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HURIWA slams FG, says frustrating Obi’s petition against Tinubu is a tyranny of highest order
CIVIL rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA), on Monday, knocked the Federal Government for using various subterfuge and divisive means to frustrate the petition of the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi against his All Progressives Congress counterpart, Bola Tinubu.
HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the Federal Government and President Muhammadu Buhari asked those who were not satisfied with the outcome of the February 25 presidential election to go to court which Obi and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party have since done.
HURIWA, however, said it is ironic yet tyrannical that the same Buhari administration has unleashed a reign of political terrorism and targeted attacks using Department of State Services, the Nigeria Police Force and government officials to actively embark on campaigns of calumny against Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed to undermine their petition against Tinubu and the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The group again reiterated that there is nothing wrong in applying legal means to stop the inauguration of the President-Elect, Bola Tinubu on May 29, 2023 because the February 25, 2023 election that produced him is still being actively challenged in court by leading candidates in the poll.
HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “The Presidential election of February 25th 2023 is generally believed to have been rigged and criminally manipulated by INEC led by Mahmood Yakubu just to favour the APC candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“When those who felt cheated complained, the APC government at the centre asked them to go to court. LP and PDP went to court but Labour Party’s petition is considered very damaging to the credibility claims of Bola Tinubu because it is even asking that he be disqualified from ever going near the office of President of Nigeria.
“But the Buhari administration has unleashed a reign of political terrorism and targeted attacks using DSS, police abd even military chiefs to actively embark on campaigns of calumny against Peter Obi and Datti Ahmed and also the police invaded Labour Party’s secretariat to force regime change with the open agenda to undermine Peter Obi’s petition- the same petition you asked Peter obi and others who felt cheated to file. This is tyranny.
“Also, the efforts to compromise the judiciary through subterfuge and secret meetings as alleged in the recent travels on wheelchair of the Chief Justice of Nigeria is another damaging allegation that is deliberately swept under the carpets and the judiciary thinks it is business as usual.
“These are very critical issues but the greatest sabotage against democracy is the use of police to destabilise Labour Party to force regime change. Nigerians must condemn this brazen attempt at establishing anarchy and impunity in Nigeria. You can’t manipulate the poll and still manipulate the security forces to sabotage the petition filed by a litigant who is not satisfied with the conduct of the presidential election. This attempt must be arrested forthwith.”
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Stop using repressive laws to intimidate journalists – SERAP, NGE tell FG
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, and Nigeria Guild of Editors, NGE, have called on Nigerian authorities at all levels of government to stop using repressive and anti-media laws to target, intimidate and harass journalists, critics and media houses.
The groups made the demand after an interactive session on ‘the state of press freedom in Nigeria’ held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Ikeja.
In a joint statement, SERAP and NGE said that, “the government of President Bola Tinubu, the country’s 36 governors and FCT minister must now genuinely uphold press freedom, ensure access to information to all Nigerians, obey court judgments, and respect the rule of law”.
They expressed concerns about the escalating crackdown on the right to freedom of expression and media freedom and the flagrant disregard for the rule of law by authorities at all levels of government.
The groups note that the suppression of the press in recent times takes various forms ranging from extrajudicial to unlawful detentions, disappearances, malicious prosecutions and wrongful use of both legislation and law enforcement.
The statement read in part: “We would continue to speak truth to power and to hold authorities to account for their constitutional and international obligations including on freedom of expression and media freedom.
“Nigeria as a country has a long and unpleasant history of press gagging and clampdown on media freedom, which is evidence of extensive state censorship of media and in some cases, the utter control of state-owned media houses.
“This position has not changed considerably despite almost 25 years of unbroken democratic rule in the Fourth Republic.”
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FG adds 625MW to national grid – Minister
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Tax: Court orders FCT-IRS agency to seal off defaulting coys
A Magistrate Court sitting in Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, on Friday, ordered the Federal Capital Territory Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS) to seal off a company, Ifedi A.K. Nigeria Ltd, over allegations bordering on non-filing of annual returns.
The Magistrate, Janada Balami, gave the order after lawyer to FCT-IRS, Michael Towolawi, moved the application to the effect.
Towolawi told the court that the company had failed to file its annual returns from 2019 to 2023 in breach of Section 81 of the Personal Income Tax Act, LFN, 2004, and amended in 2011.
He said all efforts to make the company comply with the law proved abortive.
The lawyer, therefore, applied that the company be compel to appear before the court to explain why it acted in breach of the law.
Balami, who held that the application by the agency against the company had merit, accordingly granted same to seal the No 6, Rudolph Close, Off Katsina-Ala Street, Maitama, Abuja.
She, consequently, ordered the company, the sole defendant in the matter, to appear before the court on May 16.
The Director, Legal Services of the FCT-IRS, Festus Tsavar, told journalists after the proceeding that the service would move against companies that do not file their annual returns as provided by law.
“You know that we have a new minister in FCT that is doing a lot of projects and that hinges on money.
“And of course, you are aware that FCT has come out of TSA.
“So it is the internally generated revenue that will make the government of FCT to be able to do those projects completely within required time,” he said.
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