The incumbent governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi has taken the new governor elect under the platform of APC to meet Buhari in Abuja.
This was disclosed by Gov Fayemi via his official Twitter account as read in part:
“It was a pleasure to take our brand new Governor Elect, Mr Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji to the Leader of our party and the President of Nigeria, H.E Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR at the State House, Abuja.
Waterfield Luxury Hotel, Akobo, Ibadan
“Also present were the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, the Chairman of the National Campaign Council on Ekiti Elections, Senator Atiku Abubakar Bagudu, the Chairman of the Election Management Committee for the elections, Governor Badaru Abubakar, the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof Ibrahim Gambari and former Ekiti State Governor and current Minister of Industry, Trade and Investments, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo.
“Mr President was highly elated and expressed hope and confidence that this victory will be a precursor to our upcoming victory in Osun State next month and in the national elections in 2023.
“I thank Mr President for his irrevocable commitment to the ideals of democracy and the illuminations of egalitarianism. May our shared love for Ekiti and our selfless pursuit of the common good be blessed by God”.
Gunmen have released the two worshippers abducted last Monday at the Celestial Church of Christ, Oshofa, Wasimi, in the Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State.
The founder of the church, Oluwatomisin Olugbebi, who disclosed this said the victims – Assistant Shepherd (assistant pastor) of the parish, Oluwaseun Ajose, and a Sunday school teacher, Dagunro Ayobami, were released on Saturday after N1m ransom was paid.
@goldmynetv had reported that gunmen invaded the church and abducted the worshippers.
The gunmen had reduced their demand from N50m to N10m last Thursday.
Speaking with newsmen, he said, “They called on Saturday morning and demanded foodstuffs (rice, beans), cigarettes and gin. They said we should pay N1m for the two of them. I pleaded with them that we didn’t even have up to that, but they said they won’t accept anything less than a million.
“When we heard this, the family of the victims sat on how to get the money and they raised a total of N221,000. Thankfully, well-wishers and other church members balanced it up.
“They did not give a specific location where we should drop the money. They asked to speak to the sister of one of the victims and told her to come to a certain location. When she got there, she called them and they told her to give the phone to the bike rider.
“They told the bike rider their location without disclosing it to her. The bike rider then took her to the location where the money and the requested foodstuffs were dropped. After like 10 minutes, they asked her to come and pick them (victims) up at the bus stop.”
The State Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, who confirmed the release said, “They regained their freedom last night (Saturday) due to sustained pressure mounted by the police on the kidnappers.”
The bus conveying press crew covering Lagos State Governor’s Office on Sunday was heavily attacked by thugs between Ebute-Ero and Adeniji, Iga-Iduganran axis on Lagos Island, leaving no fewer than two journalists wounded with others sustaining various scars on their bodies.
The press crew bus which was in the convoy of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was attacked by the thugs who threw heavy stones repeatedly as it joined other vehicles conveying dignitaries, including Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje; and others, who had just left the palace of Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwanu Akiolu.
Tinubu, who arrived at Lagos Airport at around 3:40 pm, to the waiting hands of an enthusiastic crowd of party loyalists and supporters, had immediately headed to the palace of Oba Akiolu on a courtesy call.
The press crew bus was heavily attacked by the hoodlums, as it drove with high speed to escape while journalists had to lie low in it for many to escape being injured, but still few others still had bruises.
However, a Western Post correspondent, Adeola Ogunrinde and Omatseye Atsenuwa of Smooth 98.1FM got wounded, while Adedoja Salam of TVC went into shock due to the heavy bombardment of stones and bricks thrown at the press crew bus, leaving the windscreen and nearly all the side screens were broken.
Ogunrinde got wounded in the face, while Atsenuwa had his arm hit directly by one of the heavy stones thrown at the press crew bus.
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Action Democratic Party (ADP) have described the results of the just-concluded Ekiti governorship election as “unacceptable”.
Biodun Oyebanji, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was announced winner of the election on Sunday.
Waterfield Luxury Hotel Akobo, Ibadan
Oyebanji secured 187,057 votes, defeating his two closest challengers — Segun Oni of the SDP who polled 82,211 votes, and Bisi Kolawole of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who got 67,457 votes.
Speaking on Sunday in Ado-Ekiti Owoseni Ajayi, collation agent of the SDP, said the outcome of the results was rejected by the party.
He added that the outcome will be challenged at the tribunal.
He also said the SDP candidate dismissed the results announced by the electoral body, adding that it did not reflect the true decision of the people.
“We are rejecting the results because the election was characterised by violence and intimidation of voters,” Ajayi said.
“As a result, we will definitely challenge the outcome of this result in the court of law for posterity and generations coming to know that when conducting elections, you must follow the rules and procedures.”
According to NAN, efforts to speak with Segun Oni proved abortive as he was not allowed to see or speak with anyone.
Meanwhile, in a statement signed by Femi Eponlolaye, state chairman of ADP in Ado-Ekiti, Kemi Elebute-Halle, the party’s governorship candidate, alleged that the election was characterised by vote-buying and harassment of her party members.
“The victory of Mr Biodun Oyebanji in the just concluded governorship election ordinarily would have been accepted by me, if the election had not been fraught by electoral malpractices,” she said.
“In spite of various sensitisation programmes and media publicity against vote buying, the APC, PDP and SDP actually promoted and encouraged corruption, both at the grassroots and the state levels.
“Though the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has pronounced Oyebanji as the winner of this election, I, Kemi Elebute-Halle, hereby reject the result of this election.
“It was not credible, neither was it free nor fair. His APC thugs destabilised my strongholds across the state, attacked our members, snatched and destroyed our ballot boxes.
“All those votes, including those obtained by PDP, will be cancelled at the tribunal.
“I want to use this medium to urge my followers not to be discouraged about the outcome of the election. We shall continue to promote our great party, the ADP.”
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Ibadan Depot covering Oyo and Osun States, has called on members to reopen their fuel stations across Oyo State.
This is coming barely 24 hours after it directed members to close their outlets, following the sealing of some fuel stations at Iseyin and Ibadan by officers of the Inspector General of Police Monitoring Squad.
Waterfield Luxury Hotel Akobo, Ibadan
According to the Nigerian Tribune Newspaper, the chairman of the association, Alhaji Bukola Mutiu, said: “Following intervention from well-meaning Nigerians, we had a meeting late on Friday with the Deputy Director (Operations), Department of State Services (DSS), representatives of Nigerian Mainstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority (NMDRA) formerly known as Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and other stakeholders.
“Our request was that we want to know which agency of government has the right over sealing of fuel stations. To the best of our knowledge, it is the Nigerian Mainstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority (NMDRA) is the only police of the industry, suddenly we discovered that today police claiming the right to sealing of fuel stations, tomorrow it will be the turn of Nigeria Security and Cvil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the after, you will see another set of people.
“What happened on Friday morning was that the Inspector General of Police Monitoring Squad, visited some of our stations in Iseyin, sealed of two fuel stations claiming that they were selling above the approved pump price. Everybody knows what is going on in the country.
As I speak, we are buying at N162 per litre at a private depot in Lagos excluding transportation cost. So, there is no way we can sell at N165, if you see anybody that sells at N165, you need to check the activities of the person very well.”
The IPMAN chairman stated further: “We tried to explain to the leader of the team the situation at hand, he refused and went ahead to seal off the stations. On getting to Ibadan, he went ahead to start sealing off our stations, that was when we decided to ask members to close operations if the IGP monitoring team can provide where we can get petrol at a cheaper price, …..
The the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has lauded it’s overt and covert deployment of persos to Ekiti State for a hitch-free gubernatorial election has been applauded by the State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr Tella Adeniran Rahmon.
The force said its operation led to the successful arrest of two people for their involvement in electoral crisis.
Waterfield Luxury Hotel Akobo, Ibadan
This was made known when Acting Deputy Commandant General Operations (Ag.DCG Ops), Haruna Lawal Muhammed, fdc, paid a visit to the REC at INEC office in the course of election monitoring duty in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State.
The REC, affirmed that he was impressed as NSCDC officials were deployed in real time to polling booths which opened early for accreditations and commended the Corps leadership for mobilizing large numbers of personnel to participate actively in the security training organized by INEC and identification of possible flashpoints for peculiar attention among other landmark duties.
The Ag. DCG operations, on his part assured that the Corps would continue to work closely with INEC and other sister agencies to ensure a hitch-free election process. Reiterating that the Corps is doing its best to secure INEC permanent and ad-hoc staff, electorates, election observers as well as sensitive and non sensitive election materials in the State.
“The turnout for the election is impressive in most polling units we have visited and reports received from other Local Government Areas also revealed that voting is going on smoothly simultaneously; NSCDC is fully prepared to protect the people and Critical National Assets, our reserved personnel are on standby in case of any emergency and when the poll closes, our men on the ground would be deployed throughout the night, to ensure 24 hours security coverage of the state,” he said.
The Acting DCG operations called on residents to maintain orderly conduct after exercising their franchise and refrain from violence when the votes are counted as the Corps had deployed intelligence officers to possible flash points for effective intelligence gathering and management of security situation.
In the meantime, two persons have been arrested in Ado Local Government; one in connection with vote buying while the other was arrested in connection with thuggery to disrupt voting at a polling unit.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Biodun Oyebanji of the All Progressives Congress winner of the 2022 Ekiti governorship election.
Mr Oyebanji of APC polled a total of 187,057 votes to defeat his two closest challengers – Segun Oni of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Bisi Kolawole of the People’s Democratic Party.
The SDP emerged in second place with total votes of 82,211 while the PDP was third with 67,457 votes.
Mr Oyebanji is now set to replace incumbent Kayode Fayemi in October.
“No society can grow greater than the vision and dream of its leader,” Oyebanji said during last week’s Ekiti governorship debate, one of his final public appeals to voters.
“I am offering myself to lead our people into a prosperous society.
“I am bringing to the table 11 years of experience in the public service at the state level, two years at the federal level.
“I am going to aggregate the best brains of Ekiti all over the world to help me achieve my dreams.”
The election, which was marred with reports of vote buying and violence, was largely peaceful, independent observers said.
The final results of the recently conducted Ekiti gubernatorial elections have been finally collated and announced by INEC. Below is the highlight of the results.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate Abiodun Oyebanji is leading in many polling units in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital.
Waterfield Luxury Hotel Akobo, Ibadan
He is being trailed by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate Segun Oni, engineer, and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Bisi Kolawole.
In Unit 008, Ward 02, Ado Grammar School, the APC polled 171 votes.
In Unit 031, Ward 13, APC polled 31 votes; the PDP got 16 votes, while SDP got 10.
APC scored 96 votes in Unit 003, Ward 4 in Ado Ijigbo. SDP scored 42 votes; PDP polled 23.
APC led with 58 votes in Unit 11, Ward 2 in Ado Idofin, where the PDP trailed with 51 votes and the SDP got 44.
In Unit 009, Ward 1 in Ado Idofin, the APC got 89 votes; the PDP polled 46 while the SDP scored 41.
APC garnered 97 votes in Unit 016, Ward 5 in Okeyinmi.
The SDP got 36 votes; while the PDP polled 33.
Meanwhile, there has been allegation of Vote-Buying and incduement of voters with money. It was gathered this money that EFCC have arrested some of the vote buyers found with cash at the polling units and have been taken to the State Headquarters of the graft agency for questioning.
The Supreme Court has affirmed the rights of Muslims Female Students in Lagos state to wear Hijab to school without harassment or discrimination.
In a majority decision, Nigeria’s apex court gave the ruling on Friday in Abuja.
Among those on the panel were Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, Justice John Inyang Okoro, Justice Uwani Aji, Justice Mohammed Garba, Justice Tijjani Abubakar, and Justice Emmanuel Agim.
While six ruled in favour of the use of hijab, one dissented.
The Lagos State Government had in February 2017 approached the Supreme Court to challenge the July 21, 2016 judgment of the Court of Appeal which reinstated the use of hijab by Muslim pupils in Lagos public primary and secondary schools.
This was after the state government sought to stay the execution of the judgment at the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal but failed.
While striking down Justice’s Onyeabo’s verdict, the Justice Gumel panel had held that the ban on hijab was discriminatory against Muslim pupils in the state.
The panel upheld the Muslim students’ contention that the ban violated their rights to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, dignity of human persons and freedom from discrimination guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution.
Justice Gumel also held that wearing the hijab was an Islamic injunction and an act of worship required of Muslims.
He said the use of hijab by Muslim pupils could not cause disunity, distraction and discrimination against students of other faiths as declared by the lower court judge.
ODUDUWA NEWS has gathered that early this morning, there was show of force at the Police headquarters, Ado- Ekiti ahead of tomorrow’s governorship election.
