The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Tope Aluko

  • Aluko defeats Fayose’s candidate at PDP LG delegate election

    Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose on has suffered another electoral defeat at his home local government area.

    The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Delegate Election to choose representatives to the National Convention in Abuja was conducted in all the 16 local government areas on Tuesday.

    The governor’s candidate and former Minister of Aviation, Mr. Babatunde Omotoba, was defeated in Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area by former state PDP Secretary, Dr. Tope Aluko.

    At the election conducted at the Irepodun/Ifelodun local government PDP secretariat, Dr. Aluko polled 80 votes to defeat Omotoba who polled 4 votes.

    It will be recalled that Fayose lost the local government area to the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the last governorship election.

    According to the Returning Officer who is also the PDP Vice Chairman in Ekiti Central, Chief Tunji Kayode, 84 delegates were accredited to vote.

    Announcing the result, Kayode returned Dr. Aluko as elected having polled the hugest number of votes cast.

    The election was observed by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), officers of the Nigeria Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Department of State Services and journalists.

    Loyalists of Fayose did not show up at the poll and conduct was delayed for about two hours before voting started.

    Read Also: Fayose’s aide speaks on N75 million Lexus “parting gift”

    Before voting started at about 11.45 am, members described the congress as an opportunity to liberate the party from Fayose’s alleged stranglehold.

    Delegates who voted at the congress included House of Assembly member representing Irepodun/Ifelodun Constituency 1, Mr. Posi Omodara, ward executives including nine out of eleven ward chairmen and local government executives.

    Former PDP chairman in Irepodun/Irepodun council area, Mr. Jinadu Isiaka Olaoluwa, said alleged imposition of candidates by Fayose caused the party’s defeat at the July 14 local government election.

    Olaoluwa said the election of Aluko as the LG delegate to the National Convention has signalled an end to impunity, dictatorial tendency and personalization of the party by an individual.

    Speaking after his election as delegate to the National Convention, Dr. Aluko said 80 delegates formed quorum.

    He said: “I have been elected as the representative of this local government at the national convention in Abuja and I will give them responsive and responsible representation.

    “If some people decided not to show up, they are not up to 20 per cent. All the wards are represented here and I owe my victory to genuine party members.”

  • ‘We’re vindicated over claim on Ekitigate’

    ‘We’re vindicated over claim on Ekitigate’

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has said that the revelations by former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, has vindicated its claim that Governor Ayodele Fayose’s election on June 21, 2014, was compromised through heavy funding by the Federal Government, which also deployed the military, including compromise of INEC, to give victory to the governor.

    In a statement in Ado-Ekiti on Thursday by Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, the party said that Obanikoro’s confession that he gave millions of dollars in cash to Fayose to fix his election had left Nigerians in a clearer picture that Fayose won his election through fraud as the party had always insisted.

    “We said it that Fayose was mobilised by the Federal Government with funds, military and INEC to win his election.

    “Captain Sagir Koli’s tape said it all in an audio recording where Fayose himself said he collected INEC soft copies he printed to win his election before PDP State Secretary, Tope Aluko, told Nigerians through documents how the process was compromised to give victory to Fayose,” he said.

    Olatunbosun also berated the governor for denying the roles of the Federal Government in the manipulation of the election, saying that the revelations by Obanikoro had put a lie to the governor’s claim that Zenith Bank and private individuals funded his election.

    He said: “We have always insisted that Fayose is a fantastic kleptomaniac and a pathological liar whose integrity is in question as declared by an Ekiti State High Court judge in his suit against Femi Falana in a defamation case against the lawyer.

    “It is baffling that Fayose that had been grandstanding that he did not collect money from the Federal Government now has no answer to Obanikoro’s confession other than lying that the former minister was compromised to give his confession to nail him.

    “Fayose as a man obsessed with the life of fraud never believes that anything can be done without committing fraud, that is why he believes that Obanikoro was compromised to give evidence in a matter that was comprehensively documented and that cannot be denied by anybody in this world except Fayose who believes that lies and fraud can do anything for him.”

    Olatunbosun said now that Obanikoro had said it all to corroborate Aluko’s documented facts on the case, Fayose should get himself prepared to face the law.
    “It is now clear why Fayose made himself the spokesman of the opposition criticising every action of the Federal Government and getting himself involved in seditious and treasonable activities to bring President Muhammadu’s administration down.
    “But the game is up. The long arms of the law will eventually catch up with Fayose because whatever a man sows, he shall reap.

    “We agree with Fayose that Buhari should fight hunger, but we also agree that the President should fight those who cause hunger by looting the nation’s treasury of which  Fayose is a major beneficiary as can be seen in his various acts of corruption and so he should get  prepared to face the law because the law is above everybody,” Olatunbosun concluded.

  • I didn’t reconcile with Fayose- Aluko

    I didn’t reconcile with Fayose- Aluko

    Former Secretary  Ekiti State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Tope Aluko has said the purported reconciliation between him and Governor Ayodele Fayose was not true.
    At a conference in Lagos,  Aluko said he was under duress to admit to a reconciliation which was aimed at tarnishing his integrity.
    He said he had gone to Eko Hotel Lagos on Sunday, April 3, to honour an invitation by the PDP leadership to address some issues affecting the state, stressing that Ekiti has been in the news for the wrong reason in recent times.
    Aluko said he went to the meeting in the company of his wife and  was shocked to see Governor Fayose walked into the meeting. He said  he was obliged to be at the meeting because he was invited by two senior members of the party.
    “I need not recall the drama and face off that ensued between me and Fayose  inside the meeting. It is worthy of note that it was at this point that my wife badged into the meeting to inform me of the presence of pressmen.
    “At that point I became I became enraged and decided to leave the the place but I noticed Governor Fayose rushing after me downstairs in a gestapo manner.
    “My wife was already fidgeting and almost crying and suddenly I could not find her around me. I immediately realized that I need to oblige Governor Fayose’s  instruction of the facing the press because of the safety of my family. “
    The former PDP scribe stressed that he never refuted his earlier position and still stood by his words. “I have earlier said before before Nigerians and the whole world about the manipulation that characterized the 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State and still stand by all I said.
    “You will also notice the several counter allegations by Fayose and his media team that none of them has refuted all I have said, rather the attack has been on the messenger and not the message. I will like to apologise to all Nigerians that perhaps, accepting the invitation was a tactical error.
    “I will also like you to know that I am dealing with a master fraudster who is always full of mischief. You will allrecollect how he announced the purported death of Hon. AfolabiAkanni; the purported arrest of four members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly that later resurfaced.
    ” I need to emphasize that all that transpired at Eko Hotel on that faithful day was an organized propaganda/drama to stain my image and malign my personal integrity and I believe it would be a good script for Nollywood act,” he said.

  • APC uncovers plot to attack Buhari’s convoy in Ekiti

    … It’s not true – PDP

    The Ekiti State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday said it had uncovered an alleged plot by agents of Governor Ayo Fayose to attack the convoy of its presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, who visits the state for a rally on Saturday.

    The party alleged that thugs have been mobilized to ambush convoys of APC members on their way to the venue of the campaign rally and cause mayhem on the day of the rally.

    The APC Publicity Secretary in the state, Taiwo Olatunbosun, in a statement on Monday said some Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) members have been recruited as “task force members” who has commenced the task of removing the posters of Buhari from where they were pasted ahead of Saturday.

    Olatunbosun said the posters were being removed despite the fact that the party had paid signage fees to the state Signage Agency, describing the action as “highest height of desperation.”

    The APC spokesman alleged that Fayose had already hired members of OPC with alleged help by the self-styled Speaker of the House of Assembly, Dele Olugbemi, himself a member of Dr. Fredrick Fasheun’s faction of the group, to attack the convoys of APC members on their way to the rally as PDP did in Rivers State.‎

    The OPC members, the party said, were engaged as task force men remove the posters of APC candidates. They are also to strike at the campaign grounds to cause stampede, the party alleged.

    “Fayose’s desperation knows no bounds. He took The Punch front page advertorial on Monday depicting that Buhari will die in office like three other Presidents from the North died in office.

    “This is dangerous for our national unity and ethnic harmony. Fayose is dangerous to Nigeria’s unity and the earlier the authorities, Nigerians and Ekiti people in particular appreciate this, the better for us as a nation,” Olatubosun explained.

    He said the OPC members were already in town to be deployed to entry points to Ado-Ekiti where they would ambush APC members on their way to the campaign grounds.

    Olatunbosun revealed that so far, the government-backed OPC men had removed Buhari’s posters pasted in his campaign office in Ado-Ekiti as well as those pasted in the party’s office in the state capital.

    “This is a clear case of undermining the peace pact brokered by eminent international leaders last week‎.

    “It is sad that after President Jonathan campaigned in Ekiti State, Fayose sent signage officials and OPC thugs to be removing our candidates’ posters after paying necessary fees to the agency.

    “Fayose’s hatred for Buhari knew no bounds, as his aide was behind a fake medical report on Buhari, declaring him as a prostate cancer patient.

    “Fayose’s aide forged the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital‎ letter and forged the signature of a non-existent consultant to declare Buhari as a prostate cancer patient,” he stated.

    But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) described the allegation as a “figment of APC allegation,” saying it harbors no plan to attack a candidate whose campaign is being trailed by health challenges and certificate controversy.”

    The PDP Secretary in the state, Tope Aluko, absolved Fayose of the alleged plot, saying the governor is busy leading the party’s campaign for its national and state Assembly candidates.

     

  • 32 aspirants bid for Ekiti PDP ticket

    32 aspirants bid for Ekiti PDP ticket

    Thirty-two aspirants are jostling for the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) governorship ticket in Ekiti State.

    The party’s primary election is slated for early March.

    It was learnt that the aspirants were scheming to outdo one another.

    Sources said some were associating with the Presidency to garner support in the primary.

    Recently, some members accused the State PDP Chairman, Chief Makanjuola Ogundipe, of planning to raise “a fictitious Consensus Template Drafting Committee”, which they described as “a grand scheme to skew some aspirants into advantages”.

    The party’s Secretary, Dr. Tope Aluko, and Pastor Oluwawole, in a statement last Wednesday, said Ogundipe had been avoiding members of the State Working Committee (SWC) since he returned from Abuja, after a meeting of the aspirants with President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Ogundipe denied the allegation, saying he was waiting for yesterday’s meeting before briefing them.

    Members of the SWC met at Ogundipe’s home yesterday to discuss the mobilisation of the people for the forthcoming voter registration.

    A former Acting Governor, Biodun Ayeni, has joined the governorship race.

    Speaking with reporters in Ado-Ekiti, Ayeni said politics is not a do-or-die affair.

    He said: “I have no reason to see the election as a war because I am not fighting for myself but the interest of the party.”