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Tag: Ekiti APC

  • Ekiti APC lawmakers blast PDP counterparts

    Ekiti APC lawmakers blast PDP counterparts

    The 19 All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers in the Ekiti State House of Assembly have blasted their Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) colleagues for passing three bills yesterday, saying they acted against the law.

    They also warned that their actions, since the invasion of the Assembly by thugs, cannot pass the test of legality.

    A statement by the Special Adviser on Media to Speaker Adewale Omirin, Wole Olujobi, said the exercise was not conducted by a lawful and properly constituted House of Assembly, and so the action was ultra vire without any force of law.

    “For the Assembly to pass such important bills of public importance, you must allow the law to flourish. Besides, all the three bills cannot be passed into law without public hearings by stakeholders.

    “For the House to be properly constituted for such exercise, at least two-thirds of all members, including the Speaker and Majority Leader, must be present during the sitting. But in this instance, nothing of such happened,” Olujobi said.

    He added that the three bills- State Forestry Bill 2015; College of Education, Ikere Ekiti, Bill 2015; and a Bill for a Law for the Establishment of Order of Precedence of Public Officers and Other Persons in Ekiti State and for Other Connected Matters 2015- were public policy bills that could not be passed into law without public hearings.

    He said what the action of the lawmakers, backed by Governor Ayodele Fayose, had done was turning the serious business of lawmaking to a moonlight prank by exuberant playboys.

    He said it was regrettable that the lawmakers allowed themselves to be used as pawns.

    “Six months in the saddle, Ekiti people have known the direction of the governor as exemplified in his policies and actions.

    “Where are the motorcycle riders now? Where are the market women and artisans on whose backs he rode to power?

    “Where are the jobs he promised? Have PDP members who laboured for his purported election been compensated?

    “What can Ekiti people point to except bloated debts figures by the governor and robbers who stalk Ekiti people at night?”

  • Ekiti APC: we’ve been vindicated

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has said it has been vindicated by the alarm it raised a few weeks ago that Governor Ayo Fayose collected N2 billion Ecological Fund from the Federal Government.

    The party said but for the Freedom of Information (FOI) law, the N2 billion Ecological Fund would have ended up in private pockets.

    The Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, said in a statement yesterday that the latest admission by Fayose’s aides that the government received the money was coming on the heels of the party’s plan to invoke the FOI law to get confirmation that the governor  indeed collected the money.

    He said: “We call the attention of Nigerians, particularly Ekiti people, to the attempt by the governor to shield our people from the true financial standing of the state.

    “This government’s admission only came when the governor was hinted that we were employing the FOI law to obtain the details of what happened to the Ecological Fund.”

    “Up till last week, Fayose was still saying at rallies and on state media that he did not collect the Ecological Fund.

    “But information about our move was leaked to him and as we were about to get the document, he quickly owned up.

    “Is it by coincidence that the N2billion we have been quoting all this while is the same figure the governor has now admitted he collected yesterday?

    “We knew what we were talking about. The governor and his aides called us all sorts of names, but now Ekiti people have known who to believe between the shady characters who lead the government and the opposition that serves as the people’s friend.”

  • Ekiti APC alleges plan to attack Buhari’s campaign convoy

    Ekiti APC alleges plan to attack Buhari’s campaign convoy

    THE local chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State yesterday raised the alarm over an alleged plan to ambush the campaign convoys of it presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

    Gen Buhari’s campaign train is due in the Land of Honour State on Saturday ahead of next month’s presidential election.

    In a statement by Taiwo Olatubosun, the party’s Publicity Secretary in Ado-Ekiti, APC  claimed it has in its kitty intelligence that Governor Ayodele Fayose has perfected plan to disrupt  its campaign on Saturday.

    According to Olatunbosun, the party, the plan was to ambush the campaign convoy of the APC on its way to the state. He alleged that members of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) have been recruited to carry out the plan.

    The APC spokesman alleged the OPC men have been engaged as task force officials and mandated to remove the posters of all APC candidates.

    They (OPC) members have also been instructed to strike at the campaign grounds to cause stampede during the rally.

    The statement reads: “Fayose’s desperation knows no bounds. He took front pages of two national dailies for   advertorial on Monday (yesterday), depicting that Buhari will die in office like three other presidents from the Northwest died in office.

    “This is dangerous for our national unity and ethnic harmony. Fayose is dangerous to Nigeria’s unity and the earlier the authorities, Nigerians and Ekiti people in particular appreciate this, the better for us as a nation.”

    Olatunbosun alleged that some thugs, who have been imported would be deployed to entry points into Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, where they would ambush APC members on their way to the campaign ground.

    He said: “So far, the group had removed Buhari’s posters pasted in his campaign office in Ado-Ekiti as well as those pasted in the party’s office in the state capital.

    “This is a clear case of undermining the peace pact brokered by eminent international leaders last week.? It is sad that after President Jonathan campaigned in Ekiti State, Fayose sent signage officials and OPC thugs to be removing our candidates’ posters after paying necessary fees to the agency.

    “Fayose’s hatred for Buhari knew no bounds, as his aide was behind a fake medical report on Buhari declaring him as a prostate cancer patient.

    “Fayose’s aide forged the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital? as Ahmadu Bello Teaching Hospital and forged the signature of a non-existent consultant to declare Buhari as a prostate cancer patient.”

    The APC spokesman said the governor was prosecuting the presidential election as the last battle of his life with its attendant security challenges.

    Olatunbosun said: “What Governor Fayose is doing is to raise the tempo of crisis in the state to further escalate violence in the already charged political climate.

    We have our constitutional right to display the posters of our candidates. We call on the security agents to be alive to their responsibility of protecting the lives of everybody including those of APC members and residents that will throng the campaign rally on Saturday.”

  • Ekiti APC elders condemn impeachment of Speaker

    Ekiti APC elders condemn impeachment of Speaker

    THE elders’ forum of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has condemned the impeachment of the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Dr. Adewale Omirin, by seven Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) legislators on Thursday.

    The action, the group said is capable of pushing the state to the precipice of collapse.

    It advised that Honourable Dele Olugbemi, who was allegedly elected in a controversial situation by the minority members of the House, to vacate the seat, saying: “ It was shameful and obnoxious for seven out of 26 lawmakers to claim to have impeached the Speaker.

    In an exclusive chat with The Nation, the spokesman of the group, Dr. Bayo Orire regretted that the peace enjoyed by the people of the state in the last four years of former Governor Kayode Fayemi’s administration is gradually giving way to self-inflicted crisis. “We want peace at all costs in Ekiti State because this state belongs to all of us and nobody should be allowed to plunge it into chaos no matter how power-drunk he is.

    “In a situation where the Judiciary is insulted and assaulted, the Legislature held hostage and the Executive put under the prostrate of a singular individual, then we are going to be worse off,” he said.