VIDEO: Osun People Speak Out For Aregebsola

Osun People Speak Out For Aregebsola

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjFjkXrfd6M

Osun GUBER: Aregbesola Sues For Peace

Osun State Governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola has called on politicians in the state to ensure that peace reigns before, during and after the August 9 governorship election in the state.

The governor, who spoke at the Eid praying ground, Osogbo during the

Eid-el-fitri celebration cautioned his supporters against violence during the election.

Aregbesola, who enjoined natives of the state to pray for peace during the election, said he would not tolerate violence and acts that could affect the peaceful co-existence of the state.

He also appealed to religious leaders in the state to pray fervently for the success of the election.

The governor urged the people not to be intimidated by the antics of some politicians whom he said were after the selfish interests.

In his sermon, the Chief Imam of Osogbo and President General, League of Imams and Alfas in the South West, Sheik Musthafa Ajisafe stressed the need for Muslims to eschew violence in the society.

He called on Muslims to uphold the tenets of Islam and shun sinful acts which they abandoned during the Ramadan period. The Islamic clergy maintained that Islam is a religion of peace, which forbids crisis.

APC, PDP trade words over ‘hate campaign, rigging’

THE All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) traded words yesterday over alleged religious hate campaign and revelation of a strategy to rig the August 9 poll.

Osun State APC Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy Kunle Oyatomi claimed that the PDP had intensified religious hate campaign, “but its efforts are failing dramatically.”

The party also alleged that a PDP state chairman allegedly boasted to close friends that the party’s “victory in Osun was a foregone conclusion.”

It  claimed that the PDP chieftain said “the Presidency, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the police and Army” had finalised a plan to this effect.

But the state PDP Publicity Secretary, Prince Bola Ajao, while dismissing APC’s allegations, said the party was confident that it would win the election based on its candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore’s popularity.

The APC insisted that the PDP’s hate religious campaign would “become its albatross” since “Osun is predominantly Moslem and traditional religionists.”

The party added that a renegade Christian community has been accusing Aregbesola of being “an idol worshiper and therefore an anti-Christ and for this reason, Christians should vote for Omisore.”

It called the plan “the strategy of a drowning man who, unable to get popular support, is resorting to unwholesome tactics of inciting religious animosity.”

The party added that majority of Christians found the move objectionable and they have rebelled against the hate campaigns by some renegade pastors.

The APC also described as a “strange moment of mad arrogance” the boast credited to the PDP’s state party chairman that “any running up and down by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to avoid defeat is an exercise in futility.”

It added that the PDP chairman disclosed that “Osun masses would be jolted and embarrassed a few days to the election when the army and police would unleash militia dressed in full combat uniform and armed to the teeth would suddenly appear all over the state.”

It said the PDP chairman disclosed that “as the militia intimidates citizens on land,” security personnel and party chieftains would be “on patrol from the air and on ground of all polling units to ensure that nothing goes wrong. That was how we won Ekiti; we will repeat it in Osun.”

The APC claimed that the PDP chairman said the party would “capture Ijesha axis from Rauf, in the same style they made Fayemi in Ekiti to lose in his ward and that PDP is making serious efforts to penetrate Muslim leadership with large sum of cash.”

“The amount PDP has earmarked for distribution to Muslim leaders is N1 billion.

Efforts are being made to also compromise the leadership of Christian Association of Nigeria in Osun State,” the APC alleged.

The statement also added that about N6.2 billion has been released to Omisore.

While alleging that INEC might have been “sucked” into the plan, the APC warned the PDP and others to be “ready for the consequences of their evil plot.”

The PDP Publicity Secretary said the APC was only frustrated.

Ajao said: “It is unfortunate that the APC is crying foul. They have forgotten that Omisore is always being welcomed by huge crowd and open arms wherever he goes to campaign. By the grace of God, come August 9, the PDP will coast home with victory. We have gauged the people’s temperature and we are sure of victory.”

On the allegation that the PDP was promoting religious hatred against the APC governorship candidate, he said the PDP was conscious of diverse religious interest in the state.

He described the allegation as a cheap blackmail by the APC to win the people’s sympathy.

Jonathan paying lip service to free, fair elections —APC

Jonathan paying lip service to free, fair elections —APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to walk his talk, as far as the organisation of free and fair elections in the country is concerned.

In a statement issued in Lagos, on Monday, by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party urged the President to go beyond mere rhetoric and take concrete actions to ensure that the elections in the country are not marred by the intimidation and harassment of opposition party members and supporters. The party said: “On the same day the President’s latest assurances of a free, fair, credible and transparent elections in 2015 were being reported, agents of the Jonathan-led administration were ransacking the offices of a company hired to carry out an opinion poll for Osun State ahead of the 9 August gubernatorial election.

“If the opposition can no longer freely carry out opinion polls, if the companies hired to carry out such polls are harassed and intimidated by State Security Service (SSS) officials, then how can the President convince anyone that free and fair elections can be held under his watch?

The APC said that already, the foundation was being laid to rig next month’s governorship election in Osun State at source, as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been frustrating attempts by APC members to obtain their Permanent Voters Cards.

The party added that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has continued to boast that it will again use the military to illegally shut down the state and bully the opposition in Osun State, just like it did in Ekiti State.

It also questioned the statement made by the INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, in which he tried to justify the deployment of troops to Ekiti State for the state’s gubernatorial election on the basis that they helped to ensure a violence-free election

The statement added: “Jega should be asked to explain why the troops, who were sent to provide security for the Ekiti election were harassing and intimidating only the opposition? 

Why is it that they were arresting only opposition members? Is that also part of providing security for an election? If soldiers had only provided non-intrusive security for the election, perhaps no one would have complained,”he said.

But where they turned themselves into the enforcement arm of the ruling party, everyone, including INEC, should be concerned.”

The party called on President Jonathan to refrain from deploying the military for election purposes and read the riot act to his cabinet members like Musiliu Obanikoro and Abduljelili Adesina and party officials who specialize in electoral malfeasance.

It said it was only when such actions are taken that elections will start becoming free, fair, credible and transparent to such an extent that the world will notice.

It said: “Saying one thing and doing the opposite, Mr. President, will not translate to credible elections. The world is watching.”

As a starting point, the APC urged the President, if indeed he is committed to free and fair elections, to launch an inquiry into why the offices of the firm carrying out an opinion poll for Osun State were invaded and to tell Nigerians whether the firm would have been harassed if it had been hired by the PDP or its candidate for the August 9 election.

OSUN GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION: AREGBESOLA’S BIG CHALLENGE

OSUN GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION: AREGBESOLA’S BIG CHALLENGE

If elections are won or lost on character and performance, as they should, Osun State’s governorship election coming up on August 9 should be a shoo-in for the incumbent, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.

But then, as we saw in the June 21 Ekiti State governorship election, the almost universally hailed character and performance of the incumbent, Dr Kayode Fayemi, seemed to have counted for practically nothing when he suffered heavy defeat at the hands of Mr Ayo Fayose, the candidate of the country’s ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP).
In Ekiti at least, what seemed to matter most was instant gratification for the people through so-called “infrastructure of the stomach” and, even more importantly, the use of Federal Might (with capital F and capital M) to cow any opposition (It’s only a foolhardy man who would challenge the well-armed 30,000 security agents drafted into the state for the election who, as the governor said based on intelligence at his disposal as the state’s chief security officer, had instructions to “mow down” anyone who dared raise his figure in protest at their open  partisanship).
As it was in Ekiti so would the PDP like it to be in Osun. One big difference, however, is that, unlike in Ekiti, a not-so-subtle religious propaganda weapon against the governor is being added to the other two.
No less a person than the PDP governorship candidate himself, Senator Iyore Omisore, gave this game away. Asked in an interview in PUNCH (July 18) if he was sure he would win the election he said, “Of course, yes. I mean the indices are there for all to see; the decaying infrastructure, the disrupted education system, THE RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY, infrastructural inconvenience, social malaise, impoverishment of our people.” (Emphasis mine).
Omisore went further to accuse the governor of wrongly “Lumping students from Islam-based faith schools with students of Christianity-based faith schools together AND EXPECTING ONE RELIGION TO SUPERCEDE THE OTHER...” (Again emphasis mine). As a Christian, it is obvious Omisore is accusing the Muslim governor of favouring Islam.
Since Aregbesola dared to declare a public holiday to celebrate an Islamic New Year in the state two years ago, many of his critics have worked overtime to cast him in the image of a Muslim extremist. For many of such critics the absurdity of the logic that what is good for one religion is necessarily bad for the other has clearly escaped them.
Not surprisingly, beneath Omisore’s apparently inadvertent betrayal of his religious animosity towards the governor, an even more insidious crude religious campaign is being waged where Christians in the state are being told that a vote for Omisore is ten votes for Christ!
In this manipulation of religion to gain power, Omisore is only in the excellent company of our president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, for whom the Church had for a long time become his platform for issuing policy statements and indirectly denigrating Islam. Even then for anyone to equate Omisore with Christ is really the height of blasphemy. But then this is Nigeria where politicians think nothing of invoking the Good Lord’s name in vain.
For someone who, at the least, is not averse to being compared to Christ, it was truly amazing how he could lie through his teeth about his relationship with the late Chief Bola Ige whose murder several years ago he was implicated in and tried for and eventually acquitted.
In the PUNCH interview I’ve referred to, the newspaper asked him point blank if he did not kill Ige. “I did not,” he replied, “kill Chief Bola Ige at all. I can’t kill anybody, anyway, not to talk of Chief Bola Ige. Chief Bola Ige was my leader. He was like an uncle in-law to me.” He did not, he also said, instigate the removal of Ige’s cap and glasses in the palace of the Ooni of Ife, a humiliation which presaged Ige’s brutal murder in his own residence in Ibadan.
An amicable relationship between the two was definitely not what it looked like nearly thirteen years ago when Omisore denigrated the chief in an interview in the rested TEMPO weekly newspaper (December 27, 2001). In that interview he called Chief Bisi Akande, who he was deputy governor to and from whom he was estranged at the time, some of the foulest names imaginable and added Ige to the target of his diatribe.
“Recently too,” he said in the interview, “Bola Ige came on radio here to insult me and my family. THAT IS THE LAST ONE. He was beaten yesterday, the people of Ife beat him up and he was crying like a baby as they removed his cap and his glasses...He was disgraced out of Ife, he had to be dressed like a woman to get out of town.”(Again, emphasis mine).
Asked in effect if he approved Ige’s humiliation, he said yes in effect. “He has offended Ife people. If he insults me, he has insulted my people and they have the right to react.”
Omisore concluded the interview by describing Ige as a Yoruba traitor. “Bola Ige,” he said, “is a traitor to Afenifere... He is the Akintola of our time. What Akintola did to Awolowo is what Bola Ige is doing to Adesanya and to the Yoruba people.”
It is truly amazing how the man can now turn around to say he never held anything against Ige but, instead, had always regarded the chief as his leader and an “uncle in-law”, whatever that means.
Omisore would not only tell a lie about his relationships to curry favour with Osun voters to the extent that his implication in the murder of Ige is an issue in the elections, it is also obvious he is afraid to engage Aregbesola in any debate over what each of them can offer the good people of their state. Challenged to a debate by the governor, first he said Aregbesola was mentally unfit. When that did not seem to wash with the public he changed his tune and said in effect that the governor is a thug-in-chief. “Going to participate in a debate with violent people with array of thugs will be too much of a risk to take for us,” he said in another interview in PUNCH (July 20).
In an interview in The Guardian (July 10), Aregbesola said he was confident he will win any election in his state that was “credible, transparent, free and fair.” Therein lies the catch; an election can look credible, transparent, free and fair but the reality may be totally the opposite. An election in which a central government squeezes the opposition by slashing revenue allocation to states under the guise of falling revenue due to massive oil thefts and delays the release of even the little that is left in order to cause disaffection between opposition states and their civil servants, an election in which huge numbers of security agents are deployed to intimidate the opposition, etc, such election can hardly be described as credible, transparent, free and fair.
Actually the rigging of elections can be even more cynical than financially squeezing opposition states and deploying massive force to intimidate. The other day I received an email about the election which, on the surface, seemed too farfetched.
“Do u ever thk along this line...” it said in the arcane language of texts. “200,000 ballot papers thumb printed in Abj, CBN abj convey to CBN Ado ekiti, CBN Ado to some selected Commercial bank, Some selected Commercial banks to Some party leaders in Ekiti land, Party leaders to Some Ward leaders, Ward leaders to 10 women per polling unit...Each woman with 10 already in their body, they pick one each and drop 11 in the box where they v bought agent.”
My instinct was to dismiss this as an outlandish conspiracy theory. But then when I remembered the memorable words of Major-General IBM Haruna, a former minister of information, in one of the most interesting interviews published by the rested Citizen which I headed, I said to myself this may not be as outrageous as it sounds. As the general said, any time anyone tells you something is impossible in Nigeria, consider it done.
In spite of all this great odds against Aregbesola, I believe Ekiti is unlikely to be repeated in Osun on August 9. But then so many impossible things have happened in the country since 1999 that it will not surprise me if, in spite of Aregbesola’s character and performance,  he loses the election.
TWO OMISSIONS...
In response to my column of last week, two readers, Chief Femi Alafe-Aluko and Olu Sangotikun, drew my attention to my omission of Aremo Segun Osoba among the country’s journalism icons who celebrated their birthdays this month. Segun, probably the country’s best reporter ever, celebrated his 75th birthday on July 15.
Another journalism icon, Nduka Obaigbena, Chairman of Thisday and President of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) celebrated his 55th birthday on July 14.
Here’s wishing both Happy Birthdays and many more returns in arrears.

...AND AN APOLOGY
In my column of July 2 I referred to Major-General Chris Olukolade as “an army spokesman.” Actually he is the “military spokesman”, the army being only one service of the three in the military, the others being the navy and the air force.
In the same article I gave the name of Borno State governor as Ibrahim Kashim Shettima. Ibrahim is not part of his name. This was an error I had committed on several occasions before.
My apologies to both the general and the governor.

CBN BEGINS DISBURSEMENT OF N220BN SMES FUND AUGUST

CBN BEGINS DISBURSEMENT OF N220BN SMES FUND AUGUST

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has concluded plans to commence the disbursement of the N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises loans to qualified beneficiaries in August.

CBN governor Mr Goodwin Emefiele said this yesterday while signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with some state governors in Abuja. He said the loan will attract a single digit interest rate and will be strictly monitored.
Emefiele said President Goodluck Jonathan will formally launch the disbursement of the fund next month.
He said the fund will be applied toward supporting the financing needs of the people at the lower level of the pyramid. “And I believe that if properly applied it  will lead to transformation and economic development of Nigeria,” he added.
“The important thing is that we are going to ensure that the fund gets to the beneficiaries without impediments and wherever we find any impediment on the way we will remove it,’’ he added.
The apex bank governor said the MSMEs have been proved the world over as engine for the growth of economies, boosting production, generating income, and reducing poverty. “Despite these recognitions, the SMEs in Nigeria have never received adequate financing,” he also noted.
“The SMEs loan will be disbursed through commercial banks, micro finance banks and finance houses while the state governments will be able to access up to N2 billion each to enable beneficiaries who participated in their various initiatives to benefit.”
According to Emefiele, 50 per cent of the total loan is dedicated to women and that CBN will undertake regular check on the efficiency  of the fund application.
Speaking at the ceremony, Akwa Ibom State governor, Mr Godswill Akpabio, urged the apex bank to consider reducing some of the huddles in the disbursement of the fund to the beneficiaries in order to save time.
He congratulated the CBN governor on his appointment and promised to apply the fund to the real beneficiaries.
Also speaking, Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola, said there is need for government at all levels to prioritise the issue of job creation for  the teaming unemployed youths.
According to him, one of the easiest ways of providing job opportunities in his state is the ongoing school feeding project which provides good and delicious meal to over 300,000 school children and at the same time providing jobs to thousands of youths in the state.

Osun: Issues in focus

Osun: Issues in focus

BY AYO OLUKOTUN

“My tenure in Osun by the Grace of God and the will of the people willend in 2018”

– Rauf Aregbesola, July 20, 2014

“If I meet Governor Rauf Aregbesola, I would greet him and tell him to be preparing his handover notes”

-Iyiola Omisore, July 20, 2014

The opening quotes sourced from the two leading candidates in the Osun governorship election indicate the keenness and intensity of the campaigns which will culminate in the August 9 election. There are, to be sure, 20 candidates jostling for the coveted seat but in reality the contest has been described aptly as a ‘three-tier horse race’ between the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, who is also the incumbent governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; that of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Iyiola Omisore; and that of the Labour Party, Alhaji Fatai Akinbade.

Before assessing the candidates and their platforms, a few statistics are in order. Depending on which source you are citing, the population of the state is put variously at anywhere between 3.4 million (NPC) and 4.4 million (UNFPA). The Independent National Electoral Commission put the population of the registered voters at 1.25 million and the voter card holders, as of the end of April, at 59.6 per cent of that number, which is roughly 736, 000. The number of polling units is also put at 3,010. What this means is that less than 25 per cent of the population of the state will on August 9 decide the fate of the candidates. As a corollary, and in the absence of opinion polls suggested by The PUNCH columnist, Prof. Niyi Akinnaso, several of the outspoken debaters and stargazers on the election will neither vote nor will their views loom large on the polling day.

The other background matter worth attending to connects the issue of militarisation of the state along the lines of what happened in Ekiti State.

While the PDP members such as the Minister of State for Works, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, argued that the presence of soldiers in Ekiti encouraged the voters to come out in the confidence that no harm would befall them, spokespersons for the APC insist that the soldiers and the security agencies generally were not neutral arbiters but partisanly held the ring against the opposition APC.

As a matter of fact, a human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, has stated the opinion that the deployment of soldiers for elections is illegal. In the same vein, the APC has gone to court to restrain the Federal Government from deploying soldiers for the election.

Considering that the role of the military in the Ekiti election and the involvement of Alhaji Musiliu Obanikoro, Minister of State for Defence , viewed as a PDP hawk, has become matters of controversy, it might be unwise to repeat the Ekiti scenario of militarisation in Osun. Obviously, international attention will be focused on the election given that the United States has argued that it would be bell weather of the wider election of 2015.

Now, to the major candidates. Omisore of the PDP is not a new comer to Osun and national politics. He has held the positions of deputy governor as well as senator. Well educated, Omisore stakes his claim to governorship on an alleged deal between him and Bisi Akande that the latter would back him for governorship after four years in office; he argues to the bargain that he was already coasting home to succeeding Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola as the governor before the judicial victory and consequent swearing-in of Aregbesola in 2010.

There are issues however about the candidate one of which is memory of his alleged controversial involvement in the assassination of the former justice minister, Chief Bola Ige. It is conceivable that in spite of the candidate’s heated denial of alleged role in that tragic event, he has not succeeded in entirely laying the matter to rest.

Substantively, Omisore and his campaign team have mounted a spirited campaign challenging the achievements and even personality of the incumbent forcing the latter to defend his record. For instance, Omisore has punched holes in the incumbent track record by alleging that he has handed over the state to “strangers” by which it is meant Osun indigenes resident in Lagos. He has raised issues about the cost of some of Aregbesola’s projects; spotted errors in Opon Imo, a flagship achievement of the governor and alluded to the controversy raised by the schools’ merger and wearing of hijab.

Unfortunately, Omisore has spent more time putting his opponent on the spot and berating him than enunciating his own programmes. Although he has hinted at an eight-point agenda, the electorate is barely familiar with the high points of this programme as they are crowded out by his politics of attack and threats of repeating Ayo Fayose’s miracle victory in Ekiti.

The incumbent, Aregbesola rides on the wave of his governance record which centres on poverty reduction as illustrated by the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme, the facelift and modernisation of Osogbo, the state capital, educational reforms whose initial hiccups Aregbesola insists are more than compensated for by the adjunct of a far-flung project in which tailors, food vendors, and sundry artisans are employed through the provision of uniforms and the school feeding system. Articulating a neo-welfarist ideology on the lines of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Ogbeni, as he insists on being called (shunning the use of ‘His Excellency’) has, by and large, implemented visionary social programmes that have sought to bring governance to the nook and cranny of the state.

The Labour Party candidate, Akinbade, a former Secretary of the Osun State Government, would in other circumstances, considering his mettle, have been a high profile contender. But as it is, the two titans, Aregbesola and Omisore, have reduced him to the status of a backbencher. In the event of a neck to neck election, however, he might, ironically, come into his own as a ‘beautiful bride’. This may explain why he is being courted by both the APC and the PDP. It is unlikely however, if a level playing field is provided that the PDP would be able to repeat the “Fayose miracle”. In a text message sent to this writer, in the aftermath of my comment on the Ekiti election,

Pastor Biodun Bakare, after doing a post-mortem of that election, went on to say, “It is not going to be easy for Omisore in Osun State over Aregbesola because the latter is closer to the people”. In other words, Osun is a different kettle of fish from Ekiti to the extent that Aregbesola, who has a thriving grassroots organisational culture, cultivated a pro-people orientation. Significantly, and contrary to the expectation that religion will be an issue, several Christian leaders such as Bishop David Oyedepo and Pastor Enoch Adeboye, have endorsed the incumbent based on performance.

Conceivably, Omisore’s battle cry would have been anchored on change.

It would seem however that in the circumstances of a state, arguably, in the throes of governance upgrade and verifiable deliverables, the message of ‘change’ is unlikely to be heeded. The election, considering the various uses to which the omnibus ‘federal might’ might be put, may be closely fought but there is little doubt that the incumbent stands a more than even chance of winning.

Students rally support for Aregbesola

Some youths and students in Osun State-owned public schools and tertiary institutions on Thursday, thronged major streets in Osogbo, in a peaceful rally to drum support for the re-election of Governor Rauf Aregbesola.

Convening on the platform of Youth Reformation Group, the group said there was no alternative to Aregbesola, adding that they were beneficiaries of his programmes.

Chairman of the coalition, Abiola Oludele, in an interview with our correspondent, stated that Aregbesola’s intervention in the education sector, among other areas of development, convinced them to support his re-election bid.

According to Oludele, the youths in the state are benefitting from the Osun Youths Empowerment Scheme and the Osun school feeding programme called O-Meal.

He also commended the governor for the reduction in the tuition fees of the tertiary institution, the increment of bursary allowance from N3,000 to N10,000; and the construction of modern schools for the secondary school students.

Masked guards: APC faults Omisore, writes NSA

 

The All Progressives Congress in Osun State has written a petition to the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), asking him to stop the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, Senator Iyiola Omisore, from using masked armed men as his bodyguards.

The party said the use of masked guards by the PDP candidate was not only inappropriate but a threat to the security of the people of the state.

The Commissioner for Special Duties in the state, Mr. Bashir Ajibola, said this at a news conference in Osogbo on Thursday.

He said, “We are saying it is not proper for Omisore to use masked bodyguards. Are we sure those behind the masks are genuine security operatives? They may be some of those fake soldiers they are planning to use. If somebody in mask commits any crime, how do you want to recognise him?

“We have written to the National Security Adviser, the Director-General of the State Security Service, the Inspector-General of Police, the Commissioner of Police in Osun State and the Director of SSS in the state. He should be stopped from using masked guards.

“The President is not using masked men as his guard. So, I wonder what Omisore is trying to hide by using these strange men.”

Ajibola, who is a lawyer, said that the APC had gone to court to challenge the planned deployment of soldiers for the Osun poll.

He stated that deployment of troops for an election, which is a civic duty, was not only unconstitutional but an abuse of power.

He urged members of the National Youth Service Corps, which INEC would use for the election, not to allow themselves to be used to manipulate the process of the election.

The Director of Publicity and Strategy, Omisore Campaign Orgnaisation, Mr. Diran Odeyemi, could not be reached for his reaction to the allegation.

But he had denied the same allegation raised by the APC. He said the security personnel attached to Omisore were officials of the SSS, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and policemen.

He said, “We all know the style of the APC is to accuse others whatever is their plan or intention. If they are really concerned about the security men in Omisore’s campaign, they should contact security agencies to find out and stop playing to the gallery.

“In the campaign train are men from SSS, the police and civil defence. The PDP will never preach violence neither do we rely on thugs to win election.”

Ajibola also defended the collection of opon imo (electronic learning device) back from SS3 students. He explained that the students were not given the devices for keeps.

Osun poll: The passion of Ogbeni…

By  Steve Osuji

Prelude to the June 21 Ekiti State election, this column waded in on the side of the incumbent Kayode Fayemi because it was the right thing to do, taking cognisance of his antecedent and his performance in office. Also judging by the puny personality of his major contender in terms of integrity quotient, record in office, possession of the requisite gravitas and nobility for high office, this column insists that Fayemi and not Fayose is more deserving of the office even though one cannot help but respect the choice of Ekiti people.

In the same manner and going by the parameters listed above, this column will vote for Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to remain as the governor of Osun State on August 9. The Ogbeni advantage, just as in Fayemi’s, is made seemingly unassailable when ranged against an opponent, Iyiola Omisore, who is weakened and compromised by an odious antecedent. In the days of yore when elders were the spirits of the land and taboos were indeed, abominations to the living and the dead, an Omisore would not deign to be a leader in Yoruba land. In those days, elders would sit at dawn at the first crow of the cock and speak as one with the gods; pour libation and set the land aright, an Omisore would never have found the face to stand before the people to seek to lead them.

But this is an age that is at once licentious and forgiving; an age that easily changes black in white, using confounding ‘means and machinery’. We are in an age that not only gets away with murder (in a manner of speaking), the more dastardly murderous a man can dare to be, the better he is ‘regarded’ in the society. It is in this kind of weird world that an Omisore would stand a strong contender in a governorship election.

It is not to say that Ogbeni is the quintessence of humanity or a citizen of the celestial realms. It is just that he has a track record and a reference point that even his opponents cannot fault. Ogbeni is also a man of immense passion; burning passion for the people; passion to drive change, to improve and to make good. You may quarrel with his method or even the fiery intensity of his passion, but it is often in the quest for the greatest good for the people.

This column had occasions to prick and jab him on some of his actions, especially his dalliance with religion in his state, but his finer motive it turned out, is to upgrade learning and education in his state. Though Christians may have misconstrued it as antagonism towards their faith, what are we to then make of his government’s move to catalyse the building of a mega Christian centre, perhaps the largest of its kind in the country, in his state. Of course, Muslims would see this as deploying the state’s machinery for the propagation of the Christian faith, but for the Ogbeni, the nobler motive is to tap into Christianity’s huge economic potentialities to develop his state.

Such is Ogbeni’s passion, which had been manifest right from his days as the commissioner for works in the Bola Tinubu years in Lagos. He is part of the mastermind and architect of some of the great developmental strides that have unfurled under Babatunde Fashola in Lagos. Of course, Ogbeni is not only a master of the grassroots; he is the essential man of the people who eats his roast corn with the people both on and off camera. The people of Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos, his constituency and domain, would testify to this.

If half of the governors are half as passionate about working for the people as Ogbeni, there would be less strive in the land and the country would progress in leaps and bounds. In nobler climes, Ogbeni would not have had to campaign to be returned to office. But this column wagers that the Ogbeni passion would carry him through: for a man who is credible both on the streets and in the State House, who has rolled out as much physical infrastructure as the fabled stomach substructure, the people of Osun will be utterly nihilistic not to return him. They need to be vigilant too.

Purchased impeachments

We are back to the desperate days of power-at-all cost once again. Why don’t Nigerian politicians grow up for a change? Who would think the day would ever break again when elected governors would be hounded like rabbits in this country as we witnessed in the Olusegun Obasanjo era? Who would imagine that a Goodluck Jonathan presidency would allow itself to journey through such path of perdition once again? Recall that Obasanjo had singled out erstwhile Governor Diepriye Alamieyeseigha for roasting and he had assailed the entire federal might against him. Obasanjo chased Alams (as he is known) to his political death and near physical death. Alams was Jonathan’s boss and godfather. It took a Jonathan presidency to pardon and resurrect Alams and return some of the remains of his life to him only recently.

Almostthe same treatment was meted out to ex-governors Joshua Dariye (Plateau State); Rashidi Ladoja (Oyo State); Chris Ngige (Anambra State) and Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State. Former Governor Abubakar Audu of Kogi State was engaged in a furious auto chase on the highways between Jos and Lokoja by Obasanjo’s federal goons in one of those moments of madness. It was his dexterity that saved him from an ignominious ousting or even a fatal crash. But more notably is that none of those governors accused and ‘impeached’, some in hotel rooms and at night time through Obasanjo’s sleight of hand ever got prosecuted much more convicted. Alams, the only one convicted (through the help of the British judiciary), was recently pardoned and perhaps absolved of the treasury looting he was accused. Fayose was still being ‘tried’ when he was made the candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Ekiti governorship election.

From hindsight, Obasanjo will today rue his rascality and bad faith in plotting to rout the governors elected just as he was, and corrupt as he was. If he is capable of some deep thinking, he would worry that he damaged Nigeria’s fledgling democracy by his actions, which were clearly born out of vendetta and megalomania. And finally, because he is equally as culpable as they come, he too stands to give account (and face a worse fate) as long as he lives; and indeed, even posthumously.

This is why we remind President Jonathan that we all have walked this path of perdition before and it leads only to a dead end. It is folly to deny that the presidency has no hand in the gale of impeachments blowing through the land… Adamawa is ‘downed’, Nasarawa is ‘lined’ and others are in the works. Denial is futile because no state legislature can impeach any governor in the land today; that is the real tragedy of Nigeria’s situation.

LAST MUG: Putin putting the world on fire: What shall we do with Russia’s strong man Vladimir Putin? He seems set finally on miring what is left of this fragile world. The Russian Federation is the largest nation in the world and potentially the richest, but the economy is still weak largely because of poor leadership. There is therefore so much to occupy any Russian leader who craves hero status. But Putin seems only interested in annexing even more empires. Not satisfied with wrenching Crimea from Ukraine recently as the world watches, he has worked up rebels, sons of Belial, to scourge their fatherland Ukraine and vigorously fuel a civil war in which hundreds die daily. And last week, a commercial Malaysian plane MH 17 was downed, perishing 298 poor souls. We ask: shall we hand Putin the entire world to run?

PHOTO NEWS: Aregbesola Commissions NUD Middle School In Ikire

 Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (left) acknowledging cheers from his admirers and Pupils of Nawirudeen (NUD) Middle School, during the Official Commissioning of the School in Ikire. Insert: From left, Deputy Governor, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori; Governor Rauf Aregbesola; Akire of Ikire, Oba Olatunde Falabi; Member, National Assembly representing Irewole/Ayedaade/Isokan Federal Constituency, Honourable Ayo Omidiran and others, on Monday 21-07-2014

From left, Deputy Governor State of Osun, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori; Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; Akire of Ikire, Oba Olatunde Falabi; Member, National Assembly representing Irewole/Ayedaade/Isokan Federal Constituency, Honourable Ayo Omidiran and others, during the Official Commissioning of Nawirudeen (NUD) Middle School, Ikire on Monday 21-07-2014

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (arrowed) acknowledging cheers from his admirers and Pupils of Nawirudeen (NUD) Middle School, during the Official Commissioning of the School in Ikire on Monday 21-07-2014

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola acknowledging cheers from his supporters, during the Official Commissioning of Nawirudeen (NUD) Middle School, Ikire on Monday 21-07-2014

Again, Osun Govt Announces Eid-Il-Fitr Free Train Ride

The Government of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has again reaffirmed its commitment to the welfare of its people as it again on Thursday announced its free train ride for this year’s Eid el-Fitri celebration.

In a statement by the Commissioner of Commerce, Cooperatives and Empowerment, Mr. Ismail Adekunle Jayeoba-Alagbada, the free train ride would convey people coming for the festival from Lagos to Osogbo on Saturday 26th by 10 am.

A return train from Osogbo to Lagos is slated for Tuesday 29th and will take off by 11 am.

The statement noted that government did this to ease movement of the people during rush period of the festivity.

Alagbada enjoined indigenes of the state to maximise the advantage the free train ride offered them to visit home and enjoy the Islamic celebration.

He stated further: “This tradition of free train ride as introduced by the Aregbesola government is aimed at facilitating the easy movements of the citizens to join their families and other loved ones to enjoy the celebration.

“And this programme takes care of both Islamic and Christian festivities and also one that is introduced to boost the economy of the state.

“Therefore, it is the wish of government that our people from Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States would seize this opportunity by Aregbesola’s government to visit home and celebrate with their relatives.”

ODA: politicians don’t turn Osun into a theatre of war

The Osun Development Association (ODA) has called on politicians, especially those vying in the August 9 governorship election, not to turn the state into a theatre of war.

The association’s Chairman, Prof. Olu Aina and Secretary, Mr. Ademola Fabunmi, in statement yesterday, noted with dismay what it described as “the disturbing reports of acts of thuggery, threats to life, arms stockpile and vandalism associated with the state’s electioneering,” warning that such activities have the unhealthy tendency to mar next month’s governorship election.

“We are extremely worried that rather than focusing on strategies to win the hearts and minds of the electorate, politicians in Osun are preparing for outright war. The ugly trend is, unfortunately, reinforced by alarming and reckless pronouncements by political leaders boasting that their parties would win the election at all costs. “We therefore, call on all stakeholders, particularly politicians, not to turn Osun State into a theatre of needless conflict, which would disrupt the prevailing peace and harmony of the people of Osun and stifle the state’s development,” the statement stated.

It called on President Goodluck Jonathan and the Federal Government to live up to their claim of utmost neutrality in elections by ensuring that the Osun poll is credible.

The association warned that the bloated or excessive deployment of security operatives for the election has the potential to intimidate voters.

Jonathan advised to allow free, fair poll

A member of the Aregbesola Campaign Organisation (ACO), Prince Solagbade Amodeni, has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to allow free and fair election on August 9.

He observed that the desperation of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to capture Osun State at all costs without minding its repercussions would not augur well for the nation’s nascent democracy.

Amodeni, a former Commissioner in Ondo State, said Governor Rauf Aregbesola had used his acumen to transform the state through physical and infrastructural development, stressing that people were ready to show appreciation to him through massive votes.

Besides, he said the governor had surpassed any other past governors in the state by allowing all citizenry to practise their religion to the best of their abilities.

Speaking to The Nation in Akure, the Ondo State capital, Amodeni said the Christian Praying Ground under construction in Osun State is unprecedented in the history of any state in Nigeria.

According to him, “During the burial ceremony of Prophet Timothy Obadare, not only he was there personally, his whole cabinet members were there and the state’s financial contribution to the successful burial of the famous religious leader was unrivalled.

Amodeni recalled that when Aregbesola campaign was launched in Ile-Ife, the opposition said the surging crowd that attended the rally were rented. The blackmail, he said, later stopped when they saw subsequent mega rallies becoming huge by the day.

He said: “There is no way you can compare Ekiti election to that of Osun because the personalities involved are different and its people are different. Ekiti people were caught unaware and APC left the election for Governor Fayemi alone either through omission or commission.

The former commissioner noted that though Aregbesola and his team could win the election single-handedly in Osun State, but said: “People are not taking things for granted. We are fully prepared for the politicalabracadabra and antics of PDP during the election.”

“We will do everything possible to ensure that the integrity of the ballot papers shall be tested during the poll and the whole world will know APC members are ready for any eventuality during the election.

Amodeni argued that under free and fair election devoid of any malpractices or using of Federal apparatus, “the PDP candidate, Iyiola Omisore, would not score more than 10 percent,” saying he would only come in distant third  because according to him, his party had no crowd in Osun State.

His words: “We are fully prepared for the contest, if PDP has anything to show, they will not resort to violence and visible destruction of APC’s candidate billboards and posters.”

The politician noted that in his 30 years of active politicking, Aregbesola would be the first candidate that would not “use his personal money to purchase campaign materials like billboards, posters, vests, key holders and even pay for radio and television jingles.”

He disclosed that all materials for Aregbesola’s political campaigns were donated through friends, including himself and numerous political associates.

APC governors: hold Jonathan responsible for attempt on Buhari

All Progressives Congress (APC) governors, under the aegis of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), said yesterday that President Goodluck Jonathan should be held responsible for the attempt on the life of one of its national leaders and former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari.

The governors, in a statement titled: PGF Condemns Attempt on Buhari, Holds Jonathan Responsible, noted that the incident happened two days after Gen. Buhari urged Jonathan to stop waging war on Nigerians but to devote more time to the war on terrorism.

The governors condemned the attack, adding that “the double bomb explosions in Kaduna, the loss of innocent lives and what was clearly an attempt to assassinate former Head of State and leader of the APC, General Muhammadu Buhari”, were not coincidences.

The PGF restated General Buhari’s statement to President Jonathan that it is unwise and against the spirit of social democracy that many innocent people were being killed in the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) quest to demobilise the APC and retain power at all cost.

The governors said the Federal Government had failed in its fundamental responsibility of providing security for Nigerians, yet accusing the opposition in order to shift the blame for the low-intensity war going on in parts of the country.

The statement reads: “Particularly worrisome is the statement credited to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Kenneth Minimah, that soldiers were deserting the Army for fear of Boko Haram. Our question is: what happened to the vast sums of money devoted to security and defence in the last four years of the Jonathan presidency? Is the desertion of soldiers linked to the theft of money meant for military equipment?

“We call on the Federal Government to take urgent and radial steps to investigate the assassination attempt and make its finding public. In the meantime, we urge President Jonathan to manage his obsession with power and work for the citizens of this country.

“It is a great shame that Nigeria, under President Jonathan, has become the most dangerous place in the world in terms of deadly terrorist attacks. While we rejoice with General Buhari and others who narrowly escaped death, we commiserate with the families who have lost loved ones in the explosions and other attacks across the country – whether by terrorists or nameless, faceless assassins.”

APC: we’ve taken steps to ensure free, fair poll

All Progressives Congress (APC) said yesterday it had taken steps to ensure that the candidates in the August 9 Osun State governorship election are provided with a level-playing field.

It added that actions have also been taken to guarantee that the election is free, fair and transparent as well as devoid of harassment and intimidation.

APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, spoke in a statement in Abuja yesterday.

The statement said APC had challenged in court the powers of the President to deploy troops and that of the Inspector-General of Police to impose a curfew during the election.

It also said the party had written to INEC to demand a postponement of the election if the electoral commission cannot guarantee that all registered voters would be given their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) before voting day or in the alternative allow all registered members in possession of INEC temporary voter cards to vote.

The actions, according to the party, were aimed at avoiding a repeat of the massive harassment, intimidation and arrest of opposition politicians witnessed at the Ekiti governorship election.

It said the steps would also prevent any illegal lock down of Osun State, which turned out to be a ploy to pigeon-hole opposition politicians while allowing PDP members to move around freely.

The party said the letter to INEC followed concerns expressed by APC members in Osun that they have so far been denied their PVCs under shady circumstances, a development that could be a ploy to massively disenfranchise APC members and rig the election at source

The statement said: “In the first case filed at the Federal High Court in Lagos on July 15, 2014, we are seeking, among others, ‘a declaration that by the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as altered), it is ultra vires for the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to deploy members of the armed forces to Osun State for the purpose of the conduct of the gubernatorial election scheduled for August 9, 2014’.

“In the second case, also filed at the same court on July 17, 2014,  we are seeking, among other reliefs, ‘a declaration that by the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as altered), and the Curfew Law of Osun State, CAP 36, Laws of Osun State of Nigeria, 2001, it is ultra vires for the Inspector General of Police of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to impose curfew on any part of Osun State during the conduct of the gubernatorial election scheduled to hold on Aug. 9th, 2014, or at any time whatsoever in any part of Nigeria’.

‘’The actions have reinforced the credentials of our party as law-abiding and peaceful. Instead of resorting to self help, as many would have done in the face of the many underhand tactics by the PDP-led Federal Government to stifle the opposition and skew the conditions in favour of the ruling party, we decided to embark on a legal challenge of the unlawful actions of the government.

‘’We are not seeking any favour beyond that all candidates in the election be allowed to have a level-playing field, for all registered voters to be able to cast their votes in an atmosphere devoid of violence, harassment and intimidation, and for the election itself to be conducted in substantial compliance with the law.”

APC said popular participation is at the core of democratic governance, hence a development in which registered voters, most of them from the opposition, will not be allowed to vote based on the incompetence of the electoral authorities is anti-democratic.

“That is why we have written to INEC to allow duly registered voters to exercise their franchise on August 9, whether or not they have PVCs or temporary voter cards. If this is not possible, INEC should consider postponing the election until such a time that not one voter will be disenfranchised due to the incompetence, collusion or shenanigans of INEC,’’ the party said.

It warned that the Osun governorship election must not just be free, fair and transparent, it must been seen to be so by all stakeholders.