The Nation Newspaper

Category: Osun

  • Pedro, senator, others back Aregbesola’s re-election

    Pedro, senator, others back Aregbesola’s re-election

    •PDP chieftain, supporters defect to APC

    Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s re-election bid got more support at the weekend from notable individuals and groups.

    One of them and former Lagos State Deputy Governor Otunba Femi Pedro said the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate would win by a landslide on August 9.

    Pedro, who is also an APC chieftain, spoke in a statement in Lagos yesterday.

    He said the machinations by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to take over the Southwest were only empty threats.

    He added that the Southwest people were better off under the APC government.

    Pedro, who lamented the abrasive nature by which the PDP has been going about its campaign in the Southwest, warned against rigging in the Osun election under any guise.

    According to him, Aregbesola would win through a free and fair election.

    He stressed that the militarisation of the polls is not only contradictory to the ideals of democracy, but also a strategy that Nigerians would resist at all cost.

    His words: “I know Governor Aregbesola very well. He is on ground. The PDP themselves know that Ogbeni is fully on ground because he is one of the few politicians that started grassroots campaigning from his first day in office. Through his performance, rapport with the people and his ability to successfully domesticate governance in the state of Osun, this matter is really a foregone conclusion. He is going to win the August 9 poll by landslide.

    “The facts speak for itself and people need to be sincere about this. Aregbesola has touched every household in Osun through his laudable and people-oriented programmes. Unfortunately, PDP’s last minute onslaught won’t succeed because the people of Osun and the Southwest in general know who really has their interest at heart.

    “The APC is the only party that feels the pulse of the common man, and I believe the people of Osun will vote their conscience by ushering Aregbesola in a richly-deserved second term”.

    On whether the nationwide fortune of the party appears to be dwindling of late, Pedro said the party is rather expanding and getting ready to form the government at the centre 2015, adding that those perceived to be aggrieved would come back.

    “Party faithful should remain steadfast and not waiver in spite of the sustained plot to destabilise the opposition party. This is nothing new. It has happened in the past and we always knew it would happen again. This time around, the opposition is better prepared for the barrage of assaults than people think. Their efforts to crush the opposition party will fail woefully. Mark my words”.

    A chieftain of the Osun State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Felix Ogunwale a.k.a Jumokol, also declared his support for Aregbesola’s re-election.

    Ogunwale, who spoke with reporters during his defection to the APC with hundreds of his supporters in Iragbiji at the weekend, said he was backing Aregbesola because of the huge infrastructural development his administration has brought to Osun.

    The Iragbiji-born politician, who represented Osun Central at the Senate between 2003 and 2007, remarked that the state’s progress is unprecedented.

    He said for the progress to be sustained, there is need for Aregbesola to return to office.

    He said: “What is happening in Osun is what everybody can see physically. If we want these developments to continue, we must vote for Aregbesola so that he can complete the good work he has started.

    “It is a fact that PDP in Osun State has lost focus. That is why I am calling on my lovers and those that believe in me to come out en mass and vote for Aregbesola. Don’t entrust your future in the hands of politicians who deceive with mundane and cheap immediate gains.

    “Is it the road networks within the state you want to talk about or the model schools his administration is building, electrification of villages and welfare package for the workers? Honestly, the governor has tried.

    “I am committed to the task of re-electing Aregbesola; I am so confident that Osun people will vote overwhelmingly for him because of his achievements, which can be felt in every nook and cranny of the state.”

    An association, Oranmiyan Support Group, has also declared its intention to mobilise towards the realisation of the second term election of the governor.

    The group also said that it would engage voters through education to jealously guard their votes to ensure that their votes count.

    The group is made up of intellectuals and professionals from Osun State living in and outside the state but with operational base in Lagos.

    Its coordinator, Mr. Ayo Akinola, in a statement yesterday, said: “ We have decided to come out in the open to garner support for the candidacy and electoral success of Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola. This is rather the first time a group of this nature will come out openly. We have no choice because we do not want to sit on the fence this time around. We have no other state but Osun. If Osun falls today, God forbid, we fall with it. And if glory comes, we shall all be proud”.

    The group praised Aregbesola for applying the art and science of strategy to ensure success in all endeavours in which he is engaged.

  • PDM withdraws candidate from poll

    PDM withdraws candidate from poll

    The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) has withdrawn its Osun State standard-bearer, Mr. Timothy Oludare Akinola, from the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) list of candidates for the poll.

    Akinola’s name was withdrawn for alleged anti-party activities in a letter addressed to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega.

    The letter by the PDM’s National Chairman, Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim and dated June 23, 2014, said: “The PDM has taken the decision to withdraw Mr. Oludare Timothy Akinola as its candidate in the August 9 Osun State governorship election.”

    In the letter, PDM  accused Akinola of “holding meetings with opposition political parties’ candidates without its consent, insisting that this amounts to anti-party activities.

    “Other reasons for his withdrawal had to do with his continuous failure to honour invitation to meetings by the National Secretariat and his lack of preparedness and inability to present a concrete plan for campaign few weeks before the election.”

    Also, the party’s state Chairman, Alhaji Lasisi Bakare, in a separate letter to the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Olusegun Agbaje, intimated the commission on the development.

    “In the light of the above, our party will not be fielding any candidate to participate in the forthcoming election,” it said.

  • SDP seeks probe of members’ kidnap

    SDP seeks probe of members’ kidnap

    The Social Democratic Party (SDP) has called on the Inspector-General of Police (IG), Muhammed Abubakar, to investigate the circumstances leading to the alleged kidnap of three of its members in Osun State at the weekend.

    The state party Chairman, Mr. Ademola Isola, in a statement in Osogbo, expressed concern over the incident, calling on all security agencies to be on the watch as the August 9 Osun governorship election approaches.

    He said SDP members, including the party chairman in Ede-North Local Government, Alhaji Adewimbi Kadiri, Mrs. Titilayo Alaanu and Mrs. Musili Usman, were abducted during their house-to-house campaign at Alusekere ward of Ede on Saturday.

    The SDP Chairman thanked the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Maishanu, for his timely intervention and the DSS for treating his party members, who were found with no incriminating materials, with respect.

    “But we still want the IG to investigate this matter,” he said.

  • Group decries attack on members

    Group decries attack on members

    A group campaigning for the re-election of Governor Rauf Aregbesola, De Raufs Volunteer Group, has warned the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Omisore Campaign Organisation that it will not condone further attacks on its members.

    The group condemned the attack on its Director of Mobilisation, Comrade Bello Lukman, in front of the group’s secretariat, describing the act as “unwarranted and criminal.”

    The group’s Director-General, Comrade Amitolu Shittu, in a statement, said the incident occurred when a private car owner was harassed at the entrance of De Raufs office in Osogbo by persons suspected to be PDP’s thugs.

    According to Shittu, a member of the group who was recharging his phone nearby was accused of taking the picture of the thugs.

    The thugs later descended on Lukman, broke his Android phone and took away his Blackberry phone as well as N250,000 cash meant for the local units of the group.

  • Candidates, stakeholders agree to free, fair poll

    Candidates of the 20 parties contesting the August 9 Osun State governorship election and other stakeholders have agreed to ensure free and fair poll devoid of violence.

    They made the pledge at a sensitisation workshop organised for political parties and stakeholders by the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Inter-Party Affairs in Osogbo, the state capital.

    The parties in attendance include the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP), the National Conscience Party (NCP) and Action Alliance (AA).

    Others are All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Alliance for Democracy (AD), Accord Party (AP) and Democratic Peoples Movement (DPM).

    Issues bordering on the smooth conduct of the election were discussed at the  meeting held at the Leisure Spring Hotel, Osogbo.

    Some of the governorship candidates, who could not attend the programme, sent their representatives.

    While the APC candidate, Governor Rauf Aregbesola, sent the party’s state chairman, Elder Adebiyi Adelowo to the event, the PDP’s candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, was represented by his running-mate, Adejare Bello.

    The Special Adviser to the President on Inter Party-Affairs, Senator Ben Obi, while opening the workshop, stressed the need for all the political parties and their candidates to shun violence during the election.

    Obi said free and fair election is a panacea to peaceful co-existence in any society and pledged that the governorship election would be conducted in a fair atmosphere.

    He also urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to create a level-play ground for all political parties before and during the governorship election.

    He said: “Most of our political parties have negated a lot of their duties and concentrated mainly on elections and attaining political power at the expense of an entrenched democracy.”

    “I am calling on all the stakeholders in the Osun State governorship election to embrace peace. All the political parties contesting the election should have equal access to the media. And we want all political parties to have the freedom to publicise their programmes and agenda.”

     

  • Aregbesola to Sambo: winning Osun is wishful thinking

    Aregbesola to Sambo: winning Osun is wishful thinking

    •Governor says state rejected PDP long ago

    Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has described the remark by Vice President Namadi Sambo that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would win the August 9 governorship poll as mere wishful thinking.

    Aregbesola alleged that Sambo had impugned on the integrity of the judiciary by referring to the Election Petition Appeal Tribunal’s judgment that restored the mandate of Aregbesola after the 2007 governorship poll as verdict through “the back door.”

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, who spoke through his Director, Bureau of Communication and Strategy Semiu Okanlawon, said Sambo could not have been referring to the Osun where the people have demonstrated their total rejection of anything that has any traits of PDP.

    Sambo’s statement, Okanlawon said, “aptly captures the depth of self-delusion and deceit to which PDP leadership indulges in.”

    He said the development should be blamed for the total failure of the PDP-led Federal Government in all facets of the Nigerian life.

    “Sambo’s statement did not come to us as a surprise. It is the character of the PDP and its leadership to live in a different world far away from the stark realities that daily confronts our people.

    “For the umpteenth time, we wish to remind Sambo and the entire PDP structure and its candidate for the August 9 poll that Osun has remained different for so many reasons and this is why the macabre dance PDP and its agents of electoral fraud organised in Ekiti cannot be replayed here in Osun.

    “Has Sambo forgotten so soon that while PDP reaped from its electoral fraud in all parts of Nigeria in the 2011 election, it was only in Osun that PDP recorded  most humiliating defeat.

    “In case Sambo has not thought about it, that was less than six months of the Aregbesola administration when not much had been put on ground in form of sterling performance and massive transformation of Osun.

    “More than three years down the line, Osun people have witnessed unprecedented development in various ways. Peace has returned. Wealth has been created. Lives have been saved and improved. Aregbesola has touched lives in the education, food production, youth employment, and other sectors.  This state has been rescued from the morass it was plunged in almost eight years of the PDP rule. What then does Sambo expect his party to woo the people of Osun with in an election that is less than one month?” he added.

    On Sambo’s alleged derogatory comment on the judiciary, the statement said the verdict of the tribunal confirmed that PDP robbed in the 2007 poll.

    “In some saner climes, PDP and its leaders ought to apologise to the entire country and the people of Osun in particular for the trauma they were subjected to due to the robbery of the Aregbesola’s mandate. But the culture of impunity, which PDP promotes, won’t give room for such decency. It must however be noted that never will our people embrace the rule of terror and cluelessness which PDP represents,” the statement said.

    It added that the entire Nigeria and the international community have been monitoring the shenanigans in the build up to the election, saying the PDP candidate has lost the contest before the August 9 date.

  • AP: politicians should stop using indecent language

    AP: politicians should stop using indecent language

    Osun State Accord Party’s (AP) governorship candidate Niyi Owolade has urged politicians to desist from using indecent language during their campaigns for the August 9 poll.

    Owolade, who spoke at a media briefing in Osogbo, said no amount of character assassination could make the electorate vote against a good candidate.

    He warned the electorate to look out for those calling themselves Awoists, but do not exhibit the late sage’s principles, urging the people to vote against such people.

    Owolade, who was Commissioner for Health in the Bisi Akande administration, said there were no first class Awoists in any political party, but half-baked. He added that original Awoists were no more.

    He said the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who some politicians professed that they were following, would not use fowl language at political rallies.

    “He would address issues rather than attack personalities. The All Progressives Congress political philosophy and democratic process are not in the same wave length with that of Awolowo’s political doctrinal principles which are people-oriented and respected humanity,” Owolade added.

    He appealed to the people to vote for him as the governorship candidate of the Accord Party in the August 9 election, promising that there would be qualitative education for students if voted in as governor.

    He also promised an effective and robust agricultural scheme that will employ 18,000 graduates within 12 months of being in power, saying his administration would construct good road network.

  • 36 APC chairmen for Osogbo rally

    36 APC chairmen for Osogbo rally

    The 36 state chairmen of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have resolved to storm Osun State in solidarity with Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s re-election bid.

    Delta State APC Chairman Jones Erue, who is also coordinating the party chairmen, spoke yesterday in Asaba, the Delta State capital.

    Erue, represented by State Publicity Secretary, Isaac Adakpo, said the move was part of resolutions reached at the just-concluded summit of APC chairmen in Owerri, the Imo State capital.

    He said the group will seek legal redress should the law enforcement agents prevent them from entering Osun State to offer solidarity support to Aregbesola.

    Erue said rift among members of the State Working Committee (SWC) has been resolved, adding that the 16 member committee is poised to give leadership to the party and “fight 15 years of PDP barrenness and sinister umbrella politics.”

  • APC alleges murder plot against Aregbesola

    APC alleges murder plot against Aregbesola

    •I can’t wish him dead, says Omisore

    OSUN State All Progressives Congress (APC) has raised the alarm over an alleged plot by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to use Israeli snipers to assassinate Governor Rauf Aregbesola during his campaign rally.

    The party’s Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, Kunle Oyatomi,  accused two chieftains of PDP as the masterminds of the plot.

    The APC urged the Israeli Embassy to check on its citizens, who might have been contracted “to nip the evil in the bud” before the Middle East country gets itself negatively involved in an explosive situation in Nigeria that could affect relationship between the two countries.”

    It also called on elders not to fold their arms and watch the PDP set Nigeria ablaze, since, according to APC, “that is what assassination of Aregbesola would spontaneously cause.”

    The APC said PDP sources informed it that “there is great consternation within the party that for as long as Aregbesola is present and visible, there is no way the PDP can rig the election. So, their last option to ‘win’, according to sources, is to take out completely the governor.

    The APC recalled that it had alerted Nigerians and the international community to PDP’s plans to militarise the state one week to the election and terrorise the APC leadership and assassinate some of them.

    “We also alerted the nation that the PDP has brought into Osun, fake police and army uniforms which their thugs will use to terrorise voters at polling units and possibly snatch ballot boxes.”

    Also yesterday, the APC said that “lying is a trademark of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from top to bottom.”

    The party was reacting to a statement credited to PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, that “while its candidate and members had been campaigning and seeking the support of the people, the APC had been engaging in political gallivanting, rigmarole and ineffective propaganda…”

    But, in a reaction to the alleged murder plot, the governorship candidate of the PDP, Senator Iyiola Omisore, has denied the allegation.

    Omisore, who spoke through his Director of Media, Prince Diran Odeyemi, said he would not want Aregbesola dead, but alive to congratulate him after he might have defeated him at the poll.

    Omisore said he was sad that what pre-occupied Aregbesola and APC were not serious issues, but allegations.

    He advised the APC and Aregbesola to focus on development issues instead of “unsubstantiated” allegations.

     

  • Expelled PDP members defect to ruling party

    Expelled PDP members defect to ruling party

    FOUR expelled stalwarts of the Osun State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have joined the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The former PDP members were received into the APC by Governor Rauf Aregbesola at a campaign rally organised by the APC in Ilesa.

    But popular Fuji musician King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal (K1) was attacked by thugs after the rally.

    As at the time of going to the press, the state of health of the musician and his band boys could not be ascertained.

    The four defectors were among the six expelled on Monday for anti- party activities.

    They are the former PDP State Secretary Chief Yinka Adeojo, former Chairman, Osogbo Local Government, Alhaji Teslim Igbalaye, former Personal Assistant to former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola Mr. Razaq Oyelami and a former Assistant State Secretary Alhaji Razaq Oyetunji.

    Aregbesola  urged the people to pray fervently for a smooth election, saying the poll will determine the destiny of  the state in the next 20 years.

    He said the people should  not be intimidated by the proposed deployment of soldiers and police during the August 9 governorship election.

    He described the seven and a half years of the PDP in Osun State and 15 years at the centre as a waste.

    Aregbesola urged the people not to fear soldiers and the police, saying they are constitutionally charged to protect the people.

    He said: “All security agents, according to the constitution of Nigeria have the responsibility to protect the people. Therefore, police or soldiers cannot point his gun to any Nigerian who has committed no crime.

    Also, Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun said the APC government had brought back the glorious era of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, to the Southwest.

    Amosun described as ridiculous the opposition’s reduction of governance to “stomach infrastructure,” warning the people not to be deceived “by cash and carry politics.”

    Speaking on behalf of the defectors after receiving the APC flag, Oyelami described PDP as a party that has nothing to offer the people.

    He described the three and half years of Aregbesola in office as progressive, enterprising and growth-oriented, advising the people not to vote wrongly to a party of “buccaneers”.