The call for President Goodluck Jonathan to run for another four-year term in the 2015 presidential election grew more intense last Saturday. On that day, the ancient city of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, witnessed the convergence of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-West geo-political zone, comprising of Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Ekiti and Lagos States. The event was a rally organized under the auspices of Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) to press for President Goodluck Jonathan’s declaration for another term.

Indeed, the city could be said to have been literarily shut down as traffic gridlock became the lot of motorists having anything to do with all the routes leading to Obafemi Awolowo Stadium (formerly Liberty Stadium), Oke-Ado, venue of the event. Peradventure, if one had nothing to do in all the routes leading to the venue as just stated, one could not ignore the hovering of the security helicopter mounting surveillance on the entire city while the programme lasted and which reinforced the belief of the residents that Mr. President was in town as earlier announced.

Though the President, who was out of the country, could not make it to the rally, the Presidency was powerfully represented and it was not an exaggeration to say that the Abuja, the seat of power, was temporarily located to the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium in Ibadan, the venue of the programme. With the highest political office holder from the zone, the Chief of Staff (CoS) to the President and Commander-in-Chief, Gen. Jones Arogbofa (rtd); the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim and some of the cabinet members from the zone in attendance, the presidency was very much in attendance. Elected members of the National Assembly from the zone, led by the Deputy Senate Whip, Sen. Hosea Ayoola Agboola; House Leader, Hon. Mulikat Adeola Akande, and others complemented the members from the Executive arm of the government.

At the party level, it was who-is-who from the former Deputy National Chairman (South) of the party, Chief Bode George, his successor in office, Alhaj Yekini Adeojo, the current caretaker committee chairman of the party in the zone, Chief Ishola Filani and his committee members, former governor of Oyo State, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala and several others.

Following the massive radio and television publicity mounted ahead of the programme by the party in the state, party supporters had started trooping to the venue as early as 8.00 am and this was complemented by the crowd mobilized in loads of buses by the governorship aspirants from the zone and other party leaders. The governorship aspirants’ supporters came carrying their banners of various sizes and colours, thus, the entire stadium, the main bowl as well as the whole stadium arena was packed-full of PDP sympathizers in various different types of ‘aso-ebi’ depending on which state one came from.

At the event where the Ekiti State governor-elect, Peter Ayodele Fayose, was conspicuously absent alongside other leaders, including Sen. Lekan Balogun, the party leaders took turns to address the mammoth crowd.

Filani told the crowd that the party had been reorganized in the zone and the result was the victory recorded in the Ekiti State governorship election which produced Fayose. Like a student who would say “he passes examination if he’s successful, but alleges that he’s failed by the examiner if unsuccessful”, he maintained that the party was said to have lost the election in the State of Osun.

At the rally where it was disclosed that over 1,800,000 people from the zone had appended their signatures, asking President Goodluck Jonathan to run again for the 2015 presidency, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim, who received the collection of booklets from the Chief of Staff to the President, Jones Arogbofa, commended the people of the zone for the love and support expressed for Mr. President.

He said the exercise of signatures compilation for the return of President Jonathan for second term “is an ongoing one and that similar rallies would be held in all the geo-political zones of the country before the presentation of the overall documents in Abuja next month.”

Before presenting the booklets to the SGF, Arogbofa described the South-West zone as a home to Mr. President, recalling that the zone was the first to adopt him ahead of the 2011 election and urged him not to ignore the call, which he said was a demonstration of love and loyalty to the President.

The Chief of Staff to the President called on the people of the zone to join hands together to give PDP resounding victory during the 2015 elections holding next February, noting that President Jonathan had proved himself a performing and transforming public servant since his election in 2011. According to him, “I want to call on my people to let’s work with unity of purpose and I can assure all of us that if we work together, the reward will be superlative. We worked for Mr. President in 2011 and we all can see that there’s no regret and this time around, we will not regret but have more and better reward.”

Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, in her remark, was emphatic in declaring the support of the zone for President Jonathan, stressing that anybody saying anything contrary was only deceiving him/herself. She said the people of the zone would vote massively for President Jonathan come 2015 in order for the zone to have more dividends of democracy with a pledge that all hands would be on deck to ensure victory for the party in all other elections coming up in the zone.

Her counterpart in the Ministry for Police Affairs, Jelili Adesiyan said those ganging up against the re-election of President Jonathan were working against God because it was God that raised him up for this moment in the political history of the country.

Rhetorically, he asked: “As a zone, what did we benefit from the Federal Government in the whole of the eight years when we had our own person there? The Lagos/Ibadan expressway that is wearing a new look was there when our own son was there among other laudable things the President is doing for our zone. All those rising against him had benefited from the PDP at one time or the other and since it had not been possible in history for any individual or group of persons to rise against God and defeat God, they would also fail”, he added. Going into Quran to back up his assertion, he said all those, who rose against Prophet Mohammed in his days were destroyed just as those ganging up against Mr. President. He sealed his assertion with some Quranic prayers to which all those in attendance with Islamic knowledge joining him.

Kingsley Kuku, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs charged the youths in particular to seize the opportunity of having somebody that believes in them to work for the betterment of their future. He charged the people of the zone to ensure full participation in the on-going registration of voters so as to be able to exercise their franchise at the appropriate time, stressing that the importance of voter’s card in electoral contest cannot be over-emphasized.


http://dailyindependentnig.com/2014/08/jonathan-supporters-locked-ibadan/

Wen som1 answers phockphockman. Wht do u expect.

Moredew: Wen som1 answers phockphockman. Wht do u expect.

Please face topic.

Old news

ziky2010: Old news

Old bitter pill.

PhockPhockMan: Please face topic.

phockphockfool

TribalEAST: phockphockfool

Mumu, please face topic.

PhockPhockMan: Mumu, please face topic.

why do u want to kill people with high blood presure thru this forum?
That of Rivers state is killing and shocking

Omexonomy: why do u want to kill people with high blood presure thru this forum?
That of Rivers state is killing and shocking

They haven't seen anything yet.