The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ekiti

  • Jega promises credible elections in Ekiti, Osun

    Jega promises credible elections in Ekiti, Osun

    The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega on Monday said that the governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states would be well conducted and credible.

    Jega said this at the Quarterly Meeting with political parties in Abuja.

    The chairman said the commission would do everything possible to ensure that the elections are free, fair, peaceful and credible.

    He said that the commission had distributed the Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) and also conducted registration for those who have become 18 years since the last registration.

    Jega said that INEC had also conducted registration for those whose details have not been sufficiently captured in the electronic register.

    “Although doing these were not without some challenges, overall the two exercises were remarkable improvement over previous efforts.

    “The lessons we have learnt from these will be factored into our preparations for the conduct of the PVCs and the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), nationwide,” he said.

    Jega called on all the political parties and other stakeholders to continue to cooperate with INEC to enable it improve on the electoral process.

    He also urged political parties and politicians to enter into the electoral arena with full respect for the Code of Conduct which political parties have signed.

    In his remarks, Dr Yinusa Tanko, Chairman, Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), commended INEC on its efforts at ensuring that the governorship elections in the two states are credible.

    He however, said that IPAC had made some observations on the PVCs and CVR in Ekiti and Osun.

    According to him, INEC needs to do more in order to sensitise voters on the PVCs and CVR.

    Tanko also said that the ad hoc staff employed for the purpose of the exercise was not well-trained.

    He said that proper training should be given to the adhoc staff ahead of the governorship elections in the two states.

     

  • Governor Kayode Fayemi: Four more years (1)

    Governor Kayode Fayemi: Four more years (1)

    This coming election is another opportunity for us in Ekiti to once again demonstrate, and, confirm that Ekiti will never again be the play thing of these smart Alecs

    As the Kayode Fayemi Campaign rolls out next week to canvass the votes of his trusting and ever appreciative Ekiti people, it is the bounden duty of this column to play John the Baptist and foretell his second coming because, as our people never fail to say: JKF = 4+4 =8. This assignment is a ‘must do’ because long before our people ‘knew’ him, even when impunity ruled the roust and mandate thieves arrogantly seized his mandate for a season, playing god, this column had started, and never for once waivered, that here cometh the man who will make all the difference to our lives in Ekiti. And why was I so sure? Simple. It was his total person. Here is a young man, scion of a decent Christian parentage, intellectually sound and supremely confident, humble yet so self-effacing you are bound to miss his stern interior; a man of principles. It took me no time to know this is a decent gentleman you can trust and one who, unlike the other wannabe governors, will never deceive our people. And so for the first time since 1983, when I was deeply involved in Ondo State politics and indeed had to run to Lagos from that year’s raging inferno as was copiously reported on the front page of The Guardian of Tuesday 20, 1983, I saw myself irretrievably drawn, first to Dr Fayemi, and only later to Ekiti politics. Governor Kayode Fayemi, as our people have come to roundly acknowledge, is simply a miracle worker. Extremely easy to work with, he is a glutton for work; so untiring sitting by his table, all you can do is pray God for His continuing grace upon such a dedicated public servant.

    The Yoruba says, if you do not know where you are going, you must at least know where you are coming from. Ekiti is today, without a doubt, not where Governor Kayode Fayemi met it. Therefore, for some of us, who may have forgotten those parlous days of Ekiti being a state of ‘one day, one trouble’; days of murder and near assassinations, days of all manners of illegalities, we need remind them of those pre-Fayemi days, to let them know that only CONTINUITY can keep Ekiti in its present mode of multi-sectoral development, peace and concord, in the utmost hope that the caterwaulers will never be allowed to ever return us to those better forgotten days. Given these extant circumstances, Dr Fayemi, as governor, hadn’t a day’s honey moon. Rather, the long journey to damage control, reconstruction, renewal and modernising had to begin in earnest because it was a period when the preceding seven years had seen as many governors, one of which was for as long as one day; a state, as I mentioned earlier, of ‘one day one trouble’ and one that was nothing more than a client state of big PDP chieftains from as far afield as Ibadan and Lagos. Thus the doyen of amala politics, all the way from the old metropolis would come, pick and choose whichever contract meets his fancy while the militrician from Lagos ensured he got from Ekiti what funding the party in Lagos could no longer source from its own estranged member of the federal cabinet, in addition to the big man descending to the measly level of hiring helicopters, at hugely inflated prices, for respective Ekiti governors.

    This coming election is another opportunity for us in Ekiti to once again demonstrate, and, confirm that Ekiti will never again be the play thing of these smart Alecs. We must, and will vote CONTINUITY, whatever the schemes of these villains. This trilogy will explicitly explain the devilish plans of the PDP which include, not only a massive misuse of the military and the police, but named towns where INEC will deliberately under supply electoral materials and villages, specially around border towns, where PDP intends to use the voters cards which they will not only obtain officially, but also print as happened in Akwa Ibom and Abuja in 2011. They will meet a very prepared Ekiti because our people, trusting in God, have said: NEVER AGAIN.

    But the above was only the tip of the Augean stable Dr Fayemi met on his inauguration on 16 October, 2010. State infrastructure had collapsed, education, for which the state had always been celebrated from time immemorial had gone comatose, Ekiti youths were now no better than hordes of okada riders, social relations had so broken down that a blood relation top party member could invite his own relation to a nonexistent meeting only to get him killed in his bed room, and the whole place had become a killing field with life, in general, becoming short and brutish, analogous only to, please pardon the exaggeration, Europe after the thirty years war.

    The above was the unflattering Ekiti Dr Kayode Fayemi inherited at his inauguration. Countervailing all these, however, were a combination of an over pouring of love and support for him by the vast majority of our people, his own innate ability and willingness to bury himself in the herculean task of reconstruction, and the perspicacity to attract to himself , persons of ability, passion and commitment who would assist him in deconstructing this mountain of monstrosities.

    But first, the Augean stable had to be cleared. And one of the first individuals he called upon to join him in doing this, was Professor Bolaji Aluko, the then U.S-based Professor of Chemical Engineering, scion of the one and only Prof Sam Aluko of blessed memory, and now, Vice-Chancellor, Federal University of Otueke, who had many years back come to the then Ekiti State University, to offer inestimable assistance to the university during the Vice Chancellorship of Professor Akin Oyebode.

    For the short time he functioned, Bolaji, hard-headed and deep, with a very sharp and penetrating mind, was, to the governor, the equivalent of the U.S White House Chief OF Staff; his highest ranking ‘staff’, to whom there were no off limits in the government. This was the man who painstakingly, went through the books, asking questions, ferreting out extant policies which had been mostly observed in breach, and through countless meetings with heads of departments, was able to avail the governor a kaleidoscopic view of the putrefying state of affairs which needed to be promptly attended if the new administration was not to be manacled by the ineptitude of past years.

    Conscious of the parlous state he inherited, he immediately promised a complete turnaround beginning with a comprehensive review of what had transpired in government in the past 42 months, not as a witch hunt of the past PDP governments, but with a view to strengthening the fabric of democratic governance and to correct the ills of the past. He equally pronounced the following policies about which he must be extremely happy to be judged today given his sterling performance on all: free education for primary and secondary schools pupils, a review of the then recently jacked up fees at the state-owned tertiary institutions; free health programme for children below age five, pregnant women, the physically challenged and the aged and including massive job creation, modernisation of agriculture, improvement of infrastructure, provision of adequate security, care for the elderly, tourism and industrial development, as well as promotion of gender equality and women empowerment.

     

    Next week governor fayemi hits the ground running.

  • Ekiti: Govt, police parley on peaceful election

    Ekiti: Govt, police parley on peaceful election

    The peaceful conduct of the June 21 governorship election, maintenance of peace and the safety of lives and properties were the highlights of discussions between the Ekiti State government and the police yesterday.

    Deputy Governor Prof Modupe Adelabu expressed government’s readiness to collaborate with the police and other relevant stakeholders to ensure a peaceful electioneering campaign and polls.

    She spoke in her office in Ado-Ekiti, when the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Felix Uyanna, visited her .

    Mrs. Adelabu said: “The government of Governor Kayode Fayemi loves peace, is pursuing peace, will support peace and will continue to ensure that peace reign in the state before, during and after the governorship election.”

    Uyanna described his courtesy on the deputy governor as another step to deepen the collaboration between the government and the police to provide security, adding that politicians and the electorate should conduct themselves peacefully and report any suspicious movement or gathering to the police on time.

  • Ekiti: The journey to ‘welfare state’

    Ekiti: The journey to ‘welfare state’

    The various welfare programmes of the Kayode Fayemi administration in Ekiti State have earned the government commendations from across the state and beyond including an Award of Excellence from the Senior Citizen’s Care Foundation led by Prince Bola Ajibola, a retired Judge of the International Court of Justice at The Hague who commended the Governor for making Ekiti ‘a Welfare State’. SULAIMAN SALAWUDEEN examines Governor Fayemi’s many ‘welfarist’ programmes in the state

    Then former Attorney General and Minister of Justice Prince Bola Ajibola led a delegation from the Senior Citizens Care Foundation to Ado-Ekiti penultimate week to honour the state Governor, Kayode Fayemi with the Foundation’s Excellence Award for 2013, not a few were convinced that it was an honour well deserved.

    The Foundation whose interest lies in the welfare of the aged and elderly says the social security programme of the Fayemi administration for old people in the state is commendable hence its decision to honour the governor.

    In particular, the Award, according to Ajibola was in recognition of the governor’s “pioneering and impressing concern for the welfare of the aged in our communities.” It followed a similar one conferred on Fayemi in 2012 by the Leadership Newspaper which named him its Man of the year on account of his care for the welfare of the elderly.

    Prince Ajibola who came to Ado-Ekiti in company with some directors and members of the Foundation to confer the award on Fayemi said, “I have come to do justice to our vision at the Senior Citizens Care Foundation. We notice that certain things kept happening in Ekiti which are unique and historical, and we resolved that such things must not go down in history without particular recognition.”

    The event attended by the Governor and his wife, Erelu Bisi, was witnessed by ranking functionaries of the state, including the Speaker of the State Assembly, Dr. Adewale Omirin, Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Ganiyu Owolabi, the Head of Service (HOS), Mr. Olubunmi Famosaya (MNI), the Director-General, Broadcasting Service of Ekiti State (BSES), Alhaji Mojeed Jamiu and other members of the Executive Council.

    Speaking further at the occasion, Ajibola said: “Chief Awolowo became the heir of Western Region and we still remember his many welfare programmes today. We now have someone for the first time in the history of our country aside Awolowo who we can call a Welfarist. This is not politics. This can only come from the heart of someone who has the people at heart. I think Fayemi deserves this recognition.”

    Disclosing that the day was his happiest, Fayemi in his response noted that he chose to accept the Award consequent upon the proven integrity of the individuals behind it, particularly that of Prince Ajibola.

    The governor, who opined that the scheme (for the elderly) was an idea which time had come, described same as a crucial part of his administration’s objective to banish poverty, recalling the Yoruba culture of social justice which “prescribes that the strong in the society must cater for the weak and the elderly in the great cycle of life.”

    He recalled that the programme which started in 2011 had initially registered 20,000 elderly individuals who were certified to be unsupported in any way and were therefore seen as vulnerable to the many consequences of poverty. He said an addition of 5,000 was made to the list last year based on updates of critical necessity.

    He explained that other programmes like the free health missions, free healthcare for the elderly people, for children up to age five, pregnant women up to delivery and the indigent physically impaired individuals were meant to ameliorate extreme wants among the citizenry. All these, according to him, were aside the training programmes and loan packages for teachers in schools, farmers in private concerns, for traders and artisans across the state.

     

    Welfare and Ekiti Development Foundation (EDF)

    The description by Ajibola of Governor Fayemi as a reincarnate of the revered Chief Awolowo so to speak must have struck a chord in the governor who used the occasion to equally brief the visiting team on the welfare programmes through the initiatives of his wife’s Ekiti Development Foundation (EDF), including the Food Bank and Soup Kitchen by which indigent individuals are fed with prepared meals three days in the week and also access raw food items.

    He mentioned other support programmes of the EDF for parents of multiple births through the Multiple Birth Trust Fund and female victims of domestic abuses which all offer complementary supports to the existing regime of freebies by the state government to make life more liveable for needy individuals in the state.

    Fayemi added:  “We have however taken appropriate measures to institutionalise all the initiatives with appropriate legislations with the support of our State Assembly so that administrations coming after us would not be able to undo our legacy. In this regard, we have signed into law the Social Security law 2012, which makes it compulsory for government to sustain the programme regardless of the political affiliation”.

    The day after the Award Ajibola and his team were in Ikere-Ekiti to witness the February payment of the N5,000 Social Security stipend to the nearly 2,000 elderly individuals who benefit from the scheme in the town.

     

    Healthcare delivery as welfare programmes

    Health care remains central to the administration’s whole package of welfare programmes and the government has executed eight free health missions across the state, benefitting a minimum of 1.5 million people and gulping well in excess of N1 billion.

    It would be recalled that the first Free Health Mission which went round the entire 16 local government areas benefitting every category of individuals, was held in December 2010, just few months after Governor Fayemi’s assumption of office.

    Since then, other similar Free Health Missions had been held across the three senatorial zones of the state, aside many other gender specific ones which were held for certain categories of individuals.

    The Nation findings revealed that a special fund had also been domiciled in the Health Ministry to take care of the treatment of individuals who needed other specific and elaborate surgeries/care aside those offered at the health missions. Over a thousand individuals had been assisted through the fund to undergo surgeries both within and outside the state for various ailments.

    Explaining the reason for the Health Missions in a recent programme, the state Commissioner for Health, Professor Olusola Fasubaa maintained that “It serves as practical demonstration of the strong belief of the Governor Fayemi administration that health indeed is wealth and that a healthy populace is a genuinely empowered populace.”

    Prof. Fasubaa added that another reason was to make people take more interest in their health, noting that “experience has shown that once people need to spend money to access care in any way, they become discouraged. This is understandable given the prevalence of poverty among the people.

    “Government then decided to encourage them to care better for themselves by sponsoring the Missions. Today, more people visit the hospitals than it used to be before the commencement of the progra-mme,” Fasubaa said.

    In addition to the wholesale, renovation of the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH) and the upgrading of its Emergency Care Unit, the state government has lately included a N542.5 million Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements with international investors for the upgrading of medical diagnosis services at the tertiary health institution.

    Fasubaa said: “On completion and when the arrangement comes into force, elaborate medical investigations across all branches of healthcare and specialties of medicine shall be carried out and unearthed at timely turns at the EKSUTH without having to refer critically needy patients to outside health establishments.”

    Receiving the investors regarding the PPP arrangement in his office, Governor Fayemi stated the overall aim was to improve the quality of healthcare services in the state. According to him, the administration’s vision was to establish “a one-stop referral centre that would be a reference in the country.”

    In an interaction with journalists, the EKSUTH Acting Chief Medical Director, Dr. Kolawole Ogundipe noted the task for the improvement in diagnostic services of the hospital arose principally from the urgency to join the trends in latest diagnostic services as a precondition to appropriate and wholesome care for the needy at the  hospital, adding “currently, some of our tests are run manually which affect not only speed of delivery but the amount of care we can cope with on daily basis as investigation remains primary to necessary care.”

    The state also recently completed the overhaul of the entire 18 secondary health facilities in the state, expending over N1billion on their upgrading, renovation and expansion.

     

    Employment generation as welfare

    One of the key welfare programmes of the administration is employment generation. On assumption of office in October 2012, the administration set for itself a target of employing no fewer than 20,000 individuals, graduates and non-graduates alike. Investigation by The Nation revealed that the number had been surpassed by the end of the administration’s third year in office with several successful initiatives across the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

    It would be recalled that soon after the swearing-in, the state government employed 5,000 individuals under the Ekiti State Volunteer Aids Corps with various qualifications who underwent training before they were deployed in government offices and those of private concerns in agreement with the state.

    Thereafter, additions had been made to the figure with the drives of the State Employment Agency in concert with or separately from the Ekiti Enterprise Development Agency and the Ministry of Agriculture through the Youth in Commercial Agriculture (YCAD) programme. This is aside quite a large number of unemployed graduates engaged in paid employments through the Ekiti State Traffic Management Agency (EKSTMA) and the Ekiti Peace Corps.

    Currently, graduates of YCAD who had since gone into their independent fields of agricultural practice have started employing others and training them equally while their products have begun to flood markets within and outside the state.

    The state government has also supported artisans, individuals in various private agriculture based initiatives in parts of the state as well as commercial vehicle and motorcycle operators with funds at zero interest rates.

     

    Education initiatives as welfare

    The state government has also renovated all the 183 secondary schools, a move considered as unprecedented as the wholesale reversal of the 18 secondary and one tertiary health institutions in the state.

    In the area of education and equally considered an indirect empowerment drive was the distribution of solar-powered, netbook, laptop computers free to a minimum of 40,000 secondary school students while the teachers were also given the laptops at affordable rates.

    While findings have shown that quite a large number of the students who had since concluded their secondary education have taken to vocations which bear direct links with computer and its multiple applications, even the teachers, most of whom were interacting with computers for the first time upon the state intervention now engage in businesses related to the computer.

    A male teacher in one of the secondary schools in Ado-Ekiti, who pleaded for anonymity, explained that teaching has been enhanced with the computer for all Teachers initiative.

    Equally, noteworthy was the move by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) office of the state last year to empower women through the Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme (CCTS). The initiative which the state governor himself described as “intergovernmental collaboration to tackle poverty in Nigeria” saw a total of 2,250 women earning N5,000 every month.

    Concerning other moves by the MDGs office, the Special Adviser to the Governor on MDGs, Mrs Bunmi Dipo-Salami said the strategy was to fast-track development by addressing a whole range of areas including health and economic well-being, education, water/sanitation, and other issues.

    Dipo-Salami stressed that the focus of the administration was to eliminate poverty from the society, make education a right and not a privilege, stating that in spite of the smallness of finances, the state government had consistently paid its own counterpart share of all programmes meant to cushion hardships on the populace.

     

    ‘Focus’ and ‘fidelity’ as explanations of performance

    But the state government has had to battle, and had since been battling, not only a smallness of available funds but equally the desires for personal comfort. The governor who spoke at a gathering had noted: “Good governance which ranks first on the administration’s list of deliverables in the state has been at the centre of all that my administration has achieved.”

    Fayemi spoke further: “Immense faith in possibilities and extreme, even if seemingly abnormal, prudence in managing state resources, have not just explained but have underscored what many still see as magic. Of course, it is no secret that the state borrowed N25 billion from the capital market to finance infrastructure, but what we have given our people today from that borrowing is exactly what most people still don’t believe possible.

    “I tell them it is possible as my lieutenants have accepted the austerity measures that must be in place as a precondition for performance.  I believe, as I often tell them, that personal/individual infrastructure must yield way for an enduring social/physical infrastructure. We would have no excuse to fail in our avowals.

    “I started by subjecting myself to the same condition. Despite my frequent overseas travels, they know I don’t finance my journeys with state money. There is nothing the administration has achieved today which had not been promised the people as far as the 8-Point agenda is concerned. Ours is just a promise kept,” the governor said.

    Clarifying the governor’s position at an inter-religious gathering, his wife, Erelu Bisi, disclosed that anywhere she went, questions regarding how the governor had been able to turn fortunes round for the state despite cash limitations had inundated her.

    She noted: “But I have discovered that the only useful explanation for performance or otherwise of any administration depends on the extent of understanding of the reality of governance as a ‘social contract’.

    “Social contract”, in her opinion, “explains the connection between the electorate and the elected. The bond which came from being elected by the people makes it bounden on the occupant of the office to do what he promised and pledged.”

    Most recently at a gathering in Ikogosi-Ekiti, she explained that only a political will among the leadership could assure needed socio- economic development.

     

  • Let Ekiti governorship campaign be issue-based

    SIR: “Weep not, child, weep not, my darling, with these kisses let me remove your tears; the ravening  clouds shall not long be victorious.  They shall not long possess the sky – shall devour the stars only in apparition; Jupiter shall emerge-be patient-watch again another night – the Pleiades shall emerge”.

    These words are those of a father consoling his child on a beach at night in a bid to  give a highly importunate and crestfallen young one a lullaby to enjoy a relief from the endless cries piercing his eardrums.

    This is the season of politics in Ekiti State and politicians gunning for the forthcoming governorship election will use all tricks in the book including lies, blackmail, subterfuge, unrealistic promises and other devices to hoodwink the electorate.

    Many of the aspirants have resorted to telling lies all in the name of clinching the gubernatorial tickets of their parties.

    The most egregious falsehood from the governorship motley crowd was the one spewed by a recently sacked Minister who represented the state at the federal cabinet before he was relieved of his job for apparent non-performance.

    In a bid to justify his ambition of winning his party’s ticket  and ultimately clinch the highest seat in the state, the ex-minister accused the Fayemi administration of doing nothing with funds accruing to the to the state from the federation account.

    Those of us who knew the condition Fayemi met the state in October 2010 believe that the governor has faithfully utilized the resources available to turn around the fortunes of the state in the areas of infrastructure, education, tourism, human capital development, urban renewal, agriculture, empowerment, among others.

    One would have thought the ex-minister would have been honest to acknowledge that Fayemi has done a lot and that he should tell the Ekiti electorate what he would do better if realises his ambition if ruling the state on the platform of his party.

    I don’t need to be a minister to be able to educate this aspirant on the achievements of the APC-led government in Ekiti – in Ipoti Ekiti, his hometown. These achievements include the renovation of Ipoti High School, construction of the 17-kilometre Ipoti/Ayetoro road, 5.3km Ipoti/Ilukuno/Oke-Oro road and payment of  social security stipends to the aged people in Ipoti.

    We have not forgotten the Grants-in-Aid to communities to execute projects peculiar to their needs,  construction of five kilometres of roads across the 16 Local Government areas (phase 1 & 2).

    In all these, Fayemi has restored Ekiti’s core values through good governance, quality and viable representation and service delivery.

    I want to advise all aspirants in all parties to make their campaigns issues-based and not to engage in distortion of facts, character assassination, mudslinging and deliberate use of falsehood to gain advantage.

    Ekiti people are wise, knowledgeable and discerning enough to know what is good for them and they will speak with their votes at the June 21 governorship election.

     

    • Sina Odewale,

    Ado-Ekiti

  • Ekiti Poll : Election Coalition group tasks INEC on logistic problems

    The Civil Society Organisation (CSO) Election Coalition has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately address some noticeable logistics challenges as the voters’ verification and issuance of Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) enter the second day in Ekiti State.

    The CSO made the call in a preliminary statement by the Coordinator of the Coalition, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi on Saturday.

    The Coalition comprise Women Advocate Research & Documentation Centre (WARDC), Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (Centre LSD), HEDA Resource Centre, New Initiative for Social Development (NISD), WANEP Nigeria,  Centre for Democracy & Development (CDD), JPDI, NCWS and International Press Centre (IPC).

    Akiyode-Afolabi said the call has become necessary following field reports from the State’s three Senatorial Districts (Ekiti North, Ekiti Central and Ekiti South) by the Coalition’s observers.

    INEC according to the reports did not seem to have conducted adequate public sensitization and awareness prior to the commencement of the exercise and does not have enough personnel in most of the registration units.

    Only one Youth Corp member were said to be  attending to hundreds of voters while in some cases, overwhelmed Corpers were recruiting friends and volunteers to assist them.

    In a number of polling units, the Coalition noted that  the total number on the register did not just exceed but double the stipulated 500 per polling unit, thus raising fears that in the concerned units not all registered voters might be issued with PVCs and therefore disenfranchised.

    Other observations are that:

    • The security personnel were clearly inadequate with a number of polling units not having any;
    • In some registration units, proxies were being used to collect PVCs;
    • Some of the registration units were relocated from the places earlier indicated by INEC and moved to private premises;
    • Some registration units reported cases of missing names with some voters unable to find their names where they originally registered;
    • Agents of political parties were unduly interfering with the verification process in some registration units.

    The Coalition however noted that INEC has done a fair job by conspicuously displaying the voters’ list, ensuring the early arrival of materials and making available attestation forms for those who have lost their temporary voter’s card.

    It also said that despite some of the lapses the exercise has so far been peaceful while the citizens have shown commendable enthusiasm to register and vote in the forthcoming Governorship election in State.

    But in order to correct the observed anomalies and ensure that all registered voters are issued with PVCs, the Coalition called on INEC to deploy more personnel to units that have more than 500 names to ensure that all those who registered are issued with PVCs.

    INEC was also urged to continue to disseminate information on the exercise through the mass media and other channels of communication and ensure that designated centres are used for the exercise.

    More security personnel according to the Coalition should be requested for and deployed to the registration units.

  • YOUWIN: Ekiti youths are exempted

    YOUWIN: Ekiti youths are exempted

    SIR: I wonder why some citizens and some states of Nigeria are not benefitting from the federal government empowerment scheme: (YOUWIN) www.youwin.org.ng. This programme was established to finance and assist the youth in creating job opportunities for themselves and others in the country. This is a good idea from the federal government; the young folks were so happy for this innovation. Most youths from every states of the country registered on the site in other to enjoy this benefit from the federal government

    My greatest surprise is that many were notified that they won and the winners were given some certain sums of money to empower them, but some states were exempted, including Ekiti. Is Ekiti State not part of Nigeria? Some of the youths there were notified that they won in the programme; the YOUWIN representative came to Ekiti State to meet the winners there. The winners were given a shirt, a jotter and a pen and with the promise by the representatives that they would be back in a short time to empower them financially.

    After a year, they came (October 2013), with the expectation of empowering the young folks there. They were given a certificate that they had participated in the YOUWIN programme instead of empowering them. They even took their photographs as if they had given them money.

    Mr President, no youth in Ekiti State has benefitted from your administration’s YOUWIN programme. Please note sir.

    • JoySunday

    ggodisgoodd@yahoo.com

  • Death of Corps member: Man to die by hanging

    A High Court sitting in Ikere-Ekiti, Ikere Local Government Area of the State yesterday sentenced  Theophilus Pius, 26,  to death by hanging for the murder of a female youth corps member, Anthonia Okeke.

    Pius, a commercial motorcyclist, reportedly colluded with others on 19th December 2008 to kidnap and later murder of Anthonia, a serving corps member at the time, in Ilawe-Ekiti who had hired him (the motorcyclist) to take her to the motor park in Ikere while going for Christmas celebrations in her hometown in Anambra State.

    Justice Adegoriola Adeleye also handed Pius a separate ten-year sentence for kidnapping late Anthonia which culminated in her  death in the hands of ritualists.

    Anthonia,  a Chemical Engineering graduate of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, was from Umuno Ndiuno  in Ezeagu Local Government area of Enugu  State.

    Justice Adeleye, had submitted that the evidence as presented Mr. Adeleye Familoni, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) at the  State Ministry of Justice, against the accused person as sufficiently useful and reliable to  convince the court that the accused person was actually guilty.

    Adeleye said: “I submit that the Prosecution Counsel has been able to prove his case beyond reasonable doubt. He has been able to establish that
    the Defendant is culpable and no criminal shall go unpunished  in the
    face of law”.

    Spokesperson for the family, Mr. Obinna Okeke, Anthonia’s elder brother, commended the judgment, saying “the verdict has proved that those with criminal intentions cannot have their ways as long as the government is determined to apply the relevant laws against them in a diligent manner”.
    Okeke  also thanked the State Ministry of Justice, the police, the human rights groups and National Youth Service Corps for pursuing  the case to “its very useful and meaningful end”.

    In his comments, the  DPP, Familoni, noted the judgment  was a victory of “light over darkness and of good against evil doers”, adding that those who desire to make money by any means would always meet a dead end

    According to him, the Justice Ministry would continue to ensure that judicial means were applied “against those with criminal tendencies in the State”.

  • Ex- Minister declares for Ekiti Governorship race

    Former Minister of Police Affairs, Navy Capt Caleb Olubolade on Saturday declared that he would contest the 21 June Governorship election in the state.
    He made the declaration in Ado-Ekiti at a reception organised for him by members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where he declared his intention to contest the election.
    Olubolade berated Governor kayode Fayemi for obtaining a N25 billion bond from the capital market, noting that “borrowing of money by Fayemi is a product of failure of governance. It is a sign that he is running a failed government”.
    Olubolade said: “I want to assure you that I will not borrow a dime to finance the State and all I am going to do as programmes will align with the transformation agenda of President Jonathan.”

    Alleging that over six thousand workers have been relieved of their jobs in the State since Fayemi assumed office, Olubolade said: “The Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital in Ado Ekiti has been sold out and people are now paying high fee in the hospital for medical services”.
    Meanwhile, a swift reaction by the Spokeperson of the Fayemi Campaign Organisation, Mr Dimeji Daniels, clarified that “Olubolade’s puerile outbursts are products of a beffudled power seeker”.
    Daniels said: “Navy Captain Caleb Olubolade is not in tune with governance, because if he is, he would know that borrowing from the Capital Market to execute regenerative projects and bring about infrastructural development is not tantamount to failure in governance.
    “The United States of America considered as the bastion of democracy also borrows money. The difference is what the money will be used for. Will it be embezzled or will it be used to better the lot of the people as the Fayemi administration has done?
    “In all their seven and a half years of profligate and rudderless governance in Ekiti, they never in their wildest thoughts felt Ire Burnt Bricks Industry could be resuscitated because the PDP does not resuscitate, rather it kills.
    “It has killed the Nigerian economy and rather than compaign in Ekiti, they rely solely on federal might to win election. Ekiti people are prepared to resist them.
    “What is a failed state? A failed state is one in which nothing works. That accusation by Olubolade best describes how they nearly ran Ekiti aground before God intervened and retrieved the mandate they stole from them. In 2010, the primary school enrollment in Ekiti was a little over 155, 000, ” Daniels state

  • Ekiti PDP gov primaries for March 15, Osun, April 15

    The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has fixed March 15 for governorship primaries in Ekiti State, as the party opens nominations for the race.

    Similarly, the party’s primary election for Osun State would be taking place on April 5.

    According to the a timetable released yesterday by the PDP secretariat, sale of nomination forms for Ekiti will start from February 24 to March 3, while that of Osun starts from March 14 and closes on March 21.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has fixed the Ekiti governorship election for June 21, while that of Osun holds on August 9.