Trump fires election security official who rejected fraud claims – Newstrends
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Trump fires election security official who rejected fraud claims

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United States President Donald Trump has fired the government’s top election security official, who rejected the President’s claims of “massive” fraud in the November 3 poll, which he lost to the Democratic Party candidate, Joe Biden.

Trump announced on Twitter the termination “effective immediately” of Chris Krebs, who led the agency that jointly declared “the November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.”

Trump, who refuses to acknowledge that he lost his bid for reelection to Biden, has repeatedly claimed without evidence that the voting and count were replete with fraud.

“The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 Election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud,” Trump wrote in a tweet.

“Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.”

Krebs, who reportedly told friends last week he expected to be removed, appeared to confirm it in a tweet on his personal account.

“Honored to serve. We did it right. Defend Today, Secure Tomorrow,” he wrote.

Krebs was in charge of fending off possible foreign and domestic hacker intrusions into myriad voting machines, sorting and counting machines, databases and other systems that states and localities rely on to tally ballots.

Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Krebs and his team had “worked diligently to safeguard our elections.”

“Instead of rewarding this great service, President Trump is retaliating against Director Krebs and other officials who did their duty,” he said in a statement.

Republican Senator Ben Sasse wrote: “Chris Krebs did a really good job — as state election officials all across the nation will tell you — and he obviously should not be fired.”

The challenge was even tougher this year because of the complexities of the coronavirus, which forced a sweeping turn to voting by mail.

Under Krebs, CISA had also warned several times that Russians and Iranians were making attempts to break into the US systems, as Russians had tried in 2016.

The White House was reportedly particularly unhappy about a CISA webpage set up to fight disinformation called “Rumor vs Reality.”

The page rejected claims Trump and others have made, including that many votes were made in the names of dead people, that counting the ballots days after election day is not normal and that shifting vote counts indicate fraud.

Through numerous reviews, investigations and lawsuits, no evidence has come up of any significant distortion or loss of votes, by accident or fraud.

“There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” an official group of senior US federal and state election officials said in a report last week.

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Tinubu requests Senate approval for $8.6 billion, €100 million loans for projects

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President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

Tinubu requests Senate approval for $8.6 billion, €100 million loans for projects

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has requested that the Senate authorize him to borrow $8,699,168,559 and €100 million to fund important projects around the country.

The president’s appeal was contained in a letter delivered by Senate President Godswill Akpabio at the start of plenary on Tuesday.

Tinubu said in the letter that the request was part of the federal government’s 2022-2024 foreign borrowing strategy, which had been approved by previous President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

He said the projects to be funded with the loan cuts across different sectors of the economy, and were selected based on economic evaluation and the expected contribution to the country’s development.

The letter reads, “I write in respect of the above subject and to submit the attached the federal government 2022-2024 external borrowing plan for consideration and early approval of the National Assembly to ensure prompt implementation of the projects.

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“The Senate may wish to note that the past administration approved a 2022-2024 borrowing plan by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) held on May 15, 2023.

“The projects cut across all sectors, with specific emphasis on infrastructure, agriculture, health, water supply, roads, security, and employment generation as well as financial management reforms.

“Consequently, the required approval is in the sum of $8,699,168,559 and €100 million.

“I would like to underscore the fact that the projects and programmes in the borrowing plan were selected based on economic evaluations as well as the expected contribution to the social economic development of the country, including employment generation, and skills acquisition.

“Given the nature of these facilities, and the need to return the country to normalcy, it has become necessary for the Senate to consider and approve the 2022- 2024 external abridged borrowing plan to enable the government deliver its responsibility to Nigerians.”

Tinubu requests Senate approval for $8.6 billion, €100 million loans for projects

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BREAKING: Appeal Court sacks Nasarawa Speaker, Ibrahim Balarabe

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BREAKING: Appeal Court sacks Nasarawa Speaker, Ibrahim Balarabe

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has sacked the Speaker of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Hon. Ibrahim Balarabe Abdullahi, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

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Newstrends reports that in a judgement delivered on Tuesday, the court declared the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Hon. Sa’ad Abdullahi Ibrahim (Turakin-Opanda), as the rightful winner of the election for Umaisha/Ugya State Constituency.

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Breaking! Appeal Court affirms Sim Fubara’s victory

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Simnalaye Fubara

Breaking! Appeal Court affirms Sim Fubara’s victory

The State and National Assembly Appeal Court sitting in Lagos on Tuesday affirmed the election of Governor Siminalayi Fubara in the March 18 2023 governorship election.

The Appeal Court in a unanimous decision dismissed four separate appeals filed against the governor.

The appeals were filed by Patrick Tonye-Cole of the All Progressives Congress, Beatrice Itubo of the Labour Party, Innocent Ekwu of the Allied Peoples Movement and Lulu Briggs Dumo of Accord Party.

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The court held that all the appellants failed to prove the allegation of non-compliance with the Electoral Act.

The court also faulted the tribunal for dismissing Tonye-Cole’s appeal on the ground that APC sponsored him and had withdrawn the petition against Governor Fubara’s victory.

The appellate court further held that the fact that the APC withdrew its petition against Fubara’s victory does not prevent its candidate, Tony-Cole, from pursuing his appeal.

Breaking! Appeal Court affirms Sim Fubara’s victory

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