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Tag: aides

  • Fears in Mimiko’s camp as more aides, associates defect

    Fears in Mimiko’s camp as more aides, associates defect

    These are not good times for the political family of Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State as more of his aides and close associates are not only defecting to the rival All Progressives Congress (APC) but are also making eye popping allegations against his government. Late this week, when four of his close associates left his camp, they said openly that his government has failed Ondo State people.

    The defectors included Senator Ayo Akinyelure (a.k.a All Over); Technical Aid Corps Director- General Pius Osunyikanmi; Mrs. Cecilia Ifayase and Kenneth Olawale a former Speaker of Ondo State House of Assembly.

    Osunyikanmi, who has been described as a long time close associate of the governor, had this to say of Mimiko and his government: “He is a governor who has failed our people. He is a man who I have served for years but he has consistently broken his promises.”

    Ripples gathered that since then, all have not been well within the camp of the governor as no one seems to be sure which aide or associate will be the next to decamp.

  • 200 get Saraki’s aides’ job tools in Ilorin

    200 get Saraki’s aides’ job tools in Ilorin

    Aides of Senate President Bukola Saraki in Kwara State have provided materials and cash for 200 people in Ilorin East Local Government Area of the state.

    The gesture, said to have cost about N3.6 million, was to help the beneficiaries start up their businesses in the council.

    The event which took place at the secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Isale-Koko, was attended by the council chair, Abdullateef Okandeji and Senior Legislative Aide to the Senate President, Alhaji Saka Onimago.

    One of the legislative aides for Magaji Are 1, Basambo Abubakar, who spoke with The Nation said: “We are here today to give empowerment to our people. As legislative aides to the senate president we have some responsibilities; one of such is to ensure that our people have a sense of belonging and feel the impact of the Senator Bukola Saraki. Today some people will be empowered with some amount of money to start their own businesses; others will be given educational materials.

    “No fewer than 200 people will be proud beneficiaries of the empowerment scheme today. I want us to know that the empowerment is the collective efforts of all the legislative aides to Senator Bukola Saraki from Ilorin East local government area of the state. We have expended about N3.6 million on the project. Hitherto, we had splashed over a million naira on the APC ward and local government exco members.

    Also, a group known as Egbe Omo Ibile Igbomina in the state has given bursary awards to 25 indigent students of Igbomina extraction in eight tertiary institutions in the state.

    The group also said it has floated a-N2 million Education Endowment Fund, immediate past President, Egbe Omo Ibile Igbomina, Chief Samuel Atolagbe told The Nation shortly after handing over the cash totaling N500,000 the beneficiaries.

    The group’s membership is drawn from three local government areas in Kwara state and two from Osun state.

    Said Atolagbe: “We are particular about the development of our youths because they are the elders of tomorrow; and from the look of things now many of them are becoming frustrated. Frustrated in acquiring education; frustrated in seeking for employment, frustrated in realizing their ambition and we feel we should come in.

    “For somebody to be admitted into the university, polytechnic and college of education and he or she is disadvantaged is not acceptable and some of these chaps are very brilliant. I happen to know much about scholarship and bursary because I was the secretary of the Kwara state scholarship board between 1977 and 1982.

    “I felt you could do something for the indigent students; so I approached the youth assembly to help me find out those that are already admitted into higher institutions but are financially disadvantaged.

    “For a start, we began with 25 students for the bursary award which cost us N500,000. That is what we have just celebrated today. Apart from that my executive has floated N2 million Education Endowment Fund, that means it is even more than bursary, when we have more the award can transform into full scholarship. In fullness of time we will call on people from time to time to donate to us.

    “For instance, during Igbomina Day celebration last year, one of our invited guests donated about N3 million for the group; that is where we extracted the N2 million for the endowment fund.

    “I therefore appeal to philanthropic-minded people to donate towards the endowment fund so that we can extend the award to our kiths and kin that occupy two local government areas in Osun state. We have covered all the three Igbomina local government areas in Kwara state, but we still have Ila-Orangun and one other local government area in Osun.”

    Also speaking, President of Igbomina Youth Assembly, Shuaib Oyewole added that the students cutting across eight tertiary institutions in the state are the beneficiaries of the bursary awards.

    “This is the first of the its kind organized by the assembly. The subsequent one would be enlarged to accommodate more schools and beneficiaries. All the beneficiaries are from public owned schools.”

     

     

  • Ex-legislative aides protest over N9b severance package

    Aides to members of the National Assembly yesterday protested their unpaid N9billion duty tour and severance allowances.

    No fewer than 3,000 former aides were yesterday represented at the National Assembly.

    The Acting Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr. Ben Efeturi, assured the protesters that everything would be done to address their concerns.

    Efeturi said the National Assembly’s management would not unduly cause them pains.

    The protesting aides were led to the office of the Acting Clerk by the Chairman of the South-West chapter of National Assembly Legislative Aides Forum (NASSLAF), Hon. Al-Maroof Yinka Ajibolu.

    According to Ajibolu, the aides were demanding to be paid Duty Tour Allowances (DTA) that have been due since April, last year.

    “We had to meet them over our delayed severance benefits and our unpaid DTA”, Ajibolu told The Nation shortly before the peaceful protest march to the Acting Clerk’s office..

    He also said the Severance Gratuity Allowance which ought to have been paid immediately after legislators received theirs about two months ago.

    Mr. Efeturi, who made futile efforts to reach the National Assembly’s Director of Finance and Accounts, Alhaji Lasisi Bukoye on telephone, gave assurances that he would ensure a meeting between the aggrieved aides’ leaders and Bukoye today.

    “They promised to pay the DTA, which ought to have been paid since April after legislators collected theirs but till date, the National Assembly management has kept quiet on the matter, knowing that we would be more focussed on the severance allowance.

    “They promised to pay the DTA, which ought to have been paid since April after legislators collected theirs but till date, the National Assembly management has kept quiet on the matter, knowing that we would be more focussed on the severance allowance”

    “Also, they ought to have paid us the severance allowance immediately after paying that of legislators but all that we are hearing is that some people are trying to figure out the best way to short-change us and ensure that we do not get our full entitlements.

    “Such problems have occurred in the past but this time, we are more than ready for them as we know that President Mohammadu Buhari and Speaker Dogara would bring down the full weight of the law on any of the officials who may be implicated in National Assembly shenanigans,” an aide, who requested anonymity, stated.

    On July 24, in response to The Nation’s enquiry, Bukoye blamed the delay in payment on paucity of funds.

    The outstanding  (DTA) being owed each of the approximately 3, 000 aides is about N75, 000.

    Also, in conformity with the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission’s stipulations, each of the five aides serving 109 Senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives is entitled to amounts ranging from N1 million to N4 million after four years’ service.

     

  • Oshiomhole: Why Jonathan,aides must be probed

    Oshiomhole: Why Jonathan,aides must be probed

    Is the Buhari adminis-tration selective in its corruption war? No, says Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole, who dismissed such allegations by aides of former President Goodluck Jonathan, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its senators.

    According to the governor, President Muhammadu Buhari has not done anything out of place by beaming  his anti-corruption searchlight on those who ran the nation’s affairs and managed the economy in the last dispensation.

    The governor spoke during a reception held in Abuja on Friday night by the  Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) for  the  Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity,Mr. Femi Adesina, and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity,Mallam Garba Shehu, both of whom are former President of the guild.

    Oshiomhole, who represented the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the event’s Chairman, said: “They (Adesina and Garba)  are serving a President who appreciates that these problems have to be confronted headlong: a President who boldly told the world that the issue of corruption, if it is not killed, it will kill us. And since we don’t want to die, we have to kill corruption.

    “But the forces behind corruption are powerful; some are visible and some are not visible. They are men and women of means. Many are even billionaires in dollar and euro.

    “Now where are the forces that will queue behind the president to confront the drivers of corruption? As you can see, people are already asking questions about due process, people are asking questions about selective prosecution and so on.

    “And it will be the job of Shehu and Femi to remind people that if you managed a house for 16 years and members of the community believe that the house has not been properly managed and that the reason for the mismanagement is that some people wilfully resorted to corrupt practices, you can only deal with those in that house, the people who had responsibility for managing the house.

    “So when you select those people and deal with them, of course it is selective. You can only select from among those who are involved with crime. Editors will help to take this to our people.”

    He wondered why those crying foul now kept silent when many wrongdoings were carried out under Jonathan.

    His words: “my helicopter was stopped when I was going to Ekiti State  as a governor with immunity. I was stopped by a low-level military officer from flying to Ekiti because my purpose was to campaign. I didn’t quite hear pastors protest on my behalf.

    “When Rotimi Amaechi was detained by a Commissioner of Police in Rivers State and they moved tankers to Government House, heavens didn’t fall.”

    Stressing  that it is impossible  to fight corruption without having casualties,Oshiomhole said:”it is only in Nigeria that ,for 16 years, a particular political party was in power, they were fighting corruption war but there were no casualties. It is like the Nigerian Police that sees criminal and shoot into the air.”

    He said that for once  Nigeria now has a President with enormous political will to get the job done.

    “Whether in the course of doing it, he will make a mistake that he will become too careful as to leave the job undone. For all of us who agree, lamentations won’t be our portion forever. It is time to get organized and deal with these issues.”

    He urged editors  to support the two presidential media aides in the discharge of their duties.

    “As spokesmen for the President, they have a huge task but the men and women (editors)  in this hall have what it takes to make their job less challenging,” he said.

    “For me, the media are the best fighters. If you don’t fight, the society will not grow.  Garba,  keep fighting; Adesina, keep fighting; editors  keep fighting until the war against corruption is won; until Nigeria is free.”

    The NGE Acting President,Mallam Garba Mohammed, said that the event was to express the editors’  happiness at the appointment of the presidential aides.

    He described them as  round pegs in round holes and a perfect team for the job.

    “We will be with them through thin and thick,” he stated.

    The two presidential aides were also presented with gifts during the event.

     

  • Ekiti monarchs save Fayemi’s, Oni’s aides from eviction

    Ekiti monarchs save Fayemi’s, Oni’s aides from eviction

    • Fayose extends payment deadline till October 31

    Reprieve has come the way of the embattled landlords in Irewolede Housing Estate in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, who are yet to complete payment of their mortgages.

    Some traditional rulers led by the Ewi of Ado Ekiti, Oba Adeyemo Adejugbe, and other prominent indigenes of the state have prevailed on Governor Ayo Fayose to halt their eviction from the estate.

    Government task force team moved into the estate on Thursday to eject the ‘defaulting’ landlords, while some structures were also pulled down by bulldozers.

    But the opposition claimed that the action was targeted against many of its members who served in the Oni and Fayemi administrations.

    Following the intervention of the eminent persons, Fayose has fixed October 31 as the deadline for those yet to complete their payment to do so.

    In a statement yesterday by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, Fayose said he granted the extension because of the eminent persons intervention.

    According to the statement, the royal fathers and other Ekiti leading lights pleaded with the governor to give the landlords more time to pay up.

    The statement added: “The governor, however, showed compassion but warned against defaulting,  stating that government  will resume action against the defaulters by December 1.

    “Since the government action began, N13 million has been paid by some  of the defaulters”.

  • Jonathan’s aides made him sole candidate in 2011, Mark claims

    Jonathan’s aides made him sole candidate in 2011, Mark claims

    Former Senate President  David Mark  said yesterday that aides of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan were the brains behind his promotion as sole presidential candidate of the  Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2011 election.

    The aides’ position,he said,ran contrary to that  of party leaders at an earlier meeting that “though it was the turn of the North, President Jonathan was also to be allowed to contest.”

    Mark  was reacting to claims by former Presidential Adviser on National Assembly Adviser, Senator Abba Aji, on the circumstances surrounding Jonathan’s candidacy in that election.

    The former Senate President, in an open  letter to Aji said: “You referred to a meeting in which Prof Sam Oyovbarie and Gen. Sam Ogbemudia made contributions. I was in that meeting too. You will recall that the crux of that meeting was whether or not Jonathan was to be allowed to contest (2011 elections).

    “It was argued that since the late President Yar’Adua (Umaru Musa) was from the North, any candidate to complete his term must also come from the North.

    “After a lengthy debate, the conclusion was that ‘although Jonathan was not from the North, he also was to be allowed to contest’.

    “If after this, you met elsewhere to also conclude or decide that Jonathan was to be the sole candidate, I certainly was not a party to that meeting nor was I privy to that decision.

    “I was, therefore, very shocked when you queried why others were allowed to purchase forms in the caucus meeting.

    “When did you decide that Jonathan was to be the sole PDP presidential candidate?

    “If anything, it is you the personal aides who floated and promoted that idea.

    “The first meeting merely agreed that though it was the turn of the North, President Jonathan was also to be allowed to contest.

    “My understanding was that the emphasis was on allowing someone outside of the northern geopolitical zone to contest.

    “Why then would you want to stop other candidates from the North from buying forms?

    “In any case, how did selling forms to other candidates of Northern extraction amount to misleading Jonathan?”

  • Fayose’s commissioner, aides arrested with weapons, charms

    Fayose’s commissioner, aides arrested with weapons, charms

    Ekiti State Commissioner for Works Kayode Oso, Special Adviser to the Governor on Political Matters Ademola Bello and four others were yesterday arrested by the police at the vicinity of the House of Assembly.

    They were among the loyalists of Governor Ayo Fayose who laid siege to the precincts of the Assembly complex, waiting for the 19 All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers.

    Also arrested are Adeyanju Oluwole, Raphael Adebayo, Babajide Adebayo and Wasiu Ogunsakin.

    Police sources said they were arrested with one black colour Ford pick-up van with registration number EK 05-B27 and one blue Toyota Hilux van with registration number AA 363 YEK.

    The two vehicles, believed to belong to the state government, were carrying weapons, including nine live cartridges, 10 cutlasses, charms, fake US dollars, a carton of Regal dry gin, a parcel of Indian hemp and six small kegs of kerosene.

    Some of the thugs in the entourage reportedly escaped during their encounter with the policemen.

    Police Commissioner Taiwo Lakanu could not be reached for comments on phone proved abortive as he did not pick his calls. Neither did he reply text messages sent to his cell phone.

    Police spokesman Alberto Adeyemi, in a text message, said he was not aware of the arrest.

  • Dickson to aides: Resign if you don’t like my style

    Dickson to aides: Resign if you don’t like my style

    •Blames school management for varsity woes

    Bayelsa State Governor yesterday told members of the executive council and his aides who are not comfortable with his style of administration to quit.

    The governor, in a live radio broadcast, blamed the management of the state-owned Niger Delta University (NDU), Wilberforce Island, for allowing the school to lose accreditation of key courses, including Law.

    Dickson flayed some of his aides who reportedly attacked his leadership style and complained that he was stingy.

    He insisted that aides who were not contented with their salaries and allowances should quit as they were not prepared to serve in his administration.

    Dickson said his government would not allow appointees to enrich themselves with public funds and become “super commissioners and super special advisers”.

    The governor advised persons aspiring to live above their constitutional entitlements to approach banks for facilities to finance their expensive lifestyles.

    Dickson asked the people to report any aide, who complains of being starved of funds.

    “The mandate you gave me does not include misappropriating your resources. People who are in government, who are making those kind of statements, I will like you people as soon as somebody who is in government makes a statement like that, you look for a way to send the names of those people to our security number.

    “For those who are in government, they should know that there are several other qualified people. What you need are salaries and entitlement; every other thing is what we use in this state to develop the state.

    “That is why people did not do what we are doing. People in government realised so much money on their own and became super commissioners and super special advisers. It is not like that in this administration.

    “There is no one in my exco you can compare with aides who served before. I know how a chief of staff was getting N500million to spend and share to people to do terrible things. So people who are commissioners and special appointees need to understand and come to terms with what we are doing.

    “What the people in government need are their legitimate allowances and salaries. If the state wants to make progress, all of us must understand that this is the right way to go, including me. If you want to build mansions and buy big cars, you should go to bank and take loans.

    “Nobody can live like a big man, millionaire or billionaire all from the public purse. For those in government who are complaining, tell them that if they are not happy, they should resign. There are other people who are ready to take their places.”

    On the withdrawal of accreditation of courses by the National Universities Commission (NUC), the governor directed his anger to the management.

    The NUC last month withdrew accreditation for seven courses, including Law, and placed 20 other programmes on interim official recognition during its last accreditation.

    Dickson said he was particularly angry that Law, which had full accreditation was denied the status because the dean of the faculty was not a PhD holder.

    Blaming the authorities for not being proactive, he said he had despatched delegates with a protest letter to NUC in his efforts to resolve the problem.

    The governor insisted that that the reason for the withdrawal was not lack of funds, adding that his administration had begun upgrading facilities in the school.

     

  • Fayemi gets two aides

    A former Commissioner of Police, Mr. Oladipo Ayeni, has been appointed special adviser to the Ekiti State Governor on Security.

    Col. Babatunde Oluwayose (rtd) has also been appointed Commander of the Youth Volunteers Corps Scheme.

    Their appointments take immediate effect.

    Ayeni, who hails from Ikere-Ekiti, was the commissioner of Police, Force Intelligence Bureau, Force headquarters, Abuja (2007-2008); commissioner of Police, Ogun State Command (2008); commissioner of Police, Fraud and Criminal Investigations Department, Force headquarters, Abuja (2008-2010); Commissioner of Police, Ebonyi State Command (2010-2011) and commissioner of Police, Plateau State (2011 to 2012).

    He has a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Political Science from the University of Ibadan (1979) and a Master’s degree in Public Administration (MPA) from the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU, 1992).

    Ayeni has undertaken several training in policing, both locally and internationally.

    Col. Oluwayose (rtd) hails from Afao-Ekiti. He is a graduate of the Nigerian Defence Academy and has a Master’s degree in Strategic Studies from the University of Ibadan.

    Besides his training as a combatant officer at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Col. Oluwayose attended several military training locally and internationally.

    These include Senior Staff Course, Command Staff College, Jaji (2001); Royal Armoured Corps Centre and School, UK (1990) and a course on DNA Banking Analysis.

    His military postings include: commander, 245 Battalion, Ikom, Cross Rivers (2007-2008); assistant director, Project and Research Department of the Defence Headquarters, Abuja, among others.

     

  • Dankwambo canvasses special training for governors’ security aides

    Gombe State Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo has canvassed for a special training for security personnel serving governors.

    The governor spoke at a dinner in honour of journalists serving in the state.

    He expressed dismay over the way some “overzealous security personnel” harass members of the public, especially journalists.

    The governor was referring to an incident in which a Leadership correspondent was allegedly harassed by some operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) at the Government House gate in Gombe.

    It was learnt that Speaker Inuwa Garba and some commissioners intervened and pacified the journalist, who wanted to cover an assignment at the Government House.

    Dankwambo said he was touched when Garba informed him about the incident.