Blast Naija Media

Kelvin Chukwu, the youngest brother of the assassinated Labour Party candidate in the Enugu East senatorial election, has been nominated as the successor to his brother. The Enugu East senatorial election will now hold on Saturday, March 11 alongside the gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections, as a result of the murder of Oyibo Chukwu, a former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) chairman in Enugu State, on Wednesday, February 22, three days to the presidential and National Assembly election. The younger Chukwu was elected the Labour Party standard bearer today by winning a whole 223 out of the  231 votes cast at Top 10 Hotel in Golf Estate, Enugu. His opponents, Dr Chinyeaka Ohaa, a retired permanent secretary; Chief Stanislaus Chinedu Nneji, commandant of the National Peace Corps; and Emmanuel Uchenna Ogbodo, a Special Adviser to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, scored no votes in the election conducted by the Labour Party National Vice Chairman for the Southeast, Chief Agumba Okeke,...

US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, has said that the presidential polls of February 25 failed to meet the expectations of Nigerians. The ambassador acknowledged that many are angry and frustrated with the results, while some others are celebrating victories they believe were hard-fought and well-earned. She, however, commended Nigerians for demonstrating their dedication to democracy Leonard, therefore, urged the Independent National Electoral Commission to promptly address the challenges that can be resolved ahead of the March 11 gubernatorial elections and to undertake a broader review of the problems that transpired during the last elections and what can be done to fix them. In addition, she urged INEC to share with the Nigerian public information about the actions it is taking. She made this known in an op-ed, ‘The Elections of February 25.’ She commended Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar for their commitment to take t...

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered that old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes remain in circulation till December 31, 2023. The apex court also nullified the Federal Government’s naira redesign policy, declaring it as an affront to the 1999 Constitution. Justice Emmanuel Agim, who read the lead judgement, held that the preliminary objections by the defendants (the Attorney General of the Federation, Bayelsa and Edo states) are dismissed as the court has the jurisdiction to entertain the suit. Citing Section 23(2)1 of the constitution, the court held that the dispute between the Federal Government and states must involve law or facts. The apex court further held that President Muhammadu Buhari in his broadcast admitted that the policy is flawed with a lot of challenges. The court said the policy has led to some people engaging in trade by barter in this modern age in a bid to survive. The court added that the President’s disobedience of the February 8 order, is a sign of dictatorship. Sixte...

  Tony Ubani #FixPolitics Initiative has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission of breaching the trust of Nigerians with its reported failure to upload the February 25, 2023 general elections results to its portal via the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System in real time, as it promised before the election.   Executive Director, #FixPolitics, Tony Ubani, in a statement, noted the various assurances by the commission’s officials that they were ready for the polls with deployment of the BVAS. He accused INEC of unpreparedness for the polls.   He stated, “At a press conference in November 2022, INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu – conscious of growing public concern about the sincerity, transparency and commitment of the commission to credible elections, in which the votes of citizens will be respected – assured Nigerians the commission would upload polling results to its portal at the polling unit, immediately after voting, adding that citizens...

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, have refused to concede defeat in the February 25 presidential election, vowing to recover their mandate in court. The two candidates turned down the gesture of conciliation made by the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, who in his acceptance speech after he was declared the winner of the poll on Wednesday, asked them to support him in the task of building the nation. Atiku and Obi spoke at separate news conferences in Abuja on Thursday.  In the early hours of Wednesday, the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Tinubu as the President-elect after the 70-year-old polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat his closest rivals, Atiku and Obi who scored 6,984,520 and 6,101, votes, respectively. Breaking his silence 24 hours after Tinubu was declared the winner of the hotly contested polls, an emotional Obi insisted that he won the election and he was ready to prove it. ...