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Tag: Ekiti

  • State of emergency won’t work in Rivers, Ekiti – Fayose

    Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose on Monday said that declaring State of Emergency won’t work in Rivers and Ekiti state.

    He reacted to speculations of federal government’s contemplation to impose state of emergency on the two states while speaking with State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    Fayose was in Abuja to attend the National Economic Council (NEC) retreat on the economy in the State House.

    According to him, he has been waiting for President Muhammadu Buhari to declare state of emergency in Ekiti.

    Stressing that power has gone back to the people; he urged leaders to beware of the actions they take in office as they may hunt them in the future.

    On the question concerning possible declaration of state of emergency in Rivers, he said: “They have been insinuating that too in Ekiti. We have been waiting for them. Power has gone beyond the leaders; power has gone back to the people.

    “There are certain things leaders will do today, you will eat it tomorrow.

    “You want to declare state of emergency, declare it and we will tell you that the state of emergency will not work too. This country belongs to all of us.” He added

    Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State had also over the weekend alleged that some people were creating problems in his state to make the federal government to impose a state of emergency in the state.

    Wike had said that such ploy would not work because the PDP was more popular in the state.

    The Department of State Security (DSS) recently raided the Ekiti State House of Assembly where they were reported to have arrested eight lawmakers while one of the lawmakers is being detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    Fayose condemned the weekend’s National Assembly and State House of Assembly re-elections especially because of what he said was their militarization.

    He described the situation in Rivers as a service of ego of some individuals who believed they have control on the federal government.

    He said: “I want to condemn the election in Rivers State. I want to condemn the militarization.

    “Like I said to some people yesterday, if say Ekiti election nobody was slapped, nobody died, the person defeated congratulated the winner; do we now call this Rivers election Rivers of Bloodgate?

    “Because for a peaceful election in Ekiti and this in Rivers, the military has got no business in our election.

    “Now, I want to say that if you watch the trend, PDP has always won all the elections after the annulment. Which means what happened in Rivers is just a service of ego of some individuals who believed they have Nigeria in their pockets, they can call the president at will to deploy the military and it’s unfortunate that somebody would allow the military to kill his own people.

    “I strongly condemn the elections in Rivers and charge that we sustain the legacy of transparent elections.

    “For me in Ekiti, we learned from that and we are prepared. We prepare for election everyday and we are fully prepared.”

    On the Ekiti lawmaker detained by the EFCC, the governor said that the anti-graft body was trampling on the rights of citizens.

    “And for the people detained in EFCC, it shows the rascality of the agency of government to the federal government to look away and allow innocent Nigerians’ rights to be taken away. I condemn it,” he stated.

  • Ekiti slips back into crisis

    Ekiti slips back into crisis

    Ekiti State has been in the news again, following the detention of some members of the House of Assembly and the State Executive Council by the Department of State Services (DSS), which is investigating them for alleged crimes. ODUNAYO OGUNMOLA reports.

    History may be repeating itself in Ekiti State. Ten years after top government officials were investigated for alleged graft, diversion of public funds, operation of foreign accounts and execution of a phony poultry project, the Department of State Services (DSS) is beaming a searchlight on the Ayo Fayose administration.

    The investigation, which was spearheaded by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), led to the impeachment of the Governor Peter Ayodele Fayose by 24 of 26 members of the House of Assembly. Less than two years after he returned to power, the governor is facing another storm over sundry allegations against some officials of his administration and state legislators.

    On March 4, DSS men stormed Ekiti and arrested four legislators. The Speaker, Hon. Kola Oluwawole, alleged that they were abducted by the operatives. He said: “More than 10 DSS men armed to the teeth” stormed the Assembly complex and shot sporadically into the air causing panic among legislators and staff. Among the legislators arrested was Hon. Afolabi Akanni from Efon Constituency. They were taken to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territoty (FCT) for interrogation.

    However, police spokesman Alberto Adeyemi also denied knowledge of the invasion of the Assembly complex or abduction of any honorable member.

    Oluwawole described the alleged abduction as a clandestine plot by “the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) Federal Government to destabilise Ekiti State, using the instrumentality of DSS.”

    He alleged that the DSS was acting a script aimed at crippling the Fayose administration by arresting and detaining its top functionaries.

    Oluwawole said:  “The plot is to harass, intimidate and embarrass top officials of the Ayodele Fayose government because of his critical stance on the Buhari’s government.”

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of plotting to liquidate its leaders. It alleged that the party had been compiling a list of its chieftains and legislators for the Department of State Services (DSS) . Its Publicity Secretary, Jackson Adebayo, said those allegedly pencilled down for arrest would be coerced to implicate Fayose in a bid to impeach him from office.

    Adebayo said: “The PDP takes exemption to this act of using brute force to truncate the will of the people.”

    But, the APC fired back, saying that some government officials and state lawmakers arrested by the DSS should answer for their misdeeds. The alleged crimes, in the APC’s view, include attacks on the court of law, beating up judges in the temple of justice, illegal sacking of the House of Assembly and toppling of a legal government, as revealed in a secretly recorded tape.

    APC Publicity Secretary Taiwo Olatunbosun warned the PDP against blackmail. He said  the two lawmakers and other government officials arrested have a case to answer for alleged crimes perpetrated before, during and after the June 21, 2014 governorship election. “How can we blame DSS for arresting Fayose’s aide, Ademola Bello, and Commissioner for Works, Kayode Oso and others after they were arrested by the police and caught with charms, acid, guns and cutlasses to attack APC lawmakers during the House of Assembly crisis?” he queried.

    Olatunbosun said it was hypocritical for the Speaker not to see Fayose’s invasion of the court to beat up the judge and tearing court records in the Chief Judge’s office, chasing House of Assembly members out of the state for six months, impeaching the Speaker with seven members in the Assembly of 26 members and holding a gavel by the governor to pass the budget into law as gross violation of the law.

    He added: “Instead of addressing their various crimes against the law, including unresolved secret murders, N1.3b poultry project fraud, invasion of the court, illegal sacking of the House of Assembly, toppling of a legal government through treason as contained in Captain Sagir Koli’s audio tape, Fayose and his league of criminal suspects are engaging in dishonest scheme to blackmail the Federal Government to draw public sympathy to escape justice.

    “Fayose’s statements in Koli’s audio tape that he collected INEC copies that he printed to win the election, including his statement in the tape that the result of his election was collated on June 19, two days before the election, are too weighty for a responsible national security agency to be inactive in playing their constitutional roles.

    Sources said the detained officials are being investigated for various offences which border on alleged murder, destruction of government property, tax crimes, fraudulent procurement of judgment, attacks on courts and judges, fraudulent diversion of reimbursement on federal roads, subversion of electoral process, violence, among others.

    A source said one of the detained commissioners has been telling his interrogators what about the alleged receipt of N5.8 billion reimbursement from the Federal Government on the rehabilitation of federal roads including Ado-Ifaki Road.

    The reimbursement on the project executed by the Fayemi administration, which was paid to the Fayose administration, was not reflected in the 2015 Budget speech presented by  Fayose to seven PDP lawmakers of the Fourth Assembly.

    Checking Page 2, Item 7, Table 1 Ekiti Budget Revenue Performance, the reimbursement was not reflected, despite the fact that former President Goodluck Jonathan and former Minister of State for Works Prince Dayo Adeyeye claimed that the state had been reimbursed on federal roads.

    The Commissioner is also being grilled on the N2.4 billion Ecological Funds received from the Federal Government, but allegedly mismanaged with available records tendered at DSS showing that only N400 million was spent on ecological projects executed.

    The source said a lawmaker is being grilled on multiple offences which include alleged murder during a political crisis in Efon, assault on a High Court judge, Justice John Ademola Adeyeye, his alleged presentation of a forged House of Representatives PDP primary election result for Ekiti North Federal Constituency 2, which produced Thaddeus Aina as winner.

    One of the contestants in the primary election, Cyril Fasuyi, has presented evidence before the court to show that a forged result was presented when no election was held. The lawmaker is also being investigated for blocking the highway during the violence that trailed an attempt by the APC lawmakers in the Fourth Assembly to impeach Fayose for alleged gross misconduct.

    He is also under investigation for alleged complicity in the murder of one Kareem Modupe a.k.a. Eleyele  during the crisis that erupted in Efon last year. Kareem’s body is still in the mortuary.

    The DSS is also investigating the lawmaker over a petition that he did not possess a valid Senior School Certificate, which is the minimum requirement to contest for a House of Assembly seat. He was said to have stopped education at Form Three at the CAC Grammar School, Efon Alaaye.

    The source said: “When he (the lawmaker) was asked in the DSS custody about where his secondary education, he said he attended a secondary school somewhere in Lagos, but he could not remember the date, but evidence on ground shows that he lacks the minimum education requirement to run for the seat.

    “You will recall that the day of the incidence coincided with the first day of the sitting of the Election Petition Tribunal when Fayose came to the court premises with large number of his supporters but he missed his way and a case was being heard at Justice Adeyeye’s court.

    “Adeyeye advised him (Fayose) to control his supporters but the lawmaker and and another governor’s aide assaulted him (Adeyeye) in the presence of witnesses that had confessed to the act. All these he will tell the DSS in the course of their investigation.”

    The source also disclosed that three lawyers, who are officials of the Fayose administration, are being investigated for their allegedly masterminding an attack on Justice Isaac Olusegun Ogunyemi, who was hearing a suit filed by the pan-Ekiti group known as e-11.

    “Ogunyemi was to deliver a ruling to stay action on the planned swearing-in of Fayose, but these lawyers masterminded the sacking of the court by inviting hoodlums who carried attacked the court.”

    The second lawmaker in detention is at the centre of a fraudulently procured judgment from the Federal High Court, Abuja  in which a lawyer was hired for the candidate who won the Ado Constituency 1 primary, Odunayo Talabi Arinka without the latter’s knowledge. The lawmaker in question in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/ CS/125/2015 had sued PDP, INEC and Talabi and secured an order to accept his nomination and reject Talabi’s candidacy.

    Talabi’s name had appeared on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) list of candidates who had won primary polls and he had been given a nomination form by the agency as the candidate for the Assembly poll. Following the judgment, he petitioned INEC and other relevant agencies claiming that he was not put on notice and did not commission any lawyer to represent him.

    Another legislator who has not been arrested is also under investigation for allegedly destroying seven ballot boxes, which are the property of the Federal Government during the House of Assembly election in Moba Constituency 1 after the results on the field showed that the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Babatunde Yinka, had won.

    The source added: “You can check the INEC Report and Police Report on the election in which the lawmaker who was then the PDP candidate destroyed seven ballot boxes after he had lost to the LP candidate.

    “The record is also with DSS on the electoral fraud the lawmaker committed in the constituency. He also blocked the highway up to Kwara State boundary on the election day.

    A former senior revenue official is being grilled for the missing  N1.9 billion as he was alleged to have opened a separate account into which “big returns” are diverted.

    The source said: “Huge sums of money are transferred into accounts he opened with two new generation banks in Ado Ekiti.

    “He is building a petrol station and has built a mansion in his hometown and last year, he travelled to the USA in December. He is expected to shed light on alleged fraudulent deals with a vey senior government official and he has been cooperating.”

    However, there was a new twist to the unfolding drama when the legislators alleged that a $1 million was offered to them to impeach the governor.

    The Chairman, House Committee on Information, Gboyega Aribisogan, alleged that Akanni, is being held incommunicado in DSS custody in Abuja and had not been granted access to his doctors and lawyers.

    However, human rights lawyer and activist Morakinyo Ogele warned members of Ekiti State House of Assembly against blackmailing the DSS. He condemned the House of Representatives for summoning the DSS Director General, Lawal Daura, maintaining that the Ekiti Assembly Complex was not invaded by its operatives. Ogele charged the security agency not to shirk its responsibilities to get into the root of the alleged impunity and constitutional breaches in Ekiti. The National Coordinator of Ekiti Reformed Group (ERG) also urged the Supreme Court to review the April 14, 2015 judgment, which validated Fayose’s election on grounds that “the judgment was obtained by fraud.”

    He said: “This is a cheap blackmail and equally a serious offence if they fail to prove this allegation because it is trite in law that he who alleges must prove.

    The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) also faulted the claim that DSS invaded the legislative. It accused the lawmaker of raising a false alarm. Ekiti CNPP Chairman Tunji Ogunlola said the body had conducted an independent investigation and found that the purported invasion was untrue, baseless and patently false.

    The  factional Chairman, Trade Union Congress, Ekiti State chapter, Comrade Odunayo Adesoye, described as a dangerous trend that could expose workers of the state civil service to serious security risk.

    He said   workers in the state are now apprehensive of what could happen at their duty posts due to anxiety created by the alleged invasion of the House by security agents.

    Branding the action as ‘brutish and barbaric,’,Adesoye said the arrest was a flagrant infringement on their fundamental  rights as enunciated  in the United Nations Human Rights’ Charter.

    The DSS released Ekiti State Commissioner for Finance, Toyin Ojo, after about four days of grilling over the alleged diversion of N5.8 billion refund on federal roads and N2.4 billion ecological funds.

    Flaying the DSS over the arrest, Fayose said his financial records are clean. He vowed to continue his criticism of the Buhari administration.

    In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, the governor expressed confidence in the House of Assembly  members, saying his future and theirs are “tied together.”

    Fayose said: “This is not the first time people will harass me. It is a conspiracy and it will collapse like other attempts before it. I will remain critical of the activities of the Federal Government, especially when they do things that are inimical to the welfare of Nigerians.

    Observers of the political drama in the state believe that the latest battle would be a long one, but it remains to be seen whether Fayose and his men will survive the storm.

    There are puzzles: Is the latest DSS crackdown justified or is the crisis a self-inflicted one by Fayose, who will not shy away from controversies? Did the arrested officials commit the alleged crimes for which they are being investigated? Are the alleged offenses within the purview of those to be investigated by the DSS? Was the probe aimed at getting Fayose out of office for the second time in ten years? How long will the resistance of the lawmakers last?

  • Ekiti estate residents petition police over planned eviction

    Ekiti estate residents petition police over planned eviction

    Residents of Fajuyi/Irewolede Estate in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, have petitioned Inspector–General of Police Solomon Arase over alleged plan of the Ayodele Fayose administration to evict them.

    Copies of the petitions were sent to Commissioner of Police James Etop; Director-General Department of State Services (DSS) Lawal Musa Daura;  DSS State Director;  Registrar of the State High Court and the National Human Rights Commission.

    The residents said this runs contrary to a court ruling, urging status quo on the matter still pending in court.

    The Chairman of the Residents Association, Ayo Orebe, said in the petition that the governor was acting on wrong advice by the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Owoseni Ajayi, to evict them on April 1, contrary to a court ruling urging the parties to stay further action until the determination of the suit.

    “You will recall that we had earlier written two letters to your office over forceful ejection from our houses in breach of the purchase agreement between house owners and the Housing Corporation.

    “The first letter was dated August 6, last year, entitled: “Petition Against the Ekiti State Housing Corporation and State Government Over Forceful Eviction”.

    “The second letter was dated September 17, last year and entitled: “Petition against the State Housing Corporation and State Government Over Illegal Revocation of Property”, which was necessitated by revocation letters served on 17 residents for daring to sue the government.

    “The revocation letters were served on us, despite a case before Justice Bamidele Omotoso of the State High Court, Ado-Ekiti,” Orebe explained.

    He added that on December 9, last year, Justice Omotoso ruled in the presence of the police, government and Housing Corporation’s counsel that the parties must not take any step on the matter, until the case was determined.

    Orebe attached a copy of the court ruling to his petition. He also said on January 11, 2016, the court quashed the revocation letters served on the residents by the Housing Corporation during the pendency of the suit.

    “We thought the two rulings of the court ought to have curbed the illegalities and impunity of the Housing Corporation and the government, but this was not so.

    “The governor invited the residents to a meeting on March 17 in the Governor’s Office, Ado-Ekiti, where he threatened to evict the chairman and residents, especially the 17 whose names appeared on the cause list, irrespective of the court ruling of January 11.

    “It was shocking that the Commissioner of Justice, who was present at the meeting, misinterpreted the court ruling by advising the governor to evict the residents.

    “The case is still before the court and the next adjournment is today for hearing of the first and second defendants’ motion to amend their witnesses’ statements on oath,” he explained.

    He urged the police chief to advise the governor to obey the law to avoid action that may precipitate crisis in the state.

  • Ekiti demands detained lawmaker’s release, says he’s ‘terribly sick’

    Ekiti demands detained lawmaker’s release, says he’s ‘terribly sick’

    The Ekiti State Government has insisted that the House of Assembly member in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS), Afolabi Akanni is “terribly sick.”

    It urges the DSS to release Akanni immediately in line with the order of a Federal High Court describing his continued incarceration as “open display of contempt of court”.

    Addressing a news conference at the Executive Chambers of the Governor’s Office on Friday, Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Communication and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said the DSS claim that Akanni is being held for security breach is ridiculous.

    Olayinka explained that as a result of alleged DSS refusal to be served with the court order on March 11, the order was published in a national daily yesterday as directed by the court.

    He said; “From the pictures of Hon. Akanni that we saw on television and published in the newspapers, it is without doubt that he is terribly sick and in need of urgent medical attention, and the disturbing information about his death could have been informed by his critical state of health. Hon. Akanni even told journalists that he slumped twice yesterday and that he was refused access to medication.

    “Evidently and as even reported in the newspapers today, the Hon. Akanni paraded before the press by the DSS yesterday was very sick.

    The press reported that he could not stand on his feet and we wish to ask the DSS whether it actually wants him (Akanni) to die!”

    “If truly the DSS has facts and evidence that Hon. Akanni committed offence of security breach, why not charge him to court and prosecute him with the facts and evidence before the Service? Or is the DSS waiting for Hon. Akanni to supply evidence with which he will be prosecuted?

    “If the DSS is claiming that Hon. Akanni is being held for committing serious security breach, why was the State Commissioner for Finance, Chief Toyin Ojo invited by the DSS?

    “What is the correlation between ecological fund, claim of Federal Government refund to Ekiti State on construction of federal roads and State Security?

    “For clarity, Chief Toyin Ojo was asked by the DSS investigators how much was refunded to Ekiti State by the federal government on federal roads constructed/rehabilitated by the state government and how ecological fund released to the state was spent.

    “He was also asked how Governor Ayodele Fayose election was funded. How are these issues related to the security of Nigeria? What is the business of the DSS with the finances of Ekiti State?”

  • Fayose rewards teacher who returned N101,000 

    • Gives job to husband

    A school teacher, Mrs. Ayodele Grace,on Wednesday returned to the coffers of Ekiti State Government, the sum of N101,000 wrongly paid to her, as rural and core subject allowance.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Grace, who teaches in Ikere-Ekiti, was wrongly credited with the money meant for those teaching in rural schools and those taking core subjects in public secondary schools.

    According to a press statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Idowu Adelusi, Grace sent a text message to the governor when she got the alert from her bank, and told the governor she was not entitled to the allowance.

    The elated Fayose, who thereafter hosted Grace and her husband in his office as mark of appreciation, was said to have told the teacher that he was surprised at her level of honesty.

    “After the first text message, she sent me another reminder that the money was still in her account and that she did not know how to get it returned to government’s coffers.

    “I decided to call her ‎to thank her for her honest act; I promised to reward her with N50,000, but I was again surprised when she said she would not take the monetary reward.

    “I asked her what she wanted and she said her husband was unemployed and would not mind if I could assist in that area.

    “This is the virtue of a good woman and wife. I decided then that her husband will be given employment by the state government.

    “This woman should be celebrated. The other time some teachers were accused of using their students as child labourers, we cried out, so when a teacher has done something commendable too we must let the world know that,” Fayose was quoted as saying.

    According to the statement, the state’s Head of Service was immediately mandated by the governor to perfect the employment papers of Grace’s husband.

    “He has been given employment by the state government with immediate effect.

    “I am using this medium to call on other teachers, who might have‎ been wrongly credited with allowances, to come out and return same to the government.’

  • EU, UNICEF tackle open defecation in Ekiti

    EU, UNICEF tackle open defecation in Ekiti

    Ekiti State has the highest rate of open defecation in Nigeria. The European Union (EU) and United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have taken up the challenge to reverse the trend. ODUNAYO OGUNMOLA reports.

    Open defecation has been identified as the major cause of diseases. In Ekiti State, many houses still lack toilets. Even many homes in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, do not have this facility.

    Despite its sobriquets of “Fountain of Knowledge” and Land of Honour”, the state has the highest rate of open defecation in Nigeria.

    The problem pervades urban and rural areas. The messy situation has become a challenge for the Ministry of Environment, Ekiti Waste Management Board (EKWMB), Rural and Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA) and other agencies charged with maintaining a clean environment.

    Surprisingly, Ekiti State observes environmental sanitation like other states on the last Saturday of every month. Apart from the general sanitation, civil servants, market men and women are also compelled to carry out environmental sanitation on other designated days.

    During one of his monthly media chats, Governor Ayo Fayose, apparently concerned about the problem, threatened to prosecute landlords who fail to provide toilets for their tenants.

    Many months after the threat, no landlord has been reported to have been prosecuted for non-provision of toilets in their houses. Some observers claim that political consideration could be one of the reasons for lack of action on the matter.

    Many parts of Ado-Ekiti are dotted with overflowing garbage bins and incinerators. In some places, such as Okutagbokutalori in Okeyinmi area of the town, residents dump their garbage on the ground. Those places provide people opportunity to defecate openly.

    Many houses in areas, such as Odo-Ado, Oke-Ila, Okeyinmi, Okesa, Ojumose, Oke-Ese, Irona, Ijigbo and Atikankan lack toilets making the residents to defecate openly.

    Apparently concerned by the development, the European Union (EU) and United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have decided to reverse it in order to promote better hygiene and sanitation among the people.

    The bodies have committed huge financial, material and human resources to the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Reform Programme (WSSSRP) III.

    At a two-day media networking and alliance building workshop held in Ijero-Ekiti, headquarters of Ijero Local Government Area, and sponsored by UNICEF, open defecation dominated deliberations.

    In Ekiti, about 1.8 million people representing over 60 per cent of the 2.7 million population still defecate openly. Experts say if the situation is not checked, the projected population that will be practising open defecation by 2025 will rise to 4.3 million.

    Open defecation has become an issue because it constitutes health hazard and outbreak of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, worm infestations; typhoid and contributes to child and adult mortality.

    While the city which is peopled by more educated and exposed people wallows in environmental deterioration and poor hygiene practices, the rural communities are showing the way on how not to foul the environment with human waste.

    The need for a collective action to stop open defecation was a step taken by EU and UNICEF to bring media practitioners together to brainstorm on how to use their platforms to promote water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) practices.

    The two local government areas for the EU/UNICEF sanitation agenda were Ekiti West and Gbonyin with 313 rural communities and 30 rural primary schools in the council areas billed to benefit from 460 hand pump boreholes and 60 sanitation blocks.

    The counterpart funding ratio for the construction of these facilities is 70 per cent to EU/UNICEF, 18 per cent to state and 12 per cent to the local government areas. The communities are also expected to contribute five per cent which will be left with the community as seed money for operation and maintenance.

    In the affected communities, water, sanitation and hygiene committees (WASHCOMs) were established as vanguards of proper hygiene practices and to carry out interface with the community-led total health facilitators (CLTS).

    As part of the workshop, a field trip was organised which took journalists to two farm settlements in Ekiti West Local Government Area.

    The leader of the UNICEF delegation, Ms. Mohsena Islam, described the media as an important and strategic partner in creating awareness and sensitising the people.

    Ms. Islam, who is also sanitation specialist, UNICEF Lagos Field Office said the two communities namely Temidire Elejofi Farm Settlement and Aba Asasa Farm Settlement both in Ekiti West Local Government Area have keyed into the war against open defecation by constructing toilets latrine facilities for each family.

    She said: “We go to communities where it is demonstrated; we have to work with the communities to sensitise them to the need to embrace hygienic lifestyle so that it would not seem as if it was imposed on them.

    “The community leaders are involved. We have been able to get 26 communities and we are looking at how monitoring can be done. We also do hygiene promotion, going from one household to another to communicate the messages.”

    First to be visited by the journalists, UNICEF and RUWASSA officials was Temidire Olojofi which is located off Aramoko-Ado Ekiti Highway and linked by a wooden bridge over the community river.

    The settlement is surrounded by cocoa, kola nut and banana plantations and it is populated by the Oyos, the Urhobos and the Togolese who are bound together by massive agricultural activities.

    The people were full of enthusiasm in receiving the delegation and were proud to show off their household latrines to announce to the world that open defecation has become history among them.

    A community leader, Kareem Isola, revealed that they had settled on the land for over 50 years, even as he praised EU/UNICEF for enlightening them on the need to construct latrines to prevent outbreak of communicable diseases.

    Isola said: “We are all farmers and we have been here for more than 50 years. These people always come here to give us enlightenment on the evils associated with open defecation.

    “They advised us that each family should have its own latrine, each family contributed money and materials needed to make our toilets. At the back of the houses, there are latrines for the families.

     

     

  • Ekiti Rep empowers constituents

    Ekiti State Caucus Leader in the House of Representatives Kehinde Agboola has distributed multi-million naira empowerment items to his constituents.

    The items included a Mazda bus presented to a driver; a wheel chair for a physically-challenged cobbler; 50 power generating sets; 100 sewing machines; 100 hair dryers and 100 flour mixers.

    Others included 50 laptop and desktop computer sets for palaces of traditional rulers in the federal constituency; laptop and desktop computers to Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) and Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) offices in the two councils; and N2 million cash distributed among some party members.

    Agboola (Ikole/Oye Federal Constituency), who spoke at the event at Ikole Ekiti, Ekiti State, said it was part of his effort to give back to his people and ensure that dividends of democracy got to his constituency.

    According to him, all the items distributed were targeted at supporting or boosting the economic activities of the people.

    The lawmaker added that the computers for the palaces of traditional rulers and NUT and NULGE would aid administrative duties and Information Technology.

    The lawmaker, who thanked the people for reposing confidence in him to represent them in the National Assembly, assured them that he would continue to work for them to ensure development of the federal constituency and its people and as well the state.

    He assured the people that the Omuo-Ikole-Ijero Road and the Itapaji Dam in his constituency would soon be rehabilitated.

    Agboola said the two projects were among others listed for execution in the 2016 budget billed for passage in into law by the National Assembly soon.

    The National Assembly member added that the road and water projects, when executed, “will attract a lot of economic benefits to our people and

    Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose, represented by his deputy, Dr. Kolapo Olusola, lauded the gesture of the lawmaker, describing it as “provision of stomach infrastructure for the people.

    “This is about empowering the people to chase away hunger,” he said.

  • Bamidele calls for unity in Ekiti APC

    Bamidele calls for unity in Ekiti APC

    Former House of Representatives member Opeyemi Bamidele has advised All Progressives Congress (APC) members in Ekiti State with governorship ambitions to shelve it and work towards rebuilding the party.

    He said the priority of all leaders and members of Ekiti APC is to promote unity, rebuild the party and make it an election-winning platform in 2018.

    Bamidele spoke in Iyin-Ekiti, at a rally to mark his formal return to the party at the ward level.

    He pleaded for forgiveness from anybody he might have offended with his movement to Labour Party (LP) in 2014.

    The former lawmaker  was received by party leaders, including Ekiti Central senatorial chairman, Chief George Ojo; Acting Chairman, Mrs. Kemi Olaleye; working committee members, local government and party ward leaders.

    Bamidele denied pursuing a spoiler role against former Governor Kayode Fayemi, saying he was neither a traitor nor a desperado.

    While advocating a better and stronger party ahead of  future polls, the former lawmaker pledged to work with other leaders.

    He said: “I want to assure you that my coming to the party will be known for good and God will use me to uplift the party’s glory.

    “The governorship election is still in 2018, let everybody put their ambitions aside.

    “We must rebuild the party and work towards unity because it is when the party is strong that it can become an election-winning platform.

    “The lesson for everyone is that no individual or group can do it alone because our strength is in our unity.

    “But I want to apologise to whoever I must have offended by my defection to LP to contest at that time.

    “In politics, differences can come in diverse ways. It has come for us in APC and we lost an election, so what should be paramount to us now is reconciliation and how to restructure our party.”

  • Farce and folly in Ekiti

    Farce and folly in Ekiti

    It is hard to understand why the Department of State Service (DSS) swooped on the Government of Ekiti State and the State House of Assembly to arrest some of the state’s executive council members and legislators. Whatever the reasons are, officials of the secret service will be trying to shed more light on the invasion at a hearing planned by the House of Representatives. But last Tuesday, the DSS adduced reasons for the invasion, indicating that it was investigating sundry malfeasances ranging from tax invasion to electoral malpractices and misapplication of state funds perpetrated by the suspects. The DSS will have a herculean task convincing the public that its intervention — some say interference — in Ekiti State affairs is borne out of altruistic reasons.

    The governor of the state, Ayo Fayose, is a drowning man: voluble, volatile, irrational and eccentric. The DSS invasion will offer him a chance to falsely endear himself to Ekiti people as a fighter and activist, and to reclaim a little of the waning popularity he managed to secure when he assumed office in controversial circumstances in 2014. The state’s deputy governor and executive council have described the invasion as a coup against Mr. Fayose, a hyperbole quite at variance with their silence and anonymity in the Fayose government. The state’s lawmakers, borrowing from the governor’s talent for exaggeration and outright mendacity, have alleged that certain shadowy figures offered them about a million dollars to remove the governor. Surely, Mr. Fayose has a much higher price on his head than one million dollars, despite his low self-confidence and poor image as a talkative and braggart. What is more, Nigerians can trust their government and the mentioned shadowy figures not to be as parsimonious as the lawmakers paint them.

    It is right for the House of Representatives to wade into the matter. It is perhaps time for Nigeria to define and circumscribe the powers of federal agencies vis-a-vis the states. If the interaction between the House Committee on Internal Security and Intelligence looking into the matter and the DSS will yield the right definition and understanding of federal powers, the right purpose will have been served by the secret service’s gruff invasion.

    Except the DSS can adduce sound and weighty justification for the invasion, many will see it as an unforced error. Mr. Fayose is probably Nigeria’s worst governor. He has no idea of governance beyond the jejune and the cantankerous, and his style is infantile and unenlightened. He should have been left to rot in the mess he created for himself, a rot those who voted for him in 2014 have begun to see and regret being its indirect facilitators. The confusion and decline pervading Ekiti are a culmination of the inevitable process of decay that promised to reach its nadir sooner than later had the DSS not intervened and rescued Mr. Fayose from the jaws of defeat and ignominy.

     

     

     

  • JAMB: no malpractices so far in Ekiti

    The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has said so far, no candidate has been caught for examination malpractices during the 2015/2016 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in Ekiti State.

    The state’s JAMB Coordinator, Aliyu Jubril, said candidates have cooperated with the officials of the board since the examination commenced on Saturday, a move he said has enhanced the credibility of the examination.

    Jubril also said adequate facilities as well as security have been provided at the eight centres where the examination is holding.

    Some candidates told our reporter at the Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti, that they were satisfied with the conduct of the exam.

    One of them, Sola Alabi, said the computer-based test has helped eliminate exam malpractice.

    Meanwhile Daleaware Institute of Technology, a centre in Palmgrove, Lagos, has debunked news on the social media that the centre barred Muslims wearing hijab from taking the examination.

    On Monday, there were reports that female Muslim candidates were told to remove their Hijab before being allowed into the centre.  There was a claim that a notice was placed at the centre that stated that hijabs were not allowed.

    A sibling of one of the girls alleged to have been affected, Olawale Bashua, said he put pressure on the centre to rescind the decision.

    “When I got to the scene, I learnt those who agreed to remove their hijab had gained entry into the hall.  I had earlier instructed my sister not to remove her hijab until I came around. I demanded to speak with the Jamb official; he told me that the matter was with the centre.

    “They later told me they would allow my sister to write her paper on personal and compassionate ground. I told them that I was not there for my sister alone but for all sisters in hijab. Later, another brother joined me. He went to the University of Lagos (UNILAG) to mobilise brothers and sisters to the centre. People were calling from different parts of the country. The management of the centre realised they may not be able to sustain the heat. They quickly rescinded their decision. We asked them to remove the message at their entrance which forbade the use of hijab. They swiftly complied,” he said.

    However, the institute debunked the claims. Its Coordinator, Mr Segun Babalola, said a disagreement ensued when a Muslim candidate declined being frisked by officials of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC).

    Babalola said: “There was nobody denied (from writing UTME). We have pictures of candidates who with their hijab wrote their examination on Monday and even on Saturday. This issue came up because of a Muslim girl who refused to subject herself to the security details. The Civil Defence officers were the ones who barred her from entering and not the management of this institute. She later allowed herself to be checked, after which she was allowed to enter and write the examination.”

    Babalola said it was the first time the centre would be accused of religious discrimination.

    “It is a fallacy as well as wrong allegation. We have evidence which you can see for yourself,” he said when The Nation visited the centre on Tuesday.

    He added: “This is JAMB examination. We have the Civil Defence Corps by the gate. They are the ones doing the checking. They are the ones who have the rights to admit or disallow anybody from coming in.”

    A female Muslim candidate, Ruquyat Munir, said she was not asked to remove her hijab.

    “I was not stopped from entering.  I was neither asked to remove my Hijab nor harassed in any way,” she said.

    Another candidate, Biliki Muhammed, said: “I was checked like the others. I was not harassed. I was taken to a corner where a female NSCDC official checked my scarf if I was hiding anything there. Thereafter, I was allowed to put it on and proceeded to write my examination.”

    JAMB’s Head of Media and Information, Dr Fabian Benjamin, said the board is not against any candidate wearing hijab or head scarfs during the examination, which ends on March 12, 2016.

    However, he said those with scarfs should submit themselves to security checks before accessing the UTME halls.

    “We are not against any one dressing in the manner that suits them, particularly if it has to do with one’s religious belief.

    “In every examination however, there are rules and candidates must strive to adhere to such rules.

    “We are not going to stop anyone from taking the examination but the rule remains that if one is wearing things such as scarfs and hijab, you must submit to security checks at such centre.

    “It is just a simple rule and candidates should trying and cooperate with the examiners to make it easy for us all,” he said.