PDP, Malami Disagree  Over Letter Directing INEC to Shift Polls in Zamfara The National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, yesterday accused the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, of writing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to postpone the elections in Zamfara State.He claimed that the correspondence was part of efforts by the ruling All Progressives Congress APC to “arm-twist INEC and the judiciary to take illegal action in their favour.” Addressing reporters in Abuja, Secondus alleged: “What the AGF is seeking is not backed by law. He is an interested party in this matter and has no moral right to advise INEC.“The inability of the APC to field candidates due to self-inflicted crisis when other parties did within the stipulated period for the election is not covered by Sections 38 & 39 of the Electoral Act 2010 which the AGF is relying on in his d...

Don’t Betray Your Oath, Acting CJN Tells Judges on Election Tribunals. Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad has urged judges nominated to serve in election tribunals to remain loyal to their judicial oath. Muhammad reminded the judges that their choice as members of the tribunals impose on them the duty to rise above all temptations and do justice in accordance with the law. He noted that the task of adjudicating election petitions would task the content of the conscience of members of the various election tribunals. The Acting CJN spoke in Abuja yesterday while swearing in 17 of the 250 judges nominated to serve in the election tribunals that will determine the various petition arising from this year’s general elections. Muhammad had, on January 26, this year, sworn in the others. The Acting CJN said: “You have just taken an oath that has not only imposed a course of upright morale undertaking on you, but equally looped you with destiny....

Why We Are Releasing N1.1trillion by End of December: FG The Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, says the Federal Government is working towards ensuring it pushes its releases for capital projects from the 2018 budget to N1.1 trillion by the end of December. The minister said this while answering questions at the public presentation of the 2019 budget highlights on Thursday in Abuja. President Muhammadu Buhari, while presenting the 2019 Budget estimates to a joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday, said that in spite of the delay in the passage of the 2018 Budget, N820.57 billion had been released for capital projects as at Dec. 14. He unveiled a federal budget of N8.83 trillion for the 2019 fiscal year, N300 billion lower than the N9.1 billion being implemented for the current fiscal year. According to Buhari, N4.04 trillion or 50.31 per cent is earmarked for recurrent expenditure and N2.03 trillion representing 22.98 per cent earmarked for capital projec...