Borno South Senatorial District: Tribunal Dismisses Petition Against Ndume

The Borno National and State House of Assembly elections
petition tribunal sitting in Abuja on Monday, dismissed a petition
filed by Kudla Satumari, challenging the election of Senator
Mohammed Ndume.

Mr Satumari and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on
March 15, filed a petition with number EPT/BO/SEN/1/2019 before the
tribunal.

They are challenging the declaration of Mr Ndume of All
Progressive Congress, APC, as winner of the Borno South Senatorial
District conducted on Feb. 23, 2019.

APC and Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, were
also joined in the suit.

Delivering judgment, Justice Peter Kekemeke, chairman of the
tribunal, held that the petitioners failed to proof their
allegations beyond reasonable doubt.

Mr Kekemeke held that the proof of allegations lay solely on the
petitioners, in this instance; the petitioners must provide the
register of registered voters to show that the numbers are
conflicting with the number of votes cast and counted.

He held that all allegations of electoral malpractice and
irregularities must be proved beyond reasonable doubt.

Mr Kekemeke added that the petitioners did not demonstrate
before the court the procedures for accreditation, neither the
difference between the numbers of votes shown in the evidence and
the alterations made, nor evidence linking to the allegations of
malpractice.

“In totality, the petitioners have failed to prove their case in
the preponderance of evidence and balance of probability so that
they will be entitled for the judgment; neither any case of
malpractice was proven beyond reasonable doubt.

“The petition therefore fails and is accordingly dismissed” he
said.

The tribunal further held that there was no proof of evidence in
the allegations of neither unlawful votes nor witnesses called to
testify that they were disfranchised.

The tribunal added that there are no evidence suggesting that
there were alteration and how it affected the results of the
election, which of the polling units were altered and what the
results were before the alteration.

“No evidence linking the exhibits to the case of the
petitioners, the results that were not stamped or signed were not
availed to the tribunal.

“The petitioners merely tendered nine sack bags representing the
nine Local Government Areas of the District none of them were given
evidence linking them to the case in the petitioners demonstration
of evidence.

“We went through them, we observed that some names in the
register were not indicating that they did not vote, we also did
not notice any thumbprint infliction we could not go beyond that,
the attention of the tribunal was not drawn to what the petitioners
wanted demonstrate with the documents, “ Kekemeke said.

He added that all the 14 witnesses called by the petitioners’
none of them was a polling unit agent and their evidence was based
on evidence hearsay.

Mr Kekemeke further held that the witnesses agreed during
cross-examination that they cannot be in all polling units.

In the petition, Satumari averred that the election was marred
by corrupt practices and non- compliance with provision of the
Electoral Act.

He, therefore, sought the order of the tribunal for cancellation
of the election and for INEC to conduct fresh election for the
Senatorial District within 90 days.

Responding, Mr Ndume in his reply to the petition made available
to NAN also, denied the allegations in most of the paragraphs of
the petition.

In his reply filed on April 10, he argued that the said Borno
South Senatorial election was free and fair and not fraught with
irregularities and non- compliance with the Electoral Act.

Mr Ndume denied the allegations and averment contained in the
petition and demanded the petitioners for strict proof in
accordance with the law to the extent of their materiality to the
petition.

NAN

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Communication Minister Sets targets for Five Ministry’s
CEOs
The Honourable Minister of Communications, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim
Pantami, has set targets for the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of
the parastatals under the Ministry as well as the Directors of the
Ministry. He urged them to significantly improve the level of their
performance to reflect the Next Level paradigm of the
administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR.

He made this known during his extensive meetings with and
briefings by the various CEOs, which took place over a period of 1
week at the Ministry’s Headquarters in Abuja. The Minister assured
the CEOs of the Federal Government’s support as they discharge
their duties and reminded them of his commitment to sanction any
parastatal that fails to step up its performance.

The CEOs were given numerous targets, amongst which are some of
the following short-term targets:

1 Galaxy Backbone Plc:

i. To improve the reach and coverage of its services in the
public sector; and

ii. To significantly improve the quality of services
provided.

2. Nigerian Communications Commission:

i To bring to an end the issue of sales of pre-registered,
unregistered and partially-registered SIM cards, especially as this
can help in reducing numerous security challenges the nation faces;
and

ii To stem the tide of illegal deduction of the data of
subscribers and work towards the downward review of the cost of
data; and

iii. To ensure compliance with the maximum 2% Call Drop Rate
directive to telecom operators.

3. Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) Limited:

i. To significantly improve its level of visibility across the
country; and

ii. To ensure great improvement in the quality of its
services.

4. Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST):

i. To ensure an appreciable improvement in the efficiency of its
letter and parcel delivery service; and

ii. To increase the effective area of its coverage in the
country.

5. National Information Technology Development Agency
(NITDA):

i. To have a greater level of focus on increasing local content
development and patronage in the hardware and software sub-sectors;
and

ii. To strengthen the execution of its IT project clearance
mandate to capture more projects by the Ministries, Departments and
Agencies (MDAs); and

iii. To ensure the promotion and adoption of the Nigeria
e-Government Interoperability Framework (Ne-GIF) by the MDAs.

6. Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF):

i. To ensure there is a sustainability model in place for all
the projects deployed;

ii. To prepare plan to reduce the access gaps in the rural,
unserved and underserved areas.

Pantami emphasized the Ministry’s roles of supervision and
provision of broad policies for all the parastatals within the
Ministry. He informed the CEOs that their performance would be
assessed on a monthly basis. He asked them to be passionate,
hardworking and ensure that they exhibit high level of integrity in
the discharge of their duties. He urged them to follow due process
in their activities as championed by the President and also
directed them to communicate these values and targets to their
staff.

The Honorable Minister encouraged synergy, unity and the forging
of a harmonious inter-Agency relationship among the parastatals. He
also assured them of his total commitment to ensuring that no
obstacle stands in the way of the successful execution of their
mandates.

Phil, O. Oshodin (Mrs)
Deputy Director/Head
Information/Press & PR Unit.