The Nation Newspaper

Tag: candidates

  • ‘We’ll hold candidates responsible

    Lagos State Commissioner of Police Kayode Aderanti has threatened to hold parties and their candidates responsible for acts of violence perpetrated by their supporters.

    Aderanti, who spoke in Lagos yesterday, said the police have met with parties’ leaders and road transport workers.

    He reiterated the need for politicians to eschew violence and keep Lagos safe.

    “We have been talking with parties and their leaders.  We have had discussions with them on the need to keep Lagos safe.

    “We have also met with leaders of all the road transports unions on the need to eschew violence and to preach the same message to their followers.

    “Next Wednesday,  we shall be meeting with all the governorship candidates for the same reason and the meeting will be attended by all government security agencies.

    “People are worried about the activities of party supporters and miscreants.  That is not the way it should be.

    “We should tolerate each other, create space for everybody to participate, build confidence and keep the state safe.

    “For the sake of the people we claim we love so much, violence should be eschewed.

    “On our part, let me state that the police will not tolerate it. We will go all out to ensure Lagos is kept safe for everybody to live peacefully.

    “We are going to be very tough on all the miscreants and we will ensure that Lagos remains safe before, during and after the elections.

    “If they don’t want to stop their supporters from violence, any party whose rally turns violent will be held accountable.

    “Any candidate or party whose supporters engage in violence will be held to account for their misbehaviour.

    “ We cannot just have them encourage and promote violence in their rallies and go away.”

  • Sokoto Assembly candidates battle to retain APC tickets

    Sokoto Assembly candidates battle to retain APC tickets

    Two candidates for the Sokoto State House of Assembly election are battling to hold on to their party tickets following moves by various groups in their constituencies to substitute their names ahead of the general elections.

    Abdulwahab Yahaya and Abdullahi Zakari from Goronyo and Rabah State Constituencies, are facing challenges over their qualifications to contest the election.

    A group, Sokoto Stakeholders Forum, has already petitioned the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) urging them to stop both Yahaya and Zakari from contesting the election.

    Similarly, the group said it would launch a legal battle to deny the duo the chance to run.

    Speaking to reporters in Sokoto yesterday, one of the petitioners, Musa Abdullahi Mafara, said the two candidates are disqualified from contesting the elections because they do not have the necessary educational qualifications.

    According to him, the two candidates also stand disqualified because they are not registered members of the APC as required by the party’s constitution.

  • ‘Vote for credible candidates’

    Nigerians have been urged to vote for credible candidates in next year’s general elections in the interest of democracy.

    The Lagos State Coordinator of the ‘Ward to Ward Initiative,’ a group in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Ayo Faseke, gave the advice in Lagos  at the meeting of the group.

    Explaining the objective of the group, he said:  “The Ward to Ward initiative by the PDP is a movement where the grassroots are empowered with knowledge on how to vote wisely. Each member of the group is expected to canvass for 20 votes for President Goodluck Jonathan during the election.

    “The initiative is also aimed at educating the people on one man, one vote. We are also drumming support for the Lagos State PDP governorship candidate, Mr. Jimi Agbaje. Our priority is to encourage people to vote for credible candidates.”

  • ‘We need credible candidates for elections’

    A group the  Obokun/Oriade Solidarity Forum, has advocated for  credible candidates to represent the people of Ijesaland in the legislature.

    The group is saddled with the responsibilities of picking a credible candidate from any party in Ijesa North Federal Constituency to represent the area in  state and national assemblies.

    The Coordinator of the group, Olusola Ojokunle,  said the main objective of the forum is to source for  credible representatives.

    Ojokunle averred that the group is emphasising on sensitization of people in the federal constituency to adopt a better candidate that can lead and represent them.

    He said the group is not working for political parties, but advocating  for the best candidate that would represent the aspiration and interest of the people.

    Ojokunle said the group has set  machineries in motion to sensitise the  people on the need to choose a candidate of their choice.

    The objective  of the group, according to the coordinator, is to support a reliable candidate, that understand the yearnings and aspirations of the people in the constituency.

  • Candidates get UTME scholarship Award

    The Special Adviser to Ondo State Governor on Forestry, Hon. Andrew Ogunsakin, has scholarship to the natives of Okitipupa community to write the 2015 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

    The beneficiaries were selected at an event organised by the Federation of Igbotako Students’ Union (FISU) in Igbotako, Ondo State. They will be given the forms next years.

    Ogunsakin said the scholarships was his own little way of giving back to the society, noting that he believed education was the best legacy the older people could bequeath to the youth.

    Ogunsakin, who is an Igbotako indigene, congratulated the beneficiaries and advised them to strive for success in the examination, assuring them of his support. He said the youth must have access to education for them to shun hooliganism and other vices.

    He said: “The scholarship is my own little way of contributing to the development of my community. I choose this path because education is the best legacy to give to any youth. I advise the beneficiaries to be focus because an educated person will not get involved in hooliganism and crimes.”

    The chairman of the event, Hon. Niyi Adebusoye, praised the benefactor for the gesture, saying the move would improve literacy in the community.

    Some of the beneficiaries who spoke thanked their benefactor, promising never to disappoint him and the community.

    Mr Tunde Akindeji, one of the beneficiaries’ parents, said the political class and the wealthy should emulate Ogunsakin’s gesture, adding that the effort would speed up development in the community.

    Comrade Jimoh Adebayo, FISU president, prayed for Ogunsakin, wishing him long life and peace of mind to make him do more for the youth in the area.

  • ‘No to imposition of candidates’

    A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in Oyo State, Owolabi Babalola, has said party leaders cannot impose a candidate on other aspirants.

    He said the party’s primaries would produce a credible candidate.

    Babalola spoke yesterday at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Centre, Iyaganku, Ibadan.

    The aspirant, who dispelled the rumour that the party has an anointed candidate, said the party must organise free and fair primaries.

    “No PDP leader in this state or in Abuja can impose a candidate on us because even during the late Lamidi Adedibu’s lifetime, he never imposed a candidate, he will rather give advice and support.

    “I am a beneficiary of his word of wisdom. He was a party leader and contrary to what people outside the party believed, nothing of such happened.

    “My manifesto do not wish to re-invent the wheel rather with renewed vigour deploy pro-poor policy option to tackle state challenges in agriculture, education, health, environment and infrastructure.”

    The aspirant said the party had some internal mechanisms to deal with internal party disagreement so that it would win the general elections.

    Babalola vowed to change the status quo if voted into office.

  • ‘We’ll pick good candidates’

    ‘We’ll pick good candidates’

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairman in Ondo State, Isaac Kekemeke, has said the party will pick credible candidates acceptable to the public.

    Kekemeke spoke when a National Assembly aspirant,  Olayato Aribo, came to pick his nomination form at the party secretariat in Akure.

    The chairman also received the former Ose Local Government Caretaker Chairman, Afolabi Mabogunje, who picked the nomination form for Ose State Constituency.

    Kekemeke denied that some party elders endorsed some aspirants, saying the primaries would be free and fair.

    He said: “By election time, I want my work to be easy and this can only be easy by picking credible candidates so that anywhere we get to for campaign, the people will accept us.

    “Nobody has endorsed any aspirant and we are going to give a level-playing field for all aspirants.”

    Aribo said he picked the nomination form because of the pressure from his people.

    He urged party leaders to unite and work for success in the  election

  • ‘Let the people choose their candidates’

    A former Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Pastor Power Aginighan, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to provide a level-playing field for all candidates and parties in the primaries and elections.

    In a statement yesterday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, Aginighan, who was a Delta State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in 2007, cautioned that the desperation of aspirants and parties to win at all cost would endanger democracy.

    The statement said: “One of the greatest obstacles to the deepening of democratic culture in our country is the morbid quest by politicians to win elections at all cost. This has, over the years, found expression in the subversion of the popular will of the people through the imposition of cronies as candidates, snatching of ballot boxes and ballot papers for thumb printing and bribing of electoral umpires to obtain result sheets to record results for elections not held.

    “The above has in turn produced many elected officials who have nothing to offer the electorate but only to siphon our common wealth for the benefit of themselves and their political masters.”

    Aginighan decried the increasing number of aspirants jostling to succeed Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan and the struggle by the various ethnic groups and zones to field their candidates.

    The former NDDC chief decried a situation where a contest, which should throw up the best candidate, was turned into an ethnic contest.

    He said: “Some ethnic groups have made it an ethnic struggle. It has been reported that the Anioma, who occupy the Delta North Senatorial District, is insisting that it is their turn. The Urhobo Progress Union (UPU), through the Uvwiamuge Declaration, said an Urhobo must occupy the highest office in the state. The Delta Izon Congress is also clamouring for a governor of an Ijaw extraction. In their attempt to ethnicise the office of the governor, I have heard leaders of the various ethnic groups declaring their sons, who do not support the ethnic agenda, as enemies of their people…”

  • Our candidates in 2015, by PFN

    Our candidates in 2015, by PFN

    The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has told the United States (US) envoys the kind of candidates it wants.

    Responding to enquiries on what the PFN was looking for in the candidates it would support in the coming general elections, the Lagos State PFN Chairman, Bishop Sola Ore, said: “We believe anybody who wants to take up leadership position must be somebody with character, courage and capacity. We believe the church has people with these qualities; this is why we are appealing to our members to participate in the elections.”

    He spoke when a team from the Department of States of the United States met the PFN executives at the weekend in Lagos to find out the role of the church in the coming elections.

    Mr. Nichola Austin of the US Consul-General in Lagos led Dr. Patrick Quick and Caitlin Conaty of the US Department of States to the meeting.

    The PFN chairman said the body would mobilise churches.

  • Attah warns against imposition of candidates

    Attah warns against imposition of candidates

    Former Akwa Ibom State Governor Victor Attah has supported the zoning of the governorship seat to Eket Senatorial District.

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain also warned against the imposition of candidates, especially the unpopular ones, for any position.

    He said there were other factors to consider, besides the zoning.

    Attah spoke at a grand reception for him by the Ibibio, the largest ethnic group in the state, and installation as the Ibibio leader at Asan Ibibio, Uyo.

    He said: “As I look round, I see a number of faces here of people I know are aspiring to the high office of governor of this state. A large number of those aspirants are from Eket Senatorial District.

    This is as should be expected because of sequential logic that after Uyo and Ikot Ekpene it should be Eket but there must be a level playing field for all the aspirants.

    “This is particularly true at this time when there is such a crying need to give hope back to our people; to restore their confidence in their government and to rebuild the state. Zoning will certainly be a major consideration but at a time like this, certain other compelling determinants cannot be sacrificed on the altar of zoning alone.”

    Attah also warned against imposition of candidate.

    He assured the aspirants eyeing the 2015 governorship seat that there would be a level playing field.