Author: The Nation

Lagos State House of Assembly on Tuesday read for the second time a Bill to establish the Lagos State Legislative and Research Institute.

The Bill, which is a Private Member Bill, is given much laud by members of the House as a Bill that will formalise the sharing of knowledge across the scope, national and international.

Speaker Mudashiru Obasa said the bill is an incubator hatched for an efficient and effective legislative institute in the state, supporting that the issue of the council men who are abandoned without given the opportunity to perform their functions as legislators due to lack of knowledge will be avoided as that is what the institution will stand for.

“This Bill is viable to us and also for other legislatures in service of the parliament and other states can share in it as the centre will be a learning space for councillors and local government chairmen, promoting and deepening democracy in our state.

“The institute will also engage international legislative bodies such as African Parliamentary Union where we can acquire more knowledge through the centre,” he said

By Toba Adedeji, Osogbo

The Police and Western Nigeria Security Network code-named Amotekun operatives are on the alert, as the herdsmen intercepted by residents of Offa and Ipe in Kwara State are planning to move to Osun State.

Residents of Offa and Ipe communities on Tuesday prevented a truckload of suspected herdsmen and cows from entering the state.

A statement yesterday by the Director General of Kiriji Heritage Defenders, Dr. Ekundayo Ademola, said the herdsmen were planning to enter Osun State through Odo-Otin Local Government, since there was no security presence in the area.

He urged the state government to mobilise security groups -conventional and unconventional ones- to storm the area and flush out the herders before wreaking havoc.

Contacted, Osun Amotekun Corps Commander retired Brig.-Gen. Bashir Adewinbi said his men have been deployed in the boundaries to prevent infiltration into the state, especially at Odo-Otin, which is close to the boundary of Kwara State.

Police spokesperson Mrs. Yemisi Opalola said the command is aware of the development, adding: “We are monitoring the areas to make sure that there is no illegal movement into the state.”

By Rasaq Ibrahim, Ado-Ekiti

A political group, the South West Agenda 2023 (SWAGA) for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has accused Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi of sacking the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairman in Ado Ward 8, Mr. Clement Afolabi.

Afolabi was removed by the APC leaders in Ado Local Government over his alleged fraternity with the SWAGA and acceptance to coordinate the group’s activities in the council.

In a statement by the SWAGA National Chairman, Senator Dayo Adeyeye, the group, which described the action as alien to the APC constitution, said the removal was ‘hand of Esau and voice of Jacob’.

He alleged that the APC executives in Ado Council acted dogmatically on a script by Governor Fayemi to edge him out of the party hierarchy on trumped up allegations of anti-party activities.

But, the APC Director of Media and SSA to the Governor on Party Matters, Elder Sam Oluwalana, exonerated the party at the state level and Dr. Fayemi of blame.

The SWAGA coordinator slammed the party leaders for sacking Afolabi when the ward executives had absolved him of the trumped-up anti-party allegation and passed a vote of confidence in him.

Adeyeye described the political happenings in Ekiti under the watch of Fayemi as “a theatre of the absurd by an evil intending vicious leader with a mission to smash the eggs, kill the hen and put the poultry on fire.”

“We think it is high time we began to get weary of some strange voices within. While we condemn the recent incisive and damaging statement of the Ekiti governor on our party, we consider the save face measure shoddily adopted in visiting undue punitive measure on Afolabi, who, purportedly, was showing support for the presidential choice of a top notch of the APC, a serious aberration.

“SWAGA is aware of the underground plots to frustrate the rising political profile of Asiwaju Tinubu in the Southwest and indeed Nigeria, as the undisputable choice to bring stability into our fragile democracy and lift the nation economically. We have tested the waters to see how a people so traumatised and choked in a party, are frantically wrestling to pull out of the terrible grip of the political dracula of our time for a resting haven they have found in SWAGA.

“The ongoing attempt to plunder and decimate our party and then leave the carcass for us to contend with, is not hidden. This we shall resist for the efforts of the builders of this democracy and many other Nigerians, who have toiled in endurance and are waiting to reap the gains.

“While we condemn the lingering undemocratic approach of Fayemi to issues in recent times and insist on a call to order, we enjoin our party men and women across the country, to feel free to identify with SWAGA. SWAGA is APC and APC is SWAGA. There is no way a member can commit anti-party offence for favouring the presidential choice of a party man,” he said.

Oluwalana said the suspension slammed on Afolabi was undertaken at the ward level, which he said was vested with the power to try any erring member.

“This was purely an internal crisis at the ward level. They were not supposed to bring Governor Fayemi into the issue because it was a ward level matter. He has done nothing to warrant the attack. He has not done anything to show he was trying to decimate the party or anti-party as being alleged.

“It was wrong and demeaning  for Senators Dayo  Adeyeye and  Babafemi Ojudu, who are respectable members of our party, to think that Governor Fayemi will descend so low to remove a ward chairman or do anything that will decimate our party.”

By Osagie Otabor, Akure

Four persons have been feared killed and many others injured in the ongoing crisis in Ikare Akoko over the Olokoja chieftaincy dispute.

Two men, Chief Ogunye ldowu and Chief Sunday Bada, are fighting over who is the rightful Olokoja of Okoja, a village in Ikare.

Both men are loyal to two warring monarchs in Ikare, the Olukare of Ikare and Owa Ale of Ikare.

Ogunye was dethroned as the Olokoja by Oba Akadiri Saliu Momoh, the Olukare of Ikare, for absenteeism from meetings, disloyalty, refusal to obey his directives and being loyal to the Owa Ale.

The coronation of a new Owa Ale, Oba Adeleke Adedoyin, is expected to take place on May 15.

Oba Momoh, in February, installed Chief Bada as the new Olokoja. An attempt by Bada to call for a bi-weekly town meeting caused the recent crisis, which began on Monday.

Sources said several houses and vehicles have been destroyed, while shootings continued at press time.

The heavy presence of security personnel did not stop the warring factions from shooting and attacking each other.

It was learnt that the fighting has shifted from the Olokoja village to the entire Ikare, between forces loyal to the Owa Ale and Olukare.

Olukare is listed as a first-class monarch, while Owa Ale is listed as a class-C monarch in the state government directory. A newspaper vendor, who gave his name as Fatai, said shootings were still ongoing in the central part of the town.

He said business activities have been paralysed, as residents stayed indoors to avoid being hit by stray bullets.

He said vehicles distributing newspapers in the area could not enter the community, adding that markets, banks, schools and motor parks were shut.

Fatai said places such as central mosque, post office, old motor park, Osele market and Oloko that were usually a beehive of commercial activities, were deserted. Sources, however, said the state government has intervened by inviting both parties to Akure.

By Tajudeen Adebanjo

The Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) has unveiled a website for the local government elections slated for July 24.

The Chairman of the commission, Justice Ayotunde Phillips (rtd), said the website is faster, more secure, easier to navigate and user-friendly.

This, she said, would further boost communication between the commission and its stakeholders in the public, “particularly at this crucial period of election preparations.”

She urged the public to visit the website: www.lasiec.gov.ng and other social media handles of the commission for up-to-date, real-time and accurate information.

According to her, enquiries, complaints and feedback can also be communicated via these channels.