Nothing But Fact
The election tribunal sitting in Osun has ruled that Governor Ademola Adeleke was eligible and qualified to contest the July 16 governorship election.
The petitioners’ (APC) objection to a judgment tendered by Sen. Ademola Adeleke to the effect that he had earlier been adjudged qualified to stand elections by a competent court of law, and that, as such, the issue of his qualification shall not be revisited by any court, has been sustained. The said judgment has been rejected.
Details later.
The Lagos State Government on Thursday distributed 100 vehicles to Substantive Directors on Grade Level 17, in the Lagos State Public Service through an e-ballot system at an event held at the Adeyemi-Bero Auditorium, Alausa-Ikeja.
In his address, the Lagos State Head of Service, Mr. Hakeem Muri-Okunola congratulated the winners, some of whom participated virtually, noting that the cars are not gifts but what has been earned as work tools. He added that 40 vehicles were allocated to Director on GL 17 in the Teaching Sector, while 30 each were allocatd to the Health and Mainstream sectors.
He commended Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his Deputy for the initiative, revealing that Mr. Governor has also promised that the State Government will continue to hold the initiative periodically based on the availability of funds.
Muri-Okunola, therefore, urged all Directors that did not to win this time around, not to despair but hope that it will be their turn to celebrate when next the initiative would be repeated.
His words, “Let me, first of all, congratulate the winners today, however, I must also reiterate that you should rededicate yourselves to duty because to whom much is given, much is expected. For those who did not win today. You must take heart and hope that it would be your turn next time as the State Government intends to hold the event periodically as well as expand its scope based on the availability of funds”.
The Head of Service averred that the choice of the use of e-ballot was to give every substantive Director equal opportunity in line with the T.H.E.M.E.S agenda of the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu Administration.
The Permanent Secretary, Public Service Office, Mrs. Sunkanmi Oyegbola stated that the process streamed live on Twitter and Facebook was transparent, adding that winners would be verified to ensure eligibility.
In his remarks, the Chairman, Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, Lagos State Branch, Comrade Olusegun Balogun, commended the State Government for the initiative, noting that the initiative was a landmark achievement by the present administration led by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu
Some of the winners were so thankful and excited for the unexpected gesture of the State Government. They equally commended the e-ballot method of distribution.
Elder Wole Oyelese, the leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a former Minister of Mines and Steel Development, encouraged Governor Seyi Makinde on Thursday to begin openly supporting the party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
In an interview with journalists in Ibadan, Elder Oyelese stated that it would be unacceptable for Makinde to maintain the party’s governorship ticket while working against the presidential candidate.
The PDP leader asserted, “The bottom line is that Makinde should publicly support Atiku or else, it will be assumed that he has made a statement consistent with what the G-5 governors have been saying, and this is harmful for his second term ambition.
” The former minister said Makinde should fully retrace his steps to where he made it to the top in order to realise his second term ambition, adding the he needs Atiku to win the second term and not the other way round.
“All PDP members in Oyo state, including more than 95% of Mankinde’s appointees have been working for months and will vote for Atiku in the February 25th election. Makinde lacks the capacity to upturn the popular sentiment in Oyo state which is in support of Atiku,” he said.
Oyelese added that, “anyone who is doubting should recall what happened during his flag-off at Mapo when the people were chorusing Atiku’s name in the presence of the G-5 governors. Even Wike was silenced by the crowd of Atiku supporters and the programme came to an abrupt end.
“I see the current situation as an act of treachery when you belong to a political party and you are working against the presidential candidate of that party. It is Seyi that needs Atiku and not Atiku that needs him, because Oyo state people have made up their minds to support Atiku.” The PDP leader emphasised further.
“I can bet it with anybody that even in Gov Makinde’s government, majority of the political appointees, 95 per cent of them are working for Atiku. So, the game is up, he should rescind his decision. A situation where he is campaigning and he is not mentioning Atiku is unacceptable to us.”
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 Oyo South Senatorial Candidate of the African Democratic Party in the February 25th 2023 General Election, Mr. Lukman Adeola Adetunji has once again demonstrated by example by leading members of the party to control traffic in some part of his Senatorial District for smooth flow of vehicles.
The activities which took place on Wednesday, 25th January 2023 was not the first, as Mr. Lukman Adeola Adetunji lead other members of his team for the exercise, most especially in places where there were heavy traffic as a result of the lingering fuel scarcity and unofficial increment.
In the responses of community members, Mr Lukman Adeola was applauded for sustaining this initiative which he began last year November as they reiterated their support for his aspiration.
One of the people who witnessed the exercise while speaking with our correspondent said “With this consistency from Mr Lukman, it shows he will do the will of the people if elected, and electing him won’t be a mistake, I want to implore all voters of Oyo South Senatorial District to support the man of the people”
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”.
As part of the activities towards the commencement of 2023 Ibadan Cultural Festival in March 12, the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes, through the Central Planning Committee of the Festival Week on Tuesday 24th January 2023 awarded and decorated Barrister Idowu Salami & Chief Mrs Alhaja Olubunmi Sakirat Lawal as Grand Omoluabis of Ibadanland.
The duo were decorated at the distinguished Bode Amao Hall, Ibadan House, by the President-General of CCII, Prince Oluyemisi Adetayo Adeaga, and members of the 2023 Cultural Festival.
The Chairman of the 2023 Ibadan Cultural Festival Week, Engr. Sunday Gbenjo stated that the recipients were carefully selected by the committee, and implored them to continue doing by best for the development of Ibadanland.
In their responses, the appreciated the leadership and members of Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes, and reiterated their continuous support to Ibadanland.
In attendance were the Iyalaje of Adelabu Market, Chief Mrs Alhaja Risikat Abefe; executives and members of CCII & 2023 Ibadan Cultural Festival, Friends and families of the awardees, among others.
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”.
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