The Allied People’s Movement (APM) has kicked against the
appointment of a judge of the Lagos State judiciary, Josephine
Coker, as the head of the newly constituted Ogun State Governorship
Election Petition Tribunal.
Supporters of the state governor, Ibikunle Amosun, ran on the
platform of the APM in this year’s elections after they failed to
secure nominations in the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Mr Amosun successfully ran for the Senate on the platform of the
APC but led APM campaign rallies in the state.
The National Chairman of the APM, Yusuf Dantalle, made the
party’s position on Mrs Coker’s appointment known at a press
conference on Monday held at the party’s state secretariat in
Abeokuta.
He said the party had written a petition to this effect to the
President of the Court of Appeal, Zainab Bulkachuwa.
The Court of Appeal had removed Justice Onyeabo as the chairman
of the tribunal and replaced him with Mrs Coker.
The APM described the development as unfair and mischievous.
The APC had earlier filed a motion asking Mrs Bulkachuwa to
disband the panel.
The secretary of the tribunal, Nyior Sekulla, later confirmed
that the panel has been affected in a reshuffle of election
petition tribunals across the country.
However, the APM National Chairman said the initial panel was
disbanded to frustrate the petition of APM against the election of
Dapo Abiodun of the APC as governor.
He said Mrs Coker was appointed a judge in Lagos by both Bola
Tinubu and Vice President Osinbajo who are stakeholders in the
ongoing petition at the tribunal.
He added that APC in a motion dated April 15 prayed for the
disbandment of the old panel.
Mr Dantalle said although the motion is slated for hearing on
May 8, “a memo was believed to have been received by the Tribunal
that the panel be disbanded and replaced with a new one.”
The APM said that the timing of the decision of the Court of
Appeal and the choice of the new tribunal panel suggested the whole
process was predetermined.
Part of the petition reads: “Obviously, their craftily contrived
application not only envisaged Adekunle AbdulKabir Akinlade/APM’s
petition no EPT/OG/GOV/01/19 but demanded a complete change of
members of the panel, and in their place, “a new panel”. My Lord,
to this end, the new panel is totally unacceptable to the Allied
Peoples’ Movement (APM).
“I have, within the narrow paginations in this
petition/complaint against the unfair, wrong, and mischievous
dismissal of Omyeabo’s panel provided the basis/grounds/reasons why
this newly contrived panel should be done away with’.
“Politicians of influence and particularly those in the exalted
offices must not be allowed to interfere with the due
administration of Justice. Their obvious design is to engender
injustice against APM and her governorship candidate’.
“It is for the reason given above and many more that I, as
National Chairman of Allied People’s Movement, APM, respectively
urge your Lordship to disband the newly constituted panel led by
Justice Adenike Coker and reconstitute a new one in the interest of
Justice.”
Subscribe ToNairalaw News!
Read more amosuns-apm-rejects-lagos-judges-membership-of-ogun-election-petition-tribunal/
ICT: FG Engages Academia, Stakeholders for Innovation
In its quest to foster rapid revolution, innovation, industrial
growth, and sustainable development in the Nigerian ICT sector, the
Federal Government says it is facilitating greater linkages between
the Academia, stakeholders in the ICT sector and the international
telecommunication union (ITU) for cordial collaboration to attain
the nation’s (ICT) set goals and objectives.
Minister of communications, Dr. Adebayo Shittu, who was
represented by Technical Assistant to the Permanent Secretary, Dr.
Patricks Oghuma disclosed this while addressing participants at the
international conference on Information Technology in Education and
Development (ITED-2019) with the theme “Advancing the Capacities of
Information Technology professionals for Rapid National
Development”, held at Baze University, Abuja.
He said, “We count on the continued engagements of the private
sector and interest groups of ICT professionals to support the
economic policies of this administration. Our destiny with regards
to national development are in our own hands as ICT
professionals”.
Dr. Shittu maintains that the Ministry of Communications will
ensure Nigeria continues its good work within the ITU and also
ensure her interests in relation to the national ICT policy is
protected and enhanced which explains why it has identified the
need to collaborate with academia in the area of research and
national development.
He charged the Academia to undertake focused research, targeted
at solving specific problems, leveraging on its huge students
/talents capacity, adding that they should let the outcome of their
research findings are relevant and useful for the market and
national development in the long run.
The Minister Regretted that these days, universities are being
evaluated based on the number of papers they write and publish
rather than on practical knowledge and result oriented techniques
that companies need.
He described the “mathematics-based science” as a mismatch,
stating that the trend must be changed in tandem with the creative
economic paradigm of the 21st century.
He assures that his Ministry would not rest on its oars to
rejuvenate its mandate by ensuring ICT professionals are always
consulted and engaged, as well as liaise with research think tanks,
relevant scholarly communities for national development.
Highlighting the significance of the conference, the President,
Academic Information Technology Professionals (AITP), Prof. A..A
Obiniyi said the aim of AITP is to enhance quality education and
ensure high impact research in computer science, information
technology and related disciplines, with interest in use of
information technology to enhance national development
He pointed out that the time has come for Nigeria to set a pace
for the establishment of professionalism in the IT, teaching and
related discipline and must therefore brainstorm on how to put
Nigeria on the global map by looking into what we have to get what
we need.
According to him, “we need to explore a new, innovative and
emerging form of research emanating from our laboratories which can
bring to bearing local contents”.