By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

A Federal High Court in Kano has sacked all 44 chairmanship and councillorship candidates of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) for Saturday’s local government elections.

The ruling was delivered on Friday by Justice Simon Amobeda following a case filed by Engineer Muhammad Babayo and a faction of the NNPP against the party’s leadership.

Justice Amobeda ruled that the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC) should accept a new list of candidates submitted by the faction led by the recognised State Chairman, Dalhatu Shehu Usman, in accordance with the party’s constitution.

“The defendant is hereby restrained from releasing the voters register for the 2nd Defendant to conduct the proposed election on 26th October 2024,” the judge declared.

He further instructed that KANSIEC must recognize the list of candidates submitted by the plaintiffs.

The case listed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), KANSIEC, the Inspector General of Police, and the Director of the Department of State Services (DSS) as the defendants.

The judgment has thrown the local government elections into further controversy. The court also barred security agencies from providing protection at the polling units if the election goes ahead without the updated candidate list.

“The 2nd Defendant is hereby directed to accept as genuine and subsisting the list of NNPP candidates submitted to it by the recognized State Chairman, Dalhatu Shehu Usman,” the judge ruled, adding that “any other list submitted for the 2024 Local Government Election in Kano State should be rejected.”

In addition, Justice Amobeda instructed the 3rd and 4th defendants—namely, the Inspector General of Police and the DSS—not to provide security for the election under the current arrangement.

“That the 3rd and 4th Defendants are forthwith restrained from providing security and protection to the scene of the Election plans to take place on the 26th October, 2024,” the court ruled.

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

An auto crash along the Abakaliki-Enugu expressway, Ebonyi State, has claimed at least five lives and injured seven others.

The incident, it was gathered, occurred at the G-Hostel axis along the road.

The State Police Public Relations Officer, Joshua Ukandu, who confirmed the incident to journalists in Abakaliki, said the accident involved a fully-loaded commercial bus travelling from Enugu.

According to him, the bus crashed and burst into flames after hitting an obstacle in the middle of the night.

The injured victims are currently receiving treatment at Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki.

He said while those who sustained injury were receiving treatment at the hospital, the remains of those who passed on had been deposited in the mortuary.

Ukandu, however, noted that investigations are ongoing.

He offered condolences to the families of the deceased, and wished speedy recovery to those injured.

Foremost youth group in the ruling People’sDemocraticParty (PDP), on Friday, sent a strong message to the Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara and those it described as “agents of Fubara in National Assembly”.

The group known as PDP National Progressive Youth Initiative, in a statement Friday evening, specifically took a swipe on the Member representing Ideato North South Federal Constituency of Imo State, Rep. Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, for his constant attacks on the person of Nyesom Wike, Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

Ugochinyere, an opposition Lawmaker in the House of Representatives, has been on the forefront of campaigns against the FCT Minister, while supporting Governor Fubara on virtually all his actions in Rivers.

The PDP warning was coming on the heels of Ugochinyere’s media outing 2 days ago, where he accused Wike of plotting to stop Governor Fubara from accessing State Funds via court orders, which he alleged were being instituted by the APC and Pro-Wike group.

Ugochinyere was quoted as saying, “The APC and Pro-Wike group, as I am speaking, is filing a suit at the Federal High Court to help them seize the allocation of the entire Rivers State. This is the second of such cases by the Wike group to bring about constitutional disorder.

“They have a pending case seeking to seize the entire Rivers allocation/LGA funds they filed, and now they are using the Wike-APC faction to file another suit seeking an order to stop the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee”, while calling on President Bola Tinubu to prevail on his Minister.

But the PDP Youth group, in a statement signed by Comrade Billy Matthew Nwachukwu, President, and David Terna Gondo, the Secretary General, lambasted Governor Fubara and Rep. Ugochinyere, saying the duo were afraid of due process, accountability and Transparency.

“The both entities have become scared of public accountability and blaming their inability to conduct a proper Local Government election that will satisfy elementary law.

“The PDP will no longer tolerate further attacks on the Minister of FCT, His Excellency, Nyesom Wike, who is working day and night for the government and the people of Nigeria to succeed with his infrastructural drive in the FCT.

“The question we would like to ask, is, why are Fubara and Ikenga running from pillar to pole, blackmailing the judiciary, the Minister of the FCT and everything by everyone else except Fubara?

“We know the antecedents of some fake activists who has no other source of livelihood but to be blackmailing innocent citizens, and unfortunately, they found their way into the National Assembly. These elements have no business address or farm, but can boast to have paid over N700m to get a mere House committee slot.

“It is high time we called on the good people of Ideato Federal Constituency to beg their busy body and eye service Lawmaker to focus on his job. Let him concentrate on why the people voted for him, and pardventure he is bereft of the logic of lawmaking, he should not pretend about it. He should admit his ineptitude and allow someone take his seat”, the group said.

The PDP youth group threatened to occupy the National Assembly complex, if Speaker Tajudeen Abbas doesn’t tame Ugochinyere and he is allowed to engage in further attacks or unparliamentary conducts against the FCT Minister, whom they described as a great asset to Nigeria and the government of President Tinubu.