Ondo State Governor-elect, Rotimi Akeredolu has praised his opponents at the election for not challenging his victory at the court.
Akeredolu was declared winner of the governorship election in the state by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Two of his major opponents, Eyitayo Jegede of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Olusola Oke of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) did not
file petitions at the Election Petition Tribunal within 21 days they are required to do so.
Akeredolu while speaking at his hometown Owo, in Owo Local Government Area of Ondo State said the election commended both candidates.
He said, “I have to praise my other contestants, especially, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede and Mr. Olusola Oke. I am sure that they have seen, as senior lawyers, that we are in a position to accept the result of an election, having assessed all the parameters, we believe the election was free and fair and I want to believe that their attitude is worthy of note and all of us, at least should try to emulate that in subsequent elections.
“They must have weighed all the options that there must have been substantial compliance to electoral acts by deciding not to challenge the result, that is a decision that is worthy of note and I want to thank them.”
The Gubernatorial Candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Ondo State, Chief Olusola Oke on Monday congratulated Mr Rotimi Akeredolu of the All Peoples Congress (APC) who won last Saturday’s election even as he decried the heavy monetization of the election process which produced him.
Oke who addressed the Press in Akure commended both the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security agents deployed to the State for being fair in the handling of their duties but regretted that the open and free use of money to purchase votes during the election by the ruling parties remains a sad commentary on the nation’s electoral process.
This development, according to him, required the urgent intervention by government if the much publicized anti-corruption agenda of the Federal Government must have meaning to Nigerians.
His words: “in the last seven years, the policy direction of the government of the day ( in Ondo State) has resulted in the growth and circulation of poverty to our people.
“The resultant effect is the debilitating poverty that had made the people so vulnerable. Therefore, trading away dignity in the face of excruciating hunger during electioneering process requires little or no considerations for morals and values that defined us as a people. The open and free use of money to purchase votes, during the election by the ruling parties remains a sad commentary on our electoral process. This requires urgent intervention by government if the much publicized anti-corruption agenda of the Federal Government must have meaning to Nigerians.
“Offer of money for votes is worse than looting the government treasury. Apart from compromising the dignity of the people, it provides a fertile training ground for future looters of government treasury. The consequence of it is to render the anti-corruption fight a farce. There may be no economic matter more urgent, difficult to unravel and more sensitive to the pursuit of the average person in Ondo State than the current indignity foisted on the people by poverty orchestrated by maladministration and priority misplacement by the current administration. We hope the incoming administration will address the problem of poverty so that the integrity of our electoral process will be restored.”
While noting that from the observation of the people of Ondo State, they appear confused and unsure of what would follow the immediate satisfaction from the naira handout received in consideration of the votes cast.
“They appear wondering whether the votes they delivered yesterday would restore light, revive dead industries, complete the uncompleted ones, give hundreds of thousands of unemployed graduates employment, pay arrears of salary to workers and guarantee regular payment of salary; whether their votes will make water to flow again in their unused and rusted water pipes, reduce dust on our roads, revive our education and health sectors and so on,” he stated.
Oke, who recalled the event leading to his and his followers movement to the AD, said the movement was necessitated by the need for “us as democrats and conscience of the people to shun the in-built perfidy and organized deception in APC as revealed during its primary election.
“We moved to AD less than six weeks before the gubernatorial election. We knew it was a big challenge and the greatest challenge was time. But we were determined in the pursuit of our dream.
“We know how bad the situation is and we are aware that the art of governance is difficult and complex, especially during trying times. The steep reduction in global oil prices from over 120 dollars per barrel to roughly 30 dollars and the huge debt profile of Ondo State present a hard challenge that requires a prepared mind and experienced hands in the saddle. We are convinced that we can no longer afford past practices.
That was the compelling re-occurring issue that defined our struggle. We thank the people of Ondo State who believed in the struggle of Alliance for Democracy and its candidate, Chief Olusola Oke.
“Ondo State requires economic re-engineering, creative reform, materially changing the substance of its economic policy as well as the objectives of that policy in a way that the economic well-being of the people will be restored again. Therein lies the essence of progressive democratic governance and that is what our party, the Alliance for Democracy stands for. The incoming government therefore must urgently address the issue of ravaging poverty in the state through: Industrialization; Job/Wealth Creation; Rural Integration; Infrastructural Development; Security,”
He, therefore, assured that as members of the opposition, the AD shall continue to contribute to the process of governance and would not hesitate to point, in a civilized manner, the attention of the incoming government to any area where the masses seem not to have been considered in the policy framework of governance.
“We shall voice our opinion whenever we believe any member of the incoming government strayed from the progressive calling required of the administration,” he posited.
He, therefore, congratulated the governor-elect, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN and wish him success and praying to God to guide him “as he directs the affairs of our dear state.”
The Ali Sheriff faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, said it has identified impunity and lack of respect for the party’s constitution and the rule of law as the major problems that led to the its failure in the Edo and Ondo governorship elections.
Many have expressed the belief that the decision of Mr. Sheriff and his supporters to factionalise the PDP led to its failure in the elections.
The faction, at a media briefing on Monday in Abuja, however said the blame for the losses falls on three governors elected under the platform of the party.
Cairo OjougbohFactional Deputy National Chairman
Although the faction did not mention the names of the three governors, it has been engaged in running battles with governors Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State and Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State.
Monday’s press briefing, addressed by the Deputy National Chairman of the faction, Cairo Ojougbo, said ” in all these difficult times only three governors have been the architects of the destruction of the party”.
Mr. Ojougbo said only the governors of “Taraba, Gombe, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers and a few others have been very cooperative and are willing to let the party grow. They have shown maturity, understanding and sagacity in the affairs of the PDP.”
THE BEGINNING OF OUR DOWNFAL
The Sheriff faction recalled that the impact of impunity in the PDP manifested itself for the first time in the 2011 general elections when the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, defeated the PDP in Nasarawa State.
“We had a sitting governor then who could not deliver. This was the first warning against impunity. It was ignored.
Ayodele Fayose, Ekiti State Governor
“Then in 2015 we had governors in Benue, Kogi, Niger, Jigawa, Plateau, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Bauchi and Adamawa. We lost in all these states for a common reason, the governors were not unpopular but they imposed their surrogates and the people voted them out. We paid for impunity,” Mr. Ojougbo said.
The faction argued that an analysis of the 2015 general election showed that all the ten states the party lost were in the northern part of the country, adding that even south-south states would not have survived if former President Goodluck Jonathan did not hail from the region. It said the figures that emanated from the south-east were also “abysmal”.
Mr. Ojougbo said the outcome of the 2015 election proved that although governors are very important in winning elections for a party, they do not necessarily determine the outcome.
“The running of the party should therefore not be left entirely to their whims and caprices. The party must have a say because party is supreme. In the case of Mimiko’s Ondo, the party was denied the valuable say,” he said.
The party leader also said that the faction had cried to all concerned ahead of the Edo election that the party hierarchy in the state was defective and that the Leadership needed to be changed “to allow the 60 stalwarts of the PDP who defected to APC return to the fold.”
Olusegun Mimiko
“Of course the governors refused. There was no surprise to the result.
“In Ondo State, the script was written in 2013 when Governor Mimiko returned to PDP. All members he met on the ground left the party for him and he took over the PDP. The structure was handed over to the Labour Party.
“If Oke had not gone to AD and Mimiko managed leadership sportsmanly, PDP would have won the election convincingly.
“In the election, APC scored 244,842 votes while PDP scored 150,380 and AD scored 126,889 votes. It is a fact that the AD votes belong to PDP and the simple arithmetic shows why PDP lost; our votes went to Oke and AD,” he said.
He also said that when Mr. Mimiko returned to the PDP, his fellow governors appealed to him to allow for harmonization but he refused.
He said all the PDP members led by Olusola Oke therefore left the party.
Mr. Ojougbo said in choosing a candidate to succeed him, Mr. Mimiko did not allow original members of the PDP to buy forms.
“He mainly anointed Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) who was returned unopposed.
“Party members cried to the high heavens that Jegede is from the central zone where Mimiko hails from. Their cries fell on deaf ears,” he said.
He also said the primary election organised by the Sheriff faction had six participants which returned Jimoh Ibrahim as the candidate.
“Jimoh hails from the South. He campaigned vigorously and convinced the people to vote for him. But alas Mimiko will not allow him carry the party flag.
“Mimiko used the instrumentality of state government to overwhelm Jimoh but could not overwhelm the masses and voters. Of course the result is out there for all to see,” he said.
Sheriff independent of Buhari, APC
Mr. Ojougbo also said the accusation that Mr. Sheriff was doing the bidding of Nigeria’s ruling APC is not tenable.
He said it was PDP governors who invited Mr. Sheriff to be the chairman of the party. He also said when he (Sheriff) assumed office, he put in place a committee to conduct a National Convention to “elect people of good character to run the affairs of the party”.
He added that Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State was appointed the chairman of the zoning committee.
“The Governors met and decided that Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff should continue in office. The question is ‘was it Mr. President, General Buhari or the APC who sourced Senator Sheriff for the PDP’?
“Was it the APC who chaired the zoning committee that zoned chairmanship to Sheriff? The answer is No.
Ali Modu Sheriff
“We therefore call on all Nigerians to discountenance the idea that Sheriff is working for the APC. Sheriff was offered the senatorial ticket in the last general election after he left the APC. Senator Ali Modu Sheriff is a complete PDP faithful whose desire it is to reposition the party.
“Truth be told, Sheriff is insisting that power be returned to the people,” he said.
Mr. Ojougbo also spoke about the belief that Mr. Sheriff was a sponsor of the terrorist group, Boko Haram,
He said it is on record that when Mr. Sheriff was governor of Borno State, he suppressed and completely routed the Boko Haram.
“Boko Haram Killed 5 members of his family in the process of his fight against them.
“But when the current Governor of Borno State, Shettima, took over office, Boko Haram became emboldened, virulent and malignant.
“Note also that Shettima became governor because Boko Haram killed the man who was to be governor. His death paved way for the emergence of Shettima who willingly and deliberately encouraged Boko Haram.
“Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff has taken to court the Attorney General of Borno State who claimed that Sheriff is Boko Haram in Suit No. FCT/HC/CU/2494/2016 between Senator Dr. Ali Modu Sheriff vs. Barrister Kaka Shehu Lawan and 3 others which is currently ongoing,” he said.
Mr. Ojougbo said although the faction does not comment on individuals, but “for the sake of the survival of the party we take exceptions to the utterances of Prince Adeyeye”.
He said Mr. Adeyeye, spokesperson of the Ahmed Makarfi PDP faction, is attacking Mr. Sheriff’s faction believing that he will be awarded the governorship ticket of Ekiti State.
The sheriff faction, however, warned that if the PDP is not restructured, even if he ( Adeyeye) is awarded the ticket “which we know Fayose will not do, it will be an exercise in futility and a waste of time like Eyitayo Jegede’s”.
Mr. Ojougbo said Mr. Sheriff is the agent of change for the PDP and multiparty democracy in Nigeria.
“Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff remains the only and authentic National Chairman of the PDP and the NWC remains the only administrative body authorized by law to run the party.”
He concluded the briefing by calling on all party members to unite or the PDP will be dead forever.
Eyitayo Jegede, the recognized candidate of the crisis-ridden Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Saturday’s Ondo State gubernatorial race, said on Sunday that he was still studying the results of the election.
Mr. Jegede said his full reaction over the conduct of the election and the victory of All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Rotimi Akeredolu would soon be made public.
“I should thank our people for their steadfastness. We are studying the situation and very soon you will know my position and my party’s position.
“You all know the event that led to the election. We were in court, I got judgment 48 hours to the election, our request for postponement was turned down for reasons not known to us,” Mr. Jegede said.
Earlier, PDP publicity secretary Ayo Fadaka alleged that the APC bribed citizens with cash in exchange for their votes.
The candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Olu Agunloye, has said he is still studying the governorship election won by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Rotimi Akeredolu.
Mr. Akeredolu was on Sunday declared winner of the election with an overwhelming score of 244, 842 votes.
Mr. Agunloye came a distant fourth with just over 10,000 votes.
The head of media, Agunloye campaign organisation, Tunji Fajimbola, told PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday that the candidate was not in a hurry to accept or reject the election.
“He is still studying the situation,” said Mr. Fajimbola. “It is not wise to make pronouncements in a hurry. He still has to consult with the party.”
He said it is often the best practice to congratulate the winner of any election, but noted that Mr. Agunloye would not want to hurriedly make such pronouncements, in order not to be take a position different from his party.
“Dr. Agunloye did his best to show there is an alternative to the suffering situation of the people of the state,” Mr. Fajimbola noted.
“He offered himself and did what he should do. He is still the best option, and if the people needed a person who will rescue and rebuild, he is the best option.”
Mr. Agunloye scored 10,149 to place fourth behind Olusola Oke who scored a total of 126, 889 votes.
He based his campaign on the slogan to rescue and rebuild.
Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose has alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has planned with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig the Ondo governorship election.
In a statement on Friday, Fayose said INEC staff already have the result they will be announcing to Nigerians.
The governor also wondered why the Returning officer and other key staff are being made secret by the commission.
The statement read; “At the early hours of today, information came in that the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), Prof Kayode Soremekun, who was the INEC Returning Officer in the recently concluded Edo State governorship election that is still a subject of litigation, will also serve as the Returning Officer for the Ondo State election.
“The questions that came to my mind were; is Prof Kayode Soremekun the only Vice Chancellor in Nigeria? Is FUOYE the only federal university
in Nigeria? Is Ekiti the only State where INEC can find Returning Officers?
“Definitely, INEC is up to a sinister game on the Ondo State election and it is obvious that the electoral commission is working with the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“This belief was further made manifest by the response of Prof Soremekun to a SMS and a call, saying that he was only being used as decoy by INEC.
“This was further corroborated by the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ondo State, Mr Olusegun Agbaje, who said on television that identities of those to be used as Returning Officers are being kept secret.
“Obviously, it is clear beyond any doubt that INEC is only trying to make a volte-face, after its sinister motive of using the same people it used to rig the Edo State election was exposed.
“Electoral process should an open book that anyone can read. Sadly, less than 24 hours to the Ondo State election, INEC is telling Nigerians and the entire world that identities of those to serve as Returning Officers are being kept secret.
“Why should those that will conduct election be hidden from Nigerians? Is election now a secret affair?
“The sad reality confronting the electoral process in Nigeria today is that apart from the APC, other political parties are now contesting elections against INEC.
“It is clear that the Returning Officers already have fake results that they will announce to Nigerians as they did in Edo State.
“Evidently, democracy in Nigeria has suffered a serious setback and it will take the insistence and resistance of the people of Ondo State for their votes to count tomorrow.
“Furthermore, to sustain the planned rigging, names of some judges seen as trusted enough to give the APC favourable judgment have been compiled to be used as members of the Election Petition Tribunal. In other words, the election tribunal has been constituted even before the election is held.
The Alliance for Democracy (AD) has warned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies against manipulating the results of the election in favour of any party, especially the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to the statement issued in Akure, the Ondo State capital, the Director General Olusola Oke campaign organization, Bola Ilori, said any attempt to manipulate the result of the election will be resisted by the good people of Ondo State, adding that the people of the state should be allowed to choose who rules them.
The statement reads: “While we as a party are prepared for the election, we will support anything that will aid the peaceful conduct of election. However, we will not fold our ?arms and allow our destinies to be determined by people who are not only political invaders but people who have subjected our people to untold hardship.
“Also, the security agencies should make sure they don’t take side. They should deal with anybody who forment trouble. Just like we have told our people, they should not allow anybody to dictate what they will do to them but make sure they keep vigil and defend their votes.”
“We are also aware of plans to cause trouble in Akoko Land, Ondo South senatorial district and other areas considered to be strongholds of AD. If President Muhammodu Buhari cannot deliver the dividends of democracy he promised the people, he should not cause chaos in the state. He should warn INEC and security agencies against enacting a replica of 1983 political crisis in the state.”
The Governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko, has called on his supporters to resist an alleged attempt by the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, and the All Progressive Congress, APC, to subvert the will of the people and rig Saturday’s gubernatorial election in the state.
Mr. Mimiko, who was speaking during a press conference at the Dome in Akure, the state capital, on Friday said INEC has perfected plans to “deliver ill-fated results for the APC candidate.”
He alleged, as did the spokesperson for his Peoples Democratic Party, Banji Okunomo, that they have uncovered an arrangement by the INEC to use “the same team of election ad-hoc staff which masterminded the controversial Edo election” to rig the election in the state.
“I have to say this here and now that our people will not accept the rigging of the process unleashed on Edo. We reject unequivocally the mission of this team on our state,” said Mr. Mimiko, looking very agitated.
“In Edo State, they did not only call off collation (early), party agents, observers and journalists were ordered out of the collation centres allowing for final subversion of the will of the electorate. We shall not allow such ungodly process to be repeated in our state,” he said.
The governor alleged that INEC violated its own laws to make sure that its preconceived plans for the election come to past.
“Effort has been concerted by INEC and forces within the APC to prevent the emergence of a credible and electable candidate in Ondo state. For the avoidance of doubt, this ungodly process started when INEC in flagrant violation of extant laws governing elections removed the name of Eyitayo Jegede on the basis of a Justice Okon Abang order that has since been declared as a fraud at the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal.
“We wonder why INEC would remove the name of a man who emerged from a party primary that was conducted in a free, fair and open environment and by legitimate organs of the party where INEC itself was represented, with another name from a process that was illegal and by people not known to law.
“INEC discarded all legal advice not to substitute Eyitayo Jegede by its own chosen consortium of lawyers because Eyitayo Jegede was the legal and proper candidate of PDP.”
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal on Wednesday stating that Mr. Jegede was the legitimate candidate or the PDP.
Mr. Mimiko said INEC only replaced the name of Jimoh Ibrahim, the factional candidate of the PDP with that of Mr. Jegede, after the Supreme Court’s ruling.
He added that the PDP has not been given the opportunity to submit the names of its party agents or even the opportunity to raise funds to campaign
He questioned why INEC insisted on going ahead with the election on Saturday when it still has up to January to conduct the election. He said INEC’s insistence showed that it was working with powers with the APC to rig the election.
“Several other hurdles were placed on the way of the PDP candidate Eyitayo Jegede to the extent that he did not become a candidate until about 48 hours to his own election.
“INEC did not release the list on the voters register to PDP until yesterday in clear infraction of its own laws. In a free and fair contest, INEC is supposed to have released the electoral register so that the candidate should actually know and the party should properly organise. Under the electoral act and INEC guideline a nominated candidate should have his name published at least 30 days to the election.
“INEC denied Eyitayo Jegede to submit the names of his party agent which according to Section 35 of the Electoral Act 2010, is supposed to submit it at least 7 days before the election. Two days to the election, Eyitayo Jegede’s supporters are not sure of those parading themselves as agents of the party. In fact, we got the information yesterday that some so called party agents of the PDP held a meeting in Akoko and agreed to work with the APC.
“Those are agents of candidates that have been described as an impostors in our party. A day to the election, many of our units and wards have not received agent cards from INEC. The agents with INEC were submitted by a man who has been exposed as a fifth columnist in the election. We were expected to run a race with our arms tied behind our back. While INEC goes ahead to foist a wururu to the answer result. We would not accept.
“Forty-eight hours to the election you are saying that the election must continue willy-nilly, how does the candidate raise money for the election? Are we saying that money is not part of this process or is he expected to raise the funds within 48 hours.
“The question is why the stubborn insistence on going ahead with tomorrow. Knowing full well that they still have up to January under the law to conduct this election. We shall not take it. In this instance, injustice stares us in the face and we are being treated by INEC and all the agents and the powers that control them, the power that sent them obnoxious phone calls to act outside the law, we are being treated like slaves and a conquered people in our own country, we will no longer take it. INEC is being forced to subvert its own process.
He, however, called on the people of the state to remain peaceful but to be firm in resisting any attempt at rigging the election at the polling unit or the collation centres.
Over one thousands supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Oke-Agbe, local government headquarters of Akoko North West in Ondo State, yesterday, defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The defectors were led by their leaders, a chieftain of the PDP, Hon. Gabriel Talabi and the Secretary of AD in that council, Mr. Sunday Akindeji.
They officially dumped their old parties at the campaign rally of the APC governorship candidate, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN at Oke-Agbe.
They were received by Akeredolu, the Director General of his Campaign, Rt. Hon. Victor Olambitan, Engr. Ade Adetimehin, Tunji Abayomi among others.
Talabi lamented the neglect of the local government area by the outgoing PDP administration in terms of roads and other social amenities.
He stressed that they have decided to join the progressive party and also believes that if Akeredolu emerges, Akoko will not be neglected.
Abayomi, promised to deliver the local government area to APC on November 26.
Akeredolu and Olabimtan who spoke respectively at the rally promised to correct the mistakes of the past in the local government if APC wins the coming governorship election.
They thanked the defectors for their support and equally urged them to beware of the antics of desperadoes who are deceiving people around that APC had collapsed its structure with AD.
They insisted that APC remains intact in the State and it is mentally, intellectually and physically ready to end the age-long underdevelopment that had enveloped the state in the last eight years.
It was amusing seeing the pictures of Governor Olusegun Mimiko at the Presidential Villa last Friday. Not that he does not have the right to visit the president; he does, particularly with our warped federal structure wherein states are more of appendages than federating units. But his reason for the visit was funny, to say the least. The visit was like pounding on anvil that gave off no sparks, especially with his request that the president intervenes in the raging fire in Ondo State.
Mimiko is an astute politician, a great mobiliser of people and resources towards a particular goal. One does not fight former president Olusegun Obasanjo politically and beat him if he is not a strong politician and maybe only him and former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, have been able to dust the ebora Owu on the political field while he held sway between 1999 and 2007. A former minister told the story of how they were unable to persuade Mimiko not to leave the federal cabinet in order to become the Ondo governor, why leaving for uncertainty, they asked him. Iroko, as he is known, however, stuck to his guns and resigned as housing minister to contest the April 14, 2007 elections. He recalled how Obasanjo was apoplectic with rage at the cabinet meeting where Mimiko tendered his resignation letter threatening that he would ‘deal with him’ but Iroko kept quiet.
A colleague who covered the governorship election for a foreign broadcast organisation spoke of how Mimiko was well loved by the people that everywhere he went with his crew, they saw how difficult it would be for the late Segun Agagu to beat him. Incredibly, INEC declared Agagu the winner but Mimiko went to court and on February 23, 2009, the Appeal Court ruled that he was the winner paving the way for him to become the first and only Labour Party member to win a gubernatorial election in our country. He assumed office the next day. On October 2, 2014 he switched to PDP after securing another term and thereby becoming the first governor in the state history to win a second term. So, as we say in Nigeria, ‘he is very much on the ground.’
But how did the 62-year old medical doctor find himself in a political mess that he has to seek refuge from a president he barely tolerates? What happened that his anointed candidate, Eyitayo Jegede, a senior advocate, did not foresee the legal landmines and thereby prepare well on how to navigate such? How come the hunter is now the hunted? More annoyingly, the ‘PDP candidate’ recognized by INEC is a corporate undertaker with many companies or corporations dying under his watch than surviving. And that’s where INEC comes into the picture. It is interesting that the electoral body, which recognized the Ahmed Makarfi faction before the Edo State governorship election, decided not to recognize it now. Though there is the other matter that it was the state executive that Mimiko allegedly sidelined before the primaries that has been recognized now by INEC. An important observation, however, is that what do we make of INEC’s presence at the primary where Jegede emerged? On what basis was the attendance if that faction was not authentic?
Too often we do not focus on two critical players in our democratic journey as a country, INEC and the judiciary. As a country, we place so much emphasis on election that governance suffers because of it. While no one knows how the saga involving our judges will end, it is instructive that electoral victories are won in courts now more than at polling booths. What is INEC doing wrongly that candidates are seemingly more interested in going to courts after elections? Even while violence should be condemned emphatically, INEC should not push citizens into thinking it is an option. By the way, whatever happened to some withheld results after the Rivers State election by INEC? Some judgments too are baffling that even lawyers are confused on the reasoning behind them, much more disconcerting are even the judgments of the highest court in the land.
Good enough that there is an appeal on this issue but what happens if the court does not rule in favour of the Iroko faction? That’s why we should all be worried about the protests rocking the Ondo State capital. Dissent remains an integral part of democracy, but violence should be abhorred. Citizens should be free to make their grievances known in orderly and peaceful manner without killing. There’s still the unresolved matter of the accusation leveled against INEC by Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim wherein he said that some officials of the electoral body demanded for a bribe from him in foreign currency, I think that’s worth probing. It may be that it played a role in what is happening in Ondo State presently.
The Alliance for Democracy (AD) has suspended three principal officers of the party for their alleged involvement in the governorship candidacy saga in Ondo State.
A communique signed by AD National Chairman, Mr Joseph Avazi, issued in Abuja on Friday, said the three officials were suspended by the party’s National Executive Council [NEC] at its meeting on Oct. 26.
It listed those affected as: Alhaji Shehu Musa, Deputy National Chairman North, Mr Kehinde Aworele, the National Legal Adviser, and the National Organising Secretary, Mr Abdallah Ibrahim.
The communique added that the suspension was to allow the NEC to meet again and resolve the matter.
It stated that the NEC had appointed Alhaji Magaji Kwairanga to act as Deputy National Chairman North, Mr Roland Kientey, as acting National Organising Secretary, and the Deputy Legal Adviser to oversee the legal department.
According to the communique, the NEC has recognised Mr Olusola Oke as the AD candidate in the Nov. 26 governorship election in Ondo state
Ahead of 2019 general elections, the moribund Alliance for Democracy (AD) may be the political haven for associates of embattled National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
It was gathered that except President Muhammadu Buhari and well-meaning stakeholders in the ruling party take concrete and genuine steps to placate the former Lagos State governor, his allies may ditch the party for the AD.
A party source revealed that Tinubu’s camp may have opened discussions with stakeholders of the platform that brought him to power in 1999.
The party source noted that the forthcoming Ondo State governorship election would be used to test the waters.
The rejection of the recommendations of the three-member Election Appeal Committee chaired by Mrs. Helen Bendega, which called for cancellation of the poll that produced Chief Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), and the submission of his name to INEC by the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun was the cause of the cold war betweenTinubu and the latter.
Tinubu, while demanding for the resignation of Odigie-Oyegun, accused the former Edo State governor of treating with disdain the joint petition written by Chiefs Oke, Olusegun Abraham and Senator Ajayi Borrofice rejecting the outcome of the primary that produced Akeredolu.
While the national leader backed Abraham for the ticket, forces in the Presidency supported Akeredolu, who was president of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA).
Former governor of Ogun State, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, has condemned former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s position in his book, My Watch: Political and Public affairs, that there had never been any Yoruba leader, saying “He (Obasanjo) wants to distort the history of the Yoruba.”
Obasanjo made the assertion in chapter 31 of the book, where he explained issues centered on Nigeria and Yoruba, arguing that there was no individual as Yoruba leader before and now.
Osoba, in an interview in Lagos, lamented that the declaration by the former President, who was present at the event when late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was ‘unanimously’ elected as the ‘Yoruba Leader,’ on August 12th, 1966, is worrisome.
According to him, “I disagree with the former President, on whatever claims he made that Awolowo was hand-picked by some of his supporters. In fact, the day he was elected as Yoruba leader was two weeks after Awolowo was released from prison by the military.
“As the garrison commander in Ibadan at the time, Obasanjo was an active member of General Adeyinka Adebayo’s erstwhile cabinet. I do not think that Obasanjo would have forgotten so soon the sequence of events that threw up Awolowo as Yoruba leader.
“I was present at the forum where Late Chief Awolowo was unanimously elected the Yoruba leader. And the election involved all stakeholders, including political, cultural and intellectuals in Yoruba land. Some who did not belong to Awolowo’s political camp also endorsed him,” Osoba added.
Osoba however said that Yorubas cannot have a single leader under current political dispensation. “What we can have at the moment is ‘cultural’ leader not an overall leader. By our level of education, exposure and independent mindedness we like to express our views.”
“Even in family meetings, the Olori Ebi (head of the family), is challenged on issues affecting the family. So, each time the interest of Yoruba is threatened, we all gather under the leadership of an individual to solve the problem,” he added.
The Alliance for Democracy, AD, has adopted President Goodluck Jonathan as its candidate for the March 28 presidential election.
The party also announced that its National Executive Council, NEC, has suspended its former National Secretary, Rafiu Salau, after finding him culpable of anti-party activities
It said Salau, who emerged as the factional presidential candidate of the party was suspended after NEC meeting.
Speaking with newsmen after its NEC meeting held in Lagos, AD national chairman, Senator Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa, said the party would now work for President Jonathan’s re-election.
Akinfenwa said: “Our decision to endorse Dr. Goodluck Jonathan did not come easy.
“We had to critically compare his record with that of General Buhari and we can affirm that Jonathan has demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that he is a true democrat.”
The party leader added that he did not see the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) as a true representative of patriotic, detribalized northerners, who can bring the desired change Nigeria needed.
Alliance for Democracy, AD, has adopted President Goodluck Jonathan as its flag bearer for the March 28 election.
The party also said its National Executive Council, NEC, has suspended its former National Secretary, Rafiu Salau, stating that the NEC ratified the report of disciplinary committee that found Salau culpable of anti-party activities.
Addressing newsmen after its NEC meeting held in Lagos, the party’s national chairman, Senator Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa, said with the adoption of President Jonathan, the AD machinery and structures across the country, are available for the president.
Akinfenwa said: “Our decision to endorse Dr. Goodluck Jonathan did not come easy. We had to critically compare his record with that of General Buhari and we can affirm that Jonathan has demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that he is a true democrat.”
“Jimoh hails from the South. He campaigned vigorously and convinced the people to vote for him. But alas Mimiko will not allow him carry the party flag.
