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Tag: Odigie Oyegun

  • 2015: APC ‘ll rescue Nigeria, says Odigie-Oyegun

    2015: APC ‘ll rescue Nigeria, says Odigie-Oyegun

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) will rescue the country from its socio-political and economic problems, the party Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has said.

    He added that it would bring change, prosperity and hope for the masses.

    Odigie-Oyegun spoke in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, at the 50th birthday anniversary of Toyin, wife of Senator Bukola Saraki.

    He said: “Your husband has the courage from a commanding position of a party with better federal might to come down and succumb to becoming a member of the APC that is in opposition, which has a very good prospect, but not a future that is guaranteed.

    “Everyday he works assiduously to ensure that next February he will be back in power as part of a new government that will bring change, prosperity and hope to the ordinary Nigerians.

    “He has passion for that vision and together with those of us here, who have resolved to rescue this country, because we are the greatest black nation on earth with potential for greatness.

    “With people like Bukola Saraki, the ex-chairman of the new Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje here and another courageous man like Owelle Rochas Okorocha and the legitimate secretary of the PDP, Chief Olagunsoye Oyinlola, PDP is fast sinking into oblivion.”

    APC chieftains including Governors Okorocha (Imo), Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), among others, were at the ceremony.

    On her husband’s defection to the APC, Mrs. Saraki said it was in line with the people’s wish.

    She said he was inspired by God and the people’s wish to dump the PDP.

    The highly-elated woman said her husband’s decision to join APC was not driven by selfish desire.

    She thanked the indigenes and other Nigerians for turning out en masse to celebrate with her.

    Senator Saraki said he was humbled by the large presence of prominent personalities, especially in the APC, who trooped to the state to rejoice with his wife.

    He also spoke on the statement by the Kwara APC that there would be no automatic ticket for any aspirant, saying the decision applied to him.

  • Oyegun, APC leaders storm Osun Monday

    Oyegun, APC leaders storm Osun Monday

    As part of the final leg of the preparations for the governorship poll in Osun State, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, and top leaders of the party will from Monday relocate to Osogbo, the state capital

    Also, the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) yesterday said it had withdrawn Mr. Oludare Timothy Akinola as its governorship candidate for the poll.

    The relocation of APC leaders was contained in a statement in Abuja by the APC National Chairman, Odigie-Oyegun.

    The statement said: “This is to inform the general public and millions of our dear members and supporters that as from August 4, the National Secretariat of our great party, the APC, will relocate to Osogbo, Osun State, until after the August 9 gubernatorial election.

    “The relocation to Osogbo is in deference to an ancient African proverb which states that rats cannot eat the fish of the man who is awake and watchful. Hence the APC leadership wishes to reassure our millions of members, supporters and compatriots that we shall keep awake to guide and protect our mandate.

    “This also serves as notice to all state chairmen of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to attend the final public rally of the APC in Osogbo on August 5 and the subsequent meeting with the National Working Committee on August 6.

    “I use this opportunity to salute the courage of the good people of Osun State for their courage and steadfastness in the face of intimidation and militarization of the state.

    “I appeal to our dear compatriots in the state to ignore all manner of provocation and turn out massively to vote for Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to continue his good work and clean government in his second term.

    On its part, the PDM in a statement by its National Chairman, Dr. Oluwole Akinwumi, said it had dropped Mr. Oludare Timothy Akinola as its candidate for the governorship poll.

  • Governorship poll: Oyegun, APC leaders relocate to Osun Monday

    …PDM drops candidate

    As part of the final leg of the preparations for the governorship poll in Osun State, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and top leaders of the party will from Monday relocate to Osogbo, the state capital

    Also, the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) on Friday said it has withdrawn Mr. Oludare Timothy Akinola as its governorship candidate for the poll.

    The relocation of APC leaders was contained in a statement issued in Abuja by the APC National Chairman, Odigie-Oyegun.

    The statement said: “This is to inform the general public and millions of our dear members, and supporters that as from 4th August 2014, the National Secretariat of our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) – the Change Agent – will relocate to Osogbo, Osun State, until after the 9th August, 2014 gubernatorial election.

    “The relocation to Osogbo is in deference to an ancient African proverb which states that rats cannot eat the fish of the man who is awake and watchful. Hence APC leadership wishes to reassure our millions of members, supporters and compatriots, that we shall keep awake to guide and protect our mandate.

    “This also serves as notice to all state chairmen of the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory to attend the final public rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osogbo on Tuesday, 5th and the subsequent meeting with the National Working Committee on Wednesday, 6thAugust 2014, after the grand rally on the 5th.

    “I use this opportunity to salute the courage of the good people of Osun State for their courage and steadfastness in the face of intimidation and militarization of the state.

    “I appeal to our dear compatriots in Osun State to ignore all manner of provocation and turn out massively to vote for Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to continue his good works, and clean government, in his second term.

    On its part, the PDM in a statement signed by its National Chairman, Dr. Oluwole Akinwumi, said it had dropped Akinola as its candidate for the governorship poll.

    The statement said: “The Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) took the decision in June to withdraw Mr. Oludare Timothy Akinola as its candidate in the forthcoming Gubernatorial Election in Osun State and the party has not changed its position in this regard.

    “The decision of the party and its reasons for withdrawing Mr. Akinola as its flag bearer was communicated to the Chairman INEC, the Chairman of PDM in Osun State and Mr. Akinola himself.

    “The party is therefore surprised to find listed in a newspaper publication, the name of Akinola as one of the 20 gubernatorial candidates participating in the August 9 governorship election in Osun State on the platform of PDM.

    “This press statement is issued to draw attention to the earlier decision of the party to withdraw Mr. Akinola from contesting the election on its platform and to dissociate the party and its members in Osun State from the newspaper report.

    “Our party members in Osun State and the general public are to take note.”

  • Boko Haram: We should not push our luck too far – Onaiyekan

    Boko Haram: We should not push our luck too far – Onaiyekan

    The Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, on Thursday said it is time for Nigeria to tackle Boko Haram menace headlong and avoid pushing its luck too far.

    He said Nigeria had been dancing on the brink of chaos for too long except for the grace of God sustaining it.

    The Catholic Archbishop said the insurgency is a symptom of a wider disease which must be urgently addressed.

    He also warned against sliding the nation’s democracy towards a one-party state.

    He said one-party system had never worked in any part of Africa.

    Onaiyekan gave the warning in an extempore address during a courtesy call on him by a delegation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) which was led by its National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.

    He said: “I believe that God has been with Nigeria for so long. We have been dancing on the brink of chaos and somehow He accepts us not to fall over. But we should not push our luck too far.

    “Boko Haram in my view is a symptom of a wider disease and I hope we know that. And if we don’t tackle that wider disease, we might finish with Boko Haram and move on to another.

    “Meanwhile, we should do our best to rid our country of this menace which, as Chief Oyegun said, has taken over all of us. Every part of Nigeria has been taken over even though the epicenter is in a particular angle.

    “I am now 70 years old and I have seen the most important stages in the development of this our country. I was born into the colonial era. I schooled during the transition between the colonial and independent nation.

    “And I have seen all the different changes, tumbling and fumbling that we are going through between the 1960 and to date. One thing that has become clear in my mind is whatever anybody is saying something has happened in this country. We do have a country called Nigeria, and I believe that it is a viable project. There are challenges of course no doubt. There are dislocations, no doubt about it. The fact is there are contradictions, it is very glaring.

    ” Often, deliberately, they injected the contradictions into the system to cause confusion, but once we believe that we want to live in one country, our efforts should be made towards arriving such a way that our differences can be appreciated, and we do all we can, not to disorganize ourselves.

    “Above all, avoid utter chaos. We are looking television to see what happens when things fall apart. Unfortunately when that happens it is not people like you and I that will suffer most, it is the poor people, who have nowhere to run to and who don’t understand why things are not going well.”

    Onaiyekan said Nigeria has every cause to have a viable democracy.

    He also warned against the danger of rigging elections, claiming that such indulgence is worst than military dictatorship.

    He added: “Democracy has its ways. It is not the only way for ruling. But it is considered the best way. We still have some kind of monarchy like in Britain, Netherlands and Spain. We also have modern democracy involving political parties presenting themselves to people with manifestos which constitute programmes for them.”

  • Nyako’s impeachment: APC will go to court, says Odigie-Oyegun

    Nyako’s impeachment: APC will go to court, says Odigie-Oyegun

    National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, yesterday said the party would challenge the impeachment of Adamawa State Governor Murtala Nyako in court.

    Nyako himself has vowed to head for the court.

    Odigie-Oyegun said: “I don’t know how much I can say   to that your question because I think if we are not already in court, I think we should be.

    “But it is clear that there was no due process. Even as loose as the provisions are, they did not have the patience and decency to abide by them.”

    Asked to be specific, Oyegun said: “For example, just to take the basic one:  the law provides that the governor must be personally served. Was he served personally? “Secondly, there was a subsisting court order, which should have stopped the impeachment process until the governor’s petition was disposed off. But they went ahead. “There are a lot more other but when our lawyers go to court, you will see that. Concerning allegation of gross misconduct, it was the most fair- less impeachment procedure on record up to date.

    “I have no doubt in my mind that any properly constituted legal tribunal is going to reverse the process.

    We are going to vigorously challenge what has happened in Adamawa State.”

    Oyegun was however taken to task by reporters on why APC had to blame President Goodluck Jonathan for the impeachment of Nyako after the former governor publicly absolved the President of complicity.

    Oyegun insisted that there was no contradiction between the party’s position and Nyako’s purported statement.

    He added: “There is no contradiction there. The governor did what he had to do. But we will agree as a party what to do when the need arises for us to do it. There is no contradiction, the governor is a governor, the party is a party. That is a bit different.

    “On the loose provision of the constitution, our legal luminaries and representatives will look into it.

    “In this nation, you know what happens, when the weakness of the law favours those who have the hammer in their hand, they use it to the fullest possible effect.”

  • Nyako’s impeachment: APC will go to court, says Odigie-Oyegun

    Nyako’s impeachment: APC will go to court, says Odigie-Oyegun

    National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, yesterday said the party would challenge the impeachment of Adamawa State Governor Murtala Nyako in court.

    Nyako himself has vowed to head for the court.

    Odigie-Oyegun said: “I don’t know how much I can say   to that your question because I think if we are not already in court, I think we should be.

    “But it is clear that there was no due process. Even as loose as the provisions are, they did not have the patience and decency to abide by them.”

    Asked to be specific, Oyegun said: “For example, just to take the basic one:  the law provides that the governor must be personally served. Was he served personally? “Secondly, there was a subsisting court order, which should have stopped the impeachment process until the governor’s petition was disposed off. But they went ahead. “There are a lot more other but when our lawyers go to court, you will see that. Concerning allegation of gross misconduct, it was the most fair- less impeachment procedure on record up to date.

    “I have no doubt in my mind that any properly constituted legal tribunal is going to reverse the process.

    We are going to vigorously challenge what has happened in Adamawa State.”

    Oyegun was however taken to task by reporters on why APC had to blame President Goodluck Jonathan for the impeachment of Nyako after the former governor publicly absolved the President of complicity.

    Oyegun insisted that there was no contradiction between the party’s position and Nyako’s purported statement.

    He added: “There is no contradiction there. The governor did what he had to do. But we will agree as a party what to do when the need arises for us to do it. There is no contradiction, the governor is a governor, the party is a party. That is a bit different.

    “On the loose provision of the constitution, our legal luminaries and representatives will look into it.

    “In this nation, you know what happens, when the weakness of the law favours those who have the hammer in their hand, they use it to the fullest possible effect.”

  • APC for launch in Edo

    All is now set for the launch of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State today. The event will coincide with the five years of Governor Adams Oshiomhole administration in power and one year into its second term.

    The launch of the party in the state has dragged for long due to the disagreement between the governor and the Southsouth leader of the party, Chief Tom Ikimi.

    Following the disagreement, a four-man committee was set up, comprising former governor Chief Odigie Oyegun and the immediate past secretary to the state government, Dr. Simon Imuekemen, to mediate, which they did and today the party is set for launch, months after its registration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and launch in other APC states.

    The state, local government and ward secretariats of the party are in a carnival mood. Nollywood actors and actress are expected to participate in carnivals in major streets of Benin City.

    At the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium and its environs, APC’s and Oshiomhole’s posters, listing his achievements in the past five years, have been pasted everywhere.

    All the merger parties are also participating in the launch.