The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Trade Union Congress, TUC, and the Joint Negotiating Council in Oyo state has issued a January 31, 2023 date to embark on strike should the state government fail to fulfil its promise to pay the unions five months check off dues and cooperative deductions.
Rising from a meeting on Thursday in Ibadan, the state capital, the executive members of the unions who lamented the pitiable conditions of Nigerian workers in the face of crushing poverty, general insecurity and increasing cost of price of petrol, urged the Federal Government to revert to the N169 per litre and make the product available while appealing to the state government not to penalize any worker who reports late for work under the prevailing condition.
In a statement signed by Comrade Balogun Babatunde, TUC Secretary, Comrade Aribatise Adebayo, NLC Secretary and Comrade Ibrahim Olayiwola, JNC Secretary, the unions reminded Governor Seyi Makinde of the “pronouncement he made publicly on Monday, January 9, 2023 at the Oyo State interdenominational prayer session for the prompt release of two months deductions out of the five months check off dues / cooperative deductions owed the workers,” and yet “no release has been effected till date.”
They further added that, “Stemming from the above, the council resolved that if by the close of work on Tuesday 31, January 2023, the five months owed check off dues / cooperative deductions are not paid, labour force in the state may not be able to guarantee industrial peace in Oyo State.”
The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission,ICPC, on Thursday, re-arrested Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, former Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB.
ODUDUWA NEWS learnt that, operatives of ICPC made the arrest shortly after today’s hearing before Justice Obiora Egwuatu of a Federal High Court, FHC, in Abuja where Ojerinde has been standing trial on an 18-count charge bordering on diversion of public funds to the tune of N5 billion.
The ICPC had, on July 8, 2021,arraigned the former JAMB registrar on an 18-count charge
He was said to have committed the offence during his tenure as registrar of the National Examinations Council, NECO, and JAMB.
Mr Ojerinde, however, pleaded not guilty to all the charges and was later admitted to bail in the sum of N200 million.
It was gathered that a warrant of arrest for his re-arrest was obtained from the FHC Chief Judge, Justice John Tsoho.
The latest arrest cannot be unconnected to the fresh facts emerging from his ongoing trial and made by the 4th prosecution witness, Jimoh Olabisi, former Deputy Director of Finance of JAMB.
However,on Thursday,shortly after Justice Egwuatu adjourned the trial until Feb. 15,Mr Ojerinde, who was being led out of the court by one of his sons to the carpark after was accosted by the anti-corruption commission’s operatives who whisked him away in their vehicle.
Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila has threatened to invoke the provisions of section 89(D) of the 1999 Constitution as amended to compel the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emiefele to appear before the House. Section 89 gives the parliament power to issue a warrant of arrest on anybody who refuses to honour an invitation from them.
The House at plenary on Tuesday set up an ad-hoc committee to interface with the CBN and Managing Directors of Banks on the scarcity of the redesigned naira notes and cashless policy while asking the apex bank to extend the deadline for deposit of the old notes by six months.
Neither the Governor of the CBN nor his representative honoured the House invitation for a meeting by 3.00 pm on Wednesday, prompting another invite for Thursday.
A letter read on the floor of the House on Thursday by the Speaker and signed by CBN’s Deputy Governor, Corporate Services said Emefiele will not honour the invitation because he was part of President Buhari’s delegation to Dakar, Senegal.
Reacting to the letter from the apex bank, Gbajabiamila said though the CBN Governor was a personal friend, he and other members of the House have a constitutional duty to perform.
He said the refusal of the CBN Governor to honour the invitation or send a representative to the House was not acceptable, adding the bank must attend the meeting summoned by the House before the close of business on Thursday.
He said if the bank fails to honour the invitation of the House to discuss a policy, which has caused serious hardship to Nigerians, he will be forced to invoke the provisions of the constitution to issue a warrant of arrest asking the Inspector General of Police to compel the CBN Governor to honour the House invitation.
The Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has maintained that some saboteurs in Buhari’s administration are working with PDP to jeopardize his ambition.
This was contained in a statement made available today to ODUDUWA NEWS by Director of Tinubu’s Campaign Media Committee, Bayo Onanuga as read in part:
“Nigerians should no longer be in doubt about those working in cahoots with fifth columnists in the system to inflict avoidable pains on our hapless people for political end.
“No sooner Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu empathised with the Nigerian people facing the dual crises of fuel and new Naira notes scarcity, than the opposition PDP and the Atiku camp issued a knee-jerk response, derailing from the issues, distorting Asiwaju’s statement and trying, in vain, to create a wedge between our presidential candidate and President Muhammadu Buhari.
“When the guilty are afraid of being uncovered, they try to push back with red-herring
“For the records, Asiwaju Tinubu during APC campaign rally at Abeokuta on Wednesday, in his statement, did not mention, blame or accuse President Muhammadu Buhari for the current challenges in the country.
“Asiwaju Tinubu was only adverting government’s attention to the sabotage being carried out by some Fifth Columnists in the system, possibly working in cahoots with the PDP.
“The CBN officials, including Governor Godwin Emefiele have said many times that enough new Naira notes have been supplied to the banks, yet our people complain that they have not been able to get the new notes.
“In recent days, many ATMs are either not working or when working they are dispensing the old notes, just a few days to the January 31 deadline.
“Similarly, Asiwaju Tinubu is aware of the salutary efforts by President Buhari to end the fuel queues, by chairing a 14-man panel. Yet the queues and agony continue.
“For a presidential candidate, who cares about the suffering of our people, he has a duty to warn government that its efforts to make life better for Nigerians are being sabotaged on several fronts.
“Our presidential candidate only re-echoed what is well known and acknowledged, even by President Buhari himself at different fora: That there are Fifth Columnists in and outside of government who often throw spanners in the works against good intentions and programmes of the government.
“How does an advisory genuinely made by Asiwaju Tinubu to protect and create goodwill for the government of his party become an attack? It can only be so in the jaundiced view of the PDP.
“It is in this light we found amusing the directionless Atiku Campaign’s bagful of mischief in their hurriedly put together press statement meant to gain shameful mileage from the suffering of Nigerians.
“PDP and Atiku should remember not to get high on their own smoke. No political blackmail and an attempt to create a conflict between Tinubu and his long-term ally, President Muhammadu Buhari can succeed.
“We have bad news for Atiku and his handlers: their latest mischief is therefore doomed to fail.
“The Atiku rudderless campaign, always seeking cheap shots and easy ways has again woefully attempted to make a mountain out of a molehill from the comments made by Asiwaju Tinubu in Abeokuta.
“As a patriotic and compassionate leader, Asiwaju Tinubu will not stomach seeing ordinary Nigerians being made to face excessive difficulties over mundane issues due to activities of petrol and currency hoarders.
“As a proud leader of the APC, Asiwaju Tinubu would not also look indifferent as his party and the government get dirtied with black brush at a critical time like this, whether he is a candidate or not.
“Atiku camp’s hasty move to mine political capital out of the clearly difficult situation betrays his campaign’s possible connivance, due to its desperation.
As Asiwaju said in Abeokuta, these orchestrated hardships will not stop his impending victory come 25 February. Nigerians shall surely vote for a party that is working to solve all the problems and mess created by the PDP for which their presidential candidate was an integral part in the, largely, 16 unproductive years they spent in government.
“Atiku and his team can continue their indulgence in fake news and twisted narratives, they cannot change the minds of majority of Nigerians who have long rejected the PDP and Atiku, after their 16 wasted years in power”.
Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN) has thrown his weight behind the claim by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that there are attempts to sabotage his presidential bid through naira redesign and fuel scarcity.
Tinubu during his rally in Abeokuta, Ogun State on Wednesday specifically said the fuel crisis and the scarcity of the redesigned naira notes were artificially created to discourage people from voting for the APC and sabotage his election.
Tinubu said, “We will use our PVCs to take over government from them, if they like let them create fuel crisis, even if they said there is no fuel, we will trek to vote. They are full of mischief, they could say there is no fuel. They have been scheming to create a fuel crisis, but forget about it. Relax, I Asiwaju have told you that the issue of fuel supply will be permanently addressed”.
Speaking with journalists, Sagay said he is surprised that President Muhammadu Buhari has not called Godwin Emefiele, Central Bank Governor (CBN) to order on his insistence that there is no going back on the January 31 deadline for the usage of the old naira notes.
“I suspect that because when people in responsible positions begin to create hardship and annoyance and anger in the population which will be directed against the government, just before an election, the effect of that is that the government is going to be blamed by the voters and they may decide out of anger to vote for another party.
“It will drive away votes from the ruling party which they will blame for the conditions and circumstances being created by these very dangerous people”.
“What Emefiele is trying to do in saying you cannot use the existing currency after the 31st of January in a situation where the new currency is not available to be used is a plot to create disaffection for the government and indirectly create an unfavorable image for that government before the populace in a few weeks to an election. There is no question about that”.
“What is surprising is that no one stopping him. The president has not stopped him and he is saying there is no going back in an action which is a sabotage of the goodwill of that government. It is just incredible”.
“On fuel scarcity, I can’t understand it. It has never happened before. This is going to be three months now and the NNPC is saying there is no shortage, they have enough supply for another three months. Yet, we cannot find petrol anywhere. Somebody is playing a game. I suspect after the election we are going to have petrol”. “I agree with what Tinubu is saying. Something underhand is going on in this country which is intended to affect the outcome of the election”.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo state has blasted the governorship candidate of Accord, Bayo Adelabu over a statement credited to him in a story that circulated in a section of online media yesterday where he described Governor Seyi Makinde’s planned 10 percent allocation increments for traditional rulers as a trick.
The Publicity Secretary of the ruling PDP in Oyo state, Akeem Olatunji, in a press statement on Thursday morning January 26 described the statement credited to the Accord guber candidate as laughable and unbecoming of the politician who is daily becoming notorious for his grandstanding lifestyle.
The ruling PDP noted that it was rather unfortunate for someone aspiring to one day hold the number office in the state not to understand that government is entirely about the people’s welfare and wellbeing and not a profit making hotel business.
Governor Seyi Makinde had announced plans to increase allocation of traditional rulers in various Local Government areas in the state from the initial 5 to 10 percent as part of his administration’s commitment to their wellbeing while on campaign tour to Egbeda local government last week.
Adelabu in a reaction on Wednesday to the Governor’s gesture had criticized the plan describing it as a trick, advising traditional rulers and the people not to fall for it.
But in its reaction, the ruling PDP described Adelabu otherwise known as ‘Penkelemes’ as a noisy and un-serious politician who is at best a serial loser now on the losers’ list to lose again, saying the 2019 APC governorship candidate who lost in the 2019 election and has repeated his failure during the last APC primaries leaving him and his co-travelers with zero hope than to settle for their new found home in Accord.
The party added that it was clearly obvious without mincing words that the Adelabu that is seen by the physical eyes is different from the real one inside stressing that if given a chance, he has shown that he would become a tyrant and fearful dictator without empathy for the masses or respect for traditional rulers and institutions.
“It is even so good that Adelabu has unveiled himself as the tyrant and dictator Oyo will be very lucky to never experience at the helms of affairs having exposed his ridiculously disdainful disposition towards our respected traditional rulers and institutions or how would anyone with genuine heart to serve criticize such laudable gesture by Governor Seyi Makinde?” The party queried.
While maintaining that Governor Makinde’s unwavering commitment to the welfare and wellbeing of the people from inception of the present administration has become enviable by other governors, criticism from a noisy detractor as Adelabu will not deter the governor from extending the same affection to traditional institutions as already proposed.
The ruling PDP in the state also urged Adelabu not to waste anybody’s time thinking he was still in the 2023 governorship race as it has become an open secret that he (Adelabu) has agreed in principle to return to his vomit to surrender his aspiration for his master who kicked him out of the APC like a political orphan last year.
While maintaining that Adelabu did not even secure the 2019 APC governorship ticket on merit, Olatunji said, the former CBN deputy governor through his Lagos political lord paid through his nose and allegedly bribed his way through to pick the 2019 APC ticket against all existing structure within the opposition party.
Olatunji added that shortly before the APC primary election Adelabu ended up a failure again losing woefully to his opponent, urging the people to ignore him as it has become his self styled approach to deliberately stay blind to Governor Makinde’s ingenuity to the people of Oyo state.
The ruling party’s Spokesman reminded Adelabu that it was Makinde’s political sagacity, skills, acumen, and leadership that were deployed to solve the quagmire the last APC administration to which he previously belonged, almost plunged the state into when it altered the Ibadan Kingship ascendancy known to arguably be the best in the world.
While cautioning Adelabu to avoid picking the wrong person for his media attention gambling, the ruling PDP guided the Accord guber candidate to get more training on how to tread within the state’s political landscape saying “Adelabu has continued to de-market himself and whatever there is about his little political fortune by every word that goes out of his mouth against a man the masses have themselves nicknamed ‘God’s sent man’s.
“The problem with Adelabu is that he hasn’t actually learned or shown to have learned anything just yet since his sojourn in polity which is too bad for his political development as an individual. Despite the chances he has had in the past which are enough indicators for any grassroots politician to know that he’s a rookie, he has remained in his self inflicted delusion thinking he could be anything close to his procured 2019 guber ticket in subsequent primaries.
“He doesn’t know when to speak and when to be silent. Playing an opposition desperately seeking political relevance is not by constituting yourself into a sort of sadist or pessimist who is perpetually blind to anything and everything positive about the government in power or what Governor Makinde is doing to make Oyo really great again. His attitude is very laughable and did not in any way portray a slightest atom of someone born into a political family.
“As far as Oyo state is concerned with Governor Makinde’s planned 10 percent increments for traditional rulers allocation, it is only in Adelabu’s eyes that the widely applauded and commendable move by the Governor was wrong and tricky wondering why the Accord guber candidate in the coming election was fond of speaking before processing his words.
“We advise him to seek more political counsel and guidance on how to be a better politician and maybe when he still finds himself in a privileged position he’d be able to understand this game better but for now, he should simply return to his vomit and join his master in the APC as it’s no longer news he has woken up into reality to understand he has no chance and certainly not in this 2023 race”.
ODUDUWA NEWS has gathered that the Chief Imam of Oyo Land, Sheikh Mashood Abdul Ganiyy Adebayo Ajokidero III has been reportedly dead.
A post on his official Facebook page confirmed his demise.
It reads: “As salaam alaykum. InnaLillah wainna Ilaihu raajiun. We Announce The Demise of the Grand Chief Imam Of Oyo. May Almighty Allah grant him Jannatul Firdaos”.
We understand he had been sick for a while before he died last night.
He was one of the longest-reigning Grand Imams in the state.
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has attributed the ongoing scarcity of fuel to the handiwork of saboteurs who are hell-bent at sabotaging his ambition.
Tinubu made this disclosure today at the ongoing campaign of the party holding at Abeokuta, state capital of Ogun State.
He said that some people are hoarding the fuel in order to sabotage the elections.
“Some people are hoarding fuel to frustrate us, whether there is fuel or not we will go out and collect our PVC to vote.
“When we have our PVC, we shall vote for APC, “e lo fokanbale”, let’s put our minds at rest, the saboteurs cannot jeopardize our ambition”, said Tinubu.
Justice R.A.Oshodi of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, on Monday, January 23, 2023, sentenced one Francis Nduka to two years imprisonment for possession of a document containing false pretence.
Nduka, a National Diploma, ND, holder from Auchi Polytechnic, was arraigned by the Lagos Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on an amended two-count charge bordering on possession of a document containing false pretence, an offence contrary to Section 318 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011.
Count one reads: “Francis Chikodi Nduka, on or about the month of April 2020, in Lagos, within the Ikeja Judicial Division, had in your possession a document containing a false pretence, specifically a document titled, “Google Account” printed from your email account richieratz1961@gmail.com, wherein you falsely pretended to be a man named Richard Ratz, which representation you knew to be false.”
