₦airaland Forum

THE All Progressives Congress,APC candidate, Rotimi Akeredolu has been declared as the governor-elect for Ondo State.He will take over from Governor Olusegun Mmiko of PDP.








Declaring the result, Professor Ambali,  the chief returning officer said APC polled 244,842 votes to defeat the PDP  candidate Eyitayo Jegede who garnered 150,380 votes   .


The  Alliance for Democracy,AD candidate Olusola Oke came a distant third with 126,889 votes.


Akeredolu’s victory is almost close to an upset because many had thought   the Ondo race was between the  AD and the PDP which is the ruling party in the state.Even more, it was thought that APC had been weekend because of the division after the primaries.Specifically,Bola Tinubu and his supported were said to have worked to enthrone AD .


But the APC apparently liaised with its headquarters and the Presidency to maintain poll position.President Muhammadu Buhari was in Ondo to campaign and he also made last minute pitch,calling on Ondo people to vote APC.


It is believed that the result of Ondo will serve as a wake up call on  Tinubu and others who are disenchanted with APC. From now on, it is expected that moves towards realignment with gather a new steam.


How far such moves can go in stopping APC in 2019 remains to be seen.

Eyitayo Jegede, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, won his polling unit with a wide margin as vote counting commenced across Ondo State.
Results from St. Brendan’s Primary School in Akure, where Mr. Jegede cast his ballot Saturday morning, show that the PDP candidate scored 184 votes to beat his major contenders.
APC’s Rotimi Akeredolu came in a distant second with 77 votes while the candidate of the Alliance for Democracy, Olusola Oke, scored 32 votes.
The result mirrors others that have so far come in from many polling units across Akure, the state capital and Mr. Jegede’s stronghold.
In Arakale/Adam’s House, Akure South LGA, Unit 1, Ward 7, the PDP had 50 votes, APC, 38 and AD, 24,
In Arakale Ward 7, Unit 4, PDP had 35 votes, APC, 30; and AD, 18.
An estimated 1.3 million residents are registered to vote in today’s exercise, where the candidates are expected to show their strength in their respective strongholds.
Mr. Akeredolu and his APC are believed to have a strong presence in Ondo North, especially in Owo while Mr. Oke is expected to poll strongly in Ondo South, particularly in Ilaje and Okitipupa. Results from those parts of the state are still being expected.

VOTING has ended in some parts of Ondo State where voter trooped out to decide who their next governor should be.



The main challengers are Eyitayo Jegede of the state’s ruling PDP, Rotimi Akeredolu of Nigeria’s ruling APC, Olusola Oke of the AD and lastly Olu Agunloye of the SDP, this is despite having about 28 governorship aspirants contesting the election.

You can read our live coverage of the gubernatorial poll HERE

Refresh your browser for unofficial results flooding in.
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4.21pm: Ward 5, Unit 27, Abiodun Street, Akure South LGA
PDP 78
APC 94
AD 40

4.00pm: Unit 17 voting point 2 Ore ward 1 Odigbo LGA
APC.   63
AD.    59
PDP.   16

3.57pm: Unit 13, ward 4 Akure South LGA
PDP- 116
APC- 134
AD- 72

Unit 009 Ojo’s compound, Akure South LGA,  PDP: 83. APC: 115. AD: 44


3.32pm: Unit 6, Ward 10, Akure South LGA. PDP: 100, APC: 115 AD: 63

3.13pm: St Brendan’s Primary School,  Akure.  Eyitayo Jegede’ polling unit.
APC: 77
AD: 32
PDP: 184

2.56pm: Arakale Ward 7, Unit 4, PDP: 35 APC: 30 AD: 18

2.46pm: Result:  Arakale/ Adam’s House,  Akure South LGA  Unit 1 Ward 7
PDP: 50
APC: 38
AD: 24

1.20pm: “Buy and see” a practice of a voter displaying his/her ballot paper to a party agent for money caused a mild drama at unit 5, Ilaje ward 2 as an APC agent stood at a strategic position to view ballot papers as they were raised by some voters.

Security operatives have reportedly intercepted Hon. Victor Olabimtan, the DG of APC Campaign Organization along Akungba-Akoko road with 15 Ghana must go bags filled up with APC thumb-printed ballot papers.

THE House of Representatives has fired back at former President Olusegun Obasanjo, describing the former President as the grand father of corruption in Nigeria.



While addressing a press conference in reaction to the caustic remarks of Obasanjo at a lecture Wednesday, Abdulrazak Namdas, Chairman, House Committee on Media & Publicity said “It is unfortunate that he has started his very familiar method of bringing down governments. He did it to Alhaji Shehu Shagari, he did it to Gen. Buhari, he did same to Gen. Babangida, he attempted to bring down Gen. Abacha before he imprisoned him for treason; he made frantic efforts to derail the government of President Ya’ardua when he couldn’t use him. He supported President Goodluck Jonathan but when he refused to take dictation, he turned against him. He supported President Buhari, but since he has sensed that Nigeria is having economic difficulties under him, he has pounced to derail his government.

“The way Chief Obasanjo talks gives the impression that he is a lifetime opposition leader who has never held any office. What did he do about the issues he raised in his 8 years as President?

The lawmakers also accused Obasanjo of being the grand father of corruption in Nigeria

Namdas’ reply to Obasanjo reads thus: “Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to former President Olusegun Obasanjo at a lecture he delivered recently, wherein, in his characteristic manner accused everybody but himself of corruption.

“He ventured to accuse the National Assembly of Budget padding, accused the House of criminal activities of threatening the life of a “whistleblower”, lampooned constituency projects which he approved as President, ventured to discuss the budget of National Assembly which is highly underfunded?

“The House of Representatives would ordinarily not join issues with the former President as he has held an office that deserves respect and reverence. However, because of the material misstatement of facts, outright lies and falsehoods, and mischievous innuendo introduced in his statement, we are left with no option but to correct him.

“We have repeatedly maintained that there was no “padding” of the 2016 Appropriation Act, which is a legitimate document passed by the National Assembly, authenticated by the Clerk to the National Assembly as provided in the Acts Authentication Act and assented to by Mr. President. It is most unfortunate that a former President of Chief Obasanjo’s stature would allow himself to be hoodwinked and procured by a renegade member of the House, who embarked on massive propaganda and lies just because he was removed from office. For the avoidance of doubt, there is no crime that was committed by the National Assembly by exercising its constitutional function of appropriation. If Chief Obasanjo has an issue with the execution of the 2016 Budget or indeed other Appropriation Acts, he should direct his anger elsewhere.

“ He claimed that the National Assembly Budget is very high, when by all standards, the National Assembly is grossly underfunded and is hampered from effectively and legitimately carrying out its Constitutionally assigned functions. The National Assembly Budget funds a bureaucracy of about 5,000 civil servants. It has some other agencies under its preview such as the National Assembly Service Commission with its own staff of about 500, even the Public Complaints Commission is now a parastatal of the National Assembly. National Assembly Budget also funds the National Institute for Legislative Studies, which is a legislative think-tank and highly rated academic institution that serves both National and State Houses of Assembly and even international legislators. All these agencies also have their capital budget including development of their headquarters, procurement of office equipment, procurement of regular items for running their offices; the National Assembly maintain legislative aides of about 3,000 in number, that aid the work of the Assembly; it also conducts regular public hearings involving the media and stakeholders and oversight activities, involving huge sums of money. The cost implications of running the National Assembly is high because of the nature of our Presidential democracy. Then of course, there are 109 Senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives, that require proper equipment to function effectively. They require adequate travel and transport support to carry out legislative functions. The National Assembly also has buildings and offices to build and maintain. National Assembly staff and members attend conferences, trainings, seminars to keep abreast of legislative developments worldwide. The activities are very encompassing and expensive.

“ It is also unbecoming of a former President to quote figures of sums of money that are factually incorrect. No member of the House of Representatives receives N10m every month. The salaries and allowances of members of the House are as determined by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC). Of course further sums of money are spent as running costs, that is, the cost of running the office of a member. If a Minister, Chief Executive or Director in a Ministry travels on official duties, for instance, do you include the cost of his ticket and accommodation as part of his salary or allowances? Does the cost of stationeries and maintenance of equipment like computers used in their offices, form part of their salaries and allowances? These are some of the costs that must be taken care of by the National Assembly and the media calls these costs “jumbo pay”. For goodness sake, the National Assembly is an arm of government, not just an ordinary agency of government.

“The Budget of many agencies in the Executive Branch are indeed higher than the current Budget of the National Assembly that is an arm of government. Examples abound, CBN, NNPC, NCC etc. Allowances paid to even junior staff of some of these government agencies cannot be compared to what members of National Assembly enjoy.

“Undoubtedly, the former President Obasanjo is understandably angry with the National Assembly as an institution having foiled his ambition for a third-term in office even after trying to corrupt the members with a bribe of at least N50m each. Lest we forget, the person who introduced corruption to the National Assembly is Chief Olesugn Obasanjo. He birthed the 4th Republic National Assembly with corrupt practices from day one; indeed the first day of the Republic. He bribed both PDP, ANPP and AD legislators on their inauguration in 1999 to vote against the majority candidate of PDP, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo. That was how Senator Evan Enwerem became Senate President.

“Have we forgotten the sacks of money displayed on the floor of the House of Representatives being bribe money paid by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to some Honourable members to impeach Speaker, Rt. Hon. Ghali N’abba?

“Have we forgotten that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo used his position as President to extort money from businessmen and contractors with his government to build his presidential library?

“The list of his corrupt acts while in office is endless. Unquestionably, he is the greatest corrupt person ever to hold office in Nigeria. He remains the grandfather of corruption in Nigeria and lacks the moral authority to discuss corruption or indeed abuse of office in Nigeria as he remains the most corrupt Nigerian on record.

“It is unfortunate that he has started his very familiar method of bringing down governments. He did it to Alhaji Shehu Shagari, he did it to Gen. Buhari, he did same to Gen. Babangida, he attempted to bring down Gen. Abacha before he imprisoned him for treason; he made frantic efforts to derail the government of President Ya’ardua when he couldn’t use him. He supported President Goodluck Jonathan but when he refused to take dictation, he turned against him. He supported President Buhari, but since he has sensed that Nigeria is having economic difficulties under him, he has pounced to derail his government.

“The way Chief Obasanjo talks gives the impression that he is a lifetime opposition leader who has never held any office. What did he do about the issues he raised in his 8 years as President?

“This is a man with unlimited access to President Buhari. Or is it because he has not appointed all his cronies as requested? We may never know. His stock in trade is blackmail, subversion and treachery.

“We wish him well".

THe Supreme Court in Abuja has struck out the interlocutory appeals filed by Jimoh Ibrahim, a factional candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against Eyitayo Jegede, another factional candidate.








A 5-man panel led by acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Walter Onnoghen struck out the interlocutory appeals after hearing them as insisted by Jimoh Ibrahim’s counsel Barrister Nwofor.

PatrickAnyanwu:
no room for a fraudster

THE Court of Appeal has sacked Jimoh Ibrahim as the candidate of the PDP in Saturday’s governorship election in Ondo State.




The court, therefore, ordered that Mr. Ibrahim be replaced with Eyitayo Jegede, who belongs to the Ahmed Makarfi faction of the party.


The Appeal Court set aside a ruling of the Federal High Court by Justice Okon Abang which declared Mr. Ibrahim the candidate.


All the objections filed by Mr. Ibrahim and his loyalists at the Appeal Court were also dismissed.

THE Court of Appeal Special Panel sitting in Abuja on the Ondo State governorship poll has fixed 12pm on Wednesday (today) to deliver ruling on the tussle over who the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for the election will be.








The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave the Court of Appeal the go ahead to deliver the ruling.


The tussle is between Jimoh Ibrahim and Eyitayo Jegede.


The Independent National Electoral Commission had recognised Ibrahim as the candidate based on the ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja.


The ruling was delivered by Justice Okon Abang.

THE Naira on Tuesday depreciated against the dollar few hours after the CBN maintained its benchmark interest rate and endorsed the crackdown on parallel market traders by security operatives.




It lost N5 to exchange at N470 to the dollar at the parallel market from N465 it traded on Monday, while the Pound Sterling and the Euro closed at N565 and N495, respectively.

At the Bureau De Change (BDC) window, the naira was sold at N390, CBN controlled rate, while the Pound Sterling and the Euro closed at N562 and N500, respectively.

Trading at the interbank market showed that the naira remained stable at N305.00 to a dollar.

The CBN rose from its bi-monthly Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, retaining the Monetary Policy Ratio (MPR) at 14 per cent alongside other policy parameters.

The apex bank also charged security agents to sustain their checks on the activities of illegal foreign exchange operators in order to bring sanity to that segment of the market.

“The Committee reiterates that the extant foreign exchange regulation outlaws the trafficking of currency on the streets as some unlicensed operators currently do,’’ the CBN said.

Meanwhile, a currency trader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told NAN that the raid on the market by security agents had forced them to go underground.


He noted that they still enjoy the patronage of their customers who understand their modus operandi.

[NAN]

Nairadean:
A case that will soon be forgotten.

BeeBeeOoh:
Op means Oponu..

richidinho:

This Op sef

JUSTICE Mohammed Idris of a Federal High Court Lagos, on Tuesday refused to restrain a fellow judge from taking steps in relation to the frozen $15.5 million allegedly belonging to Patience Jonathan.








Mr. Idris declined an application by counsel to the former first lady, Ifedayo Adedipe, who sought an order to restrain Justice Babs Kuewumi from taking further steps on the frozen sum.


Mr. Adedipe had urged the court to stop Justice Kuewumi from making any forfeiture orders, in respect of the said sum, which was frozen by the EFCC, until the determination of an interlocutory application on the subject.


It will be recalled that Mrs. Jonathan had instituted a fundamental rights suit against the EFCC, claiming the sum of $200 million as damages for inconveniences suffered.


In her suit, she had joined the EFCC, Skye Bank plc, and a former aide to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, Warampo Dudafa, as respondents.


Also joined in the suit are four companies: Pluto Property Ltd, Seagate Property Development and Investment Company Ltd, Transocean company Ltd and Globus Integrated Service Ltd.


Mr. Dudafa was charged alongside the four companies before Justice Kuewumi, on 15 counts of money laundering.


Representatives of the four companies, which the EFCC said were used by Mr. Dudafa to launder the said money, had all pleaded guilty to the offences.



The said $15.5 million is the same sum which the former first lady claims belongs to her as sole signatory to the accounts of the companies.


When the case was called on Tuesday, Justice Idris acknowledged a letter from counsel representing Skye Bank, Lanre Ogunlesi, stating that he was indisposed and could not attend the court.


The judge added that since Mr. Ogunlesi has requested for a new date to enable him appear in court, the hearing of the application on notice could not proceed.


Meanwhile, before the court could adjourned the case, Mr. Adedipe had urged the judge to direct the EFCC not to tamper with the subject matter of the case pending the hearing of the interlocutory application.


In response, counsel to the EFCC, Rotimi Oyedepo, urged the court to dismiss the application on the grounds that the accounts which housed the money had been frozen.


He urged the court to dismiss the application with a “wave of hand”; adding that there was already an order of court convicting four defendants for warehousing proceeds of crime.


In a short ruling, Justice Idris held that he could not go into the merits or demerits of the interlocutory application, until it is moved.


He ordered accelerated hearing of the case and said that he could not make any order that will be prejudicial to the outcome of the main suit.


He consequently adjourned the case to December 7 for hearing of the main application.


In her suit, Mrs. Jonathan is urging the court to issue an order discharging the freezing order, and restraining the EFCC and its agent from further placing a freezing order on the said accounts.


[NAN]

sharpden:
Lalasticlala

THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday endorsed the crackdown on parallel market forex traders by the officials of the Department of State Services (SSS) across the country.



The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, disclosed this while addressing journalists at the end of its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja.

According to Mr. Emefiele, the foreign exchange regulation in the country forbids trafficking in currency.

He said that the SSS had the right to enforce the law and make sure that currency hawkers were forced out of the “illegal trade.’’

The governor, who said it was demeaning for traders to hawk currency on the streets, urged the traders to legitimise their business by applying for Bureau De Change (BDC) licence.

Officials of the SSS raided the parallel markets in Lagos, Abuja and Onitsha last week over alleged arbitrary sale of forex.

The raid, which worsened dollar scarcity at its wake, forced the naira to settle at N465 to a dollar.

Earlier, members of the MPC unanimously voted in favour of retaining the Monetary Policy Ratio (MPR) at 14 per cent, Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 22.5 percent and the liquidity ratio at 30 per cent.

The governor said that the members of the committee took the decision after a critical assessment of the risks to the economy.

[NAN]

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has said the anti-corruption war is tough and grueling, with corruption fighting vigorously back, but assured that the battle would be won.








Meeting with American Secretary of State, John Kerry, Wednesday, on the margins of conference on climate change, COP22, in Marrakech, Morocco, President Buhari said corrupt people had accumulated a formidable arsenal of illicit wealth, which they were now deploying against the government on diverse fronts.


"But it is a war we are determined to win, and which we will win," President Buhari said. "People of goodwill are behind us, countries like America and many others are with us, and we will surely win."


The President also updated Secretary Kerry on the war against insurgency in the North-east of Nigeria, efforts being made to tackle humanitarian problems caused by the insurgency, informing that a presidential committee had been launched "under Gen T.Y Danjuma, a man of high integrity."


On the unrest in the Niger Delta area, which manifests in the sabotage of critical oil and power installations, President Buhari said the engagement process was proceeding apace, adding that it was rather difficult bringing the main protagonists of the insurgency under one umbrella.


Buhari said Nigeria was happy with American support on different fronts, assuring that the economic challenges facing the country were being "frontally tackled, and we will overcome them soon."


Secretary Kerry expressed delight at the many successes of the Buhari administration, pledging continued U.S support in the bid to overcome security, humanitarian, political, and economic challenges.


As the Barrack Obama administration exits next January, Kerry said he would love to continue engaging with Nigeria, even in a private capacity. He described President Buhari as a strong international partner in the battle against violent extremism.

THE Nigerian Naira, on Wednesday dropped N10 to trade at N465 per U.S dollar as against the N455 per dollar it was yesterday in the black market.



The depreciation is said to be as a result of recent raid of offices of Bureau De Change, BDCs, by operatives of the Department of State Service, DSS, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

It was reported that the DSS raided offices of BDCs in some part of Lagos and Abuja, and arrested some operators selling above the exchange rate stipulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

The clampdown followed a meeting between the CBN, the DSS and leadership of the BDC association aimed at finding solutions to the poor performance of the naira against other currencies.

But naira traders said the move by the anti-graft agencies brought about fear among BDC operators.