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Buba Galadima, Secretary, Board of Trustees, BoT, New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP, has said that President Bola Tinubu-led government “destroyed democracy” in Nigeria.
Also he alleged that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, set up a committee long before the electoral bill was presented to the National Assembly
Buba Galadima said these on Saturday at the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, aspirants’ summit held in Abuja.
Read Also: Lawyers Raise Fair Trial Concerns In Diezani’s UK Case
Furthermore, he held, the Electoral Act 2026 was designed to frustrate opposition parties.
His words: “By the time the National Assembly deliberated and finalised on the draft electoral bill, within an hour, the President was signing the bill.
“Did he study that bill? So, it means they have already prepared a bill before him.
“What were the contents of that bill? One of them, which concerns this summit, is that you can only generate candidates through two ways. That is, through consensus or through direct primaries.
“Now, in the opinion of the APC and its government, they thought that the opposition will not be in a position to sit down and do consensus.
“And if they can’t do consensus, the only option open to them is to go and do direct primaries. I want to say, without fear of being contradicted, that no political party in the opposition can do direct primaries and come out completely clean.
“As I speak to you now, NDC is the strongest political platform that can successfully challenge the APC and root it out of government.
“The party cannot afford to do primaries because they will send people to disrupt everything and we end up without a candidate.
“So, it is better for us to maintain unity, to maintain loyalty to the party and to the decision of the elders of this party or the major stakeholders of all our constituencies that whoever emerges as a candidate for any constituency in this country, we will all support that person to succeed.”
The League of Legal Practitioners of Nigeria, yesterday, questioned the fairness and evidential basis of the ongoing United Kingdom trial involving former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, insisting that the case must be determined strictly on credible evidence and proof beyond reasonable doubt.
The group said its review of proceedings already in the public domain revealed contradictions in testimony, gaps in documentary evidence and concerns over the handling of exhibits central to the prosecution’s case.
Speaking in Abuja, yesterday, the group’s National Secretary, Priscilla Makoshi Marcus, noted that the organisation’s intervention was based strictly on legal and procedural concerns.
She said that the London proceedings were narrower than years of sweeping allegations surrounding Nigeria’s petroleum sector and focused mainly on accommodation, travel, logistics, school fees and related expenses.
Read Also: ‘I Was A Rubber Stamp Minister’ – Diezani Tells UK Court
The lawyers also questioned the integrity of evidence handling in the case, saying reimbursement records, invoices and related materials allegedly removed during searches in Abuja in 2015, were absent from the evidential record.
The organisation further cited inconsistencies surrounding seized materials, claiming investigators initially documented two bags of exhibits before a third later emerged during evidential review.
It also argued that ownership, payment and control remained central legal issues, maintaining that prosecutors under the UK Bribery Act 2010 still carried the burden of proving corrupt intent and unlawful advantage tied directly to official conduct.
“The position of the League of Legal Practitioners of Nigeria is therefore, clear: Justice must be evidence based. Justice must be proportionate. Justice must be procedurally fair. Justice must remain free from sensationalism, selective assumptions, or public pressure,” Marcus said.
Former Nigerian Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke told a UK court that her role in approving oil contracts was largely routine, stating that major decisions were already taken before documents reached her desk.
Speaking at Southwark Crown Court in London, she explained that the structure of Nigeria’s oil sector meant she had limited direct control, as key operations were handled by the leadership of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
“The system was already in motion before files came to me,” she said, adding that the size and complexity of the industry made it difficult for a minister to oversee everything directly.
