The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says the body is considering extending the continuous voter registration exercise. “We have heard your requests loud & clear. You will soon hear from us on the extension of CVR registration,” the chairman of the agency, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said in a tweet on its official handle. “Please assure me that you will register, pick your PVCs, and Vote. I also assure you that your vote will count.” We have heard your requests loud & clear. You will soon hear from us on extension of CVR registration. Please assure me that you will register, pick your PVCs and Vote. I also assure you that your vote will count. Prof. Mahmood Yakubu#YouthVoteCountNG @YIAGA @EUinNigeria pic.twitter.com/N63HNX9CJj — INEC Nigeria (@inecnigeria) June 11, 2022 INEC Deploys More Machines His comments followed calls from several quarters for the body to extend the registration scheduled to end on June 30. On Friday, the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room (Situation Room), a coalition of Civil Society Organisations, called on the electoral body to extend the deadline. The CSOs believe “citizens have now intensified their efforts in registering for their Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC). “There have also been several appeals by Nigerians to INEC to extend the registration exercise to enable them to register to obtain a PVC. Situation Room has received reports of large crowds at the INEC offices across the country.” On the same day, the commission admitted there is a surge in PVC registration across the country. “In response, the Commission has immediately released additional 209 machines deployed mainly to the five South Eastern States, Lagos, and Kano where the pressure is most acute,” the Chairman of INEC’s Information and Voter Education Committee Festus Okoye said “The Commission will monitor the situation over the next few days. Thereafter, it will meet to review the progress of the exercise.”

  The National Vice Chairman (North-West) of All Progressives Congress, Mallam Salihu Lukman, says the noise over a perceived Muslim-Muslim ticket is a ploy to distract the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. This is even as the member of the National Working Committee disclosed that he was not surprised to find party members among those demonising Tinubu over fear that he could settle for a Muslim running mate. Lukman, who expressed his concerns in a statement issued in Abuja on Saturday, noted that he has witnessed a similar scenario played out during the build-up to the presidential primary held at Eagle Square. “As usual, conservative and reactionary ethnoreligious considerations are colouring the debate. Question of Muslim – Muslim ticket, implying that another Muslim from the North will most likely be Asiwaju’s running mate. “Leading party members are already becoming strong advocates for or against a so-called Muslim – Muslim ticket. This debate is reproducing the old pre-convention reactionary and conservative campaign. “Given the cheap and reactionary campaign in APC aimed at pushing delegates at the National Convention to copy the PDP by electing a presidential candidate from among Northern leaders, the emergence of Asiwaju Tinubu demonstrated the superiority of the APC in providing level playing field to party members to compete and win internal party contests,” he said. He projected that given the manner the contest for the presidential primary went, the challenge of uniting APC leaders to defeat all opposition parties, including PDP, will form an important precondition for winning the 2023 elections. The need to ‘work to ensure PDP does not return to power after 16 years of colossal failure’ was the mantra in Tinubu’s acceptance speech after his victory on Wednesday. Lukman emphasised that with Asiwaju’s victory, the debate has now shifted to the choice of running mate. “If choices of leaders are dictated by ethnoreligious factors, Nigerian politics will continue to be disadvantageous to many sections of the country. For instance, only Christian Southerners and Muslim Northerners will continue to have advantages. “Most of those trying to use religious arguments to influence the choice of running mate for Asiwaju Tinubu are impliedly arguing that a Christian Northerner can only win a presidential election if his/her running mate is a Muslim from Southern Nigeria. “In the same way, this will be politically disadvantageous, if not impossible for any Christian from the North or Muslim from the South to win presidential election. Such a backward national mindset must be changed,” he said. Lukman warned political leaders to desist from riding on cheap sentiments of religion and ethnicity to opportunistically win elections. According to him, the 2023 presidential campaigns must not be reduced to the level of ethnic and religious sentiments if Nigeria is to move forward. “Being a Muslim from the Southern part of the country, the belief among many Nigerians, is that he may not attract the votes of citizens from the dominant Christian Southern parts of the country. And given contemporary challenges of producing a presidential ticket, which should balance both ethnic and religious factors in the country, an Asiwaju Tinubu candidature is more likely to be lopsided to win the votes of dominant Muslim North. “This perception dominated internal debates in APC leading to the National Convention for the Presidential primary. Some party leaders attempted to manipulate the Convention in favour of the Senate President, Sen. Ahmed Lawan as the so-called consensus candidate. The process of producing the consensus was reduced to some manipulative strategy of invoking the name of President Buhari as the singular source of decision. “Nigerians must be guided to make choices based on evidence and not just sentiment. As it is today, all opposition to APC is more interested in using challenges facing the country to further divide Nigerians,” he stated.

  The Labour Party has called on the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) to declare a state of emergency in Lagos State following alleged attacks on intending voters in the State. The party alleged that there was an attack on some people of the Igbo extraction while attempting to collect their Permanent Voter Cards in Ojo Local Government Area of Lagos State by some political thugs believed to be loyal to the All Progressives Congress. Some videos were trending on social media indicating that some thugs have launched attacks at the Independent National Electoral Commission registration centres. The Labour Party through its acting Publicity Secretary, Abayomi Arabambi, described the incident as “a crude electoral terrorism” saying that it does not portray the good intentions of the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu’s ambition Arabambi argued that it is a constitutional right of every resident in any part of the country of voting age to vote or be voted for anywhere they have been living for six months. The Labour Party spokesman maintained that the brutal attack on the Igbo people in Lagos state laid further credence to the APC government’s commitment to divide Nigeria on a tribal basis. He, however, called on security agencies to immediately intervene to forestall the breakdown of law and order in the Igbo densely domiciled area of Ojo-Alaba, warning of an impending brazen murder of democracy in Nigeria. The statement read in part, “The attention of Labour Party was drawn to the coordinated attacks launched by miscreants and misfits political thugs. “It is quite alarming and highly frightful that in today’s Nigeria, the Lagos State APC Government could officially promote and sponsor open terrorism on the Igbos to stop them from registering for and obtaining voter’s cards across many points in the State. The IGBOS are attacked and brutalized at the registration centres very heavily. “Most Igbos in the neighbourhood of over 66% have up to now been unable to register and or obtain their PVC officially which is scheduled to end very soon. These are people who do pay taxes and do contribute largely to the economy of Lagos State. “The Labour Party unequivocally here urge the President to without delay declare a state of emergency in Lagos State over this ongoing official electoral terrorism, treason, arson, and political banditry because a stitch in time is said to save nine. “Every Nigerian has the inalienable right to be protected by the Government. This ongoing official rascality is gradually growing into becoming an evil by the Lagos State APC to run Lagos State into the abyss of deep irreversible political economic and social disaster. Of course, it is far very obvious that this would have a further attendant crisis across the Nation. “Labour Party also here calls on the National Assembly to become much more attentive and dutiful to intervene in the ongoing acts of political/electoral terrorism in Lagos State. It is a danger that could have an unpleasant consequence on the peace of the nation even in the midst of the now crippling larger insecurity in the country. “Labour Party asks the Igbos to stay and remain very resolute in their struggle to receive their PVC as it is their constitutional due and right. “The IGBOS are also advised to ensure that when they eventually secure the PVC, they must let their votes make a very strong statement as they voted wisely for the best Party of their choice.”

  Former Minister of Aviation, Fani-Kayode has said he would support the All Progressives Congress, APC Presidential flag bearer, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, should the party settle for Muslim running-mate. Recall that the public debate over possibility of the ruling party fielding a Muslim-Muslim ticket has dominated the public conversation lately. Meanwhile, Fani-Kayode, an APC chieftain, while speaking on the issue on Channels TV’s political show, Politics Today, maintained that religion could not be ruled out totally in the Nigerian politics. Fani-Koyode stated that it would be a “very big mistake” to suggest that a Muslim-Muslim ticket should not be an issue for anybody. He said, “It’s an issue and we will have to explain and defend to the wider population of the Nigerian people if we choose to go that way. I am not saying I’m against it. If that’s what the candidate wants, we will stand by him and defend him. “However, we need to defend it. We can’t just say religion has no place in the politics of today. It certainly does, especially where 50 Christians were slaughtered in a Church in Owo the other day. In Southern Kaduna the other day, a number of 34 Christians were slaughtered,” he added. The APC chieftain expressed worry that, in the last few years, Christians and Muslims were being slaughtered all over the country in the name of religion. “We have a Islamist revolt that is to say ISWAP on the one hand, Bokoharam on the other and so many herdsmen killings and these people happened not to be the real Muslims, but pretending to Muslims, because the real Muslims do that kind of thing. Fani-Kayode, who noted that these were facts that could not be dismissed, however, said he would support the presidential candidate should he (Asiwaju Bola Tinubu should) decide to pick a Muslim runnig-mate. “Let’s just hope he reasons it out carefully and chooses the right candidate to run with him,” he said. While Tinubu intensifies consultation on choice of running-mate, other names that have been listed as likely running-mate for the APC presidential candidates are the Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Bagudu; Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai; Kano State Governor, Abdulahi Ganduje; Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Gida Mustapha and Malam Kashim Ibrahim-Imam.

  Former Minister of Aviation and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Femi Fani-Kayode, has said that the APC will be working against the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in a very forceful and decisive way. Fani-Kayode made this known when he appeared on Channels Television’s programme, Politics Today. “We’ll be working against Atiku in a very forceful and decisive way, and I absolutely have no regrets about that. “If you look back in 2019, I wasn’t really involved in his campaign at the presidential level. I didn’t really get involved in the campaign itself. “It was in 2015 I was involved in the campaign for (former) President Jonathan but this time around, we are on oppposite sides to the PDP and I’m on the opposite side to (former) vice president Atiku and I’m supporting president to be, Bola Tinubu and we are going to win. Believe me, it’s going to be a very tough fight.” Fani-Kayode noted that Atiku’s capabilities cannot be underestimated but still believed that Tinubu would defeat him. “Atiku cannot be underestimated. Those that say walk over, I always look at them and say, ‘look, obviously you don’t know politics, you dont know Atiku.’ “He is a formidable candidate, he’s a very strong man, very focused man, an experienced man and you need to respect that and he has an excellent team of people around him but I beleive with the tenacious nature of Asiwaju, the people around him and with the party, the governors, the president and everybody else behind him in unity, strength and power, I believe we will be able to defeat him. It wont be easy, it will be a tough fight but I believe we will prevail in the end.”

  Obumnaeme, son of the late Mrs. Dora Akunyili, a former Minister of Information, has revealed that how some pastors collected money from her mother, promising to heal her of cancer. He stated this during an interview with Chude Jideonwo, Director-General at the Anambra State Project Monitoring and Management Office. According to him, his mother went to a number of popular Nigerian pastors in a bid to get healed after she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. He said many of them used the opportunity to collect money from her while giving her false hope, adding that what the men of God did to his mother was a “divine hustle.” Obumnaeme said, “She was more like God would heal me; She spent all the money, sowed all the seed. So, I felt it was a racket. In Nigeria, we don’t call it crime or anything, but I felt there was a hustle. “She went to a pastor in Lagos for like a week. She came back and said they needed to do a scan and that God had healed her. And I remember my father was crying when he was taking her to do the scan. He knew what they would see. And he wasn’t trying to shut it down; he was trying to dampen expectations. “But my mum, you know how someone is like ‘God has healed me’. They went and saw the mass of cancer there, grown larger, and my mum just became a shell for like three days. You just see someone, a larger-than-life figure just whittling away every day.”