exercises as usual.

“He has neither fallen sick nor rushed to the hospital for any serious ailment, hence he and  his family remain agile and active .

“The general public should not entertain any fear at all, as IKu Baba Yeye is healthy, physically fit and mentally stable.”

Jonathan Mourns, Pays Tribute To Kenya’s Former President Mwai Kibaki

By
The Source
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Former President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has commiserated with the Government and people of the Republic of Kenya over the death of former President Mwai Kibaki who died at the age of 90.

In a condolence message, Dr. Jonathan described the late Kibaki as a distinguished African statesman and leader who was humble and reform-minded.

He further described him as a brilliant technocrat who left a “legacy of strong economic growth and impressive infrastructure, especially with his exemplary  grassroots development projects.”

The message said: “I condole with President Uhuru Kenyatta, Kibaki family and the government and people of Kenya over the death of His Excellency Mwai Kibaki, former  President of Kenya who passed on at the age of 90.

“Mr. Kibaki who served as the third President of Kenya was a distinguished African statesman and reform-minded leader who stood out for his humility, low profile and gentlemanly disposition to governance.

“He was a brilliant technocrat who earned tremendous respect of the Kenyan people because of his track record while serving his country in different capacities as a scholar, parliamentarian, cabinet minister and president.

“He left a legacy of strong economic growth and impressive infrastructure, especially with his exemplary  grassroots development projects.”

Northern PDP Consensus Candidate: Tambuwal Exempts Self, Chides Process

By
The Source
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0

By Gideon Njoku

Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto Stare, has dismissed the selection of former Senator President, Bukola Saraki, and Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed, by PDP Northern Elders and former President Ibrahim Babangida, as Northern consensus candidates for the 2023 Presidential election, as inconsequential, null, void, and of no effect.

The Elders and IBB had met at IBB’s Minna home on Friday, April 22, 2022, and endorsed Saraki and Mohammed as the two consensus candidates from the North under the PDP.

By doing that, they cancelled out the Presidential aspiration of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Tambuwal.

Addressing Journalists at the end of the meeting, Professor Ango Abdullahi said it was now left for Saraki and Mohammed to sit down and agree on which of them would be the sole candidate, a challenge Mohammed promised the two of them would undertake for a smooth and rancour free Primary.

But in a statement released by the Tambuwal Campaign Organization, and signed by  the Director, Organization and Mobilization, Nicholas Msheliza, Governor Tambuwal said there was no such thing. He said the decision was deceitful, as all of them who were working on the consensus issue had since agreed that it had failed. He said they had decided to issue a statement to that effect, and had asked Saraki to fashion it out, only for Saraki to suddenly tell him of the meeting in Minna to which he told Saraki that he stood by their earlier agreement that the consensus agreement has failed.

Tambuwal, therefore, distanced himself from the Minna meeting and its outcome, dismissing it as deceitful. He said his aspiration and campaign were alive and roaring.

Following, the full text of Tambuwal’s response dated April 22, 2022.

Consensus Drive Failed, I’m Not Part of Any Agreement

By Tambuwal Campaign Organization (TCO)

“The attention of Tambuwal Campaign Organization (TCO) has been drawn to a news item that former Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Gov. Bala Muhammad of Bauchi state have emerged as consensus candidates from amongst the four of us announced at a meeting in Minna, Niger state.

“This is, to be candid and forthright, not correct.

The correct situation is that the team met on Wednesday 20th April, 2022, at Bauchi Governor’s   lodge in Abuja and had a review meeting; and, unanimously agreed that the consensus arrangement was not working.

“The team further agreed that Sen. Saraki should come up with a draft statement on how to communicate this decision to the Nigerian public. This was the last time that members of the team sat and mutually agreed on anything. The proposed meeting to review and vet the statement scheduled for 10 pm of the same day was aborted unilaterally by Sen. Saraki via a WhatsApp message.

“However, on Thursday, 21st, 2022, same Sen Saraki circulated yet another WhatsApp message suggesting that members of the team should head to Minna for a meeting on Friday, Gov. Tambuwal reached other members of the team and informed them that he stands by the decision of the team that the initiative is not working. This is the reason Gov. Tambuwal was absent at today’s (Friday) meeting in Minna. As a result therefore, the outcome of the Minna meeting has no consequence or any implication on the aspiration of Gov. Tambuwal, who had earlier on informed his colleagues of maintaining their agreed position that the initiative has collapsed.

“Members of the public should be reminded that what was canvassed for was a consensus candidate and not consensus  candidates.

“For the avoidance of doubt, Gov Tambuwal has submitted his Presidential nomination forms and now that the quest for a consensus candidate out of the four has clearly collapsed, will go ahead and face screening and indeed contest the PDP presidential primaries.

“This is in consonance with his acclaimed outlook as a pan-Nigerian candidate, with pedigree of national service as the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, life member of the Body of Benchers and now in his second and final term as Governor of Sokoto state.”

Nicholas Msheliza

Director Organization and Mobilization for TCO

April 22, 2022

Abuja

2023: IBB, Northern PDP, Dump Atiku, Tambuwal; Choose Saraki, Mohammed As Consensus Candidates

By
The Source
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Atiku Abubakar

By Gideon Njoku

The hope of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, and Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, to pick the Presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has dwindled.

Their hopes received a major blow when Northern Elders of the PDP and former Military President, Ibrahim Babangida, dumped their aspirations, and instead, chose former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, as consensus candidates for the North.

They met on Friday, April 22, 2022, at IBB’s Minna home where the Candidates presented themselves. They included Tambuwal, Mohammed, Saraki and Mohammed Hayatu- Deen.

Out of the lot, they zeroed in on Saraki and Mohammed. It is now left for the two, after more discussions, and screening, to decide on which one of them the North  will present at the PDP Presidential Primary as its sole candidate.

It is not known yet, if Atiku, who was not present at the meeting would fall in line, but addressing Reporters after the meeting, former Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, Professor Ango Abdullahi, confirmed that only four aspirants presented themselves for screening for the purpose of choosing a consensus candidate for the North in PDP.

He said:

“For the purpose of this exercise, it is hereby resolved that Governor Bala Mohammed from the North East and former Senate President Bukola Saraki from the North Central be presented as the Northern consensus candidates for the moment.”

He then advised the two aspirants to work together  for further consultations so as to zero in on one consensus candidate to ensure smooth primaries.

Abdullahi: “Doing so will foster understanding among themselves and the PDP community to ensure a rancour free primaries in which all eligible candidates would be free to exercise their right.”

Before they reached the consensus, Professor Abdullahi said IBB had sent him on a consultation with Elders in the three zones of the North.

Governor Mohammed told Reporters that he and Saraki would meet and decide on which of them would be PDP’s consensus Presidential aspirant for the unity of the  North.

Mohammed: “We have reached an agreement to seek consensus so that we can close ranks and build unity for the North and Nigeria. We are happy that after due process and due consultation, involving the PDP Northern Elders Forum, I and Saraki have been chosen as Northern consensus candidates. We will go ahead and consult more among ourselves and bring out one candidate.”

This endorsement, however, does not exclude other PDP Northern aspirants from presenting themselves for the Primary.

OPINION: Buhari, APC Corrupting Democracy

By
The Source
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By Mike Ozekhome

“By this singular act, the APC has shown a shocking insatiable bacchanalian propensity to corrupt democracy, democratic ethos and, also, scam the entire country”

The staggering sum of N100 million fixed by the APC NEC for its presidential nomination form has rightly sent shock waves of righteous indignation across the country. The APC had fixed N30 million for the “expression of interest form” and N70 million for the “nomination form”, making a total of N100 million.

The party hopes to rake in N1.5 billion from the 15 aspirants that have so far declared interest in the presidential race.

By this singular act, the APC has shown a shocking insatiable bacchanalian propensity to corrupt democracy, democratic ethos, and also scam the entire country.

The vulgarity of this exercise lies not just in the abominable fee prescribed, but more in the party’s pretentious mantra of fighting corruption, using a well orchestrated and carefully oiled Hitler’s Goebel’s propagandist machinery of dubious pedigree.

It is the more abhorrent when we realize that this is miles apart from (indeed more than double) the price fixed by the party’s whipping child, the opposition PDP, which has fixed its own at N40million – N5 million for the expression of interest and N35 million for the nomination form. The N100m is also over 100 per cent of the N40 million fixed by the same APC for the 2018 presidential nomination form.

President Muhammed Buhari and the APC have, by this singular act, exhibited a very odious and unpleasant example of how not to fight corruption. They have managed to convince Nigerians that politics is indeed the art of grand deception, double-dealing, duplicity, beguilement, sham and self contradiction. They have justified the cliché that diplomacy is the clever art of telling a person to go to hell in such a way that he actually eagerly looks forward to the journey.

Nigerians should recall that in the prelude to the 2015 presidential election, President Buhari had trenchantly criticized the N27.5 million levy imposed on his party aspirants for presidential nomination form. He had pooh pooed it as exorbitant. He has now supported N100 million for the same exercise.

With the new amended Electoral Act of 2022 fixing N5 billion limit for presidential campaign as against the earlier N1 billion under the 2010 Electoral Act, as amended, Nigeria’s politics and democracy have been completely moneticised with a swing towards anti-people capitalist merchantalism. It has been turned into a marketplace bazaar of bare-faced monetary banditry reserved only for state captors, who have cunningly cornered our collective commonwealth. It is so shameful and so disorientating that Nigeria can ever find herself in this despicable state of nadir.

Under the Buhari government, Nigeria has since become the poverty capital of the world, outstripping India. Nigeria ranks the number 149 most corrupt country in the world out of 180 countries surveyed, as adjudged by Transparency International, under its Anti-Corruption Perception Index.

The machroeconomic environment has been badly fouled, leading to a free-for-all fall of the exchange rate of the naira which now exchanges between N580 to N700 to the dollar, as against N180-190- Buhari met it in 2015. Nigeria daily experiences an uncontrollable inflation rate that defies any economic sense, analysis and solution.

To aspire to be a Governor under Buhari’s “puritanic” APC, an aspirant must cough out N50 million; while aspirants to the Senate, House of Representatives and House of Assembly must vomit N20 million, N10 million and N2 million, respectively.

With this circus of Baba Sallah’s Alawada Kerikeri histrionics and sheer theatrics, President Buhari and the APC successfully completed their disdain for, mockery and demigration of Nigerians and our hard-earned democracy.

Buhari and the APC must tell us where they hope that Vice President Yemi Osibanjo, whose present annual salary is N12.126 million as recommended by the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission set up under section 32(d) of part 1 of the third schedule to the 1999 Constitution, will obtain N100 million from, when he would require 99 months (eight years and three months) to earn the 100 million price for the nomination form.

It will take President Buhari himself whose salary is N14.05m 84 months (7 years) to get N100m. They must explain to Nigerians where aspirants like Dr. Chris Ngige and Rotimi Amaechi who are ministers with an annual salary of N2,026,400 (N168,867 per month) will get N100 million for a presidential form, when it will take them nearly 50 years to earn N100 million.

Let Buhari and the APC explain to Nigerians how Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti State Governor), Yahaya Bello (Kogi State Governor), David Umahi (Ebonyi State Governor) and Rochas Okorocha (ex Imo State Governor), whose salary per annum is #2,223,705, will cough out N100 million when it will take each of them 45 years to earn N100 million. Where will non-wealthy members of the APC, like Gbenga Hashim Olawepo get such money from?

This APC and President Buhari must tell Nigerians where Senator Orji Uzor Kalu and former Senate President Dr Ken Nnamani would fetch N100m from, when their salary as Senators was and is N750,000 per month (aside humongous allowances). It would take Kalu and Nnamani 135 years to earn N100 million. In the final analysis, APC is probably zeroing in on only few presidential candidates in the persons of billionaires like Kalu and Bola Tinubu.

The Director-General of Tinubu’s Support Organizatioin (TSO), Kebbi-born Aminu Suleiman, has already signed a cheque for the N100 million. To them, it is “chicken change”. Nigeria is hemorrhaging badly. It is just like the case when Rome was on fire while Nero fiddled away.

The price tag of N100 million has obviously conscripted the political space, marginalized, emasculated, and excluded the youths and women from the APC political space. Yet, this is the critical segment of the society that ought to enjoy inclusiveness and a liberalized political space to ensure their full participation in politics and engage in the national conversation.

Where is the place of the “Not-too-young-to-run” policy signed into an Act of Parliament by Buhari on May 31, 2018? The APC’s mockery of democracy has certainly thrown up nothing but money-baggism, godfatherism and crass opportunism by those who have captured the State and our commonwealth.

I now frontally challenge any of the aspirants who will purchase these forms, to show us the source of the fund and also publicly display his tax returns in the last three years.

The APC’s Shylock’s “pound of flesh” extortionist N100 million levy is politically insensitive to the already vanquished Nigerians, having regard to the present grinding poverty, unending insecurity, unabated corruption, melancholy, disorientation, hunger, thirst, pains, pangs, blood, hopelessness and haplessness, with which the party has afflicted Nigeria and Nigerians in the last seven years. Nigeria has never found herself in such battered and tattered doldrums since Lord Lugard forcefully amalgamated the disparate enclaves of Northern and Southern protectorates on January 1, 1914, to found the contraption called Nigeria.

The exorbitant sum of N100 million is a direct invitation to bare-faced thievery and political brigandage when these aspirants eventually win elections and emerge leaders. The price tag constitutes direct and brazen discrimination against other pauperized Nigerian members of the APC, especially the youths and women, contrary to section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution, which provides that “participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution”.

It is also provided that “the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a State based on the principles of democracy and social justice” (section 14(1) of the Constitution).

While “the state social order is founded on ideals of freedom, equality and justice” (section 17(1) of the Constitution); section 42(1) prohibits a citizen of Nigeria being discriminated against on the basis of sex, community, ethnic group, place of origin, religion or opinion.

This is precisely what the APC has done to the youths, women and disabled members of the party. This is more so because the Constitution does not permit independent candidacy.

Members of the APC, except the select deep pockets, money bags and nouveau rich, are automatically cut off from the party’s various elective offices.

The problem with the tune, tone and template now set by the APC is that politics has become the exclusive preserve of the high, mighty and wealthy members of the society; and not for the poor. This has devalued democracy and institutional morals.

The APC is now rabidly promoting plutocracy (government of the wealthy); gerontocracy (government of the oldest members of the society); and oligarchy (government of a select few).

If President Buhari and the APC are genuinely interested in widening and deepening the political space, they should immediately call for a NEC and NWC meeting of the APC to rescind and cancel this obnoxious policy of deliberate exclusion of critical segments of their ruling party. It is a policy that is only fit for the national museum of monuments and artefacts.

Chief Ozekhome, SAN, OFR, FCIArb, LL.M, Ph.D, LL.D, wrote in from Abuja

Peter Obi Loses Phone At Burial Ceremony

By
The Source
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By Charles Igbo

A common thief has done the unexpected to Peter Obi, a frontline Presidential aspirant under the banner of the PDP.

The thief, reportedly, stole Obi’s phone while he was at the funeral ceremony for the father of Val Ozigbo at Amesi Community, Aguata Local Government Area. Ozigbo was the PDP candidate for the November 6, 2021, Anambra Governorship election won by Professor Charles Soludo.

It is not known how the thief got close to Obi, but Obi famous for his simplicity, is known to often shun security  details. He does not like them crowding around him, but usually, there is always one who keeps an eye on him.

Obi’s phone is like his mini office. He is said to be quite  disorganised, as the thief has already switched off the phone.

A call placed to his number by our correspondent came back with a response: “the number you are calling is currently switched off.”

Court Sacks Former House Speaker, Dogara

By
Adesina Soyooye
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By Adesina Soyooye

Perennial defector and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has been sacked from the House.

An Abuja Federal High Court Judge, the Honourable Justice D.U. Okorowo ordered Dogara to vacate his seat in the House for being a political prostitute.

Dogara had defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress, APC. He was later to defect to the PDP again, under which he won his re-election to the House in 2019. But, surprisingly, he again defected to the APC from the PDP.

It was this last defection from the PDP to the APC that earned him a sack from the House on Friday, April 22, 2022.

Dogara represents Bogoro/Dass Federal Constituency, Bauchi State.

Oluomo: NURTW Sets Up Caretaker Committee

By
Uche Mbah
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Musiliu Akinsany- MC Oluomo

By Uche Mbah

The last has not been heard of the rift between Lagos state and the National Umbrella Body of transporters, the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW.

The National body had dissolved the Lagos stste Chapter, under the leadership of Musliu Kinsanya, also known as MC Oluomo, resulting in the banning the National body   by the Lagos State Government.

Lagos then appointed Oluomo Chairman of the Lagos Park Management, thereby countering the actions of the National body.

Currently, the NURTW  has set up a nine-man caretaker committee to coordinate its operations in Lagos State.

In a letter addressed to Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Committee has a three month mandate.

Members of the committee include Fatai Adeshina (Chairman), Sunday Yusuf, Abraham Onifade, Jamiu Erinfolami, Ismaila Ojora, Lekan Ariyibi, Murtala Lawal, Taiwo Azeez, and Kayode Agbeyangi (secretary).

“Owing to the crises that bedeviled Lagos State Council which culminated in the dissolution of the State Administrative Council on April 2022 and in order not to allow the vacuum created to be affected by outside influences, the National Secretariat deemed it necessary to set up a Caretaker Committee with immediate effect.”

In the letter, the union gave the following mandate to the committee.

“You are to take over the administration of the State Secretariat of the union. You should invite the State Chairman, Treasurer and any other SAC member so that any officer in possession of the union’s funds and properties hands over to the committee.

“You should take control of all saleable items onion such as Union receipts, membership cards, EOD’s, Way Bill, RAHIS (PAMS) etc.

“You should liaise with the state and local governments including other law enforcement agents in the state with the sole objective of bringing the union closer for better performance.

“You should try as much as possible to bring back the lost glory of the union and sanitize its operations hitherto rubbished by the former SAC.”

FG Trains Local Cooks To Feed 10m Sch Kids

By
Tosin Olatokunbo
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By Tosin Olatokunbo

Cheery news for local cooks in the country following the decision of the Federal Government to train 150, 000  cooks nationwide as part of its school feeding project. The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Farouq disclosed this in Abuja, the nation’s capital, adding that the ministry is planning to feed 10 million school children nationwide this year.

The magazine learnt that the government is bent on improving the project quality and get value from major stakeholders after increasing the budget for the project significantly.

In February, the federal government said the school feeding project nationwide now costs N1 billion per day, which amounts to over N360 billion annually.

The minister made this known at the Orientation Programme of Facilitators for the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, NHGSFP.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, the programme, convened by the National Social Investments Programme, NSIP under the NHGSFP in the Ministry of Humanitarian, is to train local cooks nationwide to meet the required standards of the school feeding initiative.

Farouq represented by Dr Umar Bindir, National Coordinator of NSIP, explained that the initiative would concentrate on the institutionalisation and the full implementation of the national home school feeding programme.

The minister said, “This programme concentrates on the institutionalisation and the full implementation of the national home school programme, which is one of the prime clusters of the National Social Investment Programme.

“We started this programme in 2016 and we are feeding nearly 10 million children nationwide in all the states of the federation.

“This feeding process includes first, empowering women within the communities where the schools are located to cook the food for the children.

“This is a nationwide strategy, we are going to train cook in the country and we have 100 to 150, 000 of them,” the minister said.

Farouq stated further that the training is imperative to ensure that the cooks are well trained in their behaviour, physical appearance, their cooking methodologies, among others.

“The training will focus on the food safety, hygienic working environment, food procurement, food standardisation as well as financial literacy, ” she said.

Interim Govt: INEC Insists On 2023 Elections

By
Tosin Olatokunbo
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0

By Tosin Olatokunbo

The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Election, INEC Prof. Mahmud Yakubu says the security situation in the country will not stop the conduct of election next year.

Yakubu spoke on the backdrop of worsening insecurity in the country, and the call by some prominent Nigerians for the election to be suspended,

On Tuesday, an elder statesman and prominent lawyer Afe Babalola called for the imposition of an Interim Government to take over from President Muhammadu Buhari next year. The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN said the Interim government should be in office for six months, a period to midwife a new election.

Also, Afenifere leader Ayo Adebanjo said on Wednesday that the security problems in the country should be resolved before the conduct of a fresh election.

In 2015, the President Goodluck Jonathan administration shifted the presidential poll for six weeks

However, the INEC boss said the election would proceed in spite of the security challenges pervading the country.

Yakubu said, “As you may be aware, the election will be conducted for 1,491 constituencies nationwide made up of one presidential constituency, 109 senatorial districts, 360 federal constituencies, 28 governorship elections and 993 state constituencies.

“The election will involve an estimated one million electoral officials (both permanent and temporary or ad hoc staff) deployed to 176,846 polling units in 8,809 Wards and 774 Local Government Areas across the country.

“The election will be governed by a new Electoral Act 2022, which contains many progressive provisions that will enhance the capacity of the commission to conduct elections and manage the electoral process better.

“We have carefully listened to the demand of Nigerians for seamless processes, particularly with regard to enhanced voter education, better distribution of voters to polling units, quality training of election personnel, the functionality of electronic devices, improved logistics, prompt commencement of polls, and availability of assistive devices for persons with disability at polling units and greater transparency in result management.”

The INEC boss said the commission is working with security agencies in the country to ensure a hitch-free election.

He said, “Clearly, these are challenging times but we are determined that elections must hold in 2023. However, this is a shared responsibility. INEC plays a critical role but the commission alone cannot deliver the elections we all desire. I, therefore, appeal to all Nigerians to join hands with us in ensuring that we make a success of the process.”

Meanwhile, the electoral body says it will spend N239.2 billion to conduct the 2023 general elections. The amount will cover materials for all the elections, from governorship, state house of Assembly, National Assembly and presidential election. Provision has also been made for a possible Presidential Run-off election., INEC said.

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