Kogi state governor declares 3-day mourning period for Prince Audu

Kogi state governor, Idris Wada has declared a three day mourning period in the state for a former governor of the state and his main rival in the Saturday November 21st inconclusive governorship election in the state, Abubakar Audu who died yesterday November 22nd at the age of 68.

In a statement signed by the Secretary to the State Govt, Prof. Adegbemiro Jegede, Wada expressed his sadness over the sudden demise of Audu, describing the deceased as a great Kogite and a great Nigerian who contributed immensely to the socio-economic and political development of the State.

Keyamo examines the legal implications of the death of Prince Audu

Read the press statement from revered lawyer Festus Keyamo below...

The reported death on Sunday, November 22nd, 2015, of the APC candidate in the Kogi State Governorship elections, Prince Abubakar Audu, is extremely shocking and sad. I would like to express my condolences to the entire family of Audu and to the people of Kogi State. However, the real question agitating the minds of everybody is the legal implication regarding the inconclusive Governorship elections at the time of his demise.

To state it correctly he was said to have died AFTER the announcement of the results by INEC and after INEC had declared the elections inconclusive. Admittedly, this is a strange and novel constitutional scenario. It has never happened in our constitutional history to the extent that when an election has been partially conducted (and not before or after the elections) a candidate dies. What then happens? This is a hybrid situation between what happened in the case of Atiku Abubakar/Boni Haruna in 1999 and the provision of section 33 of the Electoral Act, 2010.

In the case of Atiku Abubakar/Boni Haruna [which is now a clear constitutional provision of section 181(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended)] the Supreme Court held, in effect, that “if a person duly elected as Governor dies before taking and subscribing the Oath of Allegiance and oath of office, or is unable for any reason whatsoever to be sworn in, the person elected with him as Deputy governor shall be sworn in as Governor and he shall nominate a new Deputy-Governor who shall be appointed by the Governor with the approval of a simple majority of the house of Assembly of the State”.

In the case of section 33 of the Electoral Act 2010 it provides, in effect, that if a person has been duly nominated as a candidate of his party and he dies before the election then the political party has the right to replace him with another candidate and not necessarily the Deputy Governorship candidate. Now, does the Kogi situation fit into section 181(1) of the Constitution as quoted above or section 33 of the Electoral Act mentioned above?

My simple position is that the Kogi situation fits more into section 181(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and as such James Abiodun Faleke automatically becomes the governorship candidate of the APC. This is because even though the election in inconclusive, votes have been counted and allocated to Parties and candidates. As a result the joint ticket of Audu/Faleke has acquired some votes already. James Abiodun Faleke is as much entitled to those votes already counted as much as the late Abubakar Audu. He has a right to cling to those votes going into the supplementary election. There is only one problem, though. Who nominates Faleke’s Deputy? Unlike section 181(1) of the 1999 Constitution, he cannot approach the House of Assembly of the State to approve a nomination by him of a Deputy. This is because, in reality, he is not duly elected yet.

Therefore it is only reasonable to conclude that it is APC (Faleke’s political party) that should submit the name of a fresh Deputy Governorship candidate to INEC for the supplementary election. This is the only position in this situation that accords with reason and good sense.

Check out the World Building of the Year

An astonishing 'vertical village' has been named the world building of the year. The eye-catching housing development calleed The Interlace has been recognized in the World Architecture Festival 2015.

The Singapore condominium includes 31 apartment blocks stacked by breeze blocks at angles to each other and won in the housing category. It includes 1,040 homes across eight hectares and was finished two years ago.

Photos from the building collapse in Lagos that killed 4 children from one family

Four boys between the ages of 13 and 23 months from one family were killed after a mudslide due to the heavy rainfall in Lagos yesterday morning at about 4.15am, buried them alive while they were still sleeping in their home at Orisha Street, Isheri Magodo, Imodium, Ojodu/Berger in Lagos.

NEMA officials say the area is a flood prone area and people living in the area had been told to vacate the area due to the heavy rainfall that is being expected in the coming weeks and the poor topography of the area.

Unfortunately, this particular family failed to heed this advice, losing  four of their sons in the mudslide. The distraught father of the boys was inconsolable as he kept on asking "Where is God?. There mother is said to be lying unconcious in a hospital. Sad. 

PDP Senators will soon move in their numbers to APC – Senate Leader

DP Senators will soon move in their numbers to APC – Senate Leader

Senate leader, Mohammed Ali Ndume says many PDP Senators will soon defect to the APC. He said this in an interview with Leadership, while denying claims that many APC senators will in the future defect to PDP for political tickets to higher political offices.

Ndume says contrary to this opinion, PDP senators will be moving en-mass to their party because their party is currently in a coma...

"Yes, because PDP is in a coma and only God knows when it will recover. As you can see now, they do not have any doctor or pharmacist and the only nurse is Olisa Metuh. I am part of some of the APC members trying to convince some of them over to move over to our side and they will soon move in their numbers in the Senate. So, when you tell me that APC members are going over to the PDP, it is strange to me because like I said earlier, I am trying to convince some of my colleagues over to the APC. And you know that electoral shock is worse than electric shock. That was what PDP suffered and they had a relapse again by the decisions at the tribunals so, we do not know when they will get out of it"he said

Ndume also spoke on why APC senators stood against the motion seeking to pay N5,000 allowance to unemployed Nigerians as promised during their campaign period

"I think that there was a political ambush there, if not, how would the senators of the Federal Republic tell the president to start the implementation of payment of N5000 to youths who are not working. I was of the opinion that if they were serious and patriotic about it, and that is why I wanted to amend the motion, that the Senate would have asked the president to bring a supplementary budget to cover such expense. That what I wanted to amend but that would have been a better prayer to ask Mr President to bring to the National Assembly, a supplementary budget that will be approved to enable him to start implementing the payment of N5000 to indigent people. The president cannot just pay such monies, where will he get it from without Appropriation? So, the National Assembly cannot be part of that unless the resources were appropriated for and the president says he has only about 30 million in the bank. You cannot use that to pay people. PDP wanted to use that for a cheap blackmail but that did not work, Nigerians are more educated than that. But the president is still serious about it and we are looking for all avenues to be able to raise resources to be able to execute the project which is laudable. I am sure that by 2016 when the budget is brought room will be made for it. Also, you have to build a data base because if you start paying, who will you pay to? The first thing now is for the government to be able to have the statistics of all those concerned, the indigent, the unemployed, the elderly and then you know where they are including their data before you start payment"he said.

Man in wheelchair hitches a ride by clinging to car

A bizarre video was posted on the internet which showed a man in a wheelchair hitching a lift up a steep hill - on the back of a taxi. The footage was captured by a passenger in a car traveling behind the cab and shows the man clinging onto the door handle of the vehicle. It is not clear whether the taxi driver is aware of his extra passenger, although the vehicle does appear to be traveling relatively slowly. The clip was reportedly filmed in Salvador, northeast Brazil.

According to a Brazilian news website, locals have commented on seeing the man clinging onto taxis in the past. It is possible that the man had paid for his trip before realising his wheelchair would not be able to fit in the car.

Amazing! Paul Okoye grants wife's birthday wish to help a child with cancer

The P-Square singer shared the photo above of a little boy with cancer on his instagram and wrote;

"Sometimes we all need a type of woman in our lives " a sweet,loving and caring woman indeed"... On Thursday evening i asked my wife what she wants for her birthday, and also was telling her part of my plans for her big day, but without telling her am planing for a surprise party . But then she wasn't happy, she snapped and walked out �� and I was confused, wondering if I said something wrong...

after sometime she was like did u see what I sent you on your DM? Am like nop, she said check it , with tears in her eyes.....and so I checked I saw the picture of a child, who has cancer and needed to go for a surgery ......and then said to me, all I want for my birthday is for this child to have his surgery on monday�� ,, and so on Friday morning I contacted a family member of the child,asked a few questions, was told that some good Nigerians are donating, and how much they needed to complete for the surgery... And so I and my wife completed the fund needed.... They called us and thanked us:... Then I went back on my plans on how am going to make my wife's birthday a special one.... And again she said pls even if u re planing for anything big or surprise for me..... That it won't make her happy..... That she will rather prefer we spend it on this Eniola child ..... And so I cancelled all my plans, bcos it's her wish....... By the way today is my lovely wife's birthday .....happy birthday sweetie ������ love you plenty plenty... And may God bless all the good Nigerians who contributed for this child surgery, and we pray is going to be successful ...Amen!!!