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Tag: voters

  • Body to sensitise voters ahead council poll

    Body to sensitise voters ahead council poll

    Ahead of the local government election holding December 16 in Ondo State, Conscience Movement is set to carry out extensive voter education.

     In a statement signed by Chairman of the group, Shalom Olaseni, he said there would be a ward tour to galvanise popular participation and voter education.

     Olaseni said the association is  committed to promoting active civic engagement. 

    The statement reads: “We, Ondo State Conscience Movement, are thrilled to announce our ambitious and unprecedented initiative – Ward Tour of all 203 Wards in Ondo State.

    Read Also: Bayelsa voters vow to stop rigging

     “This monumental effort is aimed at sensitising our people, galvanising popular participation, and carrying out extensive voter education ahead of the upcoming local elections in our state.

     “Through our tour, we aim to inspire and encourage increased participation in the electoral process, from voter registration to election day turnout. We want every eligible voter to exercise their right to vote.

    “We believe an informed citizenry is the cornerstone of a thriving democracy. By visiting all 203 wards, we aim to sensitise our people about the significance of their participation in the electoral process”.

  • Voters have shown resolve for corrupt-free country, says APC chief 

    A founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State, Prince Preye Aganaba, has said the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari was a testimony that Nigerians preferred a corruption-free country.

    Aganaba described the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections as the fairest in the history of the country.

    Speaking in Yenagoa, Aganaba said President Muhammadu Buhari deserved his victory insisting that the All Progressives Congress (APC) had shown its commitment to the rule of law by ensuring a transparent electoral process.

    He said: “The Febuary 23 presidential election is the fairest in the history of the country, no wonder it is adjuged by well-respected international election observers, to be free, fair and a vast improvement from the 2015 presidential elections.

    “The victory is for every patriotic Nigerian who have upheld the sacred code of honour by putting Nigeria first, above all ethnic, religious, selfish and political sentiments.

    “Nigerians have demonstrated their faith and preference for a corrupt-free and a stable democratic country by speaking resoundingly through the ballot box and I thank every single man,woman and youth out there for their sacrifices and commitment to democracy.

    “My sincere appreciation also goes to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for living up to the expectations of Nigerians and conducting a hitch -free Presidential and National Assembly polls.”

    Aganaba said he was confident of the President’s zeal and patriotism to continue to protect citizens, improve the economy through business and entrepreneurship development, create more jobs, renew and sustain onslaught against corruption.

  • Enugu PDP thanks voters

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State has thanked electorates for their support during last Saturday’s elections.

    The party said its victory was a bold reaffirmation of the electorate belief in its people-friendly policies.

    A statement by the Director of Communication, Nana Ogbodo, said it was “heartwarming that such remarkable victory was attained despite the apparent voter disillusionment following an earlier postponement”.

    Read also: EFCC arraigns 19 for alleged illegal oil deal

    The party urged “the people of our dear state to demonstrate an even greater enthusiasm during the March 9 governorship and House of Assembly elections by voting for Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, if only to underscore our collective appreciation for his intense commitment and sacrifices which have impacted the people’s lives”.

    “We further enjoin our supporters and the people to continue to remain law-abiding and shun acts that could negate the peace and security for which Enugu State is reputed. In the same vein, we urge the opposition parties to rein in their supporters and admonish them to refrain from conducts or incendiary comments that could cause a breakdown of law and order.”

  • PDP to voters: don’t be scared by Buhari’s order

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged voters not to be scared by what the party described as a shoot-on-sight directive against would-be ballot box snatchers.

    President Muhammadu Buhari had, on Monday, ordered the military and other security agencies to deal ruthlessly with anyone caught snatching ballot boxes during tomorrow’s presidential and National Assembly elections.

    Speaking at a media briefing in Abuja yesterday, the PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, urged Nigerians to be focussed and refuse to be intimidated as they go out to cast their votes.

    The party chair described the President’s directive as a ploy to manipulate the result of the elections.

    Secondus said: “When the President threatened the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after the elections were rescheduled, the intention was to frighten and cow them into playing along with the All Progressives Congress (APC) agenda.

    “When they harass, arrest and block bank accounts of the opposition stakeholders, what they want is to win at all cost.

    “When they drag military institutions into politics, the aim is obviously to destroy that institution the way they are doing to the legislature and the judiciary.

    “But I urge you Nigerians to refuse to be intimidated or provoked but remain focused and fix your eyes on the ball, which is victory that is coming on Sunday.

    The chairman appealed to stakeholders in the election, particularly the INEC, security agencies and political party agents, to remember that the election is about Nigeria.

    “This election is about rescuing this country. It’s about sustaining our democracy.”

    The chairman of the Strategy Committee of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Osita Chidoka, said that the world was watching Nigeria and urged voters to be patient, peaceful and tolerant.

    He urged Nigerians to demonstrate to Africa and the world that the country is irrevocably committed to democracy, transparency and the rule of law.

    Chidoka said the PDP had learnt its lessons from previous elections and so determined to give Nigerians the confidence that their votes, as expressed at the ballot, will count.

    He said: “Local and international observer groups have set up various models of vote tabulation that will enhance the credibility and validity of the election.

    “All parties have had the privilege of reviewing the official PVT system’s potential to scientifically and statistically validate the election within an acceptable margin of error.”

    According to him, the PDP is fully prepared to resist intimidation, extrajudicial procedures and partisanship on the part of security agencies.

  • Okoroafor to voters: follow your heart

    General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God Nigeria, Rev Dr Chidi Okoroafor, has urged Nigerians to vote whoever they want to lead them according to their consciences.

    Okoroafor, who was in Calabar for the City Gospel Bells Invasion crusade tagged total freedom, also urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow votes count.

    The cleric, who said they have already committed the upcoming elections to God, urged Nigerians to eschew violence at the polls.

    He also visited the three monarchs of Calabar, the Obong of Calabar, Edidem Ekpo Okon Abasi Otu V; the Ndidem of the Quas, Ndidem Patrick Inok Oquagbor V and the Muri Munene of the Efuts, Muri Munene Itam Hogan.

    “We have prayed. Politics is like a game. You can either win or lose. You don’t shed blood because you want to get to the throne.

    “Let everybody know that it is God who puts kings. Somebody may win an election and God would decide he would not be the leader.

    “He can decide to remove you midnight before your inauguration. You can die.

    “So everybody should be careful and I want to advise that everyone should do their job by voting, follow your conscience.

    “I want to challenge the umpire, INEC, to make sure that votes count because one of the things that discourage voters is when they are not sure that their votes would count.

    “Please let INEC make the votes count. Let us not mortgage this nation because of money,” Okoroafor said.

    Okoroafor said the church came into Calabar with over 1, 000 crowned evangelists for the City Invasion.

    “We are into Calabar with over 1, 000 crowned evangelists, who will comb the city from house preaching the gospel of emancipation. What we call personal evangelism.

    “Then in the evening, we would gather at the stadium for evangelistic crusade. We believe God it would be a period people would encounter Christ and encounter salvation.

    “When God is in charge anything can happen. I want to say that the Lord Jesus has taken over Calabar and we are just here to be witnesses to what the Lord had done already in this place.”

  • Oyo poll: Group urges voters to vote wisely

    Two months to the governorship election in Oyo State, a socio-political group the Oyo K’ajola Group (OKG), has urged voters to vote wisely.

    The group said Oyo State will be better, if men of vision are elected.

    The group, in a statement in Ibadan, the state capital, said in the  19 years of civilian rule, the state has not witnessed monumental progress, in terms of physical development. It said: “its people have been left behind in terms of economic prosperity and well-being,” noting that that trend must be reversed.

    The group said people must look beyond sloganeering to elect a candidate “with no selfish interest or an incorporated political company within or outside the state.

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    It added: “More than ever before in the 42 years history of Oyo State, the processes that will produce the next governor of the state cannot be left to the whims and caprices of politicians, so that they will not hijack the processes like they always do and keep our collective poverty in perpetuity.

    “It is time for all well-meaning people of the state to get involved by electing an individual with no selfish interest or an incorporated political company; it is high time Oyo voters say: K’ajola, k’a jolowo (together, we prosper).”

    Flaying the self-centeredness of some governors, which saw their families and few cronies amassing wealth, the group urged the electorate to take action by looking in the direction of a governorship candidate with concrete plans for wealth creation, equitable distribution, an all-inclusive programme for shared economic prosperity and creation of enabling environment for residents’ prosperity.

    The group maintained that though the high numbers of governorship candidates had made the political situation of the state complex, the voters must rise above primordial tendencies and distill the campaign promises of the candidates with a view to making a decision that would be in their interest and that of the state.

    It stressed: “The 2019 election provides the Oyo voters with an opportunity to end the personal and crinies enrichment policies of the last eight years and vote in a governor who possesses a track record of doing good and empowering the less-privileged. It is time to hand over the keys to Agodi Government House to a governor whose focus is the collective prosperity of Oyo State people. It is time to say “K’a jola , ka jo lowo !” (shared prosperity),” the statement added.

     

  • Lagos APC urges voters to ignore PDP’s falsehood

    •‘Ex-ruling party planned to cripple Lagos councils’

    The Lagos State All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday urged the residents to reject the promise of freedom by the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    APC noted that a party that rejected the creation of additional local council development areas (LCDAs) in the state cannot defend its interest.

    The party said the PDP had started making fake promises to hoodwink and deceive voters out of the opposition’s desperation for power.

    In a statement in Ikeja, the state capital, Lagos APC Publicity Secretary Joe Igbokwe said the PDP will fail at next year’s polls, reminiscent of its previous failures in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015.

    He said: “Lagos PDP is talking about freedom but they forgot how we fought to create the 37 LCDAs against their PDP’s tyranny led by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Lagos local government area (LGA) fund was seized for years to blackmail and punish Lagos. But Lagos progressives stood their ground and the rest is now history.

    “Jimi Agbaje is promising Lagos Fourth Mainland Bridge, but he may not know how a Lagosian, Adeseye Ogunlewe of Lagos PDP, used his position as Minister of Works and Housing under former President Obasanjo to scuttle the laudable project after Asiwaju Bola Tinubu had secured an agreement with a Chinese company to build that very important bridge.”

    Igbokwe said former Governor Tinubu would have built a 24-hour power supply project, if the Federal Government, under Obasanjo, did not use its enormous power to stop the project, hiding under the premise that matters of power generation is in the Exclusive List.

    The APC spokesman recalled that when Asiwaju Tinubu’s successor, Babatunde Fashola (SAN), wanted to build independent power plants for street lights at Alausa, Akute water project, the old state secretariat at Ikeja, Island General Hospital, the State House at Marina and Lekki, the PDP government wanted to erect roadblocks.

    Igbokwe said Lagosians will continue to vote for APC because successive progressive administrations uplifted the state and built lasting legacies.

    He said: “Attempts were made to get permission from the Federal Government controlled by Jimi Agbaje’s PDP to rebuild Lagos Airport Road and Badagry Expressway. Fashola later got permission from former President Goodluck Jonathan to start the Light Rail Project from Marina to Okokomaiko and got the permit to rebuild Ikorodu Road, Funsho Williams Avenue, Ozumba Mbadiwe Street to Lekki. Today, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode is building Lagos Airport Road after securing permission from President Muhammadu Buhari.

    “For 16 years in Lagos, the progressive government, led by Asiwaju Tinubu, Fashola and Ambode have worked so hard to free Lagos from the firm grip of the power that be in the PDP and thank God for the coming of a progressive government in Abuja which has made things easy now. This is the reward of many years of perseverance, courage, hard work and commitment by the successive progressive leaders in Lagos.”

    Read also: No political gang-up can stop Sanwo-Olu – Lagos APC

    He added: “In 2003, Jimi Agbaje’s PDP stole all the states in the Southwest, except Lagos. Chief Bola Ige, Obasanjo’s Attorney General, was murdered in cold blood to pave the way for PDP’s criminal escapades in the Southwest. His wife, the late Justice Atunike Ige, could not survive the shock of her husband’s murder. Chief Abraham Adesanya, the leader of the Yoruba nation then, never recovered from this open day robbery the PDP initiated and executed with clinical process and execution.

    “You can now see why Lagosians do not like the PDP and will never like the PDP. So, when the confused and inexperienced Jimi Agbaje talks about freedom in Lagos, we remind him that ignorance is not an excuse. We remind him that we know what real freedom is all about and how we got to where we are today.

    “Jimi Agbaje has no experience and knowledge of the public sector. He has nothing to bring to the table except the miserable and poor experience of managing one small pharmacy shop in Apapa with no branch anywhere in Lagos or across Nigeria.”

     

  • Impressive turnout of voters

    The Osun State governorship election witnessed massive turnout yesterday.

    The election in which 48 political parties had participated started at exactly 8.00 am in many polling units in the 30 council areas of the state.

    Electoral materials and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials arrived many polling centers visited by our correspondent before 8.00 am.

    Reports showed the exercise was peaceful as there was no record of violence in many polling units across the state.

    Turnout was impressive in Ilesa, the homestead of the incumbent governor Rauf Aregbesola.

    The governor, who arrived Ilesa around 11.00 am, drove straight to his family house in Ogbon Arogbo, Ifofin in Ilesa East Local Government area of the state.

    Alongside his wife, Serifat, the governor came out to vote at Ward 8 Unit 1 Ifofin polling booth around 11.50 am after accreditation.

    He spoke with reporters shortly, describing the conduct of the election as peaceful.

    Aregbesola, who commended voters for trooping and conducting themselves in a decent manner, said reports reaching him from all parts of the state show that the exercise was going on well.

    He expressed hope that voters will sustain their peaceful disposition to the election.

    The Presiding Officer in Ward 8 Unit 1 Ifofin, Saheed Lawal, said all electoral materials arrived on time, adding that accreditation and voting commenced immediately at 8.00 am.

    According to him, the polling booths split into two have 818 registered voters.

    Our correspondent reported that voting exercise was peaceful in many polling centers within Ilesa East and Ilesa West local government areas, including Ward 1 unit 8, Ward 2 unit 2, Ward 7 unit 1, Ward 7 unit 6 and Ward 8 unit 1.

    Voters got to polling centers, including Unit 13 Ward 4 Fagbewesa in Osogbo, the state capital, Unit 6 Ward 5 Ikire, Unit 4 Ward 4, Unit 1 Ward 9 Ikire, Unit 5 Ward 4 Iragbiji, Wards 10 and 12 Lagere in Ife, Ward 5 Units 2A and 2B Ikire, Ward 6 Units 9A and 9B, to carry out their civic responsibilities.

    In some of the polling units visited in Ilesha and Ile-Ife, majority of the voters came to the polling units with their smart phones but security agents did not allow them to take the gadgets to the voting cubicles.

    A domestic election observer, Jimmy George, commended security agents for preventing voters from using their phones to to avoid vote buying.

  • Give anti-workers govs red card, Labour tells voters

    Organised Labour under the auspices of the Nigeria Civil Service Union (NCSU) has asked workers not to re-elect governors that don’t care about them.

    Rather, it urged the workers to serve them red card at the 2019 general elections for lacking the conscience to do what is right.

    In a communiqué at the end of its 70th National Executive Council meeting, the union asked governors owing salaries and pensions to stop treating workers as worthless citizens.

    The communiqué signed by the National President, Comrade Lawrence Amaechi and acting General Secretary, Yahaya Ndako, the union also passed a vote of no confidence on Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha over what it described as his anti- labour policies.

    The union also expressed concerns over delay in concluding the ongoing negotiation on the new National minimum wage.

    The communiqué reads in parts: “NEC-in-Session resolves that the union will oppose vehemently any action aimed at delaying this process.

    “To this end, therefore the NEC urges the Federal Government to match its words with actions so that the high expectations of workers on the implementation of the new minimum wage would be realised on or before September, 2018.

    “Failure, the entire members of the Union will not take it with levity.

     

     

    “The 70th NEC applauds the bold and proactive steps taken by the President of Nigeria Labour Congress to report the Federal Government to ILO, on their obnoxious and draconian Labour bill aimed at distorting our Industrial Relations landscape.

    “NCSU notes that any attempt to pass a bill that negates or violates ILO Convention 98, would be vehemently resisted by organised Labour.”

    The union rejected the high and intimidating rate of unemployment, which it said pose grave serious security risks.

     

  • Ekiti 2018: Massive turnout of voters amid heavy security

    There was a massive turnout of voters in Ekiti as the accreditation and voting process got underway in the governorship election.

    Reporters monitoring the election across the three senatorial districts of the state report that many voters had arrived their polling units as early as 6.30 a.m. to wait for election officials.

    Across many polling units in Ado Ekiti, the state capital, there was an impressive turnout of enthusiastic voters determined to exercise their civic responsibilities.

    At ward 10 Unit 12 a&b, Basiri area of Ado-Ekiti, the Assistant Presiding Officer, Miss Nafisat Jamie, told our reporter that though they collected all the election materials as early as 6.00 am, the process could not start due to transportation challenge to the unit.

    As at 8.53 am, the names of eligible voters were just being pasted for viewing and confirmation.

    An observer from the Transition Monitoring Group, Mrs. TosinAbati, said the process started late due to late arrival of INEC officials.

    At Ward 10 Unit 9, Okesha area of the state capital, the Assistant Presiding Officer 2, Mr OwoseniTaiwo, addressed the voters, who were already on the queue and opened the ballot box for everyone to see and confirm that it was empty.

    Visits to Wards 3, Units 5 and 13 Idemo, and Ward 9 Unit 12 Odo-Ado revealed accreditation and voting were going on simultaneously with security men on standby.

    An observer from the Alliance for Credible Election, Dr Mike Omilusi, commended INEC for its pro-active strategies in terms of  voter education and sensitisation ahead of the  poll.

    He also commended INEC on the use of the card readers for the election, but advised that more card readers be made available in future elections.

    The observer said that the new idea of accreditation and voting simultaneously was commendable, noting that this would ensure quick conclusion of the exercise.

    At the St Michael’s School, Ajilosun, opposite Mobil filling station, the turnout was also impressive while the accreditation and voting process was also going on simultaneously.

    Speaking with our reporter, an observer from the Justice Development and Peace Initiative, Mr Aluko Isaiah, said the election started well until when the card reader in one of the wards stopped working for about 45 minutes before it was rectified.

    In Isan-Ekiti, where the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Dr Kayode Fayemi, hails from, accreditation and voting commenced across many polling units between 8.03a.m and 8.38. In Fayemi’s Polling Unit 009 Ward 11, accreditation and voting commenced at about 8:38 a.m. although INEC officials arrived at about 7:26 a.m.

    Accreditation and voting began in Polling Units 006 and 007 as well as 005 between 8: 03 am and 8:10 a.m.

    At Unit 009, no fewer than 345 names of voters appeared on the pasted registered list.

    In Ikere -Ekiti, the home town of the PDP flagbearer, Prof. KolapoOlusola, voters trooped out as early as 6.30 am to various polling units.

    No fewer than 667,064 eligible voters collected their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) out of the 913, 334 registered.