Igbo Corner
INEC begs Tribunal to admit its documents kicked out by Peter Obi/LP
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has begged the Presidential Electoral Petition Court (PEPC), otherwise referred to as the Tribunal, to admit its documents marked “Exhibits RAI, RA2, RA6 and RA7″ kicked out by Mr Peter Gregory Obi and the Labour Party (LP), otherwise referred to as the Petitioners, as exhibits.
This was contained in a Certified True Copy (CTC) of INEC’s written address against Peter Obi’s objection to admissibility of documents it tendered before the Tribunal.
The matter was filed in the Court of Appeal holden at Abuja in the matter of the election to the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria held on the 25th day of February 2023, with petition no: CA/PEPC/03/2023, between Mr Peter Gregory Obi / Labour Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission, Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, Senator Shettima Kashim and the All Progressive Congress as Respondents .
INEC had tendered a document seeking to disqualify Peter Obi but was vehemently opposed by the counsel to Peter Obi led by Dr. Livy Uzoukwu.
In its argument, INEC insisted that the election tribunal erred when it rejected it and held that there was no material before the tribunal on which it could determine the disqualification of the 1st Petitioner.
In conclusion, INEC urged the Tribunal to overrule all the objections of the Petitioners with regard to the admissibility of Exhibits RAI, RA2, RA6 and RA7, insisting that “the said exhibits are relevant, pleaded, (certified where applicable) and germane to the 1st Respondent’s case”.
INEC wrote as follows:
The Honourable Court, at the close of hearing on the 5th of July 2023, ordered the filing of Written Addresses in respect of the objections raised during the hearing of the petition. The Petitioners have, by a Written Address filed on the 23rd of July 2023 objected to the admissibility of some documents tendered by the 1st Respondent and raised an issue for Determination to wit: Having regard to the Report of the Prehearing session dated 23rd May 2023, provisions of paragraph 41(3) of the Electoral Act 2022 and other relevant provisions of the Act and decided cases, whether it is not right to hold that Exhibit RA1, RA2, RA6 and RA7 are inadmissible and liable to be expunged from evidence?
The 1st Respondent shall by this Written Address proffer argument in opposition to the issues and objections raised by the Petitioners.
RESPONSE TO THE PETITIONERS’ OBJECTIONS
The Petitioners in paragraphs 3.1 to 3.3 objected to the admissibility of Exhibit RA1 on the ground that the 1st Respondent is not the maker of the document and the document did not emanate from the 1st Respondent. The Petitioners in paragraph 3.4 challenged Exhibit RA2 on the ground that the 1st Respondent concocted the said document. The Petitioners further objected to the admissibility of Exhibits RA6 and RA7 on the ground that it contradicts the Pre-hearing report of the Court to the effect that only certified documents by the 1st Respondent not objected to, could be tendered from the Bar.
On the basis or the above, the Petitioners have urged your Lordships to discountenance Exhibits RAI, RA2, RA6 and RA7.
Argument on Admissibility of Exhibit RA I
We submit with regard to Exhibit RAJ, a letter addressed to the Chairman of the 1st Respondent, that the document is relevant, pleaded by the 1st Respondent in paragraph 19 of its Reply to the Petition listed as No. 9 on the 1st Respondent’s List of Documents, duly certified being a correspondence addressed to the 1st Respondent, a document which is in the custody of the 1st Respondent and tendered by a staff or the 1st Respondent. We submit that a certified true copy of a public document can be tendered without calling the maker of the document or even the public officer in whose custody the document emanated from.
We submit that contrary to the Petitioners’ assertion in paragraph 3.3 of their written address, Exhibit RA1 is not a private document, but rather a public document which has formed part of the records of the 1st Respondent having been addressed to the 1st Respondent and a certified true copy of same is proof of that document. See Bob-Manuel v. Woji (2010) 8 NWLR Part 1196 263 at page 273, paras. A – B where the court held:
“Where a private document is kept in a public place, it becomes a public record of the document. And the document, though a private document, becomes a public document and its proof by tendering a certified true copy thereof is sufficient by virtue of sections 91(2)(b) and 97(l)(e) of the Evidence Act. The averment that the document in question was conveyed and registered in the lands registry at Port Harcourt, is enough compliance that, though, a private document, it became a public document and its proof by, tendering a certified true copy is enough by virtue of sections”.
We further rely on Daggash v. Bulama (supra) at pages 200-201, paras. H-A where this Honourable Court held that:
“Once a public document is certified and signed as required by section 111 of the Evidence Act, such document is admissible on its mere production and it is unnecessary to prove custody or verify it. It is unnecessary to call the Public Officer who certified it, and it may even be tendered from the Bar. In the instant case, exhibit “A”, which is a public document was properly certified; and the election tribunal erred when it rejected it and held that there was no material before the tribunal on which it could determine the disqualification of the 1st respondent.”
We rely on the foregoing submissions and the authorities cited and urge the Honourable Court to discountenance the Petitioners’ submissions in these paragraphs as they are misconceived.
Argument on Admissibility of Exhibit RA2
The Petitioners in paragraph 3.4 of their written address further challenged the admissibility of Exhibit RA2 on the ground that the 1st Respondent cannot approbate and reprobate at the same time. We submit that this particular ground relied on by the Petitioners is strange and not contemplated by the Evidence Act or case law. The law is trite that relevancy governs admissibility and is the key to admissibility.
In civil proceedings like this case, for a document to be admissible it must be pleaded so as to make the other party know what to meet at the trial court and it must be relevant. These two requirements must be complied with conjunctively and not disjunctively.
Exhibit RA2 challenged by the Petitioners is a certified true copy or the 1st Respondent’s letter dated 6th July 2022 addressed to the 1st Respondent. The document was duly pleaded by the 1st Respondent, listed on the 1st Respondent’s List of Documents, duly certified being a correspondence addressed to the 1st Respondent, a document in the custody of the 1st Respondent and tendered by a staff of the 1st Respondent.
Argument on Admissibility of Exhibit RA6 & RA7
The Petitioners further objected to the admissibility of Exhibits RA6 and RA7 on the grounds that the exhibits were not part of the documents allowed to be tendered from the Bar pursuant to the Pre-hearing Order of this Court.
We submit in response that the Petitioners’ objection to these documents and particularly the reasons cited are misleading and should be discountenanced. We refer your Lordships to Section 122(2)(m) of the Evidence Act 2011 and humbly urge your Lordships to take judicial notice of the record of proceedings of the 4th of July 2023 when the said Exhibits RA6 and RA7 were tendered and admitted. Your Lordships would mind that contrary to the Petitioners’ submission that those documents were tendered from the Bar, the said Exhibits RA6 and RA7 were indeed tendered through DWI who referenced the cloud trail logs in paragraphs 8, 29(viii) and 44( i) of his witness statement, and who expressly gave evidence that his name and signature were on the cloud trail log.
We submit that counsel owe a duty to assist the court and not to mislead it. 1st Respondent can only deduce that this mistake in the Petitioners’ address was an erroneous glitch on the Petitioners’ part and not a deliberate one and we urge your Lordships to discountenance the said objections to Exhibits RA6 and RA7 together with the authorities relied on therein.
Conclusion
For the reasons in the foregoing paragraphs, we urge your Lordships to overrule all the objections of the Petitioners with regard to the admissibility of Exhibits RAI, RA2, RA6 and RA7 as the said exhibits are relevant, pleaded, (certified where applicable) and germane to the 1st Respondent’s case. May it please your lordships!
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There’s something about persecution that does two things to a people: it either breaks them, or it makes them beasts of survival.
For centuries the Jews… they were hunted, hated, and humiliated by empires. But they didn’t vanish.
They evolved. They adapted. And today, the Jews are arguably the most powerful tribe in the world economically, intellectually, and politically. Ruthless when necessary.
They are unapologetic about their survival. Now, look at the Igbo. A tribe known for industry, resilience, and brilliance.
A people who just want to live, do business, and thrive. But Nigeria doesn’t want that. Nigeria wants control.
Nigeria wants submission. And the one thing the Igbo have never known how to do is bow. And that’s the real issue.
So what does Nigeria do? It sidelines them. Isolates them. Provokes them. Bombs their villages under the guise of security.
Locks up their agitators. Shuts down their businesses. Mocks their pain. Ignores their history. Prevent them from voting. Play politics with their education. Sponsored bigotry on them.
And then Nigeria pretends to be surprised that there’s growing radicalization in the East?
Let me be clear: The Igbo didn’t start this fire. Nigeria did.
And history, the very same history we keep refusing to learn from, has shown us that when you keep pushing a tribe that knows how to survive, they evolve into something stronger, something unstoppable.
It’s happened before. With the Jews. Europe tried to exterminate them. Instead, they became the backbone of global finance, media, tech, and diplomacy.
You don’t touch a Jew today without consequences. You don’t push them to the wall and expect them to stay quiet.
Now Nigeria is doing the same to the Igbo, pushing, prodding, provoking.
But here’s the warning: when you push an animal to the wall, it doesn’t stay calm. It fights back. It bites. And this time, when it bites, don’t act shocked.
But this isn’t just about the Igbo solely. Nigeria has perfected the art of creating monsters, then acting surprised when they bite.
The Niger Delta? Radicalized. The region was exploited for oil, polluted beyond repair, and ignored until their youths picked up arms.
The Fulani terrorists? Radicalized. Left behind by the same government that claimed to represent them, now manipulated by religion and resentment.
The Almajiri? Radicalized. Abandoned by an elite that used their poverty as a vote bank and then left them to rot.
The Agbero? Radicalized. Uneducated, weaponized, and unleashed as tools of political chaos.
Even the middle class is slowly being radicalized, not with guns, but with hopelessness. That, too, is a ticking time bomb.
A nation cannot continue to marginalize its most brilliant tribe and expect peace.
The Igbo are not docile. They are not quiet. They are not forgetful. They are survivors, and survivors don’t beg for space forever. At some point, they take it.
The Igbo didn’t set out to be radicals. They were made into one by a country that won’t stop seeing their confidence as a threat.
You can’t keep pretending unity means silence. You can’t keep preaching peace while planting injustice.
The Igbo are not asking for too much, they just want to live, build, and grow.
But if you insist on turning their dignity into defiance, their enterprise into enmity, and their survival into sedition, then you are creating a monster.
And if history has taught us anything, it’s this: when a persecuted people decide that survival is no longer enough, when they decide to stop running and start resisting, they don’t just fight back. They win.
Nigeria must understand this: you cannot keep pushing people into a corner and expect submission.
When you back a lion into a wall, don’t expect it to purr. It will roar. It will claw. It will tear through anything standing between it and freedom.
So here’s the final warning, for those who still care to listen: Nigeria is radicalizing the Igbo.
But worse, Nigeria is radicalizing everyone. And it won’t end well.
When the fire spreads, when the rebellion multiplies, when the beast we created begins to fight back, don’t act shocked; no tribe will be left untouched.
Don’t pretend it wasn’t preventable. We all made it happen. You don’t corner a lion and expect peace.
Abolaji Rasaq is a public affairs analyst.
Palpable crisis is brewing in Nnewi over the election of the President General of Uruagu Community in the industrial town of Anambra State, with a business mogul and owner of Organiser Plc., Chief Innocent Okoli, accused of upsetting the apple cart.
The crisis has led to protests and resignation of members of the Board of Trustees (BoT).
One of the resignation letters sighted by News Band was from a legal practitioner, J. N. Obi, Esq.
Barrister Obi, until his resignation served as the Secretary of the Executive Committee and member, Uruagu Board of Trustees.
Tendering his resignation letter, Obi cited brazen violation of the Constitution of Uruagu Nnewi Community Development Union.
The letter was referenced OB/03 /296/2025, dated May 8, 2025, and addressed to His Highness. Obi A. C. Obi (Ogidi IV).
In the letter entitled “Letter of resignation as member, Board of Trustees (B.O. T) Uruagu Nnewi. Obi announced his resignation based on the following reasons:
- Article 8. 9 (a) of the Constitution of Uruagu Nnewi Community Development Union. 2022 (As Amended) states and I quote:
“The Board shall “Ensure the observance of this Constitution”. - Article 14.4 of the Constitution of Uruagu Nnewi Community Development Union 2022 (As Amended) states and I quote:
“Each ward shall submit a list of the Electors In writing to the Secretary General of the Union, one month before any election.
“The submission of the list of the Electors shall be done by the Ward Chairman In consultation with the Ward’s Obi.” - “The election sought to be conducted on Saturday, 10th day of May 2025, did not comply with the above provisious as it was on the Union’s general meeting of the I3th day of April 2025 that the expiration of the tenure of the Executives was announced.”
The legal pratictioner, however, noted that the election to be held on May 10 will not be up to one month.
He, therefore, resigned his membership of B. 0. T for failure to abide by the above provisions of the Constitution as stated above.
On his part, the former President General of Uruagu Nnewi, Chief Ambassador Charles Nwonye, decried series of illegalities in the proposed election championed by Chief Okoli.
He recalled the efforts of past and present stakeholders to ensure that Uruagu Nnewi Community Development Union is recognised as a legal and responsible entity in the state.
He, however, speaking in a voice note obtained by Diaspora Digital Media (DDM), regretted:
“It’s very, very unfortunate that those counsels that instituted Uruagu Development Union are no longer alive.
“They were the ones who were known for speaking out the truth. But at the same time, we will not all keep quiet.
“I, hereby, wish to bring the following to the attention of all Uruagu indigenes, scattered all over Nigeria and in the diaspora that four years ago, a similar thing happened.
“Uruagu Nnewi Constitution was also flagrantly violated four years ago.
“At the end, a lot of stakeholders asked the former Executive Committee to resign and leave en masse.
“The Constitution, however, allowed them to recontest.
“The Executive Committee then honourably resigned and no one of us recontested, ushering in a new Executive Committee.
“They argued that following the election, the Constitution will be amended to correct all the flaws and ensure no such flagrant abused repeats itself.
“They went for the election and what happened there was the same illegality we’re talking about.
“Some of our youths went and connived with mischief makers, disrupted the election and declared the present Executive Committee members winners.
“The youths stood by them in their misguided thoughts that the Executive Committee members enjoy special gains in the office.
“They disrupted the election and ensured that the present crop of Executive Committee members was ushered in.
“The election was heavily flawed and rigged in favour of Eloka Ike and Innocent Okoli, but we let go and left peacefully.
“The new Executive Committee promised to preside for only four years and leave, but we are currently seeing the same illegalities.
“I dare ask: Should Uruagu be known only for illegalities? I thought Ndi Uruagu are smart people?
“I have observed that there are certain individuals who are hell-bent on ensuring that the Uruagu leadership fails.
“They seem bent on destroying all our efforts, acting as agents of chaos and destruction.
“How can one man gather a bunch of Umuezeagu indigenes and take them to the court, claiming that they sued the union to court?
“They deceived the High Court and got a frivolous injunction against Uruagu people, all in the name of election!
“When I got this information, I knew that something was wrong.
“How can someone, after serving a tenure fraught with irregularities, fight his way to a second tenure against the people’s wish?
“I want to make it clear to all the delegates in the so-called election that it will not be possible to make an illegality legal.
“Anyone who casts a vote in that sham election is an agent provocateur, as well as a villain.
“Let it be on record that I denounced the so-called election founded on illegality and fraud and all participants, be it a delegate or participant in any manner is an enemy of the people.”
Chief Okoli and other responsible people of Nnewi leadership could not be reached for comment at the moment of this publication.
More details will follow…
The remains of HRH Eze Stephen Nwabueze Ugorji, Orji Ukwu 1 of Lorji Nwekeukwu Autonomous Community in Aboh Mbaise Local Government Area, will be laid to rest on Thursday, May 22, 2025.
The late Eze Ugorji will be buried in his palace at Orji Ukwu Estate, Lorji, following a Catholic funeral Mass at St. Andrews Catholic Church, Lorji.
News Band was informed that His Excellency the Catholic Bishop of Ahiara Diocese, Bishop Okezuo Nwobi, has been invited to officiate at the ceremony.
Bishop Nwobi, it was learnt, has also accepted the family’s invitation to officiate at the funeral rites of the late grand traditional ruler.
This information was provided to members of the press in Owerri by the Opara Eze (First Son of the Eze), former Commissioner for Homeland Security and Vigilante Affairs, Dr. Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji.
His Lordship Bishop Okezuo Nwobi, the Catholic Bishop of Ahiara Diocese (Mbaise) and Eze Nwabueze Ugorji’s First Son, Dr. Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji
“The family is grateful to His Lordship for granting us a rare request to officiate at a funeral on a Thursday,” Dr. Ugorji said.
“Our father will feel honored and appreciated because he was not just a devoted Catholic, he shouldered the building of the St. Andrews Catholic Church at Lorji until his death,” the former commissioner added.
Igbo Corner
EXCLUSIVE: Ngozi Orabueze dissolves Biafra Govt In Exile as Simon Ekpa may spend longer time in prison
Dr. Ngozi Orabueze has abruptly dissolved the Biafra Government In Exile following secret information that his former boss, Simon Ekpa may not be coming out from Finnish detention in a hurry.
News Band reported that Mrs. Orabueze, a former Chief of Staff to Mr Simon Ekpa, the self-acclaimed Prime Minister of Biafra Government In Exile, toppled his principal after he was thrown into prison for promoting violent agitation and terrorism in the Southeast of Nigeria.
Ekpa’s trial is scheduled to start in May 2025.
Ngozi, a former chairperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Atlanta, United States in a statement on Wednesday, announced the dissolution of Biafra Government In Exile.
She said all assets of the Biafra Republic Government In Exile and it’s affiliates shall be transferred to the secretary of the State of the United States of Biafra.
Orabueze also directed all officers of the former exile government to report to their counterpart with the United States of Biafra for reassignment.
The statement reads, “It is resolved that the Biafra Republic Government In Exile (BRGIE) is hereby dissolved as it’s reason for the existence has been superceded by the November 29, 2024 Declaration of the restoration of the Independent United States of Biafra
“All assets of the Biafra Republic Government In Exile and it’s affiliates(BRGIE corporation ID: D237527271) shall be transferred to the secretary of the State of the United States of Biafra.
“All officers of the former exile government shall report to their counterpart with the United States of Biafra for reassignment. All activities of the Biafra Republic Government In Exile shall cease as of February 15, 2025”.
Meanwhile, an insider source in the movement reliably told News Band that Ngozi decided to dissolve BRGIE after receiving intel that Simon Ekpa might spend longer time in prison.
The source also revealed that the Nigerian government is doing everything within it’s power to nail Simon Ekpa for all his atrocious acts in the SouthEast region.
So, the only way to keep the agitation going in the absence of Ekpa is to dissolve BRGIE.
“Yes, Ngozi Orabueze dissolved the Biafra Republic Government In Exile so as to be fully in charge of the assets belonging to the movement. With the way the Nigerian government is going about the case of Simon Ekpa, he may spend longer time in prison”, the source said.
Moreover, before now, Orabueze has been at war with some arrowheads of the separatist movement who refused to acknowledge her authority.
This however, has led to series of fights, accusation and counter accusations among the agitators.
We celebrate the life of Mrs. Roseline Udu Eze, a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and pillar of strength.
Her unwavering love, kindness, and selflessness left an indelible mark on all who knew her.
Though we mourn her passing, we take solace in the legacy she leaves behind and the cherished memories we hold. Rest peacefully in the arms of the Lord, dear Roseline.
You will forever be missed.
May her soul rest in perfect peace.
Amen.
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