The Presidential Election Petition Court has admitted in evidence electoral documents in the presidential elections from six states tendered by the Labour Party, and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi. The documents tendered largely consists of results sheets from polling units across 115 Local Government Areas of Rivers, Benue, Cross River, Niger, Osun, and Ekiti states. They were admitted as exhibits to be used to establish their alleged rigging and other malpractices during the election. The court admitted the Certified True Copies of the documents at the resumed hearing on Thursday, despite opposition from counsels to President Bola Tinubu and the Independent National Electoral Commission, and the All Progressives Congress. They, however, resolved to advance reasons behind their objections in their final written addresses.
Northern Cameroon officials have reportedly requested extra troops from their government and forces from neighbouring Nigeria and Chad to be deployed to their border after new Boko Haram strikes killed at least 12 people, including six soldiers, on Tuesday. Midjiyawa Bakari, the governor of Cameroon’s Far North region, which shares a border with Chad and Nigeria, revealed on Wednesday that hundreds of heavily armed Islamist radicals had infiltrated the dangerous Lake Chad region, attacking, plundering, and spreading fear. Several hundred militants killed three soldiers, two customs officers and two civilians in Tuesday’s surprise attacks on Cameroon government troops stationed in the northern towns of Mora and Zigague (they share a border with Nigeria and Chad). Mr Bakari said though weakened, Boko Haram was still attacking communities to kill their opponents and to steal cattle, food and money.
All 87 illegal miners who invaded an underground pit of AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi Mine have been rescued and handed over to the police. They include 16 others who were arrested in their fresh attempt to enter the underground mine pit in the middle of the melee. Media reports on Monday suggested over 300 illegal miners trapped in an abandoned underground mining pit were in danger, having gone several hours without food and other essentials. JoyNews reported that the illegal miners were not trapped but had declined to use alternative access routes for fear of being arrested.
Fresh unrest hit Senegal’s capital Dakar on Thursday after a court sentenced a leading opposition politician, Ousmane Sonko, to two years in jail for corrupting youth, undermining his chances of running for president next year. Sonko, 48, was accused of raping a woman who worked in a massage parlour in 2021, when she was 20, and making death threats against her. He denies wrongdoing and says the charges are politically motivated. A criminal court cleared Sonko of rape, but found him guilty of a separate offence described in the penal code as immoral behaviour towards individuals younger than 21. This could prevent him from participating in February 2024 elections, according to Senegal’s electoral law.