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Tag: ONDO

  • Kidnappers of Anglican priest’s wife demand N20m ransom

    The wife of the General Secretary of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Venerable Ayodeji Fagbemi, Ebunoluwa has been kidnapped at the residence at Oba-Ile estate in Akure North local government area of Ondo state
    She was abducted on Monday night by some armed bandit.
    According to the husband of the victim, the kidnappers are demanding N20million ransom for her release.
    Fagbemi, who was also the immediate past Provost of the Bishop Vining College of Theology in Akure, while speaking with “The Nation” pleaded that the family does not have the huge money demanded by the kidnapper.
    The Anglican Priest said ” Everybody is traumatised and we are all praying for her safe return to us .
    “Again there is a very outrageous expectation,  the abductors demanded for N20million which I don’t think anybody can afford.
    “But at the movement we are really praying.”
    The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Femi Joseph, who confirmed the incident said the armed hoodlums gained entrance into the Fagbemi’s house through the window after which they took the woman away with her Toyota Jeep to an unknown destination.
    Joseph said the command had commenced investigation on the matter, adding that searching for the the Venerable’s wife had also begun.
    He said,” Our men are already began the search for the women, but you know we can’t disclosed the method we are using to the media now but we shall surely ensure that the victim would be released unhurt”
    The Bishop of Akure Diocese of the Anglican Communion, Very Rev. Simeon Borikini described the incident as unfortunate.
    He said there was a need for the government at all levels to do more on the security of the country.
    The Anglican cleric said the church had been praying for the safe return of Fagbemi, adding that the church had also contacted all the security agencies in the state to assist in ensuring the release of the woman.
  • Akeredolu commends Mimiko’s public service record

    Akeredolu commends Mimiko’s public service record

    The Ondo state governor elect, Mr. Oluwarorotimi Akeredolu (SAN) has said it will take hard work to surpass the track record put into public service by the state outgoing governor, Olusegun Mimiko.
    He said Mimiko should be commended for the years he dedicated to public service as two term commissioner for health, Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Minister for Housing and Urban and as a governor.
    The governor elect was speaking during a courtesy visit to Mimiko and some members of his cabinet at the governor’s office at Alagbaka in Akure.
    Akeredolu will on February 24, 2017 be sworn-in as the sixth civilian governor of the state.
    He was accompanied to the governor’s office by the State Deputy Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Engr. Ade Adetimehin, Director-General of Akeredolu Campaign Platform, Hon. Victor Olabimtan, Tunji Abayomi, Femi Agagu, Mr. Yemi Olowolabi, Mr. Lekan Odere, Wale Akinterinwa, Saka Yusuf and Ifedayo Abegunde.
    Akeredolu said he and the people of the state owe the governor depth of gratitude for his service to Ondo state and the country at large.
    The governor-elect maintained that governor Mimiko displayed exemplary leadership quality in various capacities he had served.
    He noted that history is being made in the state with the seamless transition between his team and that of government.
    While responding, Mimiko promised to put in place seamless transition to usher in a new government in February next year.
    He noted that in the history of the state, this was the first time to have a seamless transition between civilian to civilian government.
    He assured Akeredolu of his support to ensure he succeeds in the task of governing the state.
    Mimiko who noted that peace was one of his greatest accomplishments enjoined the governor elect to sustain the feat.
    However, the incoming and outgoing governments are expected to set up their transition committees very soon.
  • Ondo gets N6.5b Paris Club refund

    Ondo gets N6.5b Paris Club refund

    The Ondo State government yesterday said it received N6.5 billion as part-payment of money owed it by the Federal Government.
    This is from excess deductions from the state’s account for the Paris Club payment.
    Governor Olusegun Mimiko ordered that part of the fund should be used to offset salaries.
    Commissioner for Information Kayode Akinmade, in a statement, said the N6.5 billion was from the $185 million owed the state on Paris Club deductions.
    The statement said of the N6.5 billion received, the state will get N4.37 billion, which represents 67.3 per cent of the sum.
    The local councils will get N2.1 billion, which represents 32.7 per cent.

  • Ondo: Time to subvert dominant paradigms

    I shall in few months be saddled with the task of providing responsible leadership, a leadership that would take our people from poverty and stagnation to productivity and prosperity, from pains and lamentation to joy and laughter.” —— Ondo State Governor-elect Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) after his official declaration by INEC as the winner of the Saturday, November 26 governorship poll.
    It is my intention to deploy the above epigraph to interrogate the new socio-economic and political dynamics that must inevitably replace the eight-year old governance order in Ondo State starting from February 27, 2017. The keywords and/or phrases in the statement may have already pointed to the direction that the Akeredolu-led administration will travel in the state’s next political dispensation. The epigraph, to me, pre-supposes that critical governance architecture as well as its directive principles will be scrupulously geared towards, as well as revolve around the people of the state for a completely new lease of life. It also pre-supposes that the archaic, unproductive and lethargic state bureaucracy that gulps probably more than 80 percent of state revenue would be drastically reduced if the people’s “pains and lamentation” must turn to “joy and laughter” at the end of the day. One is therefore inclined to see the statement as the author’s overarching social contract with the people of Ondo State in which a common thread can be identified that also pre-supposes that a “responsible leadership” of the Akeredolu administration will liberate the people from “poverty and stagnation” whereby their “productivity and prosperity” will be harnessed and enhanced so that their “pains and lamentation” will turn to “joy and laughter” which ultimately translates into higher quality of life and new and improved standard of living for them. This is no doubt a daunting but not impossible proposition.
    Judging from the post-election equanimity that pervaded the length and breadth of the state despite the serious acrimonies within and between parties, talk less of the ‘bad blood’ between the major contestants prior to the election in a state known for its recalcitrance and bull-headedness as followers had dug in behind their candidates – followed by myriads of congratulatory messages even from unlikely quarters – Akeredolu’s electoral victory may have triggered some kind of feeling in the people that a messiah may have arrived to liberate them from the bondage they have not only been subjected in the Mimiko administration but a needless socio-economic deprivation that has been their lot probably since the time of Pa Adekunle Ajasin. Because of this high level of expectations which for all practical purposes was reminiscence of President Muhammadu Buhari’s electoral victory in 2015, the governor-elect may not wait until his swearing-in to get cracking even if it’s by operating a mini, shadow administration either from his redoubt in Owo or the state capital. At the minimum, head-hunting of highly intellectually endowed indigenes whose creativity can extract water from a rock and their persuasive prowess so enchanting that they can sell ice to the Eskimos, if not groups with sound minds working on major policy directives of his government should be in top gear by now. This advanced preparation for governance should be of utmost importance if the subversion of the moribund, lethargic, unproductive self-conflicting and self-contradictory socio-economic paradigms that has rendered the state comatose, stale and inchoate must be accomplished and replaced with new life-enhancing, productive and sustainable socio-economic paradigms. This tectonic shift is necessary.
    With the country facing such an unprecedented revenue depletion in its history which has brought into the fore and has called into question the sanity of the country’s military governments which created states that are never viable as they’re now unable to meet the very minimum obligation of paying salaries of their workers, no one needs to be told that unusual leaders with strong political will – as is being witnessed with Buhari at the centre – are what the political scientists ordered in the federating units as well. The governor-elect has demonstrated that he’s audacious enough to take the road less or never travelled and embark on unusual propositions that would be aimed at recalibrating the socio-economic templates to spur real growth and sustainable development. The people of Ondo State has scaled through the first test of the type of leadership needed to change the governance architecture when they elected Rotimi Akeredolu whose principled antecedent is undoubtedly one of the key hallmarks of “responsible leadership” to which he alluded in his maiden victory speech.
    Perhaps Akeredolu’s next test on the road to running a successful and result-oriented government is for him to figure out what should be the nature, character and style of the All Progressives Party (APC) in the state in such a way that a robust and symbiotic relationship would exist between the political arm and administrative wing of the party in which the governor-elect now has the dual responsibility of leading. How he juggles these extremely important responsibilities would not only have telling effects on how long these two structures would endure in the state, but the level of health and wellbeing or otherwise of one has a direct correlation on the other. Aside the fact that there should be a fundamental restructuring of the party in the state in light of the internecine ‘war’ in the leadership prior to and after the primary, it may be extremely imperative to look at bringing in new hands whose only objective is to grow the party and are not in any way covetous of or interested in any positions in the government while members of the present leadership are assigned new roles in the next political dispensation. There’s perhaps nothing as nauseating and morally reprehensible to those with the acute understanding of what political parties should be and what should be the guiding principles of their members than the promiscuous shuttling of key players between parties when they perceive that their narrow political interests are more likely to be enhanced in another party or are threatened where they are, as the case may be. Nigerian political parties will remain weak and incapable of galvanising its members, let alone the general populace towards any noble ideals as long as this aberration continues.
    While it can be argued that it may not be the most auspicious time for anyone to be in the top rung of political leadership in the polity as our mostly self-inflicted socio-economic problems has become such a complex labyrinth that seems intractable, the unfortunate present reality of our time equally presents us with the opportunity to chart a new course whereby those tangible and intangible pillars that has stood on our developmental pathway are deliberately subverted and completely jettisoned for the sake of our collective good and progress. It’s a time like this that leaders who’re still preoccupied with frivolities of power must be separated from the deep who can dive well into the deep. One would hope that Akeredolu belong to this latter category.

    •Odere is a media practitioner. He can be reached at femiodere@gmail.com

  • Kashamu slams calls for cancellation of Ondo result

    Kashamu slams calls for cancellation of Ondo result

    •Urges Jegede not to challenge result

    The senator representing Ogun East, Buruji Kashamu, has slammed calls for cancellation of the Ondo State governorship election result.

    In a statement in Lagos yesterday, Kashamu said the outcome of the election was more of a referendum on outgoing Governor Olusegun Mimiko, than the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    He said the result was a true reflection of the wish of the electorate.

    Kashamu advised the PDP candidate, Eyitayo Jegede, not to challenge the result because the facts were clear enough.

    “My good brother, Mr. Jegede, who Governor Mimiko is trying to use as a pawn in this game narrowly won his polling booth by one vote but lost his ward and local government. So, how could he be said to have stood a chance of winning the election?

    “The truth is that the people had since turned their back on Governor Mimiko. They did not want a third term for Mimiko under any guise. Civil servants are being owed six months’ salary.

    “On the eve of election, he told them he would pay them if they voted his candidate.  So, he had the money and did not pay? What does he take the good and sophisticated people of Ondo State for?

    “Besides, after being in office for eight years, Mimiko took Jegede from the same Ondo Central Senatorial District where he hails from as his successor. Who does that? Not even in cosmopolitan Lagos can such happen! So, the tell-tale signs were there for everyone to see.

    “Instead of putting the interest of PDP above his personal interest and supporting a fellow party man in Jimoh Ibrahim, who is an experienced and tested hand from Ondo South Senatorial District, he fought to get him out. His eyes are clearer now that he lost everything.”

    Kashamu said the governor’s inability to court the old PDP members who he displaced was also a factor that made him lose.

    He accused him (Mimiko) of deceit and betrayal of those who helped him, especially in his first term, including the Governor-elect, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu.

    On claims there was heavy voter inducement, the lawmaker said no party could be absolved of the act, adding:  “If you paid N500 or N1,000 and another person gave N2,000 or N3,000, you are as guilty as the person you accuse of the crime.

    “Even if anyone blames voter inducement on poverty, again it is a heavy indictment on the Olusegun Mimiko-led eight-year administration.

    “That does not have anything to do with the Federal Government. He has been the chief executive of an oil-rich state for eight years.

    “The question should be what did he do with the resources? The people were simply tired of his legacy of corruption, lies and deceit, and rejected him at the poll,” Kashamu said.

  • Ondo hosts conference on coastal Yorubaland

    Ondo hosts conference on coastal Yorubaland

    A three-day international conference on trade and religion in coastal Yorubaland organised by Insa Nolte, Department of African Studies and Anthropology, University of Birmingham and the Provost Adeyemi College of Education (ACE), Ondo will hold between December 6 and 8 at the College campus in Ondo.
    Among keynote speakers at the conference are Prof. Toyin Falola, University of Texas; Professors Ayodeji Olukoju,
    Adebayo Lawal and Mike Ogbeidi, all of the University of Lagos.
    Others include Dr. Rasheed Ajetunmobi – Tai-Solarin University of Education Ijebu-Ode; Prof. Dipo Olubomehin – Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye and Dr. Victor Osaro Edo – University of Ibadan.
    The conference centres on three inter-related themes: trade, religion and changing communities and inter-group relations, religion and the political economies of coastal communities.
    According to Nolte, “The conference focuses on the largely, but by no means exclusively, Yoruba-speaking areas which are shaped by their proximity to the Lagos lagoon, the coastal stretch between Lagos and Warri, and the waterways connecting them.”

  • Many ifs over Ondo

    Many ifs over Ondo

    If the cockroach wants to rule over the chicken, it must hire the fox as a bodyguard
    –African proverb

    The concluded governorship elections in Ondo State have answered a few questions and raised a lot more. Let us first see off some of the answers. Please feel free to disagree. First, Ondo voters elected a good man on the platform of a party that, many warts and all, offers the best prospects for some returns, at least in the short term. Second, INEC under its new chairman has now successfully tucked away two key elections under its belt bulging full with inconclusive elections and a few that may not be held at all until 2019. Three, the judiciary showed how it is in every respect a major player in our electoral process, and it will be foolhardy to think it is finished, even in Ondo. Four, PDP’s self-destruct mode is still active, and Ondo could just be what it needs to go its separate ways. Finally, the Ondo elections provide a speculator’s dream, and there will be no penalties for asking the wrong questions and getting the right answers.

    If the voters of Ondo State elected Rotimi Akeredolu largely on his merit alone, meaning that they thought he will make a better governor than Jegede and Oke, you would say they have shown a remarkable and consistent degree of level-headedness in a most confusing context where just about every voter had two or three competing loyalties tugging at his vote. He is indeed prepared for the position of governor, but not all preparations guarantee success. His success, despite the hostility of major strands of mainstream APC in the region, the almighty quarrel which it engineered within the APC and ominous signs that he may have to cosy up to new step godfathers all suggest that his first major engagements are going to test his capacity to cover his flanks while dramatically showing the difference between him and Mimiko. Akeredolu will govern as part-orphan, part free man, and what he makes of this ambiguous status will be critical to his tenure and the volatility of Southwest politics.

    If Akeredolu’s victory is a product of the poverty of the PDP and AD in the politics of the Southwest, the type of poverty that even an APC working substantially against itself does not mitigate, it is going to be difficult to see a meaningful recovery of the opposition to the APC in the region, unless it is supported with a much stronger muscle and greater damage from within the APC. But that will be only one way of looking at it. If it still has members who undertake critical analyses of results, PDP should open at least a few champagne bottles. Its performance even while engrossed in a vicious civil war suggests that it could benefit from the attrition coming from within the APC itself. Akeredolu and those designing a new APC without the Asiwaju and his loyalists in the Southwest will do well to pay heed to the dangers of an alliance between a faction of the PDP and those APC members who are already stopping taxis on their way out. First, though, the PDP will have to survive the fierce and ultimately destructive quarrels that will follow a defeat

    If APC’s victory had confounded circles that were indifferent or hostile to it, or had encouraged others who worked for it, it does not show in the initial responses. The deluge of congratulations to Akeredolu belie a simmering and deep-seated rancour in the ranks of the APC. The rituals of lining up behind success of party men and women provide opportunities to sheathe swords and melt with the multitude. Many genuine supporters of the APC will hope that copious and apparently sincere felicitations  from President Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Chief  Odigie-Oyegun, Atiku, Saraki and a host of others deeply involved in influencing the direction and fortunes of the APC are real signs that Ondo will represent a strategic turning point. Just days ago, many will confidently place bets that the elections will be a tipping point for the worse. This is the same party that is still basking in the glory of snatching a vital one, Edo State, away from its nemesis, the Southsouth.

    If Asiwaju Tinubu is the master he is reputed to be, then he would be playing a game few will be familiar with. His instant message of congratulations to Akeredolu could buy him time without showing his hands entirely. He and his core loyalists have moved so far from this victory that it will be naïve to believe that he is undergoing a spontaneous conversion to a situation that showed him up in all his  political undergarments. He could be calculating the cost of sustaining a cold war while he reinforces his defences, against the benefits of taking up his new, slightly humbler place near the top in a party with a lot up for grabs. He could be counting on Akeredolu being nudged towards the reputed direction of power in the region and being reminded that life could be altogether more comfortable if he is in the warm embrace of a man who did not want him to be governor. If Akeredolu proves difficult or distant, the Jagaban could shrug off an irritation and either live with it or attempt to design a master plan that isolates it.

    If those who believe they have bloodied Asiwaju’s nose with Ondo crow longer and louder than necessary, they could heighten attention at what appears to be a serious decline on his hold, if not entirely around Southwest politics, then at least at the level of the APC in the region. The rumoured attempt at demystification of Asiwaju designed in Abuja and a few state capitals could be at work, and a hatchet job of a post mortem could do further damage to Tinubu. An attempt could be made to show that he had thrown his entire political weight behind the defeat of Akeredolu without success. That will serve the purpose of hinting that he has lost his crown to new powers in the region, and this will be important in evaluating him in relation to 2019. Or it could be revealed that he neither campaigned for or against Akeredolu with any vigour, choosing indifference that some will interpret as dangerous complacency for a politician that never slept with both eyes closed. Either way, the Asiwaju will lose feathers.

    If there are winners with bigger prizes than Akeredolu, at least in symbolic terms, they will be President Buhari and the APC. There will be vigorous efforts to enlist Asiwaju by all concerned in the victory parade, but his spat with the party over Ondo could not have failed to register a major drift between Buhari and a man he had held at the highest esteem this time last year. There were certainly people whose project around creating cleavages received a boost from the tantrums thrown up by Tinubu, and if a few people, including Buhari and Oyegun worried that Edo and Ondo could be threatened or lost, you wouldn’t accuse them of being alarmists. Edo was vigorously shielded to victory by sheer dint of hard work and an impressive turnout of Buhari loyalists who saw the dangers of losing Edo. Then Ondo pitched Buhari and Asiwaju on opposite sides of the divide. For a President facing many questions on the state of the economy, challenges from old and new security threats, rising frustrations from citizens who think the war against corruption should have prison cells bulging with the corrupt whose stolen trillions are being ploughed back to fight poverty, and political allies openly strategising for their own places in the sun in 2019, Ondo is by all standards of judgment a major boost of confidence for Buhari. For the APC, a defeat in Ondo would have caused an irreparable setback, compounding the problems of a party in power fighting hard not to drown from internal subversion and indifference from critical life sources.

    If APC has the vision of sustaining its hold on the nation beyond 2015, it should see Ondo as an invaluable gift. Attempts should be made to build strong bridges to bruised egos and hurt pride. For President Buhari in particular, this is no time to leave things to sort themselves out. Unless, of course, things have been left unattended for too long. 2019 is a lot closer than many politicians realise. Those with less luggage and chronically restive spirits would be on their ways out. A few could be persuaded to stay because the atmosphere outside is hostile and uncertain. A few ambitious younger Turks will attempt to scuttle a re-engineering process. In any case, you will not know how things will work out until at least you make an effort to build on the strategic victory that was Ondo.

  • Ondo 2016: Factors that aided Akeredolu’s victory

    Ondo 2016: Factors that aided Akeredolu’s victory

    It is no longer news that All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Oluroritmi Akeredolu is Ondo State governor-elect. What is news is how the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) proved bookmakers wrong to spring surprise in the Sunshine State. Deputy News Editor BUNMI OGUNMODEDE writes on the forces that paved the way for the one-time Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) president.

    Saturday’s governorship election in Ondo State has been won and lost. Strangely, the results proved all bookmakers wrong. The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Olurotimi Akeredolu (SAN), beat two other major contenders, Mr Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Mr. Olusola Oke of the Alliance for Democracy (AD).

    Akeredolu, who ==analysts described as the  political underdog, sprang a surprise, winning in 14 out of the 18 local government areas with 244, 842 votes to beat PDP’s Jegede to the second position with 150, 380 and Oke with 126, 889 votes.

    The APC flag bearer did not win all the six council areas in his North Senatorial District but took the battle to Jegede in his Central Senatorial base and won in five of the seven local government areas. In Oke’s South Senatorial District, Akeredolu won in three of the five council areas.

    The results have shown that certain undercurrents guided the election to prove bookmakers wrong and assert the supremacy of the electorate. Some of the forces that aided the victory of the APC candidate are:

     

    The party platforms 

    PDP crisis

    The ruling party was crisis-ridden in the run-up to the poll. Jegede, who eventually flew its ticket at the election, was restored on the ballot two days to the election. He was in the limbo for more than a month after a Federal High Court ruling gave the ticket to Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim of the Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the party. Jegede, a preferred candidate of incumbent Governor Olusegun Mimiko, is of the Ahmed Markafi faction. Since Ibrahim is of the other faction, the governor, who has a hold on the PDP structure and resources in the state stayed away for as long as Ibrahim was on the ballot.

    In Rivers State when a similar scenario played out in 2007, the party supported Celestine Omehia during the campaigns. Omehia won the election but lost the seat to Rotimi Amaechi who approached the court for what he called illegal substitution by the PDP leadership as the candidate. That was not the case in the Sunshine State. The mainstream PDP distanced itself from the Ibrahim campaigns.

    The former PDD candidate’s involvement was to stop Mimiko from relinquishing office to a lackey in Jegede. According to him, Jegede’s victory would mean a third term for the incumbent who will complete a two-term in office next February.

    Those who accused Ibrahim of playing a spoiler’s role may be right after all. He was alleged to have congratulated Akeredolu immediately after voting closed in the polling units across the state on Saturday and even when INEC was yet to collate and compute the results from the local government areas. Ibrahim’s accusers said the results have foreclosed his plan to appeal his removal as the PDP’s candidate last week Thursday.

    “He has succeeded in removing Mimiko from office. He was never a serious candidate. Let’s wait and see if he will still push his appeal. You remember that even on the eve of the election, he told his supporters that he remained the party’s candidate,” an analyst said yesterday.

     

    AD

    The AD, the platform on which Oke contested, was moribund before its flag bearer defected from the APC in the aftermath of the controversial shadow poll. Although Oke succeeded in reactivating the platform, time was definitely not on his side to establish structures that could have been formidable enough to win a statewide election. Many lauded Oke’s performance on the AD platform, which they say he borrowed to cotest the election. They attribute Oke’s performance to experience.

     

    The APC

    Despite the controversial governorship primary, the APC has become a formidable party and an alternative to the ruling PDP in the state. Ahead of the poll, the APC was the nest of every aggrieved PDP member. Former Deputy Governor Alhaji Olanusi Ali joined the APC after he parted ways with Mimiko.

    It was believed that whoever got the APC ticket would likely dislodge the ruling party from the Alagbaka Government House.

     

    The Mimiko factor

    Not a few believe that the people voted against Mimiko in protest and to stop what they claim to be the extension of his eight-year administration. The governor, they say, squandered the goodwill freely given to him in 2007 and 2012 on the platform of the Labour Party.

    The people, it was learnt, are not happy with the governor in his handling of state affairs.

    “Mimiko rode to power because the civil servants and organised labour supported him in 2007 and 2012. But, he has not reciprocated the goodwill. The workers have not been paid for six months. He was playing on the intelligent of the workers by urging them to vote for his preferred candidate, promising to clear the arrears of their salaries this week”, a stakeholder in the state said.

    Like Ibrahim, the stakeholder said a victory for Jegede would have been tenure elongation for Mimiko.

     

    Jegede not independent

    The PDP flag bearer is seen as a politician tied to his godfather’s apron string. Critics see him a man who lacks the right political initiative to lead a state as sophisticated as Ondo.

    According to investigations, Jegede has no structure outside of Mimiko’s. He allegedly went to sleep for more than a month only to be pushing for a postponement of the election when his name was restored on the ballot by INEC on the orders of a Court of Appeal.

    “It was political suicide for Jegede to have relied solely on Mimiko’s incumbency,” an analyst said. The analyst alluded to the late Chuba Okadigbo’s description of incumbency as a double-edged sword which could either be an asset or a liability. “In the case of the Ondo governorship election, Mimiko’s incumbency has turned out as liability for Jegede”, the analyst said.

     

    Cash-for-votes

    This factor has been dismissed as a non-issue in the Ondo election as all the parties freely deployed money to woo voters. Besides, elections in the country have always been heavily monetised. So, it is wrong of any party to accuse the other of buying votes. They all used money,” a source told The Nation.

     

    Federal might

    This factor cannot be ruled out. An analyst said: “It would be miscalculation for people to think that President Muhammadu Buhari would be indifferent to political developments in any part of the country. You remember he was in Akure personally to campaign. Besides, his aides issued a statement in Abuja a day to the election urging the people to vote the APC.

    “Even if the President was neutral, the APC as the ruling party at the central cannot afford to sit on the fence. Mimiko was a beneficiary of federal power in 2012 when he was returned to office on the Labour Party (LP) platform.

    The administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan backed him against Oke, who was then the PDP flag bearer. The deal was that Mimiko would defect to the PDP after winning the election. In Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi was the first to lose election under the APC ticket in 2014 because the PDP candidate, Ayodele Fayose, enjoyed federal backing.”

    Those defending the deployment of federal might, said a loss for Akeredolu in last Saturday’s poll would have been a vote of no confidence on the President and the APC. Besides, it would also have created problem for the 2019 project of the ruling party.

     

    Sophistication of the electorate

    By pitching their tent with Akeredolu, the voters in Ondo State showed their political sophistication. The people are unhappy that Ondo, an oil-producing state, has been finding it difficult to fulfil its statury obligations to workers.

    According to them, using the dwindling allocations from the Federation Account as reason for not paying worker’s salaries was not enough, more so, when neighbouring Edo State was meeting its obligations under former Governor Adams Oshiohmole.

     

    The Smart Card Reader

    The use of the Smart Card Reader (SCR) for electronic accreditation of voters by INEC frustrated any plan to manipulate the electoral process. As predicted in an analysis in The Nation of last Friday, voter turnout was low when compared with the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) distributed by the electoral umpire. Ordinarily, the introduction of voting immediately after accreditation should have encouraged voter accreditation. But one thing that the INEC has achieved with the new system is the elimination of multiple voting.

     

    A break from the old order

    The election of Akeredolu has opened a new chapter in the Sunshine State. The electorate have shown that they need a break from politicians who have links with the Alagbaka establishment.

    Though Akeredolu once served as the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in the state, it was under a military setting. The gate to the Alagbaka Government House has been shot against those with tainted relationship with power since the country returned to participatory democracy 17 years ago.

    As the governor-elect, all eyes would now be on Akeredolu and the expectation of the electorate who overwhelmingly voted for him is no doubt high. Having contested four years ago on the platform of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and lost, he is expected to hit the ground running when he formally takes the driver’s seat in February next year.

  • Be magnanimous in victory, Saraki urges Akeredolu

    Be magnanimous in victory, Saraki urges Akeredolu

    President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki has congratulated the Governor-elect of Ondo State, Chief Rotimi Akerodolu over his victory at the poll.

    Saraki in a statement by his Special Adviser, Media and Publicity Mr Yusuph Olaniyonu, in Abuja on Sunday, said the people of Ondo state “could not have had a better choice.’’

    Saraki said Akeredolu’s victory did not come to him as a surprise, going by his excellent credentials and years of preparedness for the business of governance.

    He, however, urged the governor-elect to be magnanimous in victory by working with all relevant stakeholders in the arduous task of moving the Sunshine State to the next level.

    He urged Akeredolu to fully deploy his wealth of experience garnered over many years in private legal practice in running the affairs of the state.

    Saraki lauded the security agencies and INEC for the peaceful conduct of the election and thanked the people of the state for voting for APC during the election.

    Saraki said: “The people of Ondo have made a clear choice by voting for the APC. I can only assure the good people of Ondo state that APC and its flag bearer have all it takes to wipe away your tears.

    ‘’Akeredolu will provide you the dividends of democracy that have hitherto eluded you.

    “With Akeredolu on the saddle of governance, I have no doubt that the state will soon witness unparalleled development socially, economically and politically.’’ (NAN)

  • Ondo: I’m still studying the election result- Jegede

    Ondo: I’m still studying the election result- Jegede

    Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Saturday’s governorship election in Ondo State, Mr Eyitayo Jegede has said that he is still studying the outcome of the election.

    “It is too early to decide on what to do as a person. My party, the PDP will decide what to do. We are still consulting with those that matter so as to know the next line of action, ” Jegede said on Sunday.

    In his reaction to the results of the election that produced Mr Rotimi Akeredolu as the winner, Jegede said “I know we have won the heart of the people and I should thank our people for standing by us and for their show of love and their steadfastness.”

    ‘We are studying the situation and in the fullness of time you will know what the position of the party is,’ he added.

    He stated that “the events that led to the election are known to you and I. We had 48 hours to prepare for the election. I was cleared by the court on Wednesday and had only Thursday to campaign and on Saturday I had to go for election.”

    “Our request for postponement of election was denied by INEC for reasons that we are yet to fathom and these are the things in the next few days we will have to review,” Jegede said

    The  state Chairman of the PDP, Mr Clement Faboyede while reacting to the results of the election said the party will meet tomorrow with all the stakeholders and our decision will be made public.

    “We thank God for the litigation processes and for the way we came out victorious and our heart desire candidate for PDP was cleared to contest the election few days to the election when there was no time for campaign.”