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THE All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) has insisted that the party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was as at Tuesday, November 29 still in Abuja, not in the United States (US), as being speculated.

  APC PCC Director of Media and Publicity, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday, November 30 in Abuja that the report was false.

  He described the picture making the rounds that Tinubu was in the U.S. with President Joe Biden as fake and should be disregarded, adding: “A viral photograph showing Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and U.S. President Joe Biden in talks at the White House is the latest in the series of misinformation being dished out by the political opposition.

  “We cannot just fathom the purpose of the mischief and the falsehood which emanated from the rabid followers of Peter Obi, the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate.

  “The apparently photo-shopped image surfaced Tuesday night, on the heels of news that Asiwaju will embark on a foreign trip this weekend.”

  Onanuga said although the US was listed among Tinubu’s destinations, he could confirm that the APC presidential candidate was in Abuja all through Tuesday, noting that Tinubu was in Abuja on Monday as well and had no need to surreptitiously leave Nigeria, like some other presidential candidates did.

  He said the APC presidential candidate would be travelling to Bayelsa State for a rally on Thursday, December 1 in accordance with the party’s campaign programme, saying: “He is not scheduled to travel outside the country until the weekend for speaking engagements.

  “His first port of call will be Chatham House in London, where he will speak on his Action Plan for Nigeria.”

THE Delta State Government has denied any wrongdoing in its handling 13 per cent derivation funds that accrued to the state, with Commissioner for Finance, Chief Fidelis Tilije, on Monday, November 28, disclosing that the state’s total debt profile currently stood at N272 billion.

  Tilije, at a news conference in Asaba, said the N240 billion refunds from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) was not a loan, but the state’s share of 13 per cent crude oil derivation arrears from 2004 till date.

  The commissioner, alongside the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, Mr. Olisa Ifeajika, explained that the state government could offset its current debt if it discounted 100 per cent of its share of N240 billion refund approved by the Federal Government.

  According to him: “The total debt profile of Delta State as we speak is N272 billion. Out of this, N84 billion is due to contractors and pension arrears is about N27 billion. The rest are the debt profile actually inherited by the administration.

  “And in this past months, we have a total expected refund of N240 billion with respect to the 13 per cent oil derivation refunds to nine states that is ongoing. We had initially wanted to phase out  many legacy projects that we wanted to complete, we approached the state House of Assembly and got approval to discount N150 billion, which we pruned to N100 billion, as bridging finance facility from the N240 billion.

  “I did say recently that out of this N240  billion that is expected from FAAC receipts, Delta has received N14.7 billion in three quarterly installments. And out of this N100 billion bridging finance, we have accessed N30 billion from the commercial market.”

  Tilije said with the totality of the refunds expected from FAAC, the state could clean up the outstanding debt profile if it fully discounted the N240 billion, adding that the governor, being a prudent manager of human and resources, felt it would be necessary not to allow a repeat of the experience he had as new government in 2015.

  “At inception in 2015, Okowa’s administration saw hell managing the lean resources available to the state as a new government. This informed why all the state governments had to take a bailout fund from the federal government in 2015.

  “The truth is that if the state government had totally taken or fully discounted the N240 billion FAAC refund, the next successive government will fall back to the experience Okowa had in 2015.

  “So, unlike the other oil producing states, who fully discounted their refunds, Okowa decided to be his brother’s keeper, take a percentage of the N240 billion and leave the rest for the incoming government to access over a period of four years.

  “Besides, if we had gone ahead to discount the N240 billion in full, we would have been able to clean up all our outstanding debt,” he stated.

  Tilije noted that every government financed its budgets from FAAC receipts, Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), borrowings and sundry facilities, charging the social media to always report facts.

  Ifeajika, on his part, stressed that the state government was transparent and had nothing to hide.

THE move by Senate President Ahmad Lawan to retain his senatorial seat, on Monday, November 28, suffered another setback, as the Court of Appeal affirmed Bashir Machina as the All Progressives Congress (APC) authentic senatorial candidate for Yobe North.

  The three-member appellate court, in a judgment delivered by the President of the Court, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensen, dismissed Lawan’s appeal for lacking in merit.

  The senate president had filed an appeal challenging the decision of Justice Fadimatu Aminu of the Federal High Court, Damaturu, which on September 28, declared Machina as winner of the party’s primary election in May, as Lawan had opted to contest for the presidential primary election in June.

  The Judge nullified the parallel primary election that produced Lawan on June 9 and ordered the APC to forward the name of Machina to INEC as the authentic winner of the primary held in May.

  Lawan had contested the party’s presidential primary election won by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, while Machina contested and won his bid to take over as the party’s senatorial candidate.

  Machina was later asked to step down for Lawan, but he refused to step down for Lawan, leading the APC to conduct a parallel primary election, where the senate president emerged as the candidate and his name was submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as its senatorial candidate for Yobe North.

  Aggrieved by the development, Machina headed to court to seek redress, praying the court to declare him as the party’s validly elected Yobe North senatorial candidate in next year’s election.

THE move by Senate President Ahmad Lawan to retain his senatorial seat, on Monday, November 28, suffered another setback, as the Court of Appeal affirmed Bashir Machina as the All Progressives Congress (APC) authentic senatorial candidate for Yobe North.

  The three-member appellate court, in a judgment delivered by the President of the Court, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensen, dismissed Lawan’s appeal for lacking in merit.

  The senate president had filed an appeal challenging the decision of Justice Fadimatu Aminu of the Federal High Court, Damaturu, which on September 28, declared Machina as winner of the party’s primary election in May, as Lawan had opted to contest for the presidential primary election in June.

  The Judge nullified the parallel primary election that produced Lawan on June 9 and ordered the APC to forward the name of Machina to INEC as the authentic winner of the primary held in May.

  Lawan had contested the party’s presidential primary election won by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, while Machina contested and won his bid to take over as the party’s senatorial candidate.

  Machina was later asked to step down for Lawan, but he refused to step down for Lawan, leading the APC to conduct a parallel primary election, where the senate president emerged as the candidate and his name was submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as its senatorial candidate for Yobe North.

  Aggrieved by the development, Machina headed to court to seek redress, praying the court to declare him as the party’s validly elected Yobe North senatorial candidate in next year’s election.

THE All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is to take a break from his campaign for at least eight days next month to enable him embark on a tour of some selected Western countries.

  Tinubu, according to a series of tweets by the APC Presidential Campaign Council on Monday, November 28, would be out of the country between December 4 and 12 and is expected to return to Nigeria by December 12 to continue his campaign rallies and stakeholders’ engagement.

  According to the tweet: “APC Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will embark on foreign trips from December 4 to meet global leaders and pitch his presidential aspiration.

  “The APC presidential candidate will travel to key Western capitals from December 4 and is expected to return to Nigeria latest December 12 to continue his campaign rallies and stakeholders’ engagement.

  “Tinubu and his delegation will be in London, US, France and key European Union (EU) member states to share his vision and plans and to also solicit the support of the Western powers for the democratic process that will usher in new administration in Nigeria from May 29, 2023.”

THE Appeal Court, Ibadan Division, on Monday, November 28 restored Oladipupo Adebutu as the validly elected governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State.

  The court also reinstated the three senatorial, nine House of Representatives and 26 House of Assembly candidates of PDP who emerged through the party’s primaries conducted by its National Working Committee (NWC) and monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

  Recall that Justice O.O. Oguntoyinbo of the Federal High Court in Abeokuta had on September 27 voided the primaries that produced Adebutu and the others and directed the party to conduct fresh primaries within 14 days.

  But dissatisfied, the PDP appealed the judgment, praying the appellate court to set aside the lower court’s decision.

  Adebutu also filed an appeal against the judgment.

  In its ruling, the appellate court, in a judgment read by Justice Nimpar Yargata, said the trial court fell into error by nullifying the primaries that produced Adebutu, having been conducted by the NWC of the party.

  Justice Yargata said Taiwo Olabode Idris and others who instituted the case at the lower court were not aspirants of the party and consequently had no locus standi to challenge the outcome of the primaries, adding that the court’s decision in APC versus Umar, which the respondents relied heavily upon in their submissions before the court, had been overtaken by the current provision of the Electoral Act, 2022 that only aspirant can query the outcome of primaries elections.

  The Justice declared that only the NWC of the party and not the State Working Committee has the power to conduct primaries, as spelt out in Section 221 of the 1999 Constitution, pointing out a contradiction in the respondents’ relief of a declaration to pronounce Jimi Lawal as the governorship candidate.

  She held that those who filed the initial suit had no stand in law to so do, as the issue of primary was not a human rights matter, noting that the trial court “went on a frolic on its own” by voiding the primaries of Adebutu, whose appeal she described as meritorious.

  She, therefore, resolved all issues in favour of Adebutu and set aside the judgment of the Federal High Court, with all the orders it made.

  On three earlier judgments of the same court in the appeals by the PDP and the cross appeals by the respondents in the suit filed at the lower court by Prince Segun Seriki against the PDP, Justice Folasade Ojo of the same appellate court had earlier, in a judgment, nullified the parallel primaries conducted by Seriki and others.