A UK father of four became convinced his loyal wife of three years was cheating on him — but it turns out his paranoia was a symptom of a deadly brain tumor.

Andy Hampton, 54, not only became distant from his wife, Gemma, 37, he also showed an uncharacteristic lack of interest in his family and became forgetful.

“Shortly after having Henley, I noticed huge changes in Andy’s personality,” Gemma told SWNS about their son, who was born in May 2022.

“I would ask Andy to change Henley’s [diaper], to which he would say he had a headache and I had to do it,” she continued.

At first, Gemma believed her husband was struggling to adjust to the new dynamics of their growing family, but the behavior continued to worsen.

Gemma said it felt like her husband wasn’t even “listening” to her anymore.

“Because I kept pointing out things that he was doing wrong, his paranoia caused him to believe things that weren’t true,” she explained.

“He kept saying he knew it was all in his head, but he couldn’t stop the thoughts.

By May 2023, Andy was “all over the place,” according to Gemma, and he was becoming confused more easily.

The “final straw” came when he couldn’t figure out how to put the duvet cover back on the bed, which set off alarm bells in Gemma’s head.

She took him to a doctor, who diagnosed Andy with glioblastoma, a cancerous and aggressive brain tumor, per the American Brain Tumor Association (ABTA).

Glioblastomas can cause a shift in behavior, according to the ABTA, spurring psychiatric symptoms such as delusion and confusion, which could explain Andy’s actions.

On May 31, Andy underwent surgery to remove cancerous tissue and began six weeks of combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

“Instantly after the operation Andy’s mood changed, and his personality resembled the old Andy,” Gemma told SWNS.

“We felt better knowing that there was something to blame for Andy’s behavior and that it wasn’t our marriage breaking down.”

Now, the couple is focused on battling the cancer and getting Andy to feel better.

As he undergoes a second round of chemotherapy, Andy has signed up for a sponsored walk to raise money for Brain Tumour Research, a UK charity that aims to find a cure for brain tumors.

Gemma said that Andy has always been “an active person,” but his treatment leaves him extremely tired, and the walk may become a challenge.

Mel Tiley, the community development manager for Brain Tumour Research, noted that Andy’s story is a “stark reminder” of the “indiscriminate nature of brain tumors,” as the disease can affect anyone at any time.

“They kill more men under 70 than prostate cancer, yet just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease since records began in 2002,” Tiley told SWNS.

“We’re determined to change this, but it’s only by working together we will be able to improve treatment options for patients and, ultimately, find a cure.”

 

New York Post

Debt Management Office has said Nigeria’s total public debt hit N87.38tn at the end of the second quarter of 2023.

The figure represents an increase of 75.29 per cent or N37.53tn compared to N49.85tn recorded at the end of March 2023.

The DMO in a report on Thursday said the debt includes the N22.71tn Ways and Means Advances of the Central Bank of Nigeria to the Federal Government.

The DMO stated, “Nigeria’s total public debt stock as at June 30, 2023, was N87.38tn ($113.42bn). It comprises the total domestic and external debts of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the thirty-six states, and the Federal Capital Territory.

“The major addition to the Public Debt Stock was the inclusion of the N22.712tn securitized FGN’s Ways and Means Advances.”

The statement also noted that other additions to the debt stock were new borrowings by the Federal Government and the sub-nationals from local and external sources.

It added, “The reforms already introduced by the present administration and those that may emerge from the recommendations of the Fiscal Reform and Tax Policies Committee, are expected to impact debt strategy and improve debt sustainability.”

The DMO had earlier projected that Nigeria’s public debt burden may hit N77tn following the National Assembly’s approval of the request by former President Muhammadu Buhari to restructure the CBN’s Ways and Means Advances.

Ways and Means Advances are loan facilities through which the CBN finances shortfalls in the government’s budget.

Director-General of the DMO, Patience Oniha, during a public presentation of the 2023 budget organised by the former Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, noted that the debt would be N70tn without N5tn new borrowing and N2tn promissory notes.

However, the latest data showed that the current debt stock of N87.38tn exceeded the DMO’s projection by N10.38tn.

Further breakdown showed that Nigeria has a total domestic debt of N54.13tn and total external debt of N33.25tn.

While the domestic debt makes up 61.95 per cent of total debt, the external makes up 38.05 per cent.

 

Punch

Nigeria, among Africa’s largest producers of crude oil, will need to raise production by at least 300,000 to 400,000 barrels a day to meet President Bola Tinubu’s target of achieving 6% economic growth from next year.

That’s according to Bank of America sub-Saharan Africa Economist Tatonga Rusike, who said that restoring crude output to levels last achieved in 2014 could prove tough.

“The target is ambitious as long as we continue to see oil production below 1.3 million barrels a day,” he said in an interview this week, noting that the revenue generated by Nigerian oil provides an important economic support.

Nigeria Oil Sector Shrinks for 13th Straight Quarter

The country produced 1.18 million barrels a day of crude in August, up from a revised 1.09 million barrels a day in July, according to data on Wednesday from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission. That’s nearly 600,000 barrels below its OPEC quota of 1.7 million barrels a day, which it has been unable to meet this year.

Nigeria’s economy grew 2.5% in the three months through June from a year earlier, compared with 2.3% in the prior quarter after the oil sector contracted for a 13th straight quarter. The country has suffered two economic recessions since 2015, with growth averaging 1.1% over the period.

Tinubu, who took office in May, pledged to raise the growth rate to 6% or more and has initiated sweeping reforms to boost the economy, including ending costly energy subsidies, relaxing the exchange-rate regime and overhauling the country’s tax system to lift revenues.

Olaniyi Yusuf, chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, said that Tinubu’s growth goal was achievable — if the energy sector steps up.

“Our sense is that the greatest lever for us is crude oil,” he said in a separate interview, arguing that if the country can advance oil production to 1.6 million barrels a day, economic growth “will do up to 6% sustainably.”

Still, Nigeria’s persistently low oil production is a headwind and Bank of America has cut its growth forecast for Africa’s most populous country to 2.5% this year from an initial estimate of 3%.

“An increase in crude oil production to 1.6 million barrels a day could take growth to 4%,” Rusike said. But he cautioned that hitting that level of production is unlikely “unless there is a new field, or an old field that was not producing is reactivated.”

There will also be a time lag before Tinubu’s reforms begin to bear fruit.

“Positive reform momentum should influence economic performance for the rest of the year and into 2024,” he said.

 

Bloomberg

Oil prices rose to their highest level in 10 months on Friday, after China cut banks' cash reserve requirements to boost its economic recovery, and on expectations that major global interest rate hike cycles were nearing their end.

Brent crude rose 46 cents, or 0.5%, to $94.16 as of 0027 GMT, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) was up 0.6% at $90.74. Both the benchmarks were trading at their highest levels since November.

Analyst Tina Teng at CMC markets said China's reserve requirement cuts were instrumental in lifting energy and industrial metal prices in general, adding that Chinese industrial output and retail sales data could be market movers later on Friday.

Persistent worries about supply, and expectations of the U.S. central bank holding rates after Europe hinted its Thursday hike would be its last, have put oil prices on track to finish higher for a third straight week.

Higher interest rates increase borrowing costs for businesses and consumers, which could slow economic growth and reduce oil demand.

"Betting on oil is becoming a favourite trade on Wall Street. No one is doubting the OPEC+ (oil-producing nations) decision at the end of last month will keep the oil market very tight in the fourth quarter," said analyst Edward Moya at OANDA.

The International Energy Agency said this week it expects Saudi Arabia's and Russia's extended oil output cuts to result in a market deficit through the fourth quarter. Prices briefly pulled back on a bearish U.S. inventories report, but soon resumed their ascent as supply worries prevailed.

 

Reuters

President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of Zacch Adedeji as the new acting executive chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

Tinubu also directed Muhammad Nami, the current FIRS chairman, to proceed on three months of pre-retirement leave, as provisioned by Public Service Rule (PSR) 120243, with immediate effect.

The leave would lead to Nami’s eventual retirement from service on December 8, 2023, according to a statement on Thursday, by Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to the president on media and publicity.

Ngelale said Adedeji’s appointment, according to directives of the president, takes immediate effect.

“Zacch Adedeji is hereby appointed in acting capacity for a 90-day period before his subsequent confirmation as the substantive executive chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service for a term of four (4) years in the first instance,” the statement reads.

“Adedeji is a first-class graduate in accounting from the Obafemi Awolowo University. He most recently served the nation as the special adviser to the president on revenue.”

Prior to his appointment as special adviser, Adedeji served as the commissioner of finance in Oyo state.

He was also the executive secretary and chief executive officer (CEO) of the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC).

 

The Cable

Federal Government, on Thursday, said there was no timeframe for resumption of Emirates and Etihad flights that were put on hold amid the diplomatic row between Nigeria and the United Arabs Emirates (UAE).

After a meeting between President Bola Tinubu and his UAE counterpart, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, on Monday in Abu Dhabi, Ajuri Ngelale, Presidential spokesman, had said both leaders reached a historic agreement, which resulted in the immediate cessation of the visa ban placed on Nigerian travelers.

He added that both Etihad Airlines and Emirates Airlines were to immediately resume flight schedules into and out of Nigeria, “without any further delay”.

But the UAE authorities were silent on the visa ban lift and resumption of flights by its airlines, sparking curiosity among Nigerians.

In its statement, the Middle East country said Nigeria and the UAE would work together to reinforce their ties and explore opportunities for further bilateral collaborations.

But speaking during the Aviation Africa Summit in Abuja on Thursday, Festus Keyamo, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, said the terms of agreements were being finalised.

He said: “So, we are beginning to work out all the tiny details. I have met with Emirate before I left UAE, and we are working out the details. We cannot say the time frame. Kicking off an airline operation again on a route, does not mean you will go and grab one empty plane sitting in a place.

“There is no idle plane sitting anywhere, they have to reschedule their flights and restart their routes again. All kinds of permission will be taken from local authorities and of course, I made the point in speaking with them and I made it clear that they will have to give our airlines reciprocal rights under our Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASAs).

“That is the point I insisted on, and they did say that any spot we need, they will give us as much as we give them those spots within Nigeria.”

 

Daily Trust

Federal government says the collapse of the national grid was caused by a fire outbreak on the Kainji/Jebba 330 kilovolt (kV) line.

On Thursday, in a series of posts on X, Adebayo Adelabu, minister of power, said the fire led to about 356.63MW generation loss.

Yesterday, the national grid suffered a total system collapse — the first in more than a year.

Giving updates, Adebulu said the fire has been fully arrested “and over half of the connections are now up and the rest will be fully restored in no time”.

“At 00:35Hrs this morning, Fire outbreak with explosion sound was observed on Kainji/Jebba 330kV line 2 (Cct K2J) blue phase CVT & Blue phase line Isolator of Kainji/Jebba 330kV line1 was observed burning. This led to sharp drops in frequency from 50.29Hz to 49.67 Hz at 0:35:06Hrs with Jebba generation loss of 356.63MW,” he said.

“Kainji started dropping load from 451.45 MW at 00:35:07Hrs to zero.

“At 00:41Hrs frequency dropped further from 49.37 Hz to 48.41Hz then resulted in system collapse of the grid.

“We are on top of the situation and speedy restoration is in progress.”

Adelabu said the delay in providing an update was deliberate, so as not to cause panic and to also be able to give update on the progress of remedial actions taken so far. 

This, he said, is to ensure economic and security saboteurs do not take advantage of every reported situation.

 

The Cable

A survey of more than 36,000 people in 30 countries has found that younger people increasingly believe that democracy is incapable of producing solutions to the issues that affect them most.

The results of the wide-ranging poll, which was conducted between May and July of this year by George Soros’ Open Society Foundations (OSF), indicate that while democracy remains the preferred option for the vast majority of respondents, just 57% of the 18-35 age group view it as being preferable to other means of governance.

“Our findings are both sobering and alarming,” OSF president Mark Malloch Brown said of the poll, the findings of which were released on Tuesday. “People around the world still want to believe in democracy but, generation by generation, that faith is fading as doubts grow about its ability to deliver concrete changes to their lives.”

Some 35% of younger people, the report adds, believe that having a “strong leader” who does not hold elections or engage with legislatures is a “good way to run a country.” In the same age group, 42% indicated support for military rule, while 20% of older respondents answered similarly.

However, the poll also indicated overwhelming support (between 85% and 95%) across all age groups and income levels for a variety of issues, principally that it is wrong for governments to discriminate against individuals on the basis of appearance, religion, sexual or gender identity.

Poverty, inequality and the climate crisis were also cited as being the most pressing issues facing people today – but over half (53%) said they felt their country was going in the wrong direction. About a third also indicated that they believed politicians are not working in the best interests of their constituents.

“Confidence in the foundational elements of democracy coexists with profound doubts and its real-world practice and impact,” Brown said.

An average of around 70%, meanwhile, said they were concerned that the climate crisis would have a negative impact on their livelihoods in the next 12 months.

The survey also found that, while the topic of migration has been ever-present in the headlines in recent times, only 7% thought it to be a major concern – with 66% saying they favored the introduction of safer and more legal means for migrants.

 

Russia Today

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian forces press on in east, inflict casualties in south, officials say

Ukraine on Thursday pressed on with a gruelling campaign to regain ground near the shattered Russian-held city of Bakhmut and inflicted heavy casualties on Russian forces on the southern front, senior military officials said.

The Ukrainian accounts outlined fierce fighting in many parts of the eastern front, but no new breakthroughs in the three-month old counter offensive.

Ukrainian advances have been much slower than gains they recorded last year in recovering territory in the northeast, as they proceed methodically in the face of deep Russian entrenchments.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other officials have dismissed Western critics who say the three-month offensive is too slow and hampered by strategic errors, like placing troops in the wrong places.

Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces had repelled eight attacks in the east in hotly contested areas south of Bakhmut.

Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister, Hanna Maliar, said Kyiv's forces were making gains around three villages south of Bakhmut - including Andriivka.

"Progress has been made there," she said on the Telegram messaging app.

Maliar initially reported that Andriivka had been brought under Ukrainian control, but later said that was inaccurate as fighting was still raging around the village.

Russian forces captured Bakhmut in May after months of battles left the city in ruins. Ukrainian forces have since been chipping away at Russian positions, notably south of Bakhmut.

Maliar made no mention of the towns of Avdiivka and Maryinka, further south in Donetsk region, a day after she said both were being subjected to heavy Russian attacks.

On the southern front, where Ukrainian forces have focused on capturing clusters of villages in a drive towards the Sea of Azov, Maliar said Russian troops had sustained "significant losses" in attacks on key towns.

The Russian casualties, Maliar said, had "significantly reduced their ability to defend themselves".

The drive southward is intended to split a land bridge created by Russian forces between the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, and areas they hold in the east, expanded by their full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.

Oleksander Shtupun, spokesperson for troops on the southern front, underscored the heavy extent of Russian losses in Moscow's attempts to recover lost positions.

"The enemy, as a result of attempts to recapture at least some of the lost positions in the Tavria (south) direction in the last two days has lost 15 tanks and 12 armoured vehicles," he said on national television.

He put Russian personnel losses at 665 over the two days.

Reuters could not verify any of the battlefield reports.

** Ukraine attacks Russian warships in Black Sea, destroys air defences in Crimea, Kyiv says

Ukraine said on Thursday it attacked two Russian patrol ships and destroyed a sophisticated air defence system in the west of occupied Crimea, ramping up its strikes to challenge Moscow's dominance in the Black Sea region.

The attacks come a day after Kyiv said it seriously damaged a Russian submarine and landing ship undergoing repairs in a missile strike on a shipyard in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, home to the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

The Ukrainian military, in a post on Telegram messenger, said it hit two Russian patrol boats in the southwest of the Black Sea, causing "certain damage" in a morning attack.

"The (Sergei) Kotov was hit," military intelligence official Andriy Yusov told Reuters, sharing a grainy video circulated online by a Ukrainian government minister that appeared to show sea drones attacking a vessel at sea.

The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed an attack on the Sergei Kotov in a morning statement, but said the assault involving five sea drones was repelled. It made no mention of damage.

Reuters could not independently confirm the reports or the video.

The southwestern location of the attack would indicate Ukraine's ability to strike Russian targets far from its coast.

While Kyiv's counteroffensive in the south and east has been slowed by minefields and Russian defensive lines, fighting has escalated in the Black Sea region where Russia is imposing a de facto blockade on Ukraine's seaborne exports.

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Russian drones have regularly attacked Ukrainian port infrastructure along the Danube River, a vital alternative export route for the major grain producer. It uses its Black Sea Fleet to rain down missiles on Ukrainian targets from afar.

Ukraine's embattled navy has used sea drones to strike back, hitting the Olenegorsky Gornyak landing ship near Russia's naval base at Novorossiysk early last month and a Russian fuel tanker.

'THREE KEY TASKS'

Senior presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Ukraine was focused on three key tasks aimed at the de-occupation of the peninsula, which lies far behind the battlelines of southern Ukraine.

Kyiv, he said, was targeting air defence systems to open up the path to more strikes on Russian military and warehouse infrastructure. Kyiv was also attacking transport logistics to "stop the large-scale continuous supply of resources and reserves into the area of active hostilities," he said.

"We need to chase away remnants of the Russian Black Sea fleet from Crimean territorial waters and beyond and reinstate the status of the Black Sea as the sea of external jurisdiction," he wrote in English.

Russia regards the peninsula as strategically important and uses its Black Sea Fleet to project power.

Ukraine's military said it had hit Russian air defence systems in a long-range attack in the early hours of Thursday near the town of Yevpatoriya in the west of Crimea, which was seized by Moscow in 2014.

Russia's defence ministry said its air defences shot down 11 drones overnight over the peninsula and did not mention damage.

Footage circulated on social media showed powerful explosions and a plume of smoke rising in the night sky illuminated by a blaze. Reuters could not verify the video.

A Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters that drones blinded the Russian air defence system by attacking its radar and antenna, and that two Neptune cruise missiles were fired at its launchers.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the account.

 

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Expansion of US sanctions targets Russia's defense, energy, financial sectors — Blinken

The United States is expanding Russia-related sanctions lists targeting more companies in its defense industry, energy and financial sectors, as well as elites, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced.

"The Departments of State and the Treasury are imposing further sanctions on over 150 individuals and entities <…>, " according to a written statement by Blinken. It is specified that sanctions are imposed in connection with the special military operation in Ukraine.

"As part of today’s action, the U.S. government is targeting individuals and entities engaged in sanctions evasion and circumvention, those complicit in furthering Russia’s ability to wage its war against Ukraine, and those responsible for bolstering Russia’s future energy production," the US top diplomat says.

In a similar statement by the US Treasury it is noted that the sanctions are imposed "on Russia’s elites and its industrial base, financial institutions, and technology suppliers."

According to Blinken, the Department of State is applying the current sanctions in an attempt to limit not only Russia's oil and gas production, but also its "export capacity potential" and "operating in Russia’s metals and mining sectors." In addition, the restrictions are aimed at "numerous entities producing and repairing Russian weapon systems, including the Kalibr cruise missile."

These restrictive measures were also introduced against Russian Pavel Shevelin, "an individual affiliated with the Wagner Group involved in the shipment of munitions from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the Russian Federation," the Department of State claims.

Finally, the sanctions affected the "Georgian-Russian" businessman Otar Partskhaladze, Blinken said. According to his version, this businessman "has leveraged to influence Georgian society and politics for the benefit of Russia."

 

Reuters/Tass

It’s not often that you meet Supreme Court justices, serving or retired. I first met retired Justice Sunday Akinola Akintan casually at a reception in Abuja, for my friend and radical lawyer, Yinka Olumide-Fusika, who had been admitted to the inner bar. Then, we met again about one year later, this time, through his book.

Years after his retirement from the Supreme Court in 2008, Akintan wrote a book, entitled, “Reminiscences: My Journey Through Life,” which Olumide-Fusika asked me to review. What struck me was one of Akintan’s motivations for writing the book. It was an answer to T.O.S Benson’s advice not to be buried without writing a book, which would be a waste of a life’s worth of library. 

If his lordship decided to write just to remember the road he travelled and to share his odyssey, it would still have been a good book. But it was even better because in a profession where the burden of office elevates discretion almost to the oeuvre of a cult, his desire to shed light is a valuable gift. 

There are a couple of rare insights in the book. One of them, which has assumed significant monstrosity over the years, is how the judiciary could not see that getting more and more involved in deciding electoral outcomes would drag it in the mud. 

Or maybe the judiciary saw it but decided, with a helping hand from the inner bar, to take Oscar Wilde’s advice to overcome the problem by yielding to it. And now, it’s beyond entanglement; the Bench is enmeshed!

Over 10 hours of studiously reading a judgment which five judges of the Court of Appeal must have thought was their utmost to deliver justice still left behind a trail of disenchantment, suspicion and criticisms. Not a few, rather sadly and regrettably, still believe it was the judicial equivalent of a grudge match.

As it was…

The judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) last week in the case involving the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar; Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP); and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in which the panel dismissed the petitions against the February 25 election of President Bola Tinubu, has once again put the judiciary in the spotlight.

In the midst of the outrage that followed the judgment, especially among the supporters of Abubakar and Obi, I turned, once again, to Akintan’s book for help to find my way through the maelstrom. And he should know. He’s seen election petitions since 1979.

It's a measure of how we have learnt to forget that the account of the retired justice of the Supreme Court of what happened 20 years ago reads like excerpts from today’s newspapers. If we had paid any heed then, it’s unlikely that the country would be in a place today where the outcome of virtually every election depends not on who voters choose at the ballot, but on who the courts decide.

In Reminiscences, Akintan writes that one of the two most significant things that happened to him when he returned to the Port Harcourt division on a rare second tour of duty as Presiding Judge of the Court of Appeal, was dealing with matters arising from the 2003 general elections. 

There was something about the 2003 election that set his hair on edge and raked his conscience over the coals of the sacred pledge he had made to himself and his family at the beginning of his career not to stain his name. Post-election litigations up and down the country were fierce and bitter. 

But the one between ANPP’s presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari and candidate of the PDP, Olusegun Obasanjo, after the 2003 election was so bitter and so fierce that Buhari called for nationwide protests, because he said the judiciary had been compromised.

Clear, present danger

That was only a foreshadow of what was to come. As the years went by the judiciary came under increasing strain. The stakes, for politicians, got even higher. “They exposed the judges and the entire staff of the judiciary to contacts with the politicians,” Akintan writes, “with the attendant possibility of exposing them to corruption.” What was then a possibility is now a consuming danger.

Akintan was assigned 52 petitions in Port Harcourt alone. On top of that, the President of the Court of Appeal told him he had to go to Jos for eight pending governorship election petitions, which the president of the court obviously needed a trustworthy judge to handle.

To avoid contact with litigants and their lawyers, never mind the felicity of some determined folks even thinking of sending him Sallah ram directly or by proxy as we heard in a recent case in Kano, Akintan moved his base from Port Harcourt to his home town, Idanre, Ondo State.

In spite of the severe scarcity of petrol at the time, it was from Idanre that he commuted weekly to Jos through Abuja. Even in Jos, he still could not trust his driver would not be used to get him.

“Once we arrived in the court in Jos,” he recalls, “I used to collect the car ignition key from my driver to ensure there was no breach of the car being taken into town for any reason.”

According to Akintan, by the time he retired from the Supreme Court in 2008, the system had almost been overwhelmed with politicians working hand-in-gloves with lawyers to suborn elections. Trust and confidence had become casualties.

“The position grew so wild after the 2015 elections,” he writes, “that the number of election petitions far outstripped all other cases filed in all the courts in the country. Many of the senior lawyers who had cornered the very lucrative briefs from the election petitions amassed stupendous wealth.” 

Unfortunately, and in spite of the valiant efforts by a few conscientious judges still on the Bench, the cloud of suspicion has, regrettably, thickened. 

Abuja special status

Apart from Akintan’s personal decision to be different, there was something else in Reminiscences that caught my attention: the judgment in Joseph Ona & another V. Diga Romani Atenda (2000), in which he played a leading role. This judgment by the Court of Appeal, in my view, addressed one of the vexatious points in Obi’s petition that a candidate must have 25 percent of the votes cast in Abuja or else cannot be declared validly elected. 

Until I read the summary judgment in the book, I was under the impression that Abuja residents had two heads; that apart from having a special political status, the dichotomy between “settlers” and “indigenes” was also real.

But in the judgment in the case under reference – a case of trespass, harassment, humiliation and defamation in a land dispute – which was, in fact, referred from the High Court to the Court of Appeal for determination, the court made it clear residents of the Federal Capital Territory are by no means special.

In the words of Akintan, “It is (therefore) totally illegal for any of them to claim any special right over any other Nigerian occupier of the territory.”

Conclusion of the matter

If there is no dichotomy in the status of residents, and they have no exclusive proprietary right over and above citizens anywhere in the country, how can they claim a casting vote that holds the country to ransom at elections? It would be interesting to see how the Supreme Court answers this and other questions that would come before it in the Abubakar-Obi appeal. 

What I hear former Supreme Court Justice Akintan say, clearly in Reminiscences, is that the fewer court-imposed candidates we have – and one might add, the less crooked the political parties, the election management body and the media – the better for the electoral system and the judiciary.

** Ishiekwene is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP