Judge orders NCC, telecoms firms to pay APC N500m

 Eugene Ikemefuna Juwah, the Executive Vice Chairman, NCC

A Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the Nigerian Communications Commission and five others to pay the All Progressives Congress a sum of N500m over unlawful shutting down of its presidential campaign fund-raising platform.

Apart from NCC, the other judgment debtors are Etisalat, MTN Nigeria Limited, Globacom Limited, Airtel Nigeria Limited and Visafone Communications Limited.

The monetary cost was awarded against the six respondents severally and jointly on Tuesday by Justice Ibrahim Buba, who held that the shutting down of APC presidential campaign platform by the respondent was unlawful and constituted an infringement on the party’s fundamental right.

The party, through its lawyer, Chief Kola Awodein (SAN), had sued the respondents, claiming N25bn in damages for banning its presidential campaign fund-raising platform.

APC had accused the NCC of instructing the 2nd to 6th respondents to discontinue an SMS platform it created for the purpose of getting donations from willing members of the public for its presidential campaign.

The party claimed that it initiated the participatory fund-raising platform as a way of getting members of the general public to contribute N100 to its presidential campaign fund each time they sent APC as an SMS to 35350.

It, however, said that NCC, by a letter dated January 19, 2015, instructed the other respondents to shut down the platform, warning them “to avoid running political advertisement/promotions that will portray them as being partisan.”

The commission was also said to have threatened to sanction any of the telecommunications service providers which failed to comply with the order.

But APC considered the NCC’s instruction and the consequent shutting down of its fund-raising platform as both discriminatory and an infringement on its fundamental right protected by Section 39 of the Constitution and Articles 9 (1) (2) and 19 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap. A9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

It argued that the NCC did not give the same instruction to the other respondents when the Peoples Democratic Party set up the short codes designated 6661, 662, 6663 and 6664, being managed by one Wagitel Communications Limited to raise funds for the campaign of President Goodluck Jonathan and his vice, Namadi Sambo, in 2010.

In an 18-paragragh affidavit deposed to by one Ademola Sodiq, the deponent averred that APC’s strategy was borne out of its commitment to raising fund for its presidential campaign in a “transparent and accountable manner.”

According to Sodiq, within few hours of launching the strategy, APC was getting about four to five text messages per minute and had received a total of 5,400 SMS before the NCC directed the telecommunications service providers to discontinue the scheme.

The party had, on January 28, 2015, secured an interim order of the court compelling the respondents to immediately lift the embargo on the applicant’s fund-raising platform pending the determination of the suit.

In determining the case on Tuesday, Buba dismissed the respondents’ objection to APC’s claim, but instead of N25bn damages sought by the political party, the judge awarded N500m against all the defendants.

Buhari planning to build prisons —Patience Jonathan

Mrs. Patience Jonathan

Wife of the President, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, has warned women against voting for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Muhammadu Buhari, saying the retired soldier was planning to build prisons if elected into power.

Speaking at a rally organised by the women wing of the Peoples Democratic Party, in Akure, Ondo State, on Tuesday, the President’s wife said Nigerian women should reciprocate the gesture of her husband, who ensured that a large number of women was appointed into political offices during his administration.

She said the APC was a dying party that thrives on propaganda and lies, saying that women should not be deceived into “returning to bondage.”

She said, “If you vote Buhari, you vote for prison. When the PDP is busy building schools, they are busy thinking of building jails.

“We will not allow our children to be put in jail, God forbid. We pray for oneness, we pray for unity, we pray for peace.”

Patience urged the women to come out on Saturday and vote for “the government that has provided more access to education and health care and brought down by 50 per cent the maternal mortality rate.”

“He was a former Head of State, he did not build Almajiri schools. It was Goodluck Jonathan that built the schools.

“Ask him what he did for women when he was Head of State. It was Goodluck Jonathan that remembered women,” she said.

She also noted that the PDP government would increase the number of women in government to 45 per cent if returned on Saturday from the current 35 per cent.

“They said we should change, we can only move from bad to better, not from better to bad. Jonathan has done well and will do even better if returned. They have nothing to show,” she said.

She also promised to revive the works done by her predecessors, Mrs. Mariam Babangida and Maryam Abacha, in their efforts to better the lot of women.

Speaking earlier, Governor Olusegun Mimiko, said the President would get the maximum votes because of the impact of his programmes on the lives of the people of the state.

B’Haram kidnaps 400 women in Damask

 Nigeria Defence spokesman, Major General Chris Olukolade

Boko Haram militants have kidnapped more than 400 women and children from the northern Nigerian town of Damasak that was freed this month by troops from Niger and Chad, Reuters quoted residents as saying on Tuesday.

There was no immediate official confirmation of the figure, but the Islamist group has previously carried out mass kidnappings. Boko Haram in April 2014 adopted over 200 schoolgirls in Chibok.

“They (insurgents) took 506 young women and children (in Damasak). They killed about 50 of them before leaving. We don’t know if they killed others after leaving, but they took the rest with them,” a trader called Souleymane Ali told Reuters in the town.

Troops of the African joint force last week found the bodies of at least 70 people in an apparent execution site under a bridge leading out of Damasak, where the streets remained strewn with debris and burnt-out cars after the fighting.

Ali said his wife and three of his daughters were among those seized.

“Two of them were supposed to get married this year. (Boko Haram) said ‘They are slaves so we’re taking them because they belong to us,’” he said.

Mohamed Ousmane, another trader, said the militants took his two wives and three of their children.

A 40-year-old resident who gave her name as Fana said fighters had rounded up captives in the main mosque before taking them out of town. She said she saved her two children by hiding them in her house.

Obasanjo warns against plot to hand over to military

 Former President Olusegun Obasanjo

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday warned against handing over the reins of government to the military.

Obasanjo said the speculation that the government was planning an Interim Government had been substituted by speculations that President Goodluck Jonathan was plotting to hand over to the military. He said that doing so would undermine the integrity of the country.

The ex-President, while hosting Aisha Buhari, wife of the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, said, “I do hope we will get things more right. A lot of rumours are flying around; I think we have gone away from the rumour of Interim Government because that is not in our constitution.

“I hope we will soon go away from the rumour of handing over to the military because the military is not meant to run the affairs of a nation in terms of running government.”

Obasanjo, who said that he was happy that the country had gone beyond the Interim Government rumour, added that he hoped the nation would also survive the rumour of handing over to the military.

He said, “The international community will not condone it, particularly the African Union where we have a situation, we have said and it is part and parcel of the constituting Act of the African Union. Any government that is brought about not on the basis of the constitution will not be accepted; will not be tolerated and will not be a member of the AU until that government is dismantled.

“It shouldn’t be. We are the largest country in Africa; we should be a model, setting examples, we shouldn’t be drawing Africa backwards. I hope we will not. I hope at the end of this exercise, we would be where we should be, leading Africa and showing examples for the rest of Africa and indeed the rest of the world.

“We have the goodwill of many people. I watched last night, President (Barack) Obama talking about our constitution; I watched our Brother from Ghana, the current Chairman of ECOWAS talking about our constitution. They are all interested, they all wish us well; should we wish ourselves anything less?”

Recently, the former President had warned the current administration not to plunge this country into chaos by following the footsteps of the former President of Cote d’lvoire, Laurent Gbagbo, who refused to hand over to the winner of the presidential election in his country.

Obasanjo also bemoaned hate campaigns among politicians, advising that they should focus more on what united the country as opposed to what divided the country.

According to him, for anyone who is interested in the future of this country, issues of insecurity, economy and unemployment, among others, should form the focus of political campaigns.

He said, “Unfortunately, issues that should have been the main item of our campaign, they did not. We have serious issues of security, we have serious issue of our economy, we have issue of unemployment, particularly youth unemployment, we have serious issues of infrastructure.

“These are issues among others that I believe campaign of those who are interested in the present and the future of this country should be directed at.

“How are we going to get them and what are we going to do? Not trivial issues of certificate or no certificate, not trivial issues of somebody talking about someone is a Nigerian and not a Nigerian.

“I said it, this is what they had in Cote d’Ivoire and led them into almost a very serious problem, not issue of religion, not issue of tribe, not issue of section but issues of unity of this country and the hate campaigns that we have embarked upon now, I hope this will be the last time in the history of this country that we will have this type of campaign of hatred or division.”

Obasanjo commended Buhari’s wife, stressing that women had a role to play in politics and enthronement of good governance.

Anxiety as judge adjourns suit to stop Buhari till today

 Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd)

There was anxiety in the camp of the All Progressives Congress on Tuesday as a Federal High Court in Abuja fixed Wednesday (today) for further proceedings in one of the suits challenging the eligibility of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari(retd.), to contest in Saturday’s presidential election.

Justice Adeniyi Ademola is to rule on fresh applications by intended parties seeking to join the suits as defendants.

The judge fixed Wednesday (today) for the ruling after hearing the intended parties’ applications on Tuesday.

Those whose applications for joining the suit as defendants were heard on Tuesday are Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, Chukwuma Ochu, Sunusi Musa, Ahmed Maitarki and the Fiscal and Civil Rights Enlightenment Foundation.

The suit was filed on January 26, 2015 by a lawyer, Chukwunweike Okafor, asking the court to declare Buhari ineligible to contest the presidential election slated for Saturday over his (Buhari’s) alleged failure to submit his school certificate along with his Form CF001 to INEC.

The Plaintiff’s counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), had in his objection to the applications of the intended defendants, described the applicants as interlopers.

The existing defendants in the suit are the Independent National Electoral Commission, Buhari and the APC.

Earlier on Tuesday, the judge ruled that he would hear both the main suit and Buhari’s preliminary applications challenging the court’s jurisdiction together.

The plaintiff, through his counsel, Ozekhome, insisted that both the main suit and the preliminary applications should be heard together.

But Buhari and the APC had urged the court to hear and determine their preliminary applications which bordered on the court’s jurisdiction first before entertaining the main suit.

The court agreed with the plaintiff and ruled that he would entertain the preliminary applications and the main suit together.

But when the suit will be heard depends on the outcome of the court’s ruling on the applications of intended parties in the suit.

Buhari and the APC had challenged the mode of service of the plaintiff’s originating summons on them, insisting that the issue bordered on the jurisdiction of the court.

Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), who is representing Buhari and Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), counsel for the APC, had while opposing the plaintiff’s prayer to quickly hear the suit, argued that there was no law stipulating that pre-election cases must be heard before the conduct of the elections.

There are about 10 suits instituted against Buhari’s eligibility to participate in the presidential election.

The plaintiff argued that failure of Buhari to submit his school certificate   to INEC contravened provisions of sections 131 and 318 of the 1999 Constitution and section 31(3) of the Electoral Act, 2010.

APC warns against disqualifying Buhari

Before the court’s sitting, the APC warned against any orchestrated and last-minute disqualification of   Buhari in order to pave the way for an easy victory for President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party.

The APC, through a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed,   also cautioned against another postponement of the elections.

It said, ‘If it is true, as it is being widely speculated across the country, that the Jonathan administration has procured a judgment to disqualify the APC presidential candidate on Wednesday(today), when the Federal High Court in Abuja is expected to rule on the issue, then it portends a great danger for the nation.”

The party said in addition to other reasons, the six-week postponement of the elections might have been used by those who never wanted the polls to hold   to shop for such a “satanic judgment.”

The statement partly read, ‘’Anyone who will disqualify a presidential candidate on the eve of an election can only have one and only one purpose for that: to trigger chaos and pandemonium across the country.

“Perhaps, this is the reason for the deployment of troops across the country to crack down on possible protests and create confusion.

‘’Then, those who orchestrated the disqualification will simply use what they expect to be angry reactions nationwide as an excuse to postpone the elections again, thus triggering a constitutional crisis, the end of which no one can predict.

‘’This is why we are hoping that good reason will prevail and nothing will be done, deliberately, to plunge Nigeria into crisis by the same people who have always been quick to say their political ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian.’’

When contacted, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the PDP,   Abdullahi Jalo, said, “By now, Nigerians have become accustomed to the antics of the opposition. I don’t think anybody takes them seriously any more.”