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By Tai Emeka Obasi.
When Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN called his first witness and got him affirmed, I noticed a counsel full of confidence.
But the Tribunal wouldn't have been so much fun if the second Respondents' lead counsel wasn't involved. He was arguably the chief dramatist in court. Even when it appeared very clear he was clutching thin air, he made it look like he was holding a tiger by the tail.
But before we got to the stage of RW1, Olanipekun, leading other Senior Advocates of Nigeria, including Yusuf Ali, Dr. Alex Inziyon, A. B. Mahmoud, Prof Taiwo Osipitan, Femi Atoyebi, Mike Igbokwe, Osaro Eghobamien, Ken Mozia, Day Akinlaja, Chief Olusola Oke, Nnamonso Ekanem, Akin Osinbajo, Stephen Zakari Adehi, Bode Olanipekun and many more non-yet senior advocates, established from the off the crux of their defense.
Whether the lead counsel was the one cross-examining or whether he passed the buck to Dr. Alex Inziyon, all the 62 witnesses called by the Petitioners were asked if they had heard President Muhammadu Buhari address the nation in English Language.
So, there were no pretences about it, Buhari's certificate saga was the real elephant in the room. But knowing that the issue wasn't really if Buhari was qualified academically or not but rather the claims of his qualification, which the president made under oath could not be substantiated by the man who occupies Aso Rock as Nigeria's number one citizen, I wondered what game Olanipekun and Co were up to.
Even the other members of the 'Allied Forces'(Chief Lateef Fagbemi, SAN coined this in court), the first and third Respondents complimented in asking all the Petitioners' witnesses if they had heard Buhari address the nation in English Language.
Could they not be aware what the allegations against their client were regarding his certificate claims? Considering how high the stakes were and the professional level of the personalities involved in this mother of all election defences, there wasn't such possibility.
The Nigerian judiciary is full of hawks and when it comes to the department of election petition tribunals, the hawks wear iron claws. The Respondents knew exactly what was at stake but were clearly using diversionary tactic, apparently hoping that the Petitioners would make a blunder that would lead to a safety net.
But in this very tight situation that was akin to poker games, the defense team blinked first.
Truth be told, the blunder didn't come from Olanipekun. He had already presented his witness, made him identify Buhari from a group photograph way back in 1961 of the graduating students of Katsina Provincial School. This was to prove to the court that the president went to secondary school. Even though Dr. Livy Uzoukwu would later make mockery of the fact that Buhari could preserve a group photograph taken over 58 years ago but couldn't preserve the certificate that came out of it, it was the first Respondents' lead counsel that opened the barn door.
Retired Major General Paul Tarfa as RW1 had affirmed and evidently convinced the court that he was Buhari's classmate at the Katsina Provincial School and that they were admitted into the Army on same day in 1962.
But to affirm that the Army took their certificates on admission, Yunus Usman, SAN asked that mother of all questions and got the mother of all answers as Dr. Uzoukwu put it during presentation of final addresses.
General Tarfa, under oath, told the court that the Army never collected their certificates, thereby confirming what the Army earlier responded. And most gravely affirmed, even if unwittingly, that the president of about 200 million people lied under oath!
From that very moment, any keen observer would have noticed Olanipekun's confidence had been deeply punctured. He had a very bad case to defend from the off but his own witness, Buhari's boyhood friend, had just made it far worse.
Attempts to recover from that upper cut never panned out any better. The WAEC deputy registrar on same day as RW2 couldn't affirm that what he presented was a certificate. Instead he told the court it was an attestation. And worse, bearing the first name of Mohamed instead of Muhammadu.
It was a terrible day for Olanipekun and after two further witnesses couldn't lift the clearly dampened spirit, he called for adjournment, despite having couple of hours left for the day and having a bus full of his witnesses waiting within the court premises.
He got his adjournment. And even a neophyte in court that day knew the election petition veteran needed to work on his witnesses to avoid further embarrassment.
The following day, he kicked off with Abba Kyari, the president's all-powerful Chief of Staff. The Buhari team needed to return confidence and who else but the man believed to be the unseen hand running Buhari's government?
The CoS started well until Dr. Uzoukwu took over. Even then the Petitioners' lead counsel appeared harmless with his routine questions from the start. But towards the end when he asked the witness if he knew that he already deposed under oath that Buhari had the certificates sometime in April before he journeyed to Cambridge to get the 'certificate' just 12 days before he appeared in the witness box, the CoS's sudden silence couriered the gravity of his claims had sunk in. The fact that he was sent to Cambridge by a man with first name Muhammadu to collect his certificate and he came back with an attestation bearing Mohamed was another matter on its own.
By the time the CoS left the witness box, it must have been clear to him that he put his boss in a bigger hole instead of adding anything meaningful to bring him out of the one he was.
Two more further witnesses, RW6 and RW7 didn't fare any better that Olanipekun hurriedly closed his case. And Chief Fagbemi followed suit immediately.
I waited to see Olanipekun's final address to know what magic he would weave to save his client's neck from the hangman. And after watching him in court 'vibrating and gyrating' in his known dramatis, he evidently fell short of making a terrible case look good.
Instead it was the Petitioners' lead counsel that drove the dagger deeper with his closing remarks -
No Original Certificates...
No CTC of certificates...
No photocopy of Certificates...
No photograph of Certificates...
No electronic copy of Certificates...
Nothing because no certificate existed in the first place.
The ball is right now in the court of the five Tribunal justices.
But certainly if Olanipekun was a betting man, he'd not put a dime on his winning this one. He certainly has had miracles happen in many of his past election petition cases but this particular case will evidently require more than walking on water to add it to his list of conquests.
Keep following and sharing as...
#HistoryBeckons.
In a statement by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Simon Uchenna Ortuanya, the medical exercise is to assist the security agencies in their ongoing investigations.
Enugu State is in the hands of God! #amokelouis
We should all note that The time we are presents A Trying and Critically Challenging situation to every body including our Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and other Leaders/ Stakeholders and ourselves the Citizens.
We should control our vituperations,comments, insinuations and encourage a platform of constructive dialogue, Suggestions and proffer workable Ideas and Advises for implementable Solutions to each of our trending Challenges including insecurity.
Trading blames, Heaping accusations and counter accusations on our Governor and State Leadership at this moment is not the Best and will definitely block our level of thinking out a Collective responsible actions.
Every Citizen of this great State should Spe... Read more
ENUGU IS SAFE ,, THINK POSITIVELY , ,,,We should all note that The time we are presents A Trying and Critically Challenging situation to every body including our Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and other Leaders/ Stakeholders and ourselves the Citizens.
We should control our vituperations,comments, insinuations and encourage a platform of constructive dialogue, Suggestions and proffer workable Ideas and Advises for implementable Solutions to each of our trending Challenges including insecurity.
Trading blames, Heaping accusations and counter accusations on our Governor and State Leadership at this moment is not the Best and will definitely block our level of thinking out a Collective responsible actions.
Every Citizen of this great State should Speak with Love, Faith and Matured Understanding in favour of our State, our Leaders and praying Seriously for the Living God we serve to break the yokes of every enemy of our State including Satan and His agents of darkness and all their evil plans to be dealt with and defeated. No matter they cannot succeed in Discrediting thus Lovely and Peaceful State under the Current Leadership of Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.
Enugu State as at today is still a Peaceful and Safe State, infact A Model in good governance and All inclusiveness to other States of the Federation despite some Regrettable, Sad and isolated cases of Kidnappings and other attacks by suspected bandits and criminal elements .
Instead of Condemning our Governor Gburugburu. .we should be Commending him and this Government for going the extra mile to checkmate issues of insecurity and other negative vices in our Land though these Sad cases of insecurity have been existing and not a new narrative.. It didn't just start today.
.We should check ourselves and be bold enough to report any evil and evil collaborations to the necessary authorities no matter whoever that is involved instead of attacking or directing our anger and pain at one Direction..
Synergy of Trust, Confidence, Sound judgement and Citizen,s participation to fight crime and criminality with Government will do a lot of good bearing in mind that The Governor is not the Chief Security of The Nigerian Police, Army , the DSS and even the NSCDC.
The Creation of State Police for each State will also go a long way in support of Local and State Security apparatus such as the Neighbourhood watch groups, Forest Guards , Community Youths Movements , Royal Peace Guards with Hunters , Wood Cutters ,Palm wine trappers, Farmers etc.
Pray for our Leaders and Love them while doing our own part as Responsible Citizens by being Law abiding and Wise enough Not to believe every News or Stories without confirming its genuineness, Motive and Source. So much Fake and recycled, unverifiable unfounded and Untrue negative stories are flying all over the Social media targeted at destructing our good image. Let's all think Positive and Support our Governor.for he is trying his best
Enugu State is Truly in the Hands of God
Enugu State is Safe
Enugu State I's Great . Written by Paul Nnajiofor
The issue of who takes the commissionership position as decided in election last week, ended in a stalemate, as OAU Onyema rejected the excercise, and petitioned the Governor. This made UDI LGA not to have a consencus candidate as requested by the Governor.
As God may have it, the issue of who takes the Commissionership slot for Udi was eventually laid to rest today. Chief OAU Onyema before the entire stakeholders maintained that he does not wish to continue creating a stalemate, and he yielded to the truce personally brokered between him and Chief COC Egumgbe by His Excellency, Rt. Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, the Executive Governor of Enugu State, by stepping -down for Egumgbe to emerge as consensus candidate.
Chief Egumgbe while acknowledging and appreciating the stepping-down of OAU Onyema which automatically made way for him to emerge as CONCENSUS CANDIDATE, gave extensive insight on his discussion with the Governor and OAU, and highlighted that they reached understanding taking cognizance of the fact that many and even better political positions will still come up in future.
The Executive Chairman of the Council Hon. Nestor Ochin, and the PDP Chairman of the LGA Chief Okechukwu Aneke, equally thanked and appreciated the good partisanship of Chief OAU Onyema, and then formally presented Chief COC Egumgbe to the stakeholders as the Concensus Commissionership nominees from the LGA , and promised to foward his name to the Governor with immediate effect.
Engr Callistus Ojukwu
The incident, which occurred at a suburb, Nchatacha-Nike in Enugu East Local Government Area of Enugu State, caused total gridlock as youths from the area blocked traffic on the Enugu-Abakaliki highway.
President General of Nchatancha-Nike community Mr Kingsley Anike said:
“She (the deceased) went to farm yesterday (Wednesday) within the hours of 2 and 6 in the evening, and she was attacked. Later in the evening, when we expected her home, she didn’t come back. We started searching for her throughout the night and this morning (Thursday), there was an expanded search team.
“It wasn’t really a distant farm, it is a nearby farm because people are not leaving far from the location. So, we saw her corpse and on getting there we saw her undies were torn apart, lying by the side; she sustained stabbing on her hands and at the back of her neck and she is dead already.
“We called the police, who have visited the scene and took photo shots of the whole situation. The body has been deposited in the mortuary.”
Enugu police spokesman Ebere Amaraizu said the police received report of the incident and that the Commissioner of Police, Suleiman Balarabe, has ordered a full scale investigation.
He also confirmed that the corpse of the woman has been deposited at the mortuary of the Annunciation Hospital for autopsy.
Happening now: A woman was reportedly raped killed by the Fulanis at Nike Enugu.
This one ain't a Reverend but a poor, peace, loving woman who was a farmer.
She was raped and killed by the Fulani in d farm at nchatancha Nike today..
The people are mourning, angry and bittered. Enugu is a safe place but gruesome murder and killings by these sects is on d rise in Enugu state.
This is happening now and the people are protesting.... Enugu state is no more in d hands of God, now for Fulani hand ooo.
The respondents were crying when Chiesosblog got to the scene. They were pleading with the government to step in................
"Your excellency Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi it has happened again by the Fulanis. This one ain't a Reverend but a poor, peace, loving woman who was a farmer.
You are in charge of Securities and protection of lives and properties in Enugu, this is getting out of hand."
Pls share ooooo. Nke a pugo n'ihe ozo.
#Enugustategovernmentsitup
From: Eye Witness Report
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GOOD MORNING.
Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor
Federal Republic of Germany
Federal Foreign Office
Street address:
Werderscher Markt 1
10117 Berlin
Postal address:
Federal Foreign Office
11013 Berlin
August 20, 2019
To
Alhaji Muhammadu Buhari
President of Nigeria
Aso Rock,
Abuja FCT, Abuja, Nigeria.
Dear Alhaji,
SUBJECT: Request for prosecution of Nigerian political demonstrators in Nuremberg.
I find it extremely provocative and unusually undiplomatic when a government that has created the conditions that exiled her citizens demand the same people's prosecution by the host country for demanding justice and justice from its government officials.
Germany is a democratic country that grants asylum to refugees from all over the world. Freedom of association and the right to political protest are the right of all persons resident in Germany.
I, Heiko Maas, have been doused by my voters with rotten eggs and tomatoes. It comes with the office. No protester was shot dead, imprisoned, killed or deported.
Every day, my ambassador to Nigeria, Bernhard Schlagheck informs me of the atrocities Fulani terrorist Herdsmen commits against unarmed, innocent Nigerians as part of an ethnic cleansing program and eventual rug- nization of Nigeria. These atrocities include abductions, rape, torture, mutilation, slaughter and evisceration. Obviously, the demonstrators have enough of these.
The German Government will respond to your request to prosecute the demonstrators who have requested their representative to do his work in Nigeria as soon as you have your Fulani terrorists detained.
If Senator Ike Ekweremadu has not slept at the workplace and performed his duties as a representative of his constituents, his constituents would have eaten yam in Nigeria and not eat yam in Germany. Yam roots do not grow in Germany. Creating a suitable environment in Nigeria wouldn't lead to a brain drain and that would significantly accelerate development in Nigeria.
If my ambassador in Nigeria confirms that the Fulani terrorists have been appeased, I am glad to advise the Nigerians in Germany to politely treat Nigeria dignitaries. Therefore, political protest is not a criminal offense in Germany.
Yours sincerely,
Heiko Maas.
Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of the
Federal Republic of Germany
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Senate Rejects Grazing Reserve Bill, Says It’s Unconstitutional
adminNovember 10, 2016 4:37 Am
Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja
A controversial bill seeking to establish Grazing Management Agency that will ensure the creation of grazing areas across the country was wednesday withdrawn by the Senate.
Sponsored by Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano Central), the bill was withdrawn along with two other similar bills sponsored by Senators Barnabas Gemade (Benue North-east) and Chukwuka Utazi (Enugu North).
While Gemade’s bill sought to establish National Ranches Commission for Regulation, Preservation and Control of Ranches, Utazi’s bill sought to control keeping and movement of cattle in Nigeria.
However, after Kwankwaso made a presentation to the Senate on his bill, it was found to have completely different objectives from those of Gemade and Utazi and because of the controversy the bill had earlier generated across the country, the Senate President Bukola Saraki, asked the Senate Leader Ali Ndume to move a motion for the bill to be withdrawn.
The foundation for the withdrawal of the bills was laid by the Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who said the Senate lacked the power to legislate on grazing matters which the bills set out to pursue.
According to him, only states have powers to legislate on grazing matters and livestock animals, adding that since the matter was neither in the exclusive nor concurrent list, the National Assembly lacked the power to legislate on the matter.
Ekweremadu said: “The issues at stake here are neither in the exclusive list nor in the concurrent list. I believe therefore that it is a residual matter. It is for states to decide how to deal with it. I believe the matter here concerns everybody, given the level of carnage and the conflicts going on in different states. So, I feel the concern of my colleagues but unfortunately we do not have powers to legislate on matters relating to livestock in this Assembly. It is a matter reserved for the states. So, I believe that the bills for Senators Kwankwaso, Gemade and Utazi are beyond the reach of this National Assembly and should be accordingly withdrawn so that the states under the constitution should be able to deal with the matters which the constitution has prescribed for them. I will like to see somebody to show me anywhere in the exclusive list or concurrent list that has given us powers to legislate on this matter because they are not in existence.”
Also speaking, Ndume threw his weight behind Ekweremadu and urged his colleagues to withdraw the bill without being emotional about it, saying if the Senate lacked the legislative authority to legislate on the bills, it made no sense considering them at all.
He also reminded his colleagues of the implication of allowing the bills to scale second reading, explaining how Order 81 of the Senate Standing Orders provides that any bill which passes second reading in the house must be committed to a standing committee for further legislation.
Ndume therefore added that since it was unconstitutional of them to consider the bill, it was in their own interest to stop the bill from being read the second time in observance of their standing orders.
“I just want to join the DSP to explain. I just want to remind us of Order 81 and also appeal that we are the Senate. We should not allow any emotional or whatever to influence us. The point that the DSP raised is a very important one. Number one, if we don’t have the power to make laws, if it is so, I think there is no need to even start arguing on it. But having said that if that is not even the case our rules 81 says second reading of bills.
“On the order of the second reading of bill being read, a motion may be made that the bill now be read the second time and a debate may arise covering the general merits and principles of the bill. What we now have before us even myself, to be very candid, is just the heading of the bill which attracted us. We should hear them out on the merits if that is possible but if it is impossible, Mr. President, it is because we don’t have the powers to do it, then, we just waste our time. But if we have to, I think we should listen to the merits and principles,” he said.
Responding, Saraki said since the contents of the bills were antithetical to his initial thoughts that they were uniform, it was only sensible for them to withdraw them as he charged Ndume to withdraw the bills.
“Before the point of order of Deputy Senate President, I had already put a suggestion that these bills be caught on the order paper based on the discussion I had with the sponsors that these bills should be consolidated. It is clear from the discussion today that it is not so and my view is that since the basis by which they came on the order paper has changed, the way forward is for us to step them down from the order paper of today. I will want the leader to move that we step them down from the order paper of today to another legislative day,” Saraki said.
After Ndume moved the motion to withdraw the bills, they were immediately thrown out.
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