By Nabilu Balarabe

Sen. Ahmed Lawan of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has won the Yobe North Senatorial District election in Yobe.

Declaring the results in Gashua on Monday, the Returning Officer, Prof. Omolala Aduoju of Federal University, Gashua, said Lawan scored 91,318 votes.

”Having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest votes, Alhaji Ahmed Lawan of the APC is hereby declared the winner and returned elected,”  she said.

She said Lawan’s closest opponent, Sheriff Abdullahi, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came second with 22,849, while the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP) candidate, Alhaji Garba Umar, scored 7,210 votes.

Aduoju said Action Democratic Party (ADP) scored three votes even though the party did not field a candidate in the election.

”The total votes cast in the election is 126,677 out of which 122,136 were valid and  4,541 votes rejected,” she said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the district comprises of Machina, Nguru, Bade, Karasuwa, Jakusko and Yusufari Local Government Areas.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Sadiya Hamza

By Diana Omueza

The Cleen Foundation, an NGO,  has lauded the conduct of the Nigeria Police and other law enforcement agencies during the general election held on Saturday.

The elrection was held to elect the President and Vice President and members of the Senate and House of Representatives.

Mr Peter Gad, Executive Director of the foundation gave the commendation while addressing newsmen on the foundation’s preliminary report on the conduct of security agencies in the elections.

Gad also urged the electorate to remain peaceful to the end of the entire electoral process.

He said from reports so far received from the foundation’s observers in senatorial districts across the country, the elections appeared  to have gone according to the standards for democratic elections to which Nigeria had committed itself.

“We deployed roving observers in the 109 Senatorial Districts and our preliminary reports indicates that, inspite some reported delays, the elections appear to be going on according to the standards for democratic elections.

“The 109 trained INEC accredited observers liaised with a sizable number of citizen observers across the country covering the 109 senatorial zones in Nigeria.

“They reported that the elections commenced early in most polling units before 9:00 am, however in Kogi, Ebonyi, Imo, Enugu, and Abia States observers reported delays due to late arrival of INEC staff and voting materials.

“While in Delta, Ebonyi, Imo, Ondo, and some part of Lagos State, late arrival of security personnel were reported in some polling units,” he said.

Gad said that in spite of the late arrivals of security, data gathered showed that over 80 per cent of the polling units had at least two or more security agents.

He added that almost all the polling units observed security agents were wearing easily visible and identifiable name tags and they were civil and approachable.

According to him, observers across the states reported that they felt safe and secure at the polling units.

“Our observers reported that security personnel in the polling units visited acted professionally and impartially towards the voters.

“The security personnel were of good conduct at the various polling units,” he said.

The director said that most of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) functioned reasonably well, except in few cases where the machines for different polling units were mixed up.

“The BVAS machine that was meant for a different unit was deployed to Polling Unit 004, Ward Dan Mangu Zodu, in Bassa LGA in Plateau State.

“Again our observer in Polling Unit 012, llesha Ward, Baruten LGA in Kwara State reported that the BVAS thumbprint failed to capture any registered voter as at 10:50 am.

“However, in all, the elections appear to have gone according to the standards for democratic elections to which Nigeria had committed itself,” he said.

Gad said that the group was still compiling reports from across various polling units and would disseminate a more elaborate post election report to the public in due time. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Sadiya Hamza

By Angela Atabo

A Coalition of Civil Society Organisations has expressed worry over the slow upload of the Presidential and National Assembly election results.

Mr Hamzat Lawal, Chief Executive, Connected Development (CODE), who spoke on behalf of the Civil Society Organisations on Sunday in Abuja, said that at the INEC result portal currently has only results for 40,000 polling units.

Lawal said,  “this is most disturbing as we are aware that INEC created over 50,000 new polling units with less than 100 registered voters in each of them.

“This is even as elections have since been concluded in most of these polling units at 2:30p.m., yesterday.

“One would expect that by midnight of yesterday, all this polling units results should have been uploaded.

“This expectation is coming from the experience we observed in the Ekiti and Osun Gubernatorial elections, where we witnessed over 95 per cent of the results uploaded before midnight on election day.”

He said that the CSOs were forwarding to INEC some of the reports they were got from the field.

Lawal said that with 20,000 community-driven observers on the ground, CODE and its partners using the Electoral Intelligence tool, Uzabe, noticed a worrisome trend across the nation .

He said that these pointed to the gaps and unpreparedness within the structure of the electoral process and which threaten the credibility of this election.

The coalition said that there were several reports which indicated that in states like Ekiti, Cross River, Imo, and Rivers, INEC had their Local Government Area (LGA) collation centers relocated without adequate information to stakeholders.

“In Ekiti especially, we have it on good authority that all LGA collation centres were relocated, and in most cases, accredited observers were outrightly denied access to were results were being collated.

“This happened in Oru East, Imo State, where our observers confirmed that no election was held and in fact, some voters were asked to vote in a private residential building of a party chieftain, which is clearly against INEC guidelines and the electoral act.

” Yet we have results from that LGA. This is an indictment on INEC and all that our constitution stands for,” the group said.

Lawal said that CODE and its partners  call on INEC to indeed be independent and serve the people what the constitution has mandated it to serve.

“Therefore we are calling on INEC to address these issues immediately. We are also calling on the Nigerian police as the lead agency on election security to monitor,” he said (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
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Edited by Bayo Sekoni

The United States is prohibiting the export of smartphones and other electrical goods worth more than $300 to Russia and Belarus, according to a new rule by the Industry and Security Bureau.

The rule, to be published by the U.S. Department of Commerce on Monday, revises the so-called “luxury goods’ sanctions” list.

“In response to the Russian Federation’s (Russia’s) ongoing aggression against Ukraine, as substantially enabled by Belarus, the Department of Commerce is expanding and strengthening the existing sanctions against Russia and Belarus, including the scope of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR)’s Russian and Belarusian industry sector sanctions and `luxury goods’ sanctions.

“This rule also refines existing export controls on Russia and Belarus,” the document says.
The revised sanctions list now includes “smartphones, valued at $300 per unit wholesale price in the U.S.,” according to the new rule.

The sanctions list also includes TVs, printers, sound recorders, grillers, vacuum cleaners, electronic calculators, keyboards, air coolers. (Sputnik/NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Emmanuel Yashim

By Moses Omorogieva

Police command in Lagos State says 23 persons suspected to be involved in electoral violence and other crimes were arrested during the presidential and national assembly elections on Saturday in Lagos.

The command’s spokesperson, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the arrest to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday.

Hundeyin noted that the figure of arrest might increase as the command was still collating the number of suspects arrested in different divisions during the Saturday exercise.

“Collation of suspects arrested ongoing. 23 suspects at last count,” he said.

NAN reports that hoodlums and unknown gunmen allegedly attacked some polling units and disrupted the elections in Mafoluku area and burnt ballot papers thumb printed.

The Commissioner of Police in Lagos, CP Idowu Owohunwa, told newsmen on Saturday that there were pocket of violence in some parts of the state.

Owohunwa said that some persons were arrested, noting that number of people arrested would be made known to the public. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Folasade Adeniran

By Peter Okolie

The Police Command in Imo and the National Secretary of the PDP, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, have lauded the peaceful conduct of Saturday’s election in the state.

They gave the commendation on Sunday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) while giving their assessment of the election in the state.

The state’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Henry Okoye, said that the command did not record any violence or any arrest in any polling unit.

Likewise, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, who hailed the Police and other security operatives for their professional conduct, said there was no report of violence in his area.

Anyanwu, who said he voted at Polling Unit 012, Central School, Amaimo in Ikeduru Local Government Area, said the entire electoral process was peaceful.

“The process was peaceful, except for the fact that INEC officials were not so conversant with the BVAS.

“Although they managed the situation, they were slow in handling the BVAS machine,” Anyanwu said, while expressing optimism of improved process in subsequent elections.

In his assessment, Okoye further noted that security operatives deployed for the election performed their duties professionally.

“Our men conducted themselves in the best professional, democratic and human-right compliant manner, and I can tell you that Imo people can attest to this,” Okoye said.

According to him, many had thought that Imo would be hot and that elections will not hold in the state.

Okoye attributed the security success recorded in the state to the strategy deployed by the state’s Commissioner of Police, Mr Muhammed Barde, his management team as well as the synergy with other security agencies.

“The strategic deployment of security personnel yielded a lot of results, even the seminars we have been conducting also contributed and yielded a lot of results,” he added.

He also commended Imo youths “because they did not only come out en mass to exercise their franchise at the polling units but devolved themselves to non-violence in any form.

“And as such, election was peaceful in every polling unit where election was conducted,” he said.

However, Okoye declined comments when asked about attempts by suspected hoodlums to disrupt Saturday’s election process in Orsu.

NAN gathered that security operatives intercepted election materials which were hijacked by the hoodlums in Orsu.

Eyewitness said security operatives neutralised the hoodlums and duly returned the materials to the INEC officials.

According to the source, election subsequently proceeded peacefully in the area. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Idris Abdulrahman

By Ishaq Zaki

Gov. Bello Matawalle of Zamfara has signed into law, the Bill establishing the state Anti-thuggery Agency.

This is contained in a statement issued in Gusau on Sunday by the Press Secretary to the Governor, Jamilu Iliyasu.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Matawalle had in February 2022 issued an Executive Order setting up a committee to tackle thuggery, drug abuse and related offences in the state.

The governor later forwarded a bill to the state House of Assembly for a law to establish the state anti-thuggery agency, which was passed by the lawmakers.

The governor said the agency was established by his administration to complement the efforts of security agencies in curtailing thuggery related cases in the state.

He added that the agency would also help to inculcate good morals in the youths towards a more decent society.

According to the statement, the governor also assented to the amended law setting up the state Area Development Councils.

He said the area development councils were created to bring people closer to government and enhance development at the grassroots, to meet the aspirations of the electorate.

The governor thanked the Assembly for passing the two bills into law and supporting the government to ensure the overall development of the state. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Abubakar Ahmed/Maharazu Ahmed