El-Rufai Denies Promoting ‘Religious Extremism’+ Binani Drags INEC To Court Again – Trending With Ojy Okpe

Aisha Dahiru Binani, the All Progressives Congress candidate in the Adamawa governorship election, has again filed a lawsuit against the Independent National Electoral Commission, over the nullification of her declaration as governor of Adamawa State in the March 18th governorship election.

Binani’s Counsel, Michael Aondoaka, in a motion filed at a Federal High Court, in Abuja listed INEC, the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri as 1st, 2nd and 3rd respondents.

Binani in the suit sought a judicial review of the decision by INEC to reverse her earlier announcement as winner of the poll by the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, Hudu Yunusa-Ari.

She argued that it was the election petition tribunal that has the constitutional power to decide her fate in accordance with Section 149 of the Electoral Act, 2022. In the meantime, a Federal High Cpourt in Abuja on Monday restrained the Independent National Electoral Commission from prosecuting Hudu Yunusa-Ari, the suspended resident electoral commissioner in Adamawa state.

The Rec had stirred controversy by declaring Aisha Dahiru Binani as the winner of the Adamawa governorship election, when the collation of the results was yet to be completed. On Thursday, INEC revealed that the commission had filed a six-count charge against Yunusa-Ari before a high court in Yola.

Binani through her counsel, Michael Aondoaka, moved the ex-parte motion to stop Yunusa-Ari’s prosecution. Aondoaka, argued that until the election petition tribunal decides the fate of his client in accordance with Section 149 of the Electoral Act, 2022 the prosecution of Yunusa-Ari cannot be said to be valid.

The battle for control of FBN Holdings, parent company of first bank, Nigeria’s oldest bank, has taken a dramatic turn. On Thursday, July 6th the company’s former Chairman, Oba Otudeko emerged as the largest shareholder of FBN holdings after acquiring 4.8 billion shares in a cross deal worth N87.8 billion Naira, taking over from billionaire buisness man, Femi Otedola who was the single largest shareholder of the financial service group. In a twist of events, Ecobank Nigeria, in a letter dated Friday July 7th, wrote to FBN Holdings Plc asking the financial institution not to recognise the 4.8 billion shares, acquired by Otudeko, stating that Otudeko and his affiliated companies owe the bank over 13.5 billion Naira. Ecobank’s legal team in the letter, accused Otudeko of intentionally diverting his assets to evade debt payment further stating that Otudeko used Barbican Capital Limited an affiliate of Honeywell Group, owned by Otudeko which was incorporated in March 2023 with two of his children having significant control as a special purpose vehicle to divert his assets so as to frustrate the execution of a supreme court judgement affirming his indebtedness to Ecobank.

Former Governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-rufai, has broken his silence, about a trending video, in which he allegedly stated that he deceived Christians during the course of the electioneering campaigns, that the APC Muslim/Muslim Ticket was not for religious dominance when in actual fact, the tickets both nationally and at the state level were for Islamic dominance.

Speaking at the launch of an autobiography and retirement programme for Ishaq Akintola a professor at the Lagos State University, El-rufai said he chose not to respond to the distortion of his statement because those involved have no regard for truth or accuracy further describing the reported statements as manufactured falsehoods.

The former Kaduna State governor while clarifying his statement, said his message was simple and that what he said in the trending video was that leadership based on Islamic, and indeed, even Christian principles is fair and equitable and prescribed that a leader must be fair and just to everyone whether Muslim or Christian. El Rufai went further to state, that he is pleased to observe that the much-derided Tinubu-Shettima APC ticket not only won the presidential election, but has shown within weeks that the Muslim-Muslim presidency is capable of being fair to every one Muslim and non-Muslim alike.

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