Politics
Why Supreme Court Judgment On Imo Can’t Be Reviewed – Ozekhome.

Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), a constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, in this interview with TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI, speaks on the latest Supreme Court rulings, how to improve the electoral process and the controversy trailing the South-West security outfit, Operation Amotekun, which has been declared illegal by the Federal Government. Excerpts:
The Supreme Court on Monday affirmed the election of Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau state. As the lawyer to General Jeremiah Useni, the candidate of the PDP, what is your take on that judgment and others granted by the Supreme Court?
I must say that I am surprised by the governorship ruling on the Plateau governorship election. We had a very good case but the Supreme Court being the final court of law, once they have finished their judgment, they have finished; but that does that not mean they cannot or have not made mistakes. For example, we formulated about 18 issues but they look into only one issue. Even the interlocutory appeal that we had won at the Supreme Court on 23rd September last year which the Tribunal ignored and the Court of Appeal also ignored, the Supreme Court did not touch it at all. We also cited the case of Hope Uzodinma vs INEC of last week and the case of Governor Aminu Tambuwal that was also decided on Monday morning as being in our favour but they did not touch any of them at all.
One point I must make is that the electoral regime as presently constituted is firmly skewed against a petition which is expected to prove that you won in every polling unit, either across the state or across the nation; and all of this must be done within a limited period of time because the period provided for commencement and conclusion of elections cannot be elasticated. The Supreme Court itself had said so that it is like the Rock of Gilbratar which cannot be moved. What it means is that politicians go out of their way during the elections to kill, maim, burn, bribe and yet you see them boasting publicly that their opponents should go to the Tribunal. They do this because they know that the constitutional and electoral obstacles erected on the path of the petitioner are so gargantuan that climbing them is like climbing Mount Everest. That is what encourages politicians to mess up the system; that also encourages INEC instead of being impartial and independent, they are compromised. So, we have a situation where Presidents, Governors, Local Government chairmen, lawmakers and even councilors are being conceived, incubated and delivered from the hallowed chambers of the courts of law rather than through the electoral process which gives vent to the voice of the people. So, the people’s votes are continually being relegated to the background in preference of a supervisory authority called the courts that now delivers candidates to the people.
What do you think can be done to address this anomaly?
I think that it is high time for the Justice Mohammed Uwais Electoral Committee Reform report and the Senator Ken Nnamani Electoral Committee report to be dusted up by the federal government so as to rejig and reinvent the wheel of our electoral process. Otherwise, what we are practicing today is not necessarily democracy, which is government of the people, by the people and for the people as stated by Abraham Lincoln in his 1863 Gettysburg declaration, but the government of the powerful, by the few and of the ruthless. That is not good for us as a nation.
On the Imo governorship election, some lawyers have said there is still hope for Emeka Ihedioha as the Supreme court can still review the case. What is your take on that?
No! Generally, under the Supreme Court rules, except when they commit what we called clerical error, the Supreme Court rules forbids the Supreme Court reviewing its own case because it is the final court. Otherwise, there will be no end to litigation. People who are saying the Imo judgment can be set aside maybe really do not know the legal position.
What is your perspective on the raging controversy surrounding the South-West security outfit, Operation Amotekun which has been declared as illegal by the federal government?
The federal government cannot declare Amotekun illegal. They have no powers to do so. The federal government has its own police force in section 214 and 215 of the constitution. The same section makes the governor of a state the Chief Security Officer of his own state; meaning that within the territorial jurisdiction of a state, a governor has to provide security for its own citizens. He doesn’t have to wait for the federal government. Amotekun is like the Hisbah that has been operating in the North for years which was set up to fight Boko Haram and other criminal vices. There is nothing special about Amotekun. We have the Agbekoya before.
There is hardly a state in Nigeria today that doesn’t have one vigilante group or the other. They are all meant to take care of the security of such states. Within a federal system of government, each federating unit is supposed to be independent and autonomous within its territorial area.

Politics
Lagos Speakership: Tinubu Not Reinstating Obasa —Source

•GAC meets today
The Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC) of the Lagos State All Progressives Congress (APC) will, on Monday, meet to discuss the speakership crisis at the Lagos State House of Assembly and not the possibility of Mudashiru Obasa returning as speaker.
A member of the apex advisory body in the state, who spoke in confidence with the Nigerian Tribune, also dismissed the narration that President Bola Tinubu has ordered the reinstatement of the erstwhile speaker.
The state assembly has been embroiled in controversy crisis since the removal of Honourable Mudashiru Obasa as speaker by lawmakers on January 13.
He was subsequently replaced by his deputy, Mojisola Lasbat Meranda, as speaker of the 10th assembly.
However, Obasa’s removal has polarised the leadership of the party following media reports and narrations from different camps clamouring for his reinstatement as speaker of the Assembly.
A top-ranking member of the GAC ruled out the possibility of Obasa returning as speaker.
He also dismissed media reports that President Tinubu has ordered his reinstatement, alleging that the media of overhyping the political status of the Agege Constituency 1 lawmaker.
The source said: “We are meeting tomorrow, Monday to discuss the Lagos State House of Assembly and not Obasa. If you observed, the GAC sent a delegation comprising members of the Council and the leadership of the Lagos Assembly to meet with President Bola Tinubu. At the meeting, the issue was discussed and solutions were proffered.
“So, all what the people are saying about the return of Obasa is a fallacy. They are orchestrated by his loyalists. Such order was not from the president. I want you to know that he cannot be reinstated because he was the first speaker to be removed by members of the House.
“We all know the president as a thoroughbred democrat and do you think he would want to be given a bad name?
“Since the episode of his removal, if you see any chieftain of the party, politician or members of the GAC clamouring for the return of Obasa, such person is not being sincere.”
The tussle over speakership seat at the assembly has also caused disaffection and divergent views among members of the GAC, as those belonging to the Justice Forum (JF) and members of the Mandate Movement (MM) are not on the same page.
Obasa, a member of the Mandate Movement, has the support and backing of members of the Movement at the GAC, while members of the Justice Forum are opposed to his return.
Speaking to this, the source said people should discountenance such narrative because there is no disagreement among members of the GAC over Obasa’s removal or reinstatement as speaker.
The source added; “The leadership tussle at the Assembly has nothing to do with the Mandate Movement and the Justice Forum. It is entirely an Assembly affairs. There is no original leader of the party that has been steadfast with Tinubu since 1999 that will be pushing for such narratives.
“Those members of the GAC that are clamouring for the return of Obasa are not sincere. They are those that have jumped from one party to another and thereafter, return to the progressives fold. Go and check their antecedents. This is not about MM or JF.
‘We have a political structure that is strong enough in Lagos state. We are gifted to have a political father that is like Tinubu. Are we saying because the President is enmeshed in solving the problems of the country, he is no longer the leader of Lagos politics?
“He cannot allow the political space of the state to be toxic and shaky. We are meeting on Monday at the level of the GAC to discuss happenings at the Assembly and not Obasa.
“People should stop exaggerating him. The first speaker of the Lagos Assembly, Barrister Osinowo during the Jakande era was removed, so what’s the fuse about Honourable Mudashiru Obasa being removed as speaker?”
“Some are even saying Tinubu is reinstating him because he knows too much and that he has enough information to nail the president’s reason he ordered his return. What does he know about the president?
“What does he know that former governors and speakers in the state didn’t know? What is new about Tinubu that only Obasa knows? Like I keep saying Obasa is overhyped and that’s responsible for all the falsehood in the media space.”
Politics
2027: North Central Won’t Go Into Alliance With North-East, North-West – APC Forum

Ahead of the 2027 general election, the North-Central All Progressives Congress, APC, Forum has declared that the North-Central zone will not go into any coalition with the North-East and the North-West.
There are speculations that ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar, former governors of Kaduna and Rivers states, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and Rotimi Amaechi, and Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate in 2023, Peter Obi, are planning to join forces against President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
The speculations heightened after the opposition politicians criticised Tinubu’s government and the ruling APC at the National Conference on Strengthening Democracy in Nigeria, held on Monday, 27th January 2025, in Abuja.
El-Rufai at the event urged opposition parties to unite and form a broad coalition to challenge the APC and protect democracy in the country.
In a statement made available to journalists on Saturday in Abuja, the North-Central APC Forum said the zone would not be part of any coalition that includes the North-East and the North-West.
In the statement signed by its Chairman, Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, a member of the APC presidential campaign council in the 2023 election, the Forum said the North-Central does not want a repeat of what happened after it played a major role in the coalition that led to the formation of the APC and emergence of the government of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
In February 2013, Nigeria’s three biggest opposition parties at the time – the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP – teamed up with a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, and a camp in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to form the APC.
The CPC camp, which was led by Buhari, included Governor Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State, from the North-Central.
As at the time of the merger, the North-West zone had only one governor among the parties in the coalition – Zamfara State governor Abdul’aziz Abubakar Yari of the ANPP.
The ACN was led by Tinubu, who later became the national leader of the APC.
The only ACN governor at the time of the merger, Dr. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, left office in October 2014, just over a year after the new party was formed. Although Peter Obi was Anambra State governor on APGA’s platform at the time of the merger, he was not part of the party’s faction that joined the coalition that formed the APC.
The statement noted that the North-Central was relegated to the background by the North-East and the North-West during Buhari’s administration, despite playing a major role in the coalition that brought the government.
“The North-Central brought a sitting governor in the coalition. Many of the other zones did not bring anything.
“Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State in the North-Central was the only sitting governor that actively participated in forming the APC.
“But it is unfortunate that after he became President, Buhari did not even consider that when we asked for the position of Speaker and the position was taken to Lagos.
“During Buhari’s government the North-Central suffered most – we were denied infrastructure, our roads were not attended to and the high level ot insecurity in the region was not addressed.
“Instead the North-East and the North-West concentrated all the benefits in their zones. Federal appointments, which many Nigerians believed favoured the North, only went to the two zones. The North-Central was left out,” the statement said.
According to the APC Forum, the request by the North Central Elders Forum, NCEF, for the zone to be given the chance to produce the Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2019, was rejected by the the APC leadership because Buhari, from the North-West, did not approve the plea.
The statement added that the position of Senate President in the Buhari government, which went to the North-Central following the election of Senator Bukola Saraki, from Kwara State, should have been retained by the zone during Buhari’s second term.
Ahmed Lawan, from Yobe State, replaced Saraki as Senate President in Buhari’s second term, serving in the position from June 2019 to the end of the administration in 2023.
The North-Central APC Forum said not retaining the Senate presidency in the zone, after Saraki’s tenure, was an injustice to the region.
Distancing the North-Central from the coalition, the statement added, “Whatever Atiku Abubakar and Mallam Nasir El-Rufai are doing is for their own benefit, not even in the interest of the North-East and North-West.
“Nigerians should also bear in mind that all these politicians who are attacking President Bola Tinubu today are just frustrated individuals who are angry that they are not part of the government.
“They will be singing a different song if they are part of the government.
“We restate our position that no magic would make President Bola Tinubu lose his bid for reelection in 2027 – not even the alliance and coalition of these political leaders. We are confident that Nigerians will once again chose the APC government in the next election because of the good performance of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
“However, the North-Central APC Forum wishes to make it clear that the North-Central zone will not be part of any coalition with the North-East and the North-West.
“It is very imperative that we make this point because we have observed that the planned coalition is being championed by politicians from these two zones – His Excellency Alhaji Atiku Abubakar from the North-East and Mallam Nasir El-Rufai from the North-West.”
Politics
Resign From PDP Now And Join APC – Bala Mohammed Tells Wike

Bauchi State Governor, Sen Bala Mohammed has asked the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike to resign from the Peoples Democratic Party over alleged anti-party activities.
Bala Mohammed, who accused the FCT Minister of already serving the ruling party, All Progressives Congress’s interests, said it’s better for him to join the APC officially.
He labeled Wike’s attempts to tarnish his reputation as desperate and ineffective, stating that Nigerians can see through the minister’s alleged facade.
JomogNews recalls that the Bauchi governor, on Thursday slammed Wike, calling him a “transactional politician” whose loyalty shifts with his personal ambitions.
Reacting, Wike in a statement by his media aide, Lere Olayinka, tackled Mohammed, accusing him of being a greedy politician.
Olayinka urged the governor to stop using the appointment of the minister by President Bola Tinubu as an excuse for his “lack of capacity to provide leadership as chairman of the party’s Governors’ Forum”.
But responding in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mukhtar Gidado, Mohammed who doubles as Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum described Wike’s recent attack as reckless, deceptive, and reflective of declining political relevance.
He accused Wike of a pattern of betrayal, citing figures such as Senator John Azuta Mbata, Dr. Peter Odili, and Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi as victims of Wike’s alleged treachery.
The statement further criticized Wike’s tenure as a “use-and-dump” politician who contributed to internal crises within the PDP by orchestrating the downfall of successive party leaders, including Uche Secondus and Iyorchia Ayu.
“Let Nyesom Wike be reminded that while he lives in a delusional self-created universe of seeing splits and factions in the PDP the party is resolute and united apart from a few turncoats and quislings led by him who are desperately committed to weakening it for the benefit of the APC whose willing tool and favoured foot soldier he has become.
“Under Sen Bala Mohammed’s vibrant and visionary leadership the PDP Governors Forum and the party’s core organs including the BOT are working quietly and assiduously in cleaning the party of Wike’s treachery and perfidy.
“Such a path of perdition is not the portion of genuine PDP members who are working tirelessly to retire the APC in 2027- the very party, with its failed policies, that Wike has vowed to help win re-election in 2027.
“Wike’s antics cannot detract Bala Mohammed’s record. His outburst is the desperate cry of a man whose political relevance is fading.
“The time for noise making is over; it is time for governance. Let Wike reflect on his conduct and do the honorable thing: RESIGN AND ALIGN FULLY WITH THE APC he so eagerly serves. Until then his words will remain as hollow as his loyalty,” the statement reads.
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