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Tag: AREGBESOLA

  • 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.

  • Photo: Aregbesola’s rally

    Photo: Aregbesola’s rally

  • Aregbesola provides 30 buses for public schools

    Aregbesola provides 30 buses for public schools

    A day after the landmark commissioning of 100 units of Handheld Ultrasound Scanners, four units of 3D Colour Doppler Scan machines and splashed N370 million welfare scheme on women empowerment, the Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, added another feat in the chain of welfare programmes yesterday as he launched 30 new civilian buses for students of public schools in the state.

    Tagged “Omoluabi Scholar Bus”, the newly purchased civilian buses are meant to convey students from their respective homes to schools and back every school day.

    Aregbesola said if the government’s quest for enduring socio-economic progress is to be achieved, government’s commitment to education and the future of the children cannot be superficial.

    The governor said his administration embarked on this laudable programme because it’s dangerous to play politics with the education of children.

    He said that the realisation of the importance of education and development of human capacity building prompted his government to create the best possible environment for the development of the total person.

    He described the provision of buses for transporting the students as another proof of government’s focused attention to education.

    “The buses we are rolling out today for the use of our high school students are another solid proofs of the importance and undivided attention our government genuinely accords education.

    “With the O’Scholar Buses, the culture of punctuality will be further deepened in our students. They will be encouraged to get ready in time for the bus and in so doing get to school on time.

    “And while on the bus to or from school, or travelling to and from school events, they will have the time to further bond together, reflect on their work and exchange useful ideas.

    “One of the unique characteristics of our administration’s programmes is that they ensure the empowerment of the people. This explains why no single household in all of the state is without positive testimonies of the impacts of our programmes on them,” Aregbesola said.

    He added that the buses will provide comfort and ease for students and parents and create employment for those who will be driving the buses.

    In her remark, the Deputy Governor, who is also the Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Grace Titi Laoye-Tomorri, noted that the provision of the buses is another demonstration of government’s commitment to providing quality and qualitative education for the children.

    She charged the students to make the best use of the buses and maximise the opportunities the buses afford them.

    The Managing Director of Sterling Bank PLC, represented by Mr. Ademola Adeyemi, Regional Business Executive, South-West (2), said the bank finds it profitable to partner government in providing the buses.

    Adeyemi noted that Sterling Bank will continue to partner  government in realising its noble programmes.

    He enjoined all the stakeholders to make judicious use of the scholar buses to benefit  all.

    One of the beneficiaries, a student of St. Mark Anglican School, Osogbo, Miss Olatunji Oluwakemi, commended the governor for making education one of his administration’s top priorities.

    Oluwakemi said Aregbesola’s government has made a lot of impact such as  the provision of Opon Imo, free school feeding, free uniforms, building of ultra-modern schools as well as construction of roads.

    She implored the people of the state to vote wisely by returning Aregbesola to continue his laudable programmes in the state.

  • 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.

  • ‘Aregbesola ‘ll have easy re-election’

    ‘Aregbesola ‘ll have easy re-election’

    The Director-General of the Governor Rauf Aregbesola Campaign Organisation, Senator Sola Adeyeye, is sure the governor will be re-elected.

    In an interview with The Nation, the lawmaker said Aregbesola would be re-elected on August 9.

    He said: “Aregbesola’s superb performance will make his re-election easy.”

    Adeyeye noted that Aregbesola would defeat his opponents in a free and fair poll. He hinged his optimism on his sterling performance, his pro-people policies and programmes as well as his style of governance.

    Said he: “I believe it will be an easy victory for him. I am of this opinion because Aregbesola is a fantastic product; he is a product that does not need any advertisement. He has done what any objective observer will admit to be a superlative performance.

    “If it is to assess him on his record, if it is to look at him based on his performance, if it is to look at him based on his character versus the character of his opponent, I have no doubt that Osun people will re-elect him for another four years.”

    Adeyeye added that the campaign team would, however, not underrate the opposition, especially Senator Iyiola Omisore, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) candidate.

    He alleged that the “Federal might” may be used to subvert the desire of the Southwest people, who prefer a progressive government.

    Adeyeye, formerly a Professor of Biology at the Duquesne University, United States, warned of the consequences of subverting the people’s electoral will.

     

  • Aregbesola to Omisore: your lies won’t give you victory

    Aregbesola to Omisore: your lies won’t give you victory

    Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Iyiola Omisore’s lies would not ensure his victory in the August 9 governorship poll.

    Aregbesola, through a statement by the Director, Bureau of Communications and Strategy, Semiu Okanlawon, said Omisore should tell the people his manifesto, instead of  trying to discredit the landmark projects of the Aregbesola administration.

    “We acknowledge his capacity for lies, fraudulent claims, innuendoes and fallacies. We, however, note that this is only the last resort of a candidate who knows the degree of the rejection he has suffered from the good people of Osun.

    “Omisore must take the people for being daft to believe they will embrace his lies. In recent times, he has woven a litany of lies around the projects of the Aregbesola administration such as Opon Imo, road contracts, school reforms, financial engineering, youth empowerment schemes, environmental development projects and others.

    “But what Omisore appears to forget is that the people are at the centre of these programmes, therefore they are the direct beneficiaries. Any attempt to discredit them will fail,” the statement further said.

    It asked the PDP candidate how he intended to explain his almost one year of dubious claims of heavy indebtedness after the Debt Management Office came from the Presidency and faulted his claims.

    “In other countries that revelation and confirmation are enough reasons for Omisore to back out of the contest, having been found not to be credible in his  claims on the so-called Osun debt.

    “But his shamelessness knows no limit. He has moved from one lie to another as if lies are all it takes to win an election,” the statement said.

    The statement reminded the people that all the PDP candidate had done since he began his campaigns was to muddle up facts and figures.

    “He has sought to set workers against the government. The workers, who have witnessed changes in the conditions of service since the Aregbesola administration came on board, would take the best decision by re-electing Aregbesola.”

    Advising Omisore to tell the people what ideas he had to improve their condition, the statement said it is not enough to tell lies at rallies and rely on the proposed militarisation of the state to capture power.

    “This arrogant reliance on the power of the Federal Government-controlled forces to subjugate a people in order to rob them of their rights to choose their leaders and endless lies will not help Omisore. At best, they will make him enter the hall of infamy in the politics of our land,” the statement concluded.

  • Ondo indigenes in Osun urged to vote for Aregbesola

    Ondo indigenes in Osun urged to vote for Aregbesola

    The indigenes of Ondo State resident in Osun State have been charged to come out enmasse and vote  for  Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in his re-election bid as  governor in the August 9  governorship poll.

    Hon. Ifedayo Sunday Abegunde, representing the Akure North and South Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, gave the charge after a tour of 30 local governments by the Oranmiyan Sunshine Movement to rally support of all Ondo indigenes residing in the state for Aregbesola’s re-election.

    Abegunde said he could foresee Aregbesola winning the election because he had done alot for the state.

    He said: “Aregbesola has given a sence of belonging to  every Ondo indigene within the state through his innovative policies and programmes.

    He reminded them of their numerical strenght, therefore, saying their votes are very important in the coming election.

    Also, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Ondo State and co-ordinator, Oranmiyan Sunshine Movement, Hon. Saka Yussuf Ogunleye, said Aregbesola’s popularity confirmed that he performed creditably.

    Ogunleye, who noted that despite the low Internal Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state compared to Ondo State where he comes from, Aregbesola has achieved more than Governor Olusegun Mimiko.

  • Aregbesola to win 80 percent votes, says independent survey

    Aregbesola to win 80 percent votes, says independent survey

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, is expected to win more than 80 per cent of votes in the August 9 governorship election.

    This is the result of a pre-election assessment and opinion poll conducted by a coalition of civil society organisations.

    The coalition’s coordinator, Dr. Gabriel Nwambu, said at the weekend in Osogbo, the state capital, that the survey was carried out in the state’s 30 councils areas and one area office.

    Nwambu noted that Aregbesola’s steady popularity and his outstanding performance, which he said was acceptable to the people, were among the parameters that determined the outcome of the “independent survey.”

    He said based on the coalition’s findings, “the INEC had put all the necessary logistics in place to ensure a hitch-free, free, fair and credible elections across the state constituency, including the training of ad hoc staff who will serve as Returning Officers, Presiding officers and Poll Clerks, etc.

    “The opinion poll shows that the electorate and masses have indicated a corresponding love for Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola for his leadership quality, demonstrated in his quality service delivery to the people in the areas of improving their living standard as it affects heath care delivery, education, housing, road construction, agriculture, youths and women empowerment among others.

    “This has remained monumental in the history of the people of Osun State and as such, is ready to return an 85 per cent vote across all the 30 local government areas and one Area office in this governorship election, an indication that the APC would have a landslide victory in the governorship election in a free, fair and transparent election.”

    Saying that the coalition is set to observe the distribution of sensitive and non-sensitive materials of INEC in all the councils and wards, he added that it was observed that “the security situation in the state was calm and stable, therefore suitable for a hitch-free election.”

    However, he urged all candidates, politicians and their supporters to play politics by the fundamental electoral laws, saying politics should not be seen as a do-or-die affair.

    He also reminded the youths not to allow themselves to be used as instruments of perpetrating electoral related violence and should be law-abiding.

    Nwambu praised the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, Federal Commissioners, Osun State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), directors and members of staff for a focused preparation.

  • Aregbesola mourns Iwo leader

    Aregbesola mourns Iwo leader

    Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has described the death of a political leader in the state, Alhaji Lateef Katayeyanjue, as “a big loss”.

    Katayeyanjue, a member of the House of Representatives in the Second Republic, died on Tuesday at the Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital (LAUTHEC) in Osogbo, the state capital.

    In a statement by his Director, Bureau of Communications and Strategy, Semiu Okanlawon, the governor said: “The exit of a leading light of progressive politics has robbed the state of a man of immense wisdom and political sagacity. Alhaji Katayeyanjue’s demise is for us a sad occurrence. He was a true religious, political and community leader, and a consistent progressive. He astutely served God and led a life worthy of emulation.”

  • ‘Aregbesola is a committed leader’

    ‘Aregbesola is a committed leader’

    Secretary to the Osun State Government (SSG) Moshood Adeoti has urged the people of Iwo Federal Constituency to vote for Governor Rauf Aregbesola and “protect their votes from electoral fraudsters” on August 9.

    Adeoti, who hails from Iwo, spoke at the kick-off of Aregbesola’s re-election campaign in Iwo Federal Constituency, which comprises Iwo, Ola Oluwa and Ayedire local government areas.

    He said the people were well-informed about the choice that will benefit them, adding: “The people of Osun are ready for election. We have told them not only to troop out to vote but also to stay at the polling booths and ensure that their votes are properly counted, recorded and announced.

    “This time round, there won’t be any chance for anyone to rig or stuff the ballot boxes. Our people are ready to vote. They know the leader who loves them and are ready to support him. The people will come out en masse to vote and protect their votes.

    “Our party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), abhors violence. Osun people are peace-loving and will continue to conduct themselves peacefully.”

    Director, Bureau of Communications and Strategy in the Office of the Governor, MSemiu Okanlawon, who is also from Iwo, said Aregbesola’s achievements in the past three-and-a-half years speak for him, adding: “The past three to four years have been eventful for this state and the people. It is evident that Aregbesola’s administration has transformed the state positively beyond the people’s imagination.

    “Our people can bear testimony to the fact that the government is working assiduously to take the state to an enviable height. It is, therefore, expected that our people will vote for the continuity of these good work.”

    Commissioner for Women Affairs Mrs. Folake Adegboyega warned residents against selling their voter cards, explaining that this would amount to mortgaging their future.

    A member of the House of Assembly from the area, Mr. Bola Akinloye, said: “The experience of lawmakers in the last three-and-a-half years has shown that when you have a focused executive, the legislature will have no choice but to back good policies with laws. Aregbesola is a committed leader whose main objective is the happiness of the people.”

    Also at the rally were representative of Iwo Federal Constituency Mr. Ghafar Amere; Special Adviser to the Governor on Health Rafiu Isamotu; Assistant Chief of Staff Mudathir Toogun and House of Assembly member Bola Akinloye, among others.”