[dropcap]P[/dropcap]resident Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday inaugurated the 44 member cabinet that is expected to help him take the country to the next level as canvassed during the campaign.
Among the ministers were 12 who played different roles in Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. However, as if acting a script, their previous roles in the former ruling party were carefully masked during the inauguration on Wednesday as their background in the former ruling
party was completely covered up.

The All Progressives Congress, APC next level campaign was indeed, wholly conceived to take the country higher following the change that came after what the administration has repeatedly claimed as the 16 years of the holocaust under the PDP.
Remarkably, as the ministers were inaugurated on Wednesday, the master of ceremonies, Mr. Femi Adesina, repeatedly exalted the roles played by some of the key APC activists in the campaigns that brought Buhari to power.

He mentioned the historic roles folks like Sharon Ikeazor, Abubakar Malami, Boss
Mustapha played in the years prior to the emergence of Buhari as power.

It was, however, a different kettle of fish when it came to some of the well known former PDP activists.

As he introduced all 12 of them who served in different positions in the PDP
administrations at federal and state levels, Mr. Adesina just mentioned their offices without mentioning the party under which they served unlike what he did to the aboriginal APC ministers.

Just as Jesus Christ had twelve disciples who came out of the world into a higher-level relationship with God, Buhari’s twelve ministers who came out from the PDP were on Wednesday bursting with gusto in a determination to go to a higher level with Buhari.

12 of the 44 ministers representing 27% who had their political DNA in the PDP include:

NAME ROLE IN PDP
Godswill Akpabio:
Two-term commissioner, two-term Governor, and Senate Minority leader. He was a staunch PDP activist who was in the frontline against the coming
of the APC in 2015.

Timipire Sylva :
Special Assistant to Minister of Petroleum, One term governor of Bayelsa State.

Chris Ngige :
PDP Assistant National Secretary reputed to have institutional memory of the PDP traditions.
He was also a one-term governor of Anambra State

Rotimi Amaechi:
Two-term Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly, Two Term Governor of Rivers State.

George Akume:
Two-term governor of Benue State; One-term Senator.

Gbemisola Saraki:
One-term member of House of Representatives from Kwara; two-term Senator.

Goody Agba:
PDP Governorship Aspirant in Cross Rivers State who almost took control of the party from Gov. Liyel Imoke.

Mohammed Abdullahi:
Served different PDP administrations in Nasarawa State.

Pauline Tallen:
Minister, Deputy governor of Plateau State.

Sunday Dare:
Served as Special Assistant to Prof. Dora Akinyuli in the PDP administration of President Umaru Yar`Adua Mahmmadu.

Maigari:
Close political associate of Senator Aliyu Wamakko. Moved with Wamakko into and out of the PDP.

Ikechukwu Ogar:
Was a close associate of Governor T.A. Orji and sponsor of the PDP in Abia State. Was one of those listed by the Orji family for succession.

Noble Emeji

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Presidential Election Petition Tribunal on Thursday in Abuja dismissed the petition filed by Hope Democratic Party challenging President Muhammadu Buhari’s election in the February 23 general election.
Delivering judgment, Justice Mohammed Garba, Chairman of the five-man panel, held that the tribunal lack the jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
Garba said the action was an abuse of court processes, adding that the premise on which the petition was hinged was unknown to the country’s Constitution.
News Agency of Nigeria reports that the decision was unanimous as there was no dissenting judgment.
The Political Party and its Presidential Candidate, Ambrose Owuru, had prayed the tribunal to set aside the outcome of the election on grounds that INEC allegedly failed to follow the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010.
The petitioners had averred that the electoral body’s abrupt postponement of the poll earlier scheduled for February 16 was deceptive and done to favour a particular candidate.
The petitioners contended that Oworu, emerged winner of the election through a referendum conducted on February 16 by scoring 50 million votes across the country.
They had submitted that Nigerian citizens participated in the February 16 referendum as required by law and therefore urged the tribunal to nullify the declaration of Buhari by INEC as president and in his place, restore Owuru as the authentic winner.
NAN recalls that Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Counsel for the president, had urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition on the grounds that it is frivolous, baseless and lacking in merit.
Olanipekun had told the tribunal that the petitioners did not in any way adduce evidence on how the referendum was conducted and who conducted it in line with the provisions of the law.
He further explained that referendum was not known to the country’s law as a procedure to elect citizens into positions of governance.
Olanipekun further said he had studied carefully the final address of the HDP and its presidential candidate and there was nowhere they made any case against president Buhari.
On his part, Yunus Usman (SAN)  urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition with substantial cost to serve as a deterrent to those who may wish to file frivolous and baseless petitions in the 2023 elections and beyond.
Usman argued that the petition lacked merit because the electoral body conducted an election and not a referendum and that the claims of the two petitioners were strange to the electoral umpire.

He, therefore, urged the tribunal to uphold the declaration of Buhari as the winner of the February 23 presidential election.
Also, Chief Akin Olujimi (SAN) Counsel for the All Progressive Party, aligned with the other respondents to demand the dismissal of the petition for lacking in merit.