INEC shifts governorship, assembly poll by one week

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The Independent National Electoral Commission has postponed governorship and state assemblies elections earlier scheduled for Saturday to March 18.

The commission took the decision at its management meeting in Abuja, which was convened on Wednesday after the Court of Appeal gave it the go-ahead to reconfigure  Bimodal Voter Accreditation machines.

The meeting, which started at 7pm and ended at 10pm, was presided over by its National Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.

In a statement by its National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye on Wednesday night, INEC said it could not go ahead with the governorship poll as earlier scheduled because it needed time to reconfigure BIVAS machines, which were used for the presidential election on February 25.

Osinbajo marks 66th birthday

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Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, on Wednesday, celebrated his 66th birthday at the North-East Children’s Trust and the Learning Centre, in Borno State.

The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, disclosed this in a statement he signed on Wednesday titled, ‘Osinbajo marks 66th birthday in Borno with restored northeast “Insurgency Orphans”, who call him daddy’.

The North-East Children’s Trust is a private sector-led charity and social engineering initiative incorporated in 2017 with a mission to create innovative, transformational sustainable learning ecosystems that will nurture, renew and empower vulnerable children between ages five and 18 years, who have become orphans as a result of the insurgency in North-East.

The NECT has provided comprehensive support to 686 orphaned and vulnerable children through accommodation, feeding, quality education and rehabilitative psychosocial support.

Court grants Tinubu access to presidential poll materials

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The court of Appeal, on Wednesday, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to grant the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, access to materials it used for the February 25 presidential election.

The Justice Joseph Ikyegh-led panel said it found merit in Tinubu’s request to have access to the electoral materials in order for him to prepare his defence.

Both Tinubu and the APC had, in separate ex parte applications they brought before the court, said they would need the materials to prepare their defence against petitions that would seek to nullify the outcome of the election.

Tinubu, through his lawyer, Mr Akintola Makinde, said he would need to inspect, scan and make photocopies of some of the electoral materials to enable him to prepare his defence against petitions that would seek to nullify his election.

Use your vote to bring desired change, ex-minister tells Nigerians

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The former Minister of Power, Prof Barth Nnaji, on Wednesday, advised Nigerians not to be deterred by the outcome of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections and to come out en masse on March 18 and vote for the candidates of their choice for the governor and House Assembly members.

Nnaji, who spoke at the service of song held in honour of the Labour Party senatorial candidate that was assassinated on February 22, Oyibo Chukwu, at his country home in Umuode community, Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu, asked the people of Enugu state to use their vote to bring a desired change that would be beneficial to their children and children’s children.

The former minister who described the conduct of the presidential election as unfortunate lamented that the poll was deliberately planned and implemented to disenfranchise the people.

According to him, the Independent National Electoral Commission deliberately delayed the election in many places in the South East with the intention to suppress the voters and consequently refused to give passwords of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System to presiding officers.

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