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Tag: Mimiko

  • Akeredolu accuses Mimiko of intimidating opposition

    Akeredolu accuses Mimiko of intimidating opposition

    The Akeredolu Campaign Organisation (ACO) of the Ondo State Action congress of Nigeria (ACN) yesterday accused the ruling Labour Party (LP) of intimidating opposition parties.

    It alerted the public to the worsening security situation in the state following the alleged arrest of a personal assistant to a monarch in Ilaje with explosives, over 100 AK rifles and other weapons by a detachment of the Nigerian Army in Okitipupa.

    ACO noted that “this is a dangerous dimension to the build-up to the governorship election in Ondo State”. The ACN had accused the LP of importing arms into the state.
    In a statement by its spokesman, Mr Idowu Ajanaku, ACO alleged that the LP had started distributing the weapons to its thugs in the local governments to intimidate opposition members and cause confusion before and during the October 20 poll.

    The statement reads: “We want members of the public to recall how the Labour Party members have been unleashing violence on the ACN such as Akeredolu’s convoy on Oba Adesida road Akure, Okeluse at Ose local government, members during ward meeting at Lafe in Akure, among others.

    “Indeed, a serving commissioner in the Olusegun Mimiko administration now goes about with a contingent of fully armed mobile policemen, who shoot sporadically into the air to create panic in the community.

    “Last week, during the community celebration at Igbaraoke, he was there with over 10 uniformed policemen and other private guards, who were armed with all kinds of weapons, thereby causing so panic during and after the event. They shot sporadically into the air. This is in a bid to intimidate members of the opposition.”

    ACO urged the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, to investigate the matter and fish out the security agents who work with Mimiko to cause mayhem in Ondo State.

    It reminded the governor and his co-travellers that Ondo State residents are not cowards and that no amount of intimidation would make them change their minds to vote out the LP on October 20.

    ACO said: “The people of the state are determined to vote for ACN, which has promised to replicate the massive infrastructural development of Lagos in Ondo State and provide 30,000 jobs within 100 days in office to stem the tide of the criminal neglect of the youths.

    “The ACN standard bearer is an honest man, with the pedigree and integrity. He is trustworthy. Ondo State people can trust him to fulfil his promises because he is another SAN with a sound mind.”

  • Mimiko pressures truth

    Mimiko pressures truth

    During his campaigns last week, Governor Olusegun Mimiko was quoted as describing his disagreement with Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) leaders as a face-off. I was also thoroughly flustered by his claim that he was pressured to join the ACN. Does he not expect other parties to try to win the state from his Labour Party (LP) if they cannot get him to defect? What face-off? Since he stood pat on LP, is it not reasonable to expect that other political parties, of which he is not a member, would try to take the state from him?

    Even more inconceivably, the governor describes the ACN effort to take Ondo State as an expansionist agenda. By dignifying this outlandish reasoning on the soapbox with his time, the governor shows his inability to think nobly. Every party exists to expand, not to stay in one place or to contract. The PDP hopes to gain more states, contiguously if it can manage, or by leapfrogging, if it cannot manage. Does the LP not expect to gain more states, if it can find the competence and the ambition?

    And in Mimiko’s quaint exegesis, it is haughtiness to express confidence in one’s party’s ability to sweep the polls. Has he not also expressed confidence his impending victory would disgrace the opposition and silence them for a long time? Would that qualify as pride? When Mimiko assumed office, many expected him to be capable of elevated ideas, even if he looked and sounded too flighty to replicate the administrative panache of Awolowo, the hero of his insincere contrivance, whom he quotes prodigiously. As I indicated here last week, the governor’s main campaign weapon is denigrating other parties’ ‘empire-building’ potential, which he says is evil. Let him quit idle chatter and instead focus on the modest achievements he has wrung from his fiefdom, if indeed those achievements can be described in such exalted terms.

  • Mimiko promises to industrialise Ore

    Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko yesterday promised to turn the popular Ore town on the Lagos-Benin Expressway into an industrialised city.

    The governor spoke in the town during his re-election campaign tour of Odigbo Local Government Area.

    He addressed the ruling Labour Party (LP) supporters in the town, his first port of call during the campaign tour of the council.

    Mimiko flagged off the rehabilitation of the 6.1-kilometre Ore township roads, where he listed the developmental projects his administration has done in the last three and a half years.

    These, the governor said, include the multi-million Naira Industrial Park, the ongoing Ore Sunshine City, Ore Agriculture Farm Settlements, an international market, among others.
    He assured that Ore would soon be one of the best cities in Nigeria because of its unique location as the gateway to eastern and northern Nigeria.

     Mimiko said: “Ore, given its unique position, is a potential goldmine. We have begun the process of making it one of the best cities in the world. It is largely unplanned but we have started planning it and putting in place a lot of infrastructure that would make it an industrialised city.

    We are leveraging on Ore’s unique geographical location by tapping into the abundant gas reserve in this area. We are working on the Omotoso Gas Plant, also located here and, by the grace of God, we will make this city the best industrialised corridor in Nigeria.

    “What we want from you is give us your mandate to allow us complete what we started and to be able to do more for our people. When we came here a few years ago, the people of this local government asked for hinges.

    To the glory of God, we have been able to provide all these. Today, we have met most of your demands and, if you vote for us again, we are going to do more to make life better for all of us.”

    The governor visited Odigbo, Ajue, Lasia, Mulekangbo, Kajola Ojurin and several other communities.

    He inaugurated about N500million projects built under his administration’s 3is Initiative through the Ministry of Community Development and Cooperative Services.

  • NAPE to Ondo: Exploit other solid minerals

    The Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) has advised the Ondo State government to exploit other minerals in the state other than crude oil.
    President of NAPE Dr. Mayowa Afe when the association paid a courtesy call on the state Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko at the government house Alagbaka Akure, said only three out of 11 minerals in the state are categorised as strategic, while the remaining don’t get the required attention.

    Afe said: “The Geological Survey of Nigeria has identified eleven solid minerals in the state. Only three which are bitumen, coal and limestone are categorized as on the Federal Government’s strategic minerals for development while others – kaolin, gemstone, gypsium, feldspar, granite, clay, glass-sand, and dimension stones, are classified as non strategic.

    “There is need to ensure these strategic minerals are evaluated and exploited to its full benefit for the state and the federation.
    “Ondo is also known to have the largest deposit of tar sand in the country and if the contents of the proposed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is anything to go by, this huge resource will soon be managed by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and who knows, the state could become a force in the area of bitumen production with the potential of making the state an investment haven. I therefore urge your Excellency to argue the transfer of this asset from solid minerals to petroleum ministry as it is done in other parts of the world.”

    Afe in a statement also explained what the association stands for and the need for the state to partner. “NAPE is a foremost professional organization in the oil and gas industry committed to promoting the teaching and practice of the geosciences in relation to the exploration and exploitation of petroleum resources. As explorationists, our ideas indeed find oil and gas.

    “The membership of the association includes students in tertiary institutions and individual practitioners, government institutions as well as operators in the oil and gas industry, mining industry and other energy sector. Established in 1975, NAPE is an affiliate of the American Association of Petroleum Association (AAPG) with membership spread across the globe.

    I am pleased to inform you that the current President of NAPE, Dr. Mayowa Afe is from Akure, Ondo State.
    “One of the goals of the association is to visit tertiary institutions as well as corporate and government institutions that employ geoscientists in different parts of the country to drum up support for our Annual International Conference and Exhibition(AICE) that comes up in November this year. Based on the involvements of the State in exploration and production activities and its vast oil and gas resources, a substantial part of which is yet to be exploited, the association is extending its hand of fellowship to the state for mutually beneficial relationship.”

    “It is important to let you know that as a state with an Exploration and Production company, i.e. Owena Oil and Gas which owns 45 percent in Ororo field and substantial interest in OML 241, in deepwater Dahomey basin, the State is an ally of the association and a potential corporate member of NAPE. Ondo state also has several tertiary institutions where the geosciences are taught and therefore captures the attention of the association as a fertile ground for attracting young geoscientists to NAPE.”
    NAPE also advised the state government to ensure well demarcated/defined and established coastal boundaries with others because of the issue of offshore dichotomy up to/beyond 200 metres water depth and also insist Federal Government retains the current fiscal agreement on offshore dichotomy.”