Tag Archives: JEGEDE

Jegede makes U-turn, says he will not challenge Akeredolu’s victory

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Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the recently concluded governorship election in Ondo State, Eyitayo Jegede, has decided against challenging the outcome of the election in court, as widely expected.

Jegede, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, disclosed to Vanguard that he had accepted the victory of Rotimi Akeredolu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in good faith and had moved on in the spirits of good sportsmanship.

The PDP candidate said that there was no need to continue to fight over the matter since the people of Ondo State had decided on who they want to serve them at this time.

In his words, “I have taken a decision to move on and I wish Governor Rotimi Akeredolu success, promising to release an official statement later in the day.

“I speak for myself. I believe that if I cannot serve the people of Ondo State now, another opportunity will come for me to do so at another time. I have a profession and I am returning to my law practice.

“There is always need to demonstrate true statesmanship and that is what I have done,” Jegede said.

Ondo election: Akeredolu commends Jegede, Oke for conceding defeat.

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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.”

ANALYSIS: Six questions about Mimiko, others, Ondo election left unanswered

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In this analysis, Bisi Abidoye looks at the talking points from last weekend’s governorship election in Ondo State

Gatecrashing the federal party?

The All Progressives Congress won Saturday’s governorship election of Ondo state. The candidate of the party, Rotimi Akeredolu, was declared winner, having received the highest number of the votes and met all the stipulated requirement. Mr. Akeredolu won in 13 of the 18 local government areas of the state and was runner-up in the other five shared by his two nearest rivals, Eyitayo Jegede of the Peoples Democratic Party (who won in three LGAs) and Olusola Oke of the Alliance for Democracy (who won in the other two LGAs.)

If Mr. Akeredolu’s election stands, it will be only the second time in the 40-year history of Ondo state that it has elected the candidate of a federal ruling party, the first being Olusegun Agagu who was elected on the platform of the PDP in 2003. Of course, the electoral commission had on two other occasions returned candidates of the parties ruling at the centre – Akin Omoboriowo of the National Party of Nigeria in 1983 and Segun Agagu of the PDP in 2007. But both verdicts were upturned at the court. Mr. Omoboriowo’s win was quashed after an uprising that gave the state its reputation for violent resistance to perceived electoral shenanigans.

It may be relevant that Ondo voted APC in last year’s federal elections, before consoling Mr. Mimiko by electing a majority of his party’s candidates into the state legislature. And just last week, the only Ondo senator elected last year on PDP ticket, Yele Omogunwa, defected to join the APC caucus. Maybe Ondo is an APC state after all.

When is a mandate?

Mr. Akeredolu won the election with 244,842 votes. But his tally represents only 44.41 percent of the valid votes cast, and means there were more voters on Saturday who preferred someone else as governor.

In some other electoral systems, where a mandate can only be delivered by a majority of voters, the Ondo state governor-elect would only have qualified for a run-off against his closest rival. But don’t blame Mr. Akeredolu for this seeming quirk – Nigeria’s electoral system awards victory to the candidate with the highest number of votes, if the candidate can show his or her footprints across the constituency. The framers of the nation’s constitution made provisions to ensure that the winning plurality does not come from only a section of the field. In addition to having the highest number of votes, the winner must also score at least a quarter of the votes in at least two-thirds of the constituency.

Mr. Akeredolu cleanly scaled this hurdle – in fact, he had majority of the votes in each of 13 LGAs and returned second with more than a quarter of the votes in each of the other five of the state’s 18 LGAs, apart from Ilaje where his rival of the AD denied every other candidate that honour.

But that is not the only thing that may twitch some purists’ noses. Only 35.49 percent of the registered voters cared to turn out last Saturday, despite initial media reports of public enthusiasm about the polls. If you take Mr. Akeredolu’s 244, 842 votes as a percentage of the 1,647,973 registered voters, then it means he has been elected by only 14.85 percent of those who were entitled to have a say on who should be the next governor of Ondo State. Again, this is not peculiar to Mr. Akeredolu, many before him had been so elected, including the man who would soon be his predecessor, Olusegun Mimiko.

What happened, Mr. Mimiko?

The outgoing two-term governor’s party got only 27.27 percent of the votes on Saturday (150,380). Curiously, the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum was never elected on a PDP ticket. He became governor in 2008 after a successful petition against the 2007 election of PDP’s Mr. Agagu. A post-primary defector from the PDP, he had challenged Mr. Agagu’s reelection on the ticket of the Labour Party and was reelected in 2012 on the same party’s ticket, in a three-man race that mirrored that of last Saturday. His two main challengers in that election were Mr. Akeredolu of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria and Mr. Oke, who was the PDP candidate at the time. After his reelection, Mr. Mimiko defected with the governor’s seat to the PDP, infuriating sitting members of the party in the state, including Mr. Oke who eventually fled to the APC.

In the 2012 election, Mr. Oke’s PDP finished second behind Mr. Mimiko’s Labour Party. So with the LP dissolving into the PDP long before Saturday’s election, it was normal to project the PDP as frontrunner last Saturday. Alas! It returned a distant second with just over 27 percent of the votes. Considering that the PDP candidate was handpicked by Mr. Mimiko, did the outcome of the election indicate how sore Ondo voters were over the stewardship of the outgoing governor?

A rolling stone

As for Mr. Oke, what would he make of his finishing on Saturday? He was first runner-up in 2012, albeit with the (some have said half-hearted) support of the PDP which then controlled the federal government. Mr. Oke defected to the APC in resentment of Mr. Mimiko taking over the PDP in the state. He ran for the ticket of the APC but again left in a huff over alleged lack of fair play in the primary. Mr. Oke seized the ticket of the AD for last Saturday’s election to howls by some of the older members of the party. But it was widely speculated that a disaffected section of the APC covertly backed his campaign, so many punters made him the dark horse. It turned out not to be a smart bet. He returned very far behind the man whose nomination by the APC he had queried. Will he stay where he is now or keep his feet loose?

At least, Mr. Oke proved that he has home support though. He won in his Ilaje LGA handsomely, unlike Mr. Jegede of the PDP who only won in the backyard of his mentor, Mr. Mimiko.

Lame donkey or sabotaged?

To be fair to Mr. Jegede and the PDP, it still has to be analysed how much his race was affected by a headwind called Jimoh Ibrahim. For six critical weeks in the run-up to the election, Mr. Jegede gnashed his teeth in no man’s land after he was elbowed out as the candidate of the PDP by a court judgement the Appeal Court has sternly rebuked as fraudulent. While the other candidates were on the field courting the electorate and setting their nets for votes, Mr. Jegede was out in the cold baying at Mr. Ibrahim who had snatched his ticket and parading the courts for delayed help. When just two days to the election, the ticket was retrieved for him from the wily snatcher, Mr. Jegede did not know what else to do other than mount a fruitless campaign for postponement of the polls. No way the authorities would allow a family affair delay a race the community had long awaited. Now, the defeated PDP flag bearer can only rue what might have been! Still, you are not going to be proud of yourself when you cannot win even your LGA.

The-also-ran parties

Twenty eight parties presented candidates for the election. Although the media, trying to separate the men from the boys, projected a four-horse race, it turned out that only three horses actually ran to win, as Olu Agunloye of the Social Democratic Party garnered only 1.84 percent of the votes. The combined votes of all the other 24 amounted to a mere 3.47 percent! So what was their purpose on the ballot, apart from giving electoral officers clerical headache? Worse still, 16 of these parties had joined their voices with the PDP’s in calling for a postponement of the polls last week, pretending to be genuine stakeholders.

In some polities, a party or candidate has to scale some hurdles before being allowed on the ballot. This could be in the form of having their nominations endorsed by a percentage of the registered voters, or, as in the First Republic, making a deposit which they forfeit if at the end of the election they did not reach a particular threshold of the votes. May be Nigeria has to consider reintroducing something like that in the future, to weed the field. Imagine one of these parties being mistakenly left out of the ballot paper. It would have gone to court to have the entire election cancelled and repeated at great cost to everybody.

And by the way, what happened to Mr. Agunloye too? The former minister’s SDP has as its national leader, Olu Falae, an elder statesman whose chest is full of badges as a former secretary to the federal government, minister, presidential candidate of the combined forces of two major parties (AD/APP) in 1999 and an Akure monarch? Perhaps the media still has to learn how to identify paper tigers.

Finally, beware Mr. Akeredolu, speed breakers ahead!

Before Mr. Akeredolu assumes office next February, he would have to carefully ruminate on how to relate with his state Legislature that may be controlled by the vanquished PDP at least until 2019. The party has only a small majority in the House, but that is enough to make Mr. Akeredolu worry about forming his cabinet and passing his budgets. By giving control of different arms of government to different parties, Ondo voters too may need to hope that they have not inadvertently set the stage for gridlock in how their affairs will be run from next year.

Ondo guber: Blame Mimiko for Jegede’s loss – Sen. Kashamu

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Senator Buruji Kashamu yesterday disclosed that the Ondo State governor Olusegun Mimiko should be blamed for the loss of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hon Eyitayo Jegede at last Saturday’s governorship election.

 

Sen Kashamu said the refusal of Mimiko to heed his advise against imposing Jegede who was from his (Mimiko) senatorial district caused PDP the state.

 

The Senator however upbraided the Sen Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee, over the statement credited to its national publicity secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, that sanctions would soon be meted out on Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and his group.

 

Kashamu further said the verdicts of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court over the Ondo State PDP governorship ticket does not serve as rulings or judgement on the party’s national leadership crisis.

 

Kashamu, in a statement yesterday said, “my attention has been drawn to news reports credited to the spokesman of the National Caretaker Committee of our great party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Dayo Adeyeye, that the party would impose severe sanctions on Ali Modu Sheriff and his faction for all their actions intended to undermine the party’s interest.

 

“I wish to say that I believe that Prince Adeyeye was either misquoted or misrepresented because it is totally inconceivable that anyone who has the interest of the party at heart would contemplate such at this time.

 

“No one is afraid of any sanctions so long as we know that we are fighting to protect the interest of our people.

 

“A political party is a congregation of people with a common goal yet with various interests. In every political setting, people align and realign with the bloc or group where they feel their interest is better protected and guaranteed. If your bloc or group wins, it does not mean you should seek to emasculate the other because you never can tell what would happen tomorrow.

 

“I wish to advise that no one should mistake the verdicts of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court over the Ondo State PDP governorship ticket as their pronouncements on the national leadership crisis.

“They are two separate issues that I hope we can still resolve amicably. Anyone talking of sanctioning any member of the party for fighting to protect his interest does not wish the party well.”

 

He said that the gale of sanction in Osun, Ogun and Kwara states, would further exacerbate the crisis and lead to a gale of suspension and expulsion, adding, “the truth is: such a move will further undermine the party and its leadership.

 

“Is anyone saying that if tomorrow the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court rule in favour of any of the national leaders, he should send all those in support of the other out of the party when all the 36 states are polarised along the lines of Senators Sheriff and Makarfi? No. That is not the spirit of party politics and participatory democracy.”

 

Kashamu advised Makarfi not to let Governors Olusegun Mimiko and Ayodele Fayose to mislead him any further, adding that Mimiko refusal to heed advise was what led to PDP losing the state.

 

“In a political party, like every other setting, people are bound to have disagreements and protect their interests. Senator Makarfi should not let Governors Mimiko and Fayose to mislead him any further. The mess that they have put the party is already more than enough. Both of them are at their wits end, living on past glory and in self-delusion. They have failed to manage their political successes.

 

“We told Governor Mimiko that after eight, the good people of Ondo State would resist the injustice of producing a successor from the same senatorial district where he hails from. It is not that Mr. Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) is not a good material. He is urbane, intelligent and smart. He would have probably won had he come from any other senatorial zone than Mimiko’s.

 

“We told Mimiko that the people would not take anything that would look like a third term for him and his senatorial district. He would not listen. Ever slippery and sly, Governor Mimiko turned deaf ears to wise counsel, just like he turned his back on all those who helped him to power.

 

“Despite being the Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Governor Mimiko turned himself into Fayose’s puppet, allowing Fayose to lead him by the nose,” he said.

“We’re Still Studying The Election Results”, Jegede Says.

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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.

 

Conducting Ondo election on Saturday will violate the law – Jegede

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The Peoples Democratic Party candidate for the Ondo Stare governorship election, Eyitayo Jegede, has appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to postpone Saturday’s election for at least 30 days.

He said this would allow the party to submit a list of its agents in good time before the election as provided for in the Electoral Act 2010.

The Act stipulates that each party should make their party agents available to the commission, 14 days before the day of election.

The Biyi Poroye faction of the PDP had submitted a list of party agents to the commission before the expiration of the deadline for Jimoh Ibrahim, who was removed by Wednesday’s Appeal Court judgment.

Mr. Jegede, who led a protest to the INEC state headquarters at Alagbaka, in Akure on Thursday, told the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Olusegun Agbaje, that the postponement was necessary in order not to be in breach of the Electoral Act.

He also submitted a letter he addressed to the Chairman of the Commission, Mahmood Yahkoob, demanding the postponement of the election.

“It follows from the foregoing that any list of agents purportedly forwarded by one Poroye and his fellow pretenders who had been illegally parading themselves as the state executive members of the PDP, Ondo State cannot be regarded as authentic,” the letter read in part.

“As it is, the peoples democratic party has not forwarded the list of its agents to the commission.

“Whichever way one may look at the situation on ground, the governorship election of Ondo state slated for 26th November, if conducted, will undoubtedly be in breach of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.

“It is in light of the foregoing that I request you to differ the governorship election for Ondo State for at least 30 days so as not to conduct the election in flagrant violation of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.”

But Mr. Agbaje said INEC had gone past the issue of postponement, given that it had distributed sensitive materials to all the local governments already for the elections.

He insisted that the commission was prepared for the election come Saturday.

“We can no longer talk about postponement of the election right now,” he said. “The matter is an internal dispute within the PDP and so we cannot be talking about postponement.

“If we postpone the election, we will be losing billions of naira knowing that we have already deployed sensitive and non-sensitive materials to all the local government areas of the state.”

He said the list of party agents would be received from the Mr. Jegede and the former one would be discarded.

The materials which were supplied directly from the vault of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, in Akure include ballot papers, result sheets and other forms that would be used to collate the results.

Mr. Agbaje said adequate security had been provided to escort the materials to the respective local government areas.

Ondo Election: Jimoh Ibrahim Reacts to A’Court Judgement, Heads to Supreme Court

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The Ali Modu Sheriff-led Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim has reacted to the court of appeal judgement ordering his removal from the INEC list for the Saturday’s gubernatorial election in Ondo state.

Mr. Ibrahim in a statement released shortly after the judgement said he is certain of getting justice at the Supreme Court saying the incumbent governor, Olusegun Mimiko paid for the judgment with the state treasury.

His statement below:

I have read the decision of the Court of Appeal delivered today. We have nothing to lose as the Supreme Court seat on the same case tomorrow. We shall get justice at the Supreme Court and if PDP wins Saturday election we shall have our four years mandate to rule Ondo State.

Let me advise you not to abuse anyone or fight over this one day ruling, which was paid for from the state treasury
Mimiko will not succeed himself with Jegede this is too sure.

We continue with our work and remain in our great party PDP.

I love the great people of Ondo state and i thank you all for continuous support

Jimoh Ibrahim OFR, CFR
2016 PDP Candidate for Governorship Election Ondo state.

News Alert: Justice Saulawa Sets Aside Abang’s Ruling on PDP Ondo candidate

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Justice Saulawa of Appeal Court sitting in Abuja has set aside Justice Okon Abang’s ruling that gave INEC order to publish Jimoh Ibrahim’s name as Ondo PDP candidate for Saturday’s election.

The Appeal Court said the principle of natural justice demands that all sides are given fair hearing and that Abang had no jurisdiction to order INEC order to publish Jimoh’s name as Ondo PDP candidate.

More is said that Ibrahim’s so-called Ibadan primaries is a sham according to constitutional provisions.

More details soon

Ondo PDP Crisis : Appeal Court may decide Jimoh Ibrahim, Jegede’s fate today

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The Court of Appeal will on Tuesday afternoon continue hearing in a case that will determine who the candidate of the PDP in Saturday’s governorship election will be.

Jimoh Ibrahim and Eyitayo Jegede, chosen by two different factions of the party, seek to be the candidate with Mr. Ibrahim currently recognised by INEC.

The Court may also decide who the rightful candidate is after hearing arguments from all parties.

Tuesday’s decision by the Appeal Court follows a Supreme Court ruling earlier in the day ordering the lower court to continue hearing the matter.

The Supreme Court dismissed an application filed by a factional leader of the PDP in Ondo State, Biyi Poroye, who is of Mr. Ibrahim’s faction.

Mr. Poroye, a factional chairman of the PDP asked the court to determine the jurisdiction of a panel set up by the Appeal Court President, Zainab Bulkachuwa.

The panel was created after a petition filed by Mr. Poroye’s counsel, Beluolisah Nwofor, accused the former panel led by Jummai Sankey of fraud.

Following that petition, the first panel under Ms. Sankey’s leadership withdrew their participation in the matter on November 1.

Days later, Ms. Bulkachuwa instituted the new panel, led by Ibrahim Salauwa.

But dissatisfied with the decision, Mr. Poroye, through his counsel, made another request demanding the dissolution of the new panel.

When that application was refused by the appellate court, he (Mr. Poroye) approached the Supreme Court to challenge the decision of the Appeal Court. He also prayed the highest court to compel the lower court to suspend sitting.

On October 18, the Appeal Court suspended its sitting till further directive was received from the highest court of law.

On Tuesday a five-member panel of the Supreme Court, led by the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, dismissed the application for lacking in merit.

The court also asked Mr. Nwofor to pay over N5 million as damages for abusing the panel at the appellate court.

BREAKING: Supreme Court orders continuation of Appeal Court hearing on Ondo election

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Abuja Division of the Appeal Court to continue its hearing in the ongoing legal battle for the Ondo State’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship ticket.

 

The Appeal Court had on October 18 suspended hearings into the various applications pending the decision of the highest court.

 

The applications were brought to the Appeal Court by a factional candidate of the party, Eyitayo Jegede, who challenged the decision of the Federal High Court in Abuja to replace him with another contender for the ticket, Jimoh Ibrahim.

 

While both candidates belong to the PDP, Mr. Jegede was picked by the Ahmed Makarfi faction of the party, and Mr. Ibrahim represents the camp of former Borno governor, Ali Sheriff.

 

A three-member panel of the appeal court led by Ibrahim Salauwa set aside the matter to await the decision of the Apex Court.

 

Applications regarding the forthcoming elections were taken to the Supreme Court by a factional leader of the party in Ondo state, Biyi Poroye, who represents Mr. Sheriff’s faction.

 

On Tuesday, a five-man panel of justices led by the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, ordered the Appeal Court to proceed with the matter.

Ondo Election: Jegede’s appeal must be heard – Supreme Court orders Appeal Court

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The Supreme Court has ordered the Appeal Court to continue the hearing of the appeal of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, factional governorship candidate in Ondo State, Eyitayo Jegede.

 

Recall that Jegede, who is of the Ahmed Makarfi-led faction, had filed an appeal before the appellate court, seeking to upturn a Federal High Court ruling which replaced him with businessman, Jimoh Ibrahim as the party’s candidate in the November 26 governorship election in Ondo State.

 

The Court of Appeal, Abuja division, on Friday last week adjourned indefinitely the appeal by Jegede.

 

The Justice Ibrahim Saulawa-led panel explained that it took the decision to adjourn “sine die” to await for the decision of the Supreme Court on interlocutory appeal filed by the respondents.

I’ll Contest, Win Ondo Election – Factional PDP candidate, Eyitayo Jegede

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Factional candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Eyitayo Jegede at the weekend gave his supporters hope that he will still contest the election.

Jegede spoke at a reception organised for him by PDP supporters in Akure, the state capital, after returning from Abuja.

The former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice had been in Abuja with his legal team battling to resolve the replacement of his name by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with Jimoh Ibrahim.

Jegede’s appeal is still pending at the Abuja Court of Appeal, which has adjourned its sitting on the case indefinitely.

Jegede belongs to the Ahmed Markarfi faction.

Jimoh Ibrahim is of the Ali Modu Sheriff camp.

The embattled PDP chieftain said he is sure he would contest and win the election after getting justice from the appellate court.

His words: “Mark my words, we will contest and win this election.

“Let me tell you, this is not about Eyitayo Jegede alone, it is about the people of Ondo State.

“This is about good governance in our state, this is about continuation and improvement on the good things we have been enjoying in our state.

“I’m in this business to reclaim my mandate and I’m serious about it.”

The lawyer dismissed the rumour that his supporters had moved to other parties.

He noted that his supporters across the 18 local governments were still with him, adding that the love shown to him has never been shown to any candidate before.

He said: “I do not know of any candidate who will have a market in the state capital shut down because of him.

“This present distraction will soon be over and your man, your brother, your son, Eyitayo Jegede will contest and win the election.

“Keep on praying, keep on trusting God and by God’s grace we will triumph and we shall be victorious.“

Ondo guber: I’ll contest election under PDP – Jegede

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Former Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of Ondo State, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), yesterday declared that he will contest Saturday’s governorship election in the state on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Jegede who addressed his supporters who welcomed him to the state after weeks of legal battle in Abuja said he was confident that he would represent the PDP in the election in spite of the position of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and court rulings.

INEC had declared Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim the authentic candidate of the PDP for Saturday’s election following a judgment of an Abuja Federal High Court which Jegede had appealed.

Also, the Justice Ibrahim Salauwa led Appeal Panel had deferred his judgment on Jegede’s appeal challenging his unlawful substitution by INEC until the Supreme Court rules on Tuesday on a motion against the panel by the Ali Modu Sheriff led PDP.

Apparently, to assure his supporters that all hope is not lost with the Appeal Court’s decision, Jegede stormed the state yesterday and assured of his faith in ruling the state.

Jegede said he is always greatly encouraged by the rousing reception and solidarity shown by the people, assuring that collectively, they will triumph over all their negative forces.

“My driving force to forge ahead has been God and the unprecedented solidarity from you my people in spite of all adversaries that we contend with everyday. Very soon, we shall triumph because we are unstoppable.”

He advised the people to keep intact their Permanent Voter Cards to enable them vote him, expressing optimism that the case in court will be over early this week.

“They keep asking us what makes us confident that we will contest this election, we say we have God who rules in the affairs of men. By early next week, the Pharaoh we see today, we will see them no more,” Jegede declared

Ondo Guber: Jegede Calls For Calm Over Appeal Court Verdict

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The factional candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the November 26, 2016 Governorship election in Ondo state, Eyitayo Jegede SAN has called for calm among his supporters following the decision of the Appeal Court Justices sitting on party’s governorship candidate tussle to adjourn its judgment earlier scheduled for today.

The three man appellate justices headed by Justice Ibrahim Salauwa had announced to the parties that some set of applicants who had before now submitted a petition against the previous panel, had again filed a motion against the new panel at the Supreme Court seeking to stop further proceedings in relation to all matters touching on the Ondo State PDP governorship candidature.

It would be recalled that the Court of Appeal had fixed Friday 18th November 2016 to deliver judgment in respect of an appeal filed by Eyitayo Jegede SAN against the decision of Hon. Justice Okon Abang of the  Federal High Court  Abuja which ordered the substitution of his name with that of Jimoh Ibrahim for the Ondo November Governorship Election.

Jegede in a statement by the Head of Media and Publicity of his Campaign Organization, Kayode Fasua said he was not unmindful of the fact that the temporary setback is the handiwork of some anti-democratic elements hell bent on truncating his mandate for the November 26, 2016 polls.

Credit:

http://leadership.ng/news/560143/ondo-guber-jegede-calls-for-calm-over-appeal-court-verdict

Ondo: If we Can’t Conduct Election in One State Then We Should Forget About 2019 – Buhari

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President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the security agencies to do their utmost in ensuring violence-free elections in Ondo and Rivers states.

The President who lamented the rate of violence during elections, however, said that  the 2019 elections should be forgotten if a peaceful election cannot be successfully conducted in one state.

In a statement made available to newsmen by the Senior Special Assistant to the President, Garba Shehu, it said Buhari who gave the statement at a state dinner in Benin, the Edo state capital, on Monday, also said that the forthcoming gubernatorial elections in Ondo and National and State Assembly rerun elections in Rivers will serve as a litmus test for the general elections in 2019.

‘‘What happened in the last elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Rivers State disturbs me a lot. I think we should go beyond these actions. Why do we kill each other? Putting tyres on people and setting them ablaze,” asked the President.

‘‘I have told the law enforcement agencies, if we can’t conduct an election in one state then we should forget about 2019,’’ the President said.

Acknowledging the role played by outgoing Governor Adams Oshiomhole in ensuring the success of the APC in the last gubernatorial elections in the state, President Buhari challenged the Governor-elect, Mr Godwin Obaseki, to continue in Oshiomhole’s footsteps of providing purposeful leadership in terms of quality infrastructure, education and social services.

‘‘The publicity your predecessor has given his performance is going to stretch you to the limit. “Considering what he has done, you have to continue in his footsteps. We wish you the best of luck and will do our best to support you,’’ the President said.

On the current economic challenges in the country, the President assured Nigerians that his administration was working hard on diversification of the economy to limit the country’s over-dependence on oil over the years.

“This country has incredible mineral resources. All we need is to believe in ourselves so that we can have and leave a better Nigeria for our children and grandchildren,’’ the President said.