The Nation Newspaper

Tag: ACO

  • Mimiko’s victory is pyrrhic, says ACO

    The Akeredolu Campaign Organisation (ACO) has described the victory of Governor Olusegun Mimiko in Saturday’s election as pyrrhic.

    The Director of Media, Publicity and Strategy of ACO, Mr. Idowu Ajanaku, said the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) recorded improvement in the poll compared with its previous performances in elections in Ondo State; while the fortune of the Labour Party (LP) dwindled as a result of the rejection of Mimiko by the majority of voters.

    He said: “It is clear that in contrast with the performance of Mimiko in 2007 based on which he was declared winner in 2009 by the Court of Appeal, where he polled 198,261, which represented 55 per cent of the votes cast, his Saturday’s 260,199 votes represent only 41.7 per cent of the total 624,659 votes cast, reflecting a proportional decline; meaning the opposition got majority of the votes.

    “When the election result was declared, Akure wore a mourning look until Mimiko’s supporters had to be forced out for celebration as against the spontaneous celebration of 2009 after Mimiko’s mandate was restored. This speaks volume of the authenticity of the victory.

    “The ACN gave a good showing in all the local governments, despite the massive rigging, intimidation of supporters in the party’s strongholds and cancellation of results in Idanre, Ipele and Okitipupa, among others.

    “We are poised to put the LP government on its toes from day one, pending the outcome of the meeting of the leadership of our great party, which will decide our next line of action.”

  • Falae is anti-Yoruba, says ACO

    The Akeredolu Campaign Organisation (ACO) has described the utterances of Chief Olu Falae at the Labour Party (LP) rally in Akure yesterday as a disappointment and unbecoming of someone who pretends to be an elder statesman.

    A statement by the Director of Media, Publicity and Strategy of the organisation, Mr. Idowu Ajanaku, described Falae as a man who has enjoyed goodwill from the Yoruba nation with nothing to show for it.

    He said: “The question one needs to ask Chief Falae is: Why would he in his old age stoop to tell lies in the name of canvassing for Governor Olusegun Mimiko? Why would Falae forget so soon that at the formal declaration of Mimiko, he confirmed that he had failed to provide jobs for youths in Ondo State? Why would an old man like Falae be in concert with Mimiko to celebrate markets, a fountain at a roundabout and boreholes as achievements by an oil-producing state in the 21st century?

    “One may find answers to Falae’s outburst by taking a look at his antecedent, which shows that he is a military apologist who joined in the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) struggle by accident. He was the apostle of General Ibrahim Babangida’s Structural Adjustment Progaramme(SAP), which impoverished our people and enriched him and his cohorts. He is a neocolonialist and imperialists’ agent whose stock in trade is to enrich foreigners at the expense of citizens.

    “Today, Chief Falae has exposed himself as one of the greatest anti-Yoruba elements by his statement on Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in which he claimed that the Alliance for Democracy (AD) would have given the governorship ticket of Lagos State to the late Funsho Williams instead of Tinubu. How could AD have preferred Funsho Williams, who was a key figure in the late General Sani Abacha’s transition programme, being a governorship aspirant of the defunct United National Congress Party (UNCP), one of the five parties described by the late Chief Bola Ige as the five fingers of a leprous hand? A man who killed Kudirat Abiola, Alfred Rewane, shot at the late Abraham Adesanya and chased many Yoruba leaders into exile. It is a fact that Asiwaju Tinubu won the primaries fair and square.

    “Falae should point to one contribution he has made to the Yoruba race, apart from his opportunistic ride on the product of our collective struggle. Even in Ilu-abo Falae’s country home where he claims to be the Olu, he had no footmark until recently when Mimiko built a block of classrooms for the pupils of a primary school located on an expressway. The pupils used to study, in the full glare of Falae, in a shed fit for goats and he could do nothing about it.

    “The Akure people know their enemies and they would want to ask Falae to point to one man he has helped to achieve anything in life.

    “It should be noted that Falae brought bad luck when he unsuccessfully contested 1999 presidential election on the joint platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the All People’s Party (APP) against Chief Olusegun Obasanjo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    “He has never attained any political significance, and his party, the Democratic Peoples Alliance (DPA), could not win a seat in his home town in the last election.

    “For us at ACO, we know that Falae can not at this time in our history be a clog in the wheel of the progress of the Yoruba nation. Ondo people are wiser, they can not be hoodwinked by the people who have fed fat on their wealth for so long. The D-day between reactionary forces and the progressives, between light and darkness, between tokenism and an enduring development is October 20. The great people of Ondo State will vote for progress, light and an enduring development, which ACN represents.”

  • Governor forcing civil servants to attend his rally, says ACO

    THE Akeredolu Campaign Organisation (ACO) has accused Governor Olusegun Mimiko and the Labour Party (LP) of forcing civil servants in Ondo State to attend his rally billed for today in Akure.

    It said this is not only unfair, but is a breach of the civil service rules.

    The Director of Media, Publicity and Strategy of the ACO, Mr. Idowu Ajanaku, said in a statement that the Mimiko administration has thrown caution to the wind by forcing civil servants against their wish to attend his rally.

    He said: “Is Mimiko saying civil servants do not have the right to make their choice? Is Mimiko saying Ondo State civil service is now his property? Why would Mimiko, who claimed to have been in government for the past 20 years, not able to obey service rules because of his ambition?

    “For us in ACO, we are disgusted at the activities of the LP in trampling on the right of the civil servants who have been shortchanged in the so-called minimum wage.”

    But a statement by the Mimiko Campaign Organisation (MCO) yesterday said workers and artisans will today hold a rally for Mimiko’s re-election.

    Spokesman for the MCO, Kola Olabisi, said the rally will be coordinated by the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Abdulwaheed Omar and his Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterpart, Peter Esele.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • ACN is a democratic party, says ACO

    •Mimiko’s statement is untrue

    The Akeredolu Campaign Organisation (ACO) has described the statement credited to Governor Olusegun Mimiko that the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) is undemocratic because of an alleged abandonment of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu during the last presidential election, as not only untrue, but that it exists in his imagination.

    The organisation’s Director of Media and Publicity, Mr. Idowu Ajanaku, said: “For us in ACO, this is a further confirmation of the arrow of confusion in the drowning Labour Party.

    “How does he think that the ACN leadership will conspire against its presidential candidate after spending human and material resources campaigning for him across the country?

    “The fact that Nigerians voted for their choice in the last presidential election does not make ACN undemocratic. Rather, it has confirmed the liberal nature of ACN as a party.

    “If there is any party that has deceived the people, it is the LP. Despite that eminent Nigerians including Dele Momodu, the publisher of Ovation magazine, showed interest in becoming the presidential standard bearer of the party in 2011, Governor Mimiko and the National Chairman of the party, Dan Nwayawu, did not only scheme them out but supported President Goodluck Jonathan after they had been ‘settled’ by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    “It is a fact that the federal appointments in Ondo have gone to LP. Dr. Pius Osunyikanmi, who was a Commissioner for Education, is now the Special Adviser on International Relations to the President. Col. Tunde Omowa, a chieftain of LP, is now an ambassador. Even the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) member representing Ondo State was nominated by Mimiko.

    “This confirms former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s statement, when he visited Ondo that Governor Mimiko is only in LP physically, but his spirit is in PDP and Mimiko has not denied this.

    “ACN is a democratic party. We will not induce anybody to vote for us.

    “The last presidential election was polarised along ethnic and religious divides. The majority of the people in Southwest voted for President Goodluck Jonathan in person because they wanted to give South-South, a minority zone, a chance to rule the country.”

  • Mimiko is a confused politician, says ACO

    Mimiko is a confused politician, says ACO

    The Akeredolu Campaign Organisation (ACO) has described a statement credited to Governor Olusegun Mimiko that Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola is more of a good manager than Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a statement coming from a confused politician who is using deceptive tactics to hoodwink the people to vote for him.

    The Director, Media and Publicity of the organisation, Mr. Idowu Ajanaku, said yesterday: “For us at ACO, this statement has shown the desperation from the drowning Labour Party and Mimiko to cling to power at all cost despite being rejected by the Ondo people as a result of their failure in the last three and a half years.

    “It is a fact that Asiwaju Tinubu is a leader of leaders because without Tinubu, Fashola wouldn’t have come to light.

    “It is also a fact that the achievements  paraded by Governor Fashola today, which are being acknowledged across the world, are as a result of the solid foundation laid by Asiwaju Tinubu in his eight years rule in Lagos.

    “He reinvigorated the internally-generated revenue from N600 million to N9 billion before he left office.

    “He established the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), which was inaugurated in 2008 by Governor Fashola. The BRT has transported over 80 million people in the last six years and has become a model for transportation in Sub-Saharan Africa.

    “Asiwaju Tinubu in July 2000 established the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) to control and manage traffic in Lagos and reduce deaths, injuries and economic losses caused by accidents, congestions and delays that were rampant then.

    ”The Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency (LASAA) responsible for the management, regulation and control of the signage and outdoor advertising in Lagos State is also a brain child of Asiwaju Tinubu. He conceived the idea in 2006.

    “Tinubu also embarked on the strategic development of some business areas starting with the Lagos Island and tagged it: ‘Central Business District’, with the aim of creating a conducive business environment by addressing the challenges of infrastructure maintenance and order.

    ”He put in motion the Eko Atlantic Project, an ambitious project in real estate to regain the beach ground lost to over 100 years of sea erosion and surges and build a place Africa will be proud of.

    “The ongoing 10-lane Lagos Badagry Expressway with light rail, the first of its kind in West Africa and other reforms in Lagos today have their root in Asiwaju Tinubu’s administration.

    “The greatest achievement of Asiwaju Tinubu is the ability to identify an able successor in Governor Fashola.

    “The success of a man is not measured by the material things gained, but his ability to identify a good successor that will continue his legacies and impart positively on the people.

    “We advise Governor Mimiko to keep his words on Asiwaju Tinubu and his able successor, Governor Fashola, who has endorsed and described Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu as another Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) with a sound mind for the Southwest. He should stop using the names of performing ACN governors to polish his dented image.”