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Tag: Olujimi

  • Olujimi slams Fayose over Ado-Ekiti demolition

    The senator representing Ekiti South, Mrs. Biodun Olujimi, has condemned the demolition of houses in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, by Governor Ayodele Fayose.

    Mrs Olujimi, who is a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant, said physical development is a welcome development but should be done with a human face.

    The Deputy Senate Minority Whip expressed misgivings yesterday in a statement by the Director General of her campaign organisation, Chief Bunmi Olugbade.

    Although the senator hailed Fayose for initiating urban renewal, Mrs Olujimi said: “Any development that will cause the citizens tears and hardship will usually backfire and provoke negative reactions.”

    The senator noted that the current demolition was ill-timed since it was happening when workers and pensioners were owed arrears of salaries and benefits, “Ekiti being a civil service state”.

    Mrs. Olujimi said: “In advanced democracies, government will do enumeration and valuation of compensation to be paid to those who will be affected by such demolition, provide temporary accommodation for them and give them enough time to relocate before demolition.

    “I want to appeal to those who are affected and I want to promise that the PDP government under my leadership will put smiles on the faces of the people rather than tears.

    “Finally, I want to appeal to the people of Ekiti State to embrace PDP’s continuity agenda of ensuring that a PDP government is installed rather than a third-term agenda of an individual.”

    On Wednesday, Fayose visited some families affected by the demolition in Ijoka area of Ado-Ekiti.

    It was learnt that the governor said a compensation package was being worked out, but the affected house owners maintained that they wanted full compensation and not peanuts.

    Many residents of the town, who have been displaced by the demolition, said they were forced to relocate to other places.

    The beleaguered residents are relocating to places like Odo, Fagbohun, Ajebamidele, Oke Ureje, Emirin, Afao Road and Ilokun.

    One of them, who spoke in confidence, said: “We have valid land documents, like building plan and survey plan, and we will need full compensation to build our houses elsewhere.

     

  • Fayose, Mark, Olujimi seek action to reduce poverty

    Fayose, Mark, Olujimi seek action to reduce poverty

    To reduce the pervasive poverty in the land, there must be holistic efforts from the government and the elites, it was learnt  on Monday.

    Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose, former Senate President David Mark and the  senator representing Ekiti South, Abiodun Olujimi, made the call at the launch of a book written by a former senator, Bode Ola (Ekiti Central), titled: Why The Poor Are Still With Us in Abuja.

    Fayose, who was represented by Ayodele Oladimeji, noted that unemployment was affecting the lives of youths.

    The governor said the nation’s elite as well as the government have key roles to play in addressing the poverty challenges.

    He decried increasing unemployment and underemployment rates in the land.

    Fayose said: “Today, the major challenge is unemployment. After unemployment, we equally have underemployment. I spoke with two people in Ekiti State on Sunday: the husband is teaching at a primary school and the wife is equally teaching in another nursery and primary school. Each of them earns N15,000 per month. You can then imagine the condition of the children this couple will rear.”

    On the book, the governor said it captures the challenges confronting the poor masses of the country and proffered solutions.

    He urged the elite to use the book for the benefit of the masses.

    Fayose said: “The book highlights the challenges of the poor masses. What are their needs? What can the elite do to assist them?”

    Mark noted that the book launch was timely because it sought to identify the major causes of poverty and how to eradicate it from the society.

    He said: “I cannot think of a more important and timely topic for Nigeria than issue of poverty and the large number of the poor in the society.”

    Olujimi stressed the need to prioritise the welfare of the people.

    The senator decried the level of poverty in the country, saying the people were becoming spiritually and socially poor.

    She noted that “a country where its citizens die because they could not afford a malaria drug of N1,000 is a poor country”.

    Olujimi called for reorientation among the people, saying: “Government needs to take charge and look after the people.”

    Senator Bode Ola said poverty was a major bane to posterity.

    Quoting the world’s statistics on poverty, the senator said this should be a source of concern to all, considering the state of the nation’s economy.

  • Fayose, Mark, Olujimi seek action to reduce poverty

    To reduce the pervasive poverty in the land, there must be holistic efforts from the government and the elites, it was learnt yesterday.

    Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose, former Senate President David Mark and the denator representing Ekiti South, Abiodun Olujimi, made the call at the launch of a book written by the senator representing Ekiti Central, Bode Ola, titled: Why The Poor Are Still With Us in Abuja.

    Fayose, who was represented by Ayodele Oladimeji, noted that unemployment was affecting the lives of youths.

    The governor said the nation’s elite as well as the government have key roles to play in addressing the poverty challenges.

    He decried increasing unemployment and underemployment rates in the land.

    Fayose said: “Today, the major challenge is unemployment. After unemployment, we equally have underemployment. I spoke with two people in Ekiti State on Sunday: the husband is teaching at a primary school and the wife is equally teaching in another nursery and primary school. Each of them earns N15,000 per month. You can then imagine the condition of the children this couple will rear.”

    On the book, the governor said it captures the challenges confronting the poor masses of the country and proffered solutions.

    He urged the elite to use the book for the benefit of the masses.

    Fayose said: “The book highlights the challenges of the poor masses. What are their needs? What can the elite do to assist them?”

    Mark noted that the book launch was timely because it sought to identify the major causes of poverty and how to eradicate it from the society.

    He said: “I cannot think of a more important and timely topic for Nigeria than issue of poverty and the large number of the poor in the society.”

    Olujimi stressed the need to prioritise the welfare of the people.

    The senator decried the level of poverty in the country, saying the people were becoming spiritually and socially poor.

    She noted that “a country where its citizens die because they could not afford a malaria drug of N1,000 is a poor country”.

    Olujimi called for reorientation among the people, saying: “Government needs to take charge and look after the people.”

    Senator Bode Ola said poverty was a major bane to posterity.

    Quoting the world’s statistics on poverty, the senator said this should be a source of concern to all, considering the state of the nation’s economy.

    He also blamed funds mismanagement and overdependence on oil for the menace.

    On the book, Ola said it was his passion and compassion for the poor that prompted his writing.

    He said: “This book was borne out of my passion and compassion for the poor. It is said that poverty is a threat to prosperity. The rich cannot sleep because the poor are awake. With the present state of things in Nigeria, it is a concern to everyone.

    “The world’s statistics on poverty is a source of concern; as a politician, it is a concern. The book tries to answer three questions. These include: what is poverty? Why poverty is still with us. This involves mismanagement of resources and overdependence on crude oil. It is because of oil we neglected other areas.”

    The senator suggested the establishment of a University of Entrepreneurship Education where youths can learn the art of wealth creation through self-generated ideas as well as self-dependence.

    Prof. Gbenga Ibileye of Kogi State University, who reviewed the 160-page book, said it is filled with theoretical insights and actionable recommendations.

    The expert noted that if followed, the book would show genuine process of curing Nigeria of the toga of chronic poverty and usher the nation into the realm of prosperity.

    According to him, this will eventually eradicate or sufficiently alleviate poverty in the land.

    Ibileye added that the book, which is divided into eight chapters, captures poverty, the causes and the solutions.

     

  • Ekiti APC lawmaker disowns plot to attack Olujimi

    The Minority Leader in Ekiti State House of Assembly, Gboyega Aribisogan, has dissociated himself from an alleged plot to attack Deputy Senate Minority Whip Biodun Olujimi over her refusal to drop her 2018 governorship ambition.

    Aribisogan, who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on June 27, said Olujimi saved the Assembly members from “financial embarrassment” in the past and does not deserve the “bashing of the House”.

    In an open letter to the Speaker, Kola Oluwawole, the lawmaker said he “would not be part of those who will attack Olujimi to satisfy Governor Ayo Fayose and his retinue of serial betrayers”.

    He warned that the alleged victimisation of the senator representing Ekiti South could consume the Fayose administration.

    Aribisogan said Olujimi “has the support of two-thirds of members” in Ekiti State House of Assembly.

    The APC legislator warned the Speaker not to allow the Assembly to be turned into “an extension of Fayose’s office”.

    He said Nigerians were watching the alleged violation of rules and trampling on the Constitution “in a bid to satisfy a demagogue, who is at his wits’ end”.

    Aribisogan noted that the latest attempt to suspend some members because of their relationship with Olujimi “is an open sore, which has further exposed the members as political clowns, who can always be tossed around by Fayose.

    The lawmaker representing Ikole Constituency 1 said he was deeply touched and worried about the type of legacy the Fifth Assembly would bequeath to posterity with what he called “the latest show of shame”.

  • Olujimi: Ekiti lawmakers told to attack me

    •Senator’s political coup backfired, says Assembly

    Senate Deputy Minority Whip Abiodun Olujimi has said members of Ekiti State House of Assembly were under instruction to attack her at the August 12 non-elective national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja.

    Addressing reporters at the weekend, Mrs Olujimi described as “stupid and laughable” the request by the lawmakers that two of their colleagues believed to be loyal to her should write letters of apology and renounce their association with her.

    The senator representing Ekiti South faulted Governor Ayo Fayose’s sack of some political office holders for their alleged closeness and loyalty to some PDP governorship aspirants.

    Despite Fayose’s alleged opposition to her ambition, Mrs. Olujimi, who was Fayose’s deputy during his first term, said she was unstoppable.

    But the Chairman of House Committee on Information, Dr. Samuel Omotoso, described Mrs. Olujimi as “a betrayer…

    “Senator Olujimi’s recent attempt at removing Governor Fayose by midnight actions and claims on social media that she was in control of Ekiti State House of Assembly is a political coup that has backfired with serious political complications…’’

    “Then you go to the House of Assembly and say two of them are my loyalists and because of that you suspended them from the House. All the people who came to the PDP convention in Abuja, because you said they were supporting one person or the other, you relieved them of the appointments you gave them.

    “You chase them around the state. That is mindlessness, and this is happening within the same party we should all be galvanising for. Even honourable members from my constituency, not from any other, you ask them to insult me.

    “You even went as far as instructing them to physically attack me whenever they see me in the state or in Ado-Ekiti. It is all because they believe I have an ambition to become governor. And they believe I have much more clout than anybody who is coming out when I have not even started.”

    But the Chairman of House Committee on Information, Dr. Samuel Omotoso, described Mrs. Olujimi as “a betrayer whose consistently consistent disloyal behaviour knows no bounds as seen in her behavioural history smacking of perfidy”.

    Omotoso added: “One would have expected that at above 60 years of age, Senator Olujimi should be willing to rewrite her political history for posterity, a history full of tales of woes, weeping and gnashing of teeth.

    “Senator Olujimi’s recent attempt at removing Governor Fayose by midnight actions and claims on social media that she was in control of Ekiti State House of Assembly is a political coup that has backfired with serious political complications.

    “The Ekiti State House of Assembly of today is unlike her 2006 partners who sold their birth rights to Mrs. Olujimi for a pot of porridge and unholy predatory behaviour.

    “She is advised to note that the Ekiti State House of Assembly of today is full of tested and trusted new breed, people who are not cheap but on top of the issues and positively predictable.”

  • Tribunal upholds Olujimi’s victory

    The Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, yesterday upheld the victory of the Deputy Senate Minority Whip, Senator Abiodun Olujimi.

    Mrs. Olujimi, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was declared winner of the Ekiti South senatorial seat in the March 28 National Assembly poll conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    Her return was challenged by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Anthony Adeniyi, on the grounds that the first respondent (Olujimi) was a public officer at the time she contested the election.

    Adeniyi claimed that Mrs. Olujimi did not resign as a commissioner on the board of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) within the constitutional provision of at least 30 days before election.

    He urged the tribunal to determine that the senator was not duly elected and that he be declared winner.

    In the judgment delivered by a member of the three-man panel, Justice P.A. Obayi, the tribunal took judicious notice of the first petitioner’s testimony that the election was free, fair and credible.

    The tribunal said evidence showed that Mrs. Olujimi,  a non-executive member of the NCC board on part-time basis, was not employed in the public service as claimed by the first petitioner.

    The jury held that the PDP senator was not a public servant as envisaged in the First Schedule of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

    “The petition lacks merit and it is accordingly dismissed”, Justice Obayi concluded.