Northern politicians wooing Buhari to unseat Tinubu, says Shehu Sani

Senator Shehu Sani has alleged that northern politicians are working hard to woo Muhammadu Buhari in a plot to remove President Bola Tinubu from office ahead of 2027 presidential election.

He said the recent visits by the politicians to ex-President Buhari are part of the calculated moves to unseat Tinubu in the 2027 general election.

Indeed, the ex-senator noted that the northern politicians were interested in resurrecting Buhari’s political charm and fanaticism to mobilise the gullible people in the North for a selfish reason.

Newstrends recalls that many top northern politicians have recently visited Buhari in his Daura home, Katsina State.

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and Aminu Tambuwal, ex-governor of Sokoto, visited Buhari on June 22

About 24 hours after, Nasir el-Rufai, an ex-governor of Kaduna, also visited the former president.

In a statement on Monday, Sani said that though the visits were tagged as “Sallah homage,” they had a political undertone.

“The recent visits by some prominent northern politicians to Daura appear to be the usual Eid homage, but looking deeper and beyond the facade, it’s surreptitiously a new attempt to build a strong northern alliance using ex-President Buhari as a rallying point to challenge and evict President Tinubu’s government in 2027,” the statement read.

He also stated, “It’s a regrouping of Northern political forces for the next general election. A project that will eventually kiss the dust.

“They want to resurrect Buhari’s political charm and fanaticism and mobilise the gullible to another hollow and bewildering end.

“They want to stock up and light up the Arewa sentiment without considering the inferno it would eventually generate.”

Sani noted Buhari, a northerner who served as president for eight years, did not make a significant impact on the nation.

“They had power and wasted it. What do they want to do with it again?”

The former senator said, “A southerner is in power just for one year. It’s too early for the desperate and power-hungry northern elite to start plotting.

“The South never did that to Buhari. Their intended action has the capacity of ruining the democratic process and wrecking the fragile unity of the country when the south is awakened to this reality. Their obsession with power is condemnable.

“Opposition to Tinubu from the point of policies, promises and programs of his administration is a democratic right of any Nigerian.

“People have the right to speak and criticize the government. But attempts to whip up Northern sentiments to achieve their political ends is a dangerous political experiment and expedition at this material time.

“No serious southerner challenged Buhari for eight years. These power-drunk Northern politicians are dragging the region to a new political journey through a land mine.

“The Daura homage of the disgruntled and the obsessed will fail. Our people in the North should reject these faces and their plots.

“They have nothing to offer. From the abandoned Baro Port, Ajaokuta, Lake Chad basin refiling and Mambilla hydropower, they failed.”

PDP expels former Edo deputy governor, Philip Shaibu

Former Edo State Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, has been expelled from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Shaibu’s expulsion was announced on Wednesday by the leadership of the Edo chapter of the party.

The national vice chairman (South-South) of the party, Dan Orbih, was also expelled.

The development is contained in a statement issued in Benin by the party’s state publicity secretary, Ogie Vasco.

According to Vasco, Shaibu and Orbih were expelled for anti-party activities, according to PDP.

We’re studying judgement declaring pro-Wike lawmakers PDP members – APC

The leadership of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State said, on Tuesday, that it was studying Monday judgment, which declared the Martin Amaewhule-led 27 members of the state House of Assembly members of the Peoples Democratic Party.

The Rivers APC  Publicity Secretary, Chibuike Ikenga, said the party would take a position after receiving advise from its lawyers.

Speaking with The PUNCH on Tuesday, Ikenga stated, “Well the decision of the court is what it is. Ours is to obey or appeal.

“But as we speak our leadership is looking at it and based on the advice from the legal department of our party we will take a position on it.”

Asked how soon that will happen, he said, “I think the process is on now. We are in stakeholders engagement so we will know the next line of action afterwards.”

A Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt, had, on Monday, declared that the 27 lawmakers loyal to ex-governor Nyesom Wike are PDP members.

The court ruled that the 27 lawmakers were still valid members of the  Rivers State House of Assembly because there was no proof that they had defected from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress.

The court, in a ruling by Justice Okogbule Gbasam, struck out the suit filed by Hyacinth Amadi and three others, seeking to declare the seats of the 27 lawmakers vacant on the grounds that they defected from the PDP to the APC.

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The 27 lawmakers had last year announced their defection from the PDP to the APC at the height of the crisis between Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his estranged political godfather, Nyesom Wike.

The Assembly also became factionalised following a failed attempt by the pro-Wike lawmakers to impeach Fubara in October last year.

But in his ruling on Monday, Justice Gbasam held that Amadi and others. seeking to declare the seats of the pro-Wike lawmakers vacant, failed to bring any concrete evidence to convince the court that the pro-Wike lawmakers had truly defected and deserved to lose their seats.

The judge ruled that defection cannot be established through newspaper publications, radio announcements or online publications.

According to the court, a defection can only be established through the party membership register, a membership card and such members fulfilling all requirements of their membership in the party.

But the Rivers State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice,  Dagogo Iboroma, (SAN), said the judgment could not be true because, according to him, the Rivers State High Court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the case.

Iboroma said, “As the Honourable Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and the 3rd defendant in the Suit No DHC/20/CS/2024, my attention has been drawn to a recent judgment.

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“This suit did not seek to declare the seat of Martins Amaewhule and 26 others in Rivers State House of Assembly vacant.

“The suit of the claimants was struck out for want of locus standi and jurisdiction and also for being an abuse of court process, which robbed the trial court of jurisdiction to adjudicate on the matter.

“There is misleading news circulating in social media, print and electronic media that Martins Amaewhule and 26 others are members of the Peoples Democratic Party and the Rivers State House of Assembly.

“As you all know, Martins Amaewhule and 26 others defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress on the 11th day of December 2023, and stated that much in affidavit evidence deposed to by Martins Amaewhule for himself and on behalf of 26 others in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/1681/CS/2023 before Honourable Justice Donatus Okorowo of the Federal High Court, Abuja Division.

“The Suit is still pending in court. By Section 272(3) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, it is only the Federal High Court that can determine whether Martins Amaewhule and 26 others are still members of the Peoples Democratic Party and also members of the Rivers State House of Assembly. This much was held by the trial court.

“However, you will recall that there is a subsisting order of interlocutory injunction in Suit No. PHC/512/CS/2024 restraining Martins Amaewhule and his co-travelers from further parading or presenting themselves as lawmakers in Rivers State pending the determination of the substantive suit, which has not been appealed against to date.

We’re studying judgement declaring pro-Wike lawmakers PDP members – APC