Oduduwa News

Oyo State workers on Monday have shutdown the state government secretariat, Agodi over some of their demands which are yet to be met by Governor Seyi Makinde.

The demands included remittance of deductions, release of promotion letter with financial implications, review of pensions, among others.

The workers whose actions created traffic jams along the Secretariat road were chanting solidarity songs to attract the attention of passers-by.

Speaking with newsmen, State NLC Chairman, Mr Kayode Martin said the only solution to the protest was the physical meeting with Governor Seyi Makinde and not by proxy.

He accused the Governor of insensitivity to workers’ plights by failing to meet them.

Mr Martin further explained that all their correspondences to the Governor were not honoured, saying that it was unhealthy for industrial relations.

Corroborating his counterpart, TUC Chairman, Mr. Bosun Olabiyi pointed out that Governor Makinde had failed the workers in the state by not being responsible and responsive.

He said all avenues employed to meet the Governor proved abortive, hence the need to embark on the protest to press home their demands.

The Ogun State Election Petition Tribunal Thursday admitted in evidence 150,656 ballot papers used for the conduct of the March 18 governorship election in the state.

The tribunal also admitted video evidence tendered by a star witness of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Sunkanmi Oyejide.

The documents were admitted in evidence to support the petition filed by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Ladi Adebutu.

PDP and Adebutu, in the petition marked, EPT/OG/GOV/03/2023, are challenging the victory of Dapo Abiodun, the state governor, based on alleged non-compliance with the Electoral Act and corrupt practices during the election.

The ballot papers were tendered to the tribunal by a forensic examiner, Reginald Nwoze, a Retired Deputy Superintendent Police.

Respondents’ lawyers all objected to the admissibility of the ballot papers, but reserved the grounds of their objections till final written addresses.

Nwoze, while being cross-examined by counsels to respondents, said he examined and analysed the ballot papers from 12 local government areas of the state.

He said the ballot papers tendered were sourced from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Giving the analysis of the ballot papers, Nwoze said 37,401 were with multiple thumb prints, 3,470 were smashed and smeared, while 109,785 were with regular thumb prints. 

Showing the court his findings, Nwoze alleged that some of the ballot papers whose votes were cast in favour of APC were marked with markers instead of being thumb printed.

The Federal Government will on Monday meet with the representatives of the organised labour in an effort to prevent the nationwide strike called by the Nigeria Labour Congress.

However, the NLC has advised citizens to stock their homes with food items, medicines and other essential things ahead of the commencement of its seven-day strike to protest the removal of fuel subsidies and the escalating cost of living in the country.

The warning, it noted, had become necessary because the strike would cripple the country as movement would be severely curtailed as commercial transport operators would withdraw their services, while markets, schools and healthcare facilities would be forced to shut down.

Apex Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has decried the “insensitive policies” of the administration of President Bola Tinubu, especially the “sudden” removal of petrol subsidy and the “total” disregard for the impact of the action on the people and the economy.

Afenifere in a statement on Friday by its Secretary General, Sola Ebiseni, the group said in six weeks, “an already asphyxiating economy reeling under the crushing impact of hyperinflation, unemployment, mass hunger and poverty foisted by the gross ineptitude and incompetence that characterized the watch of eight years is looking like an episode drawn straight out of Dante’s Hell”.

The group, which endorsed Tinubu during the February 25, 2023 poll, said it could no longer “fold its arms or be seen to maintain silence, neutrality or ambivalence in the face of this latest body blow on an already traumatized citizenry”.

“It is feared that this latest gross act of thoughtless policy implementation and its unintended consequences will further push Nigeria’s economy down the slope as Nigeria has officially overtaken India as The New Poverty Capital of the World,” Afenifere warned.

On May 29, 2023, Tinubu, of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), gave Nigerians a shocking inauguration gift at the Eagle Square in his “subsidy is gone” historic speech.

A 50-year-old Beninese farmer, Poni Bada, left his country home for Nigeria, with his unsuspecting nine-year-old son, who he intended to use for money rituals.

Three other men: Ige Koselu, Benjamin Balovi and Segun Shile, accompanied the farmer to a herbalist’s home in Owode area of Ogun State, where the money ritual was to be carried out.

The trio contributed N100,000 needed to start the ritual process, with an agreement to have their share of the loot when the ritual is successful and money start to roll in.

But that was not to be, as a team of policemen from the Zone 2 Command, Onikan Lagos, who acted on intelligence, stormed the herbalist’s shrine and effected the arrest of all the suspects, while the would-be sacrificial lamb was rescued.

Vanguard learned that the nine-year-old boy, Agbe, was brought from Benin Republic in May, 2023, to work in a farmland where he was paid N5,000.

A month after, his father was said to have called his contact in Nigeria, Benjamin Balobi, complaining that the money paid to his son was too small compared to the farm work.

Father speaks

Explaining how he came up with the idea of using his son for money rituals, the father of the boy, Bada, said: “I have 10 children from three wives.

“The situation of things kept going from bad to worse. I could not feed my children. I then decided to use my last child, Agbe, for a money ritual, so that I could train the other children and have better living conditions.