15032019 - INEC kicks as court stops make-up polls in Adamawa

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40 — Vanguard, FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2019 Ajimobi, Okorocha, Ganduje: An unfolding story IT’s incredible how eight years have ended as a two-word parable: constituted authority. That’s what Governor Abiola Isiaka Ajimobi would be mostly remembered for - the epigram from his encounter with students of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH. That episode was perhaps one of the most catastrophic PR disasters of Ajimobi’s eight-year tenure. A teacher’s strike over the status/funding of the school two years ago left the students stranded for nearly one academic year. When the governor finally met them, all he needed to do was to climb down from his high horse and show some empathy. Tell them he felt their pain and frustration, and what he was doing to end it. Tell them that anyone of them could have been his own children and the last thing he would wish was for his children to be out of school for one year, no matter what the problem was, with still no end in sight. Soothe their pain, calm their nerves and come down to their level. He did not. Instead, as tensions flared and a few in the crowd taunted him, he railed back like a village headmaster, desperately looking for a scapegoat or two among the students to give a few strokes of the cane on bare buttocks. How dare the students challenge “constituted authority!” Never mind that it took this “constituted authority” nearly one academic year to discover that its own university was shut down. Ajimobi yo-yoed with the idea of unleashing the police on a few vocal students in the crowd, then pulled back when he saw he was playing with fire. But it was too late. The video went viral and the governor earned himself a new name, a moniker, which I’m told even cabinet members use to mock him behind his back: constituted authority. Chieftaincy wars Later the same year, the governor expanded his battleground to include the Olubadan in a suicidal political mission to downgrade the palace to his Boys’ Quarters and make the Olubadan just one of the numerous tenants. Whatever the governor’s rationale for tampering with the chieftaincy laws, the malicious intent was not going to be forgiven easily in a state with a long memory, a sharp tongue, and a deep, unashamedly old-fashioned attachment to its myths and traditions. But Ajimobi still didn’t get it. Not even after the initial ruling by the court that he was out of •Okorocha, Ganduje and Ajimobi...swept away? order and many high-powered representations to dissuade him. He stuck to his guns and increasingly assumed an air of infallibility. He had, in fact, done what Napoleon could not do, so where was the mountain left to conquer? He is the first governor in Oyo State’s history to have a second term. And this historic feat had created a certain sense of selfassurance and immortality that banished that intuitive sense of danger, sometimes vital to selfpreservation. The primary question was always, who’s next to conquer? In that sense, the demolition of the music studios of Yinka Ayefele, after the governor’s personal assurances of amnesty to the distraught Mrs. Ayefele who begged Ajimobi in tears in the Government House the night before the bulldozers moved in, was just a blip. There was nothing too hard for the governor to do. Insiders said the governor came only inches from demolishing the fence of Tribune newspapers in Imalefalafia, brushing aside attempts to restrain him each time, with the reminder that even if he turns out wrong in the end: “It’s not my money that will pay for restitution. It’s government money!” Who ‘did’ Ajimobi? The summary of Ajimobi’s eight-year tenure is that he did not know how to talk - and worse, he did not know how to listen. I wish I could say it in elegant English, the Ibadan way. If he killed himself by not knowing how to talk, he might have been redeemed from the political death by listening before choosing a candidate to carry the party’s flag. Unfortunately, even that potentially redemptive act, became the final nail in his own political coffin. This is not how it was meant to be. After years of turbulence and rancour, which left Ibadan as a glorified village and most parts of Oyo backward for decades, the coming of Abiola Isiaka Ajimobi as governor was supposed to be a breath of fresh air. Ajimobi had 26-year private sector experience and was a cosmopolitan as they come. He did not seem encumbered by the provincialism and identity politics that were the albatross of a number of his predecessors. A one-time senator and twoterm governor, how benefitting it would have been to crown his modest achievements in infrastructure with another ticket to the Senate and a successor to carry on his work. But that is not to be. Instead, for some time to come, his tenure would be a standard reference in Sunday school on the perils of pride and the vanity of hubris. Friend from the East Ajimobi is not in entirely without comfort, though. Rochas The wind that swept away Ajimobi in the South West and claimed Governor Okorocha’s senatorial ambition in the South East, has just arrived in Kano Okorocha, the outgoing governor of Imo State, is facing his own moment of truth. After eight years of Iberiberism, a homegrown political philosophy which lavishes the state’s treasury on family and in-laws, while using what is left to build statues and honour crooks. Okorocha is finding out the hard way that foolishness digs its own shallow grave. At a time when he would not pay salaries or pensions, he found money to create Africa’s longest Statues Street, lining up images of whoever he fancied, as if the people would eat statues for their labour. When teachers were on less than half salaries, Okorocha still found enough money to make large billboards, with pictures of himself in benevolent smile over a state in misery. In the summer of 2015, he famously celebrated his visit to the U.S. on Buhari’s entourage by erecting a large billboard in Owerri, with a picture of himself smiling sheepishly before former President Barack Obama. The lowest points for me were the times when school children whose teachers were on half pay and whose parents didn’t know where the next meal would come from were brought to perform for the governor and to sing his praise. It was iberibe on a whole new level. Apparently, the fellow doesn’t know it’s over now; or maybe he knows but just lacks the grace to accept it and compassion for the long-suffering people of Imo. Okorocha still put himself forward to represent Imo West in the Senate; his son-in-law as candidate to succeed him; and his wife as the state’s matriarch-inchief. When it became clear to him that his bid had failed, he reportedly threatened the returning officer - the same way he has held Imo at gunpoint for eight years - to declare him winner. Let’s see how far that gets him. If the All Progressives Congress, APC, ever sits down to take stock of the 2019 election, it would find that in a number of the states where it lost – or could still lose – its governors were the party’s worst enemies. The only exception, perhaps, is Plateau, where the governor’s obsequiousness in handling the herdsmen-farmer’s clashes could cost him his second-term bid. …And the North, too As Governor Abdullahi Ganduje’s fate hangs by a thread in Kano, it is clear that he is not the oracle that he pretended to be. His attempt to humiliate and depose Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi over the so-called dodgy palace expenses; his spectacular fallout with his former boss, Rabiu Kwankwaso; and the controversial video of him lining his pocket with wads of dollar bills, have eroded his popularity and diminished any modest achievements. After last Saturday’s election, thanks to an extraordinarily courageous and professional commissioner of police, Mohammed Wakili, it must have dawned on Ganduje by now that the one million people who voted for Buhari on February 23 did so not at the governor’s behest, but in spite of him. Whatever Ganduje promised Buhari or thinks Buhari owes him, he forgot that in Kano politics, it’s charity and honesty, above all. That’s how it’s been since Aminu Kano. Kano does not follow the crowd; it creates its own crowd and makes its own choice. It voted Buhari not because of what he has done or not done, but because Buhari promised to jail thieves. Now, voters are pointing him to a piece of red meat in the Kano Government House. The wind that swept away Ajimobi in the South West and claimed Governor Okorocha’s senatorial ambition in the South East, has just arrived in Kano. It’s hard to see how Ganduje will survive it. Fayemi inaugurates state Electricity Regulation Act By Rotimi Ojomoyela A D O - E K I T I — GOVERNOR Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, yesterday inaugurated the State Electricity Regulatory Act 2015, assuring that the incessant conflict between the Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC and electricity consumers in the State will soon be resolved. Inaugurating the Act which was originally signed into law by former Governor Ayo Fayose in September 2015, Governor Fayemi his government intervened in the BEDC / consumer crisis immediately the administration was inaugurated in October last year by setting up a committee to look into the power problem. Fayemi, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Biodun Oyebanji, recalled that no fewer than 47 communities were disconnected from the national grid before October 2018 but the present administration is taking steps to ensure that they are reconnected. Okowa, Nigeria's most valuable political asset — EFEKODHA A member of Delta State Rural Development Agency, Prince Larry Efekodha have said that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State is a grand master in the art of dispensing prosperity to his people, stressing that he is the best political asset in the country. Efekhoda said this in Asaba while addressing Deltans during his thank-you tour for People's Democratic Party, PDP and Okowa's victory He said: ''Okowa will perform better than his first four years in office and Nigerians will need him for greater national assignment thereafter. His good work will continue to promote the Democratic Party's brand and position it to be the foremost party in Africa. ''His landslide victory with almost a million votes is an evidence to the fact that Deltans love him for his ‘Prosperity' works. We shall continue to work with Okowa to spread dividends of democracy to all Deltans till he gets to the highest level of public service in Nigeria. Efekhode, who was the President of University of Benin students union also said: ''Governor Okowa is a rare germ, a fast thinker, a smart worker and a promise keeper, whose superior qualities are needed for service to humanity at all times. His level of integrity is second to none. He conducted the most peaceful and transparent party primaries in the history of Nigeria. Just like Deltan's, Nigerian's will benefit from his great leadership qualities within the coming period. ''Today, Governor Okowa has embarked upon numerous human capital, as well as infrastructural development throughout Delta State. Okowa's winning have also enthrenched equity as a peaceful political doctrine in Delta State.''
Vanguard, FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2019—41 vanguardnews @vanguardnews @vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES 018773962, 08052867058 CERTIFICATES OF RETURN —From left: Elected senators from Cross River State, Sen. Gershom Bassey (PDP); Sen. Rose Oko (PDP) and Sen. Onor Ojang (PDP), during the presentation of Certificates of Return to elected members of the National Assembly in Abuja, yesterday. Photo: NAN. INEC kicks as court stops make-up polls in Adamawa Continues from Page 5 in respect of Adamawa State Governorship pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice.” The Judge ruled that all the processes relating to the suit be served to Adamawa INEC in Yola in compliance with Order 6 of the Court. The case was adjourned to March 21 for hearing of motion for the interlocutory injunction. Reacting to the ruling, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Barrister Kassim Gaidam, said the commission is not aware of any court case banning it from conducting the supplementary election. However, let me tell you that court order will not stop any election” He cited Section 87 sub section 10 of the Electoral Act to buttress his point. Nothing in this section shall empower the court to stop the holding of primary or general election or the process thereof under this act pending the determination of a suit,” the REC said. PDP vows to resist electoral fraud in Sokoto Accusing the Federal Government and the APC of plotting to use the military and other security agents to win the Sokoto State governorship election, the PDP vowed to resist any form of electoral fraud. Sokoto State Governor and PDP Candidate, Aminu Tambuwal is leading his APC challenger with over 4,000 votes, which makes the supplementary election very decisive. Chairman of the PDP in Sokoto, Alhaji Ibrahim Milgoma, in a statement said that any attempt by the government and its security agents to manipulate the process would lead to serious consequences. The party said it was only asking the government to allow a level playing field for the two candidates in the poll and boasted that its candidate, Governor Tambuwal, would win given the electorate’s preference for him. Naira depreciates to N360.36/$ in I&E window By Elizabeth Adegbesan IN spite of the 407 per cent rise in the volume of dollars traded, the Naira, yesterday, depreciated to N360.36 per dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window. Data from FMDQ showed that the indicative exchange rate for the window rose to N360.29 per dollar from N360.44 per dollar on Wednesday translating to seven kobo depreciation of the naira. The volume of dollars traded on the window rose by 407 percent to $308.66 million from $60.94 million traded on Wednesday. However, the naira yesterday was stable at N358 per dollar in the parallel market. The statement said: “The People’s Democratic Party in Sokoto State is aware of plans by the Federal Government and the All Progressives Congress at national level to massively deploy security agents and military troops to the State during the supplementary elections for governorship and State Assembly, scheduled for March 23, 2019. ‘’This is clearly with a view to militarising the polls in order to intimidate and terrify our people into submission and deny them the freedom and composure to elect candidates of their choice, the same game plan of the APC for the two subsequent elections. “Our party is also in the know that prominent politicians from other states, especially those neighbouring Sokoto State, will be assigned into Sokoto to try to influence the vote in the areas affected by the election reschedule. “Our party wishes to caution all the parties and individuals involved in the scheme against an infringement on the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of our people to their choice. ‘’The PDP also draws the attention of these schemers to the inherent dangers of their plans to the safety of our people, their lives and property. “Sokoto is a peaceful state, our people are peace loving and law abiding and therefore do not deserve this unwarranted interference and harassment that greatly threatens our lives, at the altar of crude quest for power. “Sokoto State, as the originator of all its neighbours, deserves respect and the goodwill of its sisters, rather than be turned into a battle zone for unscrupulous politicians, who wish to rule our people against their will. “Our people have expressed their will in the unjustifiably disrupted electoral process and will not be cowed into changing their choice by any force, however massive, contriving or strong. “It should be noted however, that the APC, the institutions of the Federal Government and individuals involved in this plot will be held responsible for the possible negative consequences of their desperate designs for Sokoto State. PDP, APGA reject result and hoodlums go on rampage in Nasarawa Nasarawa State Chairman of the PDP, Francis Orogu, said his party rejected the result of the governorship poll because the election was a total fraud and has fallen short of the minimum standard ofa credible election anywhere in the world. “The results were fabricated in connivance with INEC and the security agencies. Even when our agents complained about the irregularities and cancellation of results during the collation, nobody listened to them with the view of addressing them,” Orogu added. Professor Abdulalahi Baba, the returning Officer of the governorship election had on Monday, March 11, declared Abdullahi Sule of APC as the Nasarawa State governorelect. He said that Sule of APC got 327, 229, while PDP and APGA got 184, 281 and 132, 784 votes respectively. Similarly, the Nasarawa State Governorship Candidate of the APGA, Labaran Maku, toed the same path. According to him, the figures announced by INEC are pre-election figures written earlier. “APGA rejects the result because it is fictitious, fraudulent and unacceptable and does not reflect the will of the people. “The election was preceded by widespread reports of illegal thump0printing and stuffing of ballot boxes on private farms, residence of some government functionaries in preparation for votes allocation to parties including APGA. “State institutions including the military and other security agents were coerced to give cover to the criminal act orchestrated by APC. Other reasons the party gave for the rejection of the result was the multiple cancellation of votes, polling units and wards. “Before the elections all we were hearing was governor by all means whether you like it or not you can go to court,’’ said Maku who claimed that he called the attention of INEC and the security agents to the planned rigging because we have some privileged information, but nothing was done. Meanwhile, the opposition parties called on their supporters to be law abiding as the parties would reclaim the mandate through lawful means. The parties’ plea for calm was not heeded by some 200 hoodlums, who went on rampage in Karu Local Council of Nasarawa and vandalized property estimated at millions of Naira. The hoodlums who were alleged to be reacting to the outcome of the last Saturday’s Governorship election attacked the local government secretariat that was renovated recently, destroyed doors, shattered glass windows, toilet fittings, furniture, and vehicle belonging to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corp, NSCDC, skill acquisition centre among others. Governor Umaru Almakura who visited the scene to ascertain the damage done to the public property, described the action of the attackers as unfortunate. He said those whose stock in trade is to foment trouble in the state should have a rethink as the government would not continue to fold its arms and watch government property and lives of the citizens being threatened. Similarly, the traditional ruler of Karu, Esu Karu, HRH, Luka Panya Baba who visited the local council secretariat to see the extent of damage, and to commiserate with the council chairman, Samuel Akala, described the incident as sad. “It is sad for the youths to take the law into their hands to this extent. They must avoid breaching the law and peace of the country. I condemn the destruction of the newly renovated Karu Local Government secretariat complex by these hoodlums over the outcome of Saturday’s polls, This act is very sad. I am appealing for tolerance as development is better than chaos,” the monarch said. Chairman of Karu Local Government Area, Samuel Akala confirmed the incident and said property worth million of naira were vandalized by the hoodlums Presidency planning violence to declare state of emergency in Taraba – CUPP Meanwhile, the CUPP, has alleged that the Presidency and the ruling APC were plotting to instigate violence in Taraba State in order to declare a state of emergency. The coalition, in a statement by its spokesman, Ikenga Ugochinyere, alleged that the loss of the just concluded governorship election in the state by the ruling party was the reason they want to plunge Taraba into crisis in order declare emergency rule in the state. The group accused the APC-led federal government of being behind the ongoing religious crisis in Taraba State. CUPP which raised alarm over what it described as “organised religious killings in Taraba”, accused “security agencies of tacit support with inability to quell the uprising.” It also alleged that the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, was “plotting to arrest Taraba governor’s ADC, who it said had been to Abuja for undisclosed reason. “The Coalition of United Political Parties has uncovered plans by the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government to ensure that a state of emergency is declared in Taraba State because of the party’s failure to win the state governorship election. “We learnt on good authority that in order to achieve their aim, the APC party is instigating ongoing religious killings being experienced in the state. “We have also discovered that the nation’s security forces are giving those behind the sponsored killings tacit support with their silence, hence their failure to quell the uprising,’it alleged in the statement. “Insiders have also informed us that the acting Inspector-General of Police is planning to arrest the Aide-De-Camp to the governor, hence his invitation to the police headquarters, Abuja. The strategy is to accuse him of arming and working with some militia in a bid to get at the governor. APC leaders are clearly not happy that they lost the election and they are stocking the killings and crisis to cause reprisal attacks from other religious groups which will lead to the declaration of state of emergency.’’
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15032019 - INEC kicks as court stops make-up polls in Adamawa

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