The Lagos State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has fixed today as judgement day in the petitions filed by the governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the March 18 election, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Olajide Adediran (Jandor), against the election of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The tribunal, led by Justice Arum Igyen Ashom had on August 12 reserved judgement after lawyers in the petitions adopted their final written addresses before the court.

However, the tribunal on Saturday informed parties in the suit that judgement would be delivered today.

Rhodes-Vivour, in his petition marked EPT/LAG/GOV/04/2023 dated April 9, 2023, had urged the tribunal to nullify Sanwo-Olu’s election on grounds that he was allegedly not qualified to run for the election.The

LP candidate, in his petition, also contended that Sanwo-Olu’s emergence as winner “was invalid by reason of corrupt practices or non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.”

He argued that, “The second respondent was not duly elected by the majority of the lawful votes cast at the election.”

Adediran, in his petition, contended that Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, were at the time of election not qualified to run.

He also said the LP candidate, Rhodes-Vivour, who was declared the first runner-up, was equally not qualified to participate in the election.

Jandor is urging the tribunal to declare all the votes cast for the APC and the LP candidates as wasted votes.

1. Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has revoked 21 plots of land in the Central Business District (CBD) of Abuja. In the revocation notice which Mr Olusade Adesola, the Permanent Secretary in the FCT Administration, signed on his behalf, Wike explained that the lands were revoked for continued contravention of the terms of development of the Right of Occupancy to wit non-development.

2. Binta Zubairu, Justice of the Court of Appeal, has said judges are wrongly accused of delay in dispensing justice. Speaking in Zaria, Kaduna State, during a reception organised on the occasion of her elevation as an Appeal Court judge, Zubairu said judges work in a team with the prosecutors, lawyers and others and as such should not be blamed for the delay in the dispensation of justice.

3. The Federal Government at the weekend warned electricity workers against vandalising the national grid during strike. Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu said at the weekend that doing so was not only a criminal act but also a sabotage of efforts to provide Nigerians with steady power supply.

4. Stakeholders at a meeting in Imo State have called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) to address late arrival of materials and other bottlenecks surrounding collection of permanent voter cards to enhance credibility in the forthcoming governorship election. Mr. Samuel Ozonna from the Civil Society Organization called for more sensitization of citizens to enhance participation.

5. To forestall security breaches, the police have assured voters of its preparation towards the November 11 governorship elections in Kogi, Imo, and Bayelsa states. Part of the security measures to be deployed is the use of drones for proper monitoring and nipping likely violence in the bud, warning those that were planning to instigate violence to stay off the states.

6. President Bola Tinubu has ordered security agencies to rescue the remaining female students of the Federal University Gusau (FUG), in the Sabin Gida area of Zamfara State. Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, in a statement, yesterday, said the President condemned the reprehensible act of abduction, stressing that there was no moral justification for such heinous crimes.

7. The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, on Sunday slammed the Organised Private Sector, OPS, over its opposition to a nationwide strike on the grounds that the economy cannot withstand country-wide industrial action now. It said that the OPS was opposing the strike because it wanted to continue paying slave wages to workers.

8. The Minister of Works, David Umahi, has insisted that there is no going back on the construction of concrete roads, saying President Bola Tinubu has approved that it should be enforced. He, however, urged road construction companies nationwide to learn from the ingenuity of Sermatech Nigeria Limited.

9. The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Lagos will today, Monday, deliver judgment in the suits challenging the election of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. The Justice Arum Ashom-led panel communicated this message to parties on Saturday.

10. Marauding Boko Haram insurgents have killed 10 farmers and abducted several others in Mafa Local Government Area of Borno State. The attack occurred late Saturday afternoon in the fields between Bulakunkumma and Maiwa villages of the Baram Karowa ward of the LGA. The insurgents also obtained N4 million from a businessman in Zannari ward as ransom.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has raised concern over the recent hike in fees by varsities across the country, adding that it may force many students out of school.

Many public universities have in recent months increased their tuition fees owing to what they described as the country’s economic realities.

While some of them have made a downward review after protests by students, the National President of ASUU Professor Emmanuel Osodeke is afraid parents/guardians would find it difficult to pay the new fees.

“Today, universities are arbitrarily increasing tuition fees,” he said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.

“Is that correct in an environment today where the minimum wage is N30,000 per month and where they have to pay rent and pay heavily for transportation? And you are enforcing this thing on the students?

“As a result of this – I can assure you that you can check if nothing is done about this heavy fee being introduced all over the country today – in the next two or three years, more than 40 to 50 per cent of these students who are in school would drop out. ”

According to him, if such happens, these students would become willing tools in the hands of those who want to make the “country ungovernable”.

“That is what we are saying: create the environment we had in the ’60s and ’70s,” the ASUU chief said.

“When I was a student, the government was paying me for being a student. Let’s have an environment where the children of the poor can have access to education, not closing them. If you say school fees of N300,000, how can the children of somebody who earns N50,000 a month be able to pay such fee?”

To remedy the situation, Professor Osodeke asked the Federal Government to increase its educational budget “to at least 15 per cent from last year’s 3.8 per cent”.