₦airaland Forum

Validated:
Please, OP, I hope the money they gave you for this epitle is worthwhile, because if na only BMC change, I go vex

Next mmediately change the topic to APC nembers who want to remove Oyetola. That said,, as you go about doing that, just know that PDP is reclaiming her mandate in Osun. Remote control will be checkmated this time around.

You want to win with Senator pending pending?

neutralmind:
Osun election may be very dicey.

I have a feeling the outcome will be different from what most people expect.

Watch out

What is your opinion.

Osun 2022 and threat of the tempestuous trio

https://www.newsindicator.com.ng/2021/12/24/osun-2022-and-threat-of-the-tempestuous-trio/

Osun 2022 and threat of the tempestuous trio

By Adebayo Adedeji

For the purpose of the Osun gubernatorial election slated for July 2022, the trio of Yusuff Lasun, Najeem Salaam and Moshood Adeoti have visibly reached a common ground to dislodge the incumbent governor, Gboyega Oyetola. Oyetola, elected in 2018 on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, will be seeking a re-election on the same platform in 2022. Ceteris paribus, he is due to fly the flag of APC, considering the support he enjoys within the party. The recognised structure of the party in the state is firmly in the hands of the governor. Lasun, Salaam and Adeoti have lost the grip of the party, hence their decision to form a parallel group in the party to realise their political ambition. Under aegis of The Osun Progressives, TOP, the trio continue to stir hornet's nest, share seditious materials aimed at distabilising the government of Oyetola.

Whereas Lasun has obtained the governorship nomination forms of APC, Salaam and Adeoti equally have been touted to be interested in the governorship race. However, it will remain a tall order for anyone to clinch the APC ticket from Oyetola. He calls the shots. So, just five options are available to the three warring aspirants: 1. Reconcile with the governor and work for his re-election. 2. Stay in the party but stand akimbo in the election. 3. Stay in the party, continue to engage in anti-party activities to give another party a leverage. 4. Join PDP and queue behind their candidate.. 5. Join one of the mushroom parties to contest the governorship election.

Lasun was the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives in the 8th Assembly led by Yakubu Dogara. The deputy speakership he enjoyed for four years, his critics claim, is the source of the enormous wealth he now flaunts around and uses to build his political structure. Lasun, multiple sources explain, was a struggling real estate agent, who had to beg, cajole, cry, wail to get his ridiculously negligible broker's fee, before he won the 2011 seat in his Osogbo federal constituency. The source of his wealth and meteroic rise in business, therefore, is cast in doubt.

In June 2018, two civil society organisations urged Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies to probe him over his alleged involvement in a N1.1 billion water contract scam. In separate press statements, the Civil Society Network Against Corruption (CSNAC) and Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) alleged that Lasun used his personal company, Nur & Company Nigeria Limited, to secure contracts worth about N1.1 Billion from the federal government through the Ministry of Water Resources. This weighty allegation has not been sufficiently put to rest. This, according to many of the commentators, suggests Lasun has some skeletons in his compound; thus he should be subjected to integrity test.

Again, his democratic credentials are daily impugned on the account of his double dealing and anti-party activities. The story has it that he colluded with the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in 2003 to oust the sitting governor and candidate of his party, Alliance for Democracy AD, Chief Bisi Akande. He was later rewarded with the chairmanship of the Osun State Capital Territory Development Authority OSCTDA in 2004. He later abandoned PDP to rejoin the progressive party for the purpose of 2007 House of Representatives election which he lost to Leo Awoyemi of PDP.

His political acceptance also is suspect because over the years, Lasun has struggled to win elections for APC in his domain. In the 2018 gubernatorial election, even when he wielded powers as the Number-six in the country, Lasun could not deliver his Irepodun Local Government to his party. While APC polled 6517 votes, PDP polled 8058. A similar thing happened in the 2019 general election: whereas the senatorial candidate of APC polled 10,474 in Irepodun, PDP candidate polled 12,272. Of the 10 local governments in the senatorial district, APC won in all except in Lasun's Irepodun. These recent results speak more about his political status and viability.

Those close to him maintains he is an overrated politician whose rank is depleted, thus his decision to swallow his vomit and reconcile with Aregbesola and his yes-men with whom he engaged in pig fight some years ago. His ambition is said to be driven only by his belief in the prophecies of marabouts and mysticists he often curries their services.

Najeem Salaam is the immediate former speaker of the state assembly. A close ally of Rauf Aregbesola, the assumed leader of TOP, Salaam seems to be the only known politician in Ejigbo, his hometown, currently against the governor's re-election. Everyone appears to be on the same page with Oyetola.

The paramount ruler of Ejigboland, Oba Omowonuola Oyesosin some months ago identified with Oyetola and lauded him " for his humility, kindness and listening quality." Ogiyan said Oyetola's administration " is so productive that we can't think twice to reciprocate his unique gesture with massive support towards his re-election in office next year."

The grand Imam of Ejigbo Central Mosque and Chief Imam of Ansarudeen Central hold a similar opinion with Ogiyan Oyesosin. The grand Imam, Sheikh Omotokese and Sheikh Salahudeen, of Ansarudeen, appreciate Oyetola for his dynamic leadership and intervention in rehabilitating Ejigbo General Hospital, Primary Health Centres, township road and other related government projects, which their son Najeem Salaam, as Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly for eight ( years, could not draw to them. They promise to reward Oyetola's commitment to the general well-being of the people with unalloyed support for his re-election.

Adeoti is the third person in the tripartite alliance aimed at removing Oyetola in 2022. From Iwo town, Adeoti was the Secretary to the State Government of Osun in the administration of Aregbesola. He polled 49,742 votes when he contested on the platform of ADP in 2018. Of the votes, 16, 425 came from his hometown of Iwo. However, since his return to APC in June 2020, his lieutenants and strategists have emptied themselves into IleriOluwa, a campaign group for Governor Oyetola. One of the strategists is Sunday Akere, former Commissioner for Information in the government of Rauf Aregbesola. Akere is now the Political Adviser of Governor Oyetola and he is building the rank of the governor's campaign with foot soldiers deplored by Adeoti in the 2018 election.

While the three politicians romanticise their popularity and political profundity of yesterday, the reality on ground does not suggest these cockalorums still enjoy a popularity capable of unseating a perspective politician like Oyetola.

In Iwo, for instance, Oyetola's re-election bid got a boost some days ago when the monarchs in Iwo, Ayedire and Ola-Oluwa Local Government Areas declared their unalloyed support for the Oyetola administration. The seventeen (17) traditional leaders, under " Ayiwola Network of Kings," endorsed Oyetola for second term in appreciation of the leadership he has projected in human management, respect for traditional institution and good governance despite the financial challenges experienced by the state.

Every where you turn in Osun, it is endorsement galore for Oyetola. From road transport workers to barbers, hairdressers, fashion designers, tailors, furniture makers, master bakers and farmers associations, the support swell each day. The traditional religion worshippers and christian associations are not left out of the number. The Congress of Traditional Religion Worshippers Association of Osun State, TRWASO, comprising over 300 representatives from all the local branches in Osun, believe Oyetola deserves an "Unequivocal Support" for second term. The Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Ijesha North has also drummed support for Oyetola's re-election. Bishop Isaac Oluyamo commends the governor for prompt payment of salaries of civil servants and for his effort in education and in construction of good roads.

The same governor that is enjoying the pan-Osun solidarity is the one some petulant and spent politicians want to bully to submission and dislodge with empty boast. Does loud-mouthness win elections? It is doubtful if it does. Because if it does, Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun and Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo would have lost their re-election bids in 2015.

In 2015, former Governor Olusegun Osoba left ACN alongside Amosun's deputy, Segun Adesegun and three senators on the platform of the party. Seven (7) of the nine (9) members of the House of Representatives from the state and a large chunk of the members of the House of Assembly equally joined them. But against all chest-thumpings of Osoba and his lieutenants, Amosun won his re-election in grandstyle with 306, 998 votes as against 201,440 votes of PDP. Strangely, the hyperbolic SDP where Osoba and other quislings collapsed into polled paltry 25, 826 votes!

In a like manner in Oyo, two APC senators Ayoade Adeseun and Femi Lanlehin dumped the party for PDP and Accord respectively, but the people of the state, who believed Ajimobi had worked for their interest stood by him and made his second term ambition a reality. Ajimobi polled 327, 310 votes to defeat the former governor of the state, Rasheed Ladoja of Accord who polled 254,520. The winning set the jinx-breaking record for Ajimobi as the first governor in Oyo to win a second term.

These two elections are testaments to political reality that voters make big names in politics, not other way round. Big names are not made in vacuum.

Meanwhile, in Osun, those who truly own the magic to winning elections in APC are identyfing with Oyetola: relevant party leaders; two senators produced by the party; nearly all the members of the House of Representatives, including the legislator representing Ijesha South in the House of Representatives, Lawrence Ayeni. Ijesha South is the constituency of Rauf Aregbesola, patron of the factional group rooting for removal of the governor in next year's election. The most important blocs that determine elections are also with the governor. These are the ordinary people on the streets of Ilesha, Osogbo, Ile-Ogbo, Ijabe, Inisha, Ile-Ife, Ikire, Ikoyi, Ilawe, Ere, Garage Olode, Ikirun, Ede, who are currently enjoying the dividend of good governance of this government. These are 270,000 citizens who have benefitted thus far from the Osun State Food Support Scheme which started in April 2021. These are 3,000 vulnerable citizens who enjoy N20,000 bimonthly from CARES programme. These are 18,000 youths who have been empowered through various schemes, including loan disbursement to start a new venture and boost existing ones. These are civil servants and pensioners who have savoured the goodness of the current government through prompt payment of salary and pension, running to N160 billion in the last three years. These are 69,273 vulnerable beneficiaries of the free Osun Health Insurance. These are people who are happy they now have a governor with human face, a political leader who is pliable and amenable to their plights.

The 2022 guber is election of the people - the ordinary people, so to say. The ordinary citizens are the ones that will return Oyetola for second term, not some avarus politicians who bluster around for want of recognition and political patronage.

Yorubaangel:
Stomach infrastructure... Election is next year anyway...
Oyetola: A mistake that'll soon be corrected

Name your candidate, let's hear.

Solsix:
Elections matter

The Food Support Scheme has been on since April this year and the government is committed to continue to fund it. The scheme is endearing the governor to the people.

Osun Food Support Scheme: Govt Begins Distribution Of Local ‘Ofada’ Rice To Beneficiaries
...says boosting local production non-negotiable


As part of efforts to encourage farmers and boost local production of rice in Osun, the administration of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, on Wednesday, commenced distribution of local rice popularly known as “Ofada” to the beneficiaries of the monthly Food Support Scheme.

This initiative will not only boost local production of rice but will also encourage the farmers and create ready made market for their farm produce which will contribute to making Osun hub of the nation’s agricultural produce.

Speaking at the symbolic flag off of the 9th edition of the Food Support Scheme, held at the Local Government Service Commission, Government Secretariat, Abere, Osogbo, Governor Oyetola noted that the initiative was to further actualise his plans to genuinely diversify the economy by unraveling the potential embedded in the critical sectors such as agriculture, mining and tourism.

Represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Prince Wole Oyebamiji, the Governor reiterated his commitment towards sustaining the programme, noting that no amount of downturn in the economy would prevent the programme from happening on monthly basis as designed.


He disclosed that another empowerment plan had reached the final stage to ensure that widows, aged and other vulnerable citizens who were not captured in the food support scheme are properly taken care of.



Governor Oyetola who noted that over 270,000 households had benefited from the scheme since its commencement nine months ago, said no effort would be spared to add value to the initiative which has been widely accepted by the people.

“You will recall that nine months ago, our government did promise that on a monthly basis, 30,000 households will be fed and this is the ninth edition making 270,000 households that had benefited from the Scheme. And when we talk of household, it is not an individual that makes up an household, essentially, the husband, wife, children and dependants.

“So, when we look at the numbers of the beneficiaries, one would not but agree that thousand of residents of the state had benefitted so far.

“This is an achievement of the wishes and aspirations of Mr Governor to ensure that the common man also benefit from his lofty people-centred programmes designed to cater for their welfare and well-being.

“There is strategy already put in place to ensure that all the food items get to the beneficiaries across the 30 Local Government Areas of the State and this will be done before the end of this week”, he added.

Earlier, the Commissioner for Regional Integration and Special Duties, Engr. Olalekan Badmus, said the government’s resolve to promote local content had begun to yield positive results as evidenced in the successful move to source Ofada rice locally.

Engr. Badmus who was accompanied by the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Regional Integration and Special Duties, Hon. Samson Owoyokun, said it gladdened his heart that this month’s edition was dedicated to pure local food.

According to him, the initiative will enhance the production capacity and encourage the young ones to go into farming as government was resolute to create enabling environment for citizens particularly farmers to thrive.

“We are doing the 9th edition of the Ilerioluwa Food Support Scheme and this one is spectacular because we have gone out of our way to meet our local rice farmers to ensure that we are getting enough rice for distribution.

“This initiative is to ensure that we source the food contents directly from the farmers for distribution as part of efforts to boost the local productions and strengthen the production capacity in our State.

“Yes, we couldn’t get all in the State because of the present rice production capacity but this is Nigerian-made rice popularly known as “Ofada rice” that we sourced locally from the farmers.

“As it is, our farmers will be enjoy direct purchase from the government as this will also go a long way to encourage our farmers to grow rice and other staple foods.

“I can assure you all that as far as Mr Governor remains in government, he will continue to support our farmers to revamp the agricultural sector,” he added.

Oyetola and the Lagos Model Demagogues By Adebayo Adedeji

https://www.newsindicator.com.ng/2021/12/19/oyetola-and-the-lagos-model-demagogues-by-adebayo-adedeji/

Oyetola and the Lagos Model Demagogues

By Adebayo Adedeji

This writer recently stumbled on a political explainer of a former commissioner in the state of Osun. The piece, a part two of the commissioner's initial defence of a poorly managed Osun finance under Rauf Aregbesola, was suffused with arrogant assertions, known trademark of empty professionals. One begs: what could be the reason for a part two of an article written two months ago? Why the long wait . . .? Obsession? Why is the author obsessed with the current government which every patriot eulogises for its commitment to welfare and plight of the people that brought it fore? Is he jealous that some decent hands, without expectation for gratification, is doing what he failed to do under his stewardship? Like many of his former colleagues in the administration of Aregbesola, the author has never shrouded his resentment to the financial managers of the Oyetola government.

Meanwhile, no one in this administration would have the luxury of churning out long seminal paper to react to vituperation circulated by jealous rabble rousers who fancy only members of their clique have the education, experience, exposure and connection to drive the state to economic prosperity. The government, I have since realised, is too passionate and is in a hurry to ameliorate the plight of the people than devoting its time joining issues with those who made fortunes out of misfortunes of our people during their commissioner-ship.

The Adegboyega Oyetola Administration is running a realistic government. Through financial prudence and effective human resource management, the government is doing more with little, to the satisfaction of our people. Whereas the old brigades on the payroll of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola would expect the current government to pattern its administration along the bogus and attention-seeking government they ran, Oyetola has remained focused and pedantic to his policy thrust. He does things based on the Citizens' Needs Assessment, a scientific document created by an international development agency, DFID.

Oyetola administration is ambitious and wants to replicate in the state most good things found elsewhere. But because it understands our peculiarity, it wants to cut its coat according to its size. The state is not in competition with any state. Governor Oyetola understands what the people want and he is working assiduously to be amenable to their request. For instance when the government of Oyo State chose to renovate the iconic Adamasingba Stadium in Ibadan with N5.4 billion, Oyetola-led government chose to invest its N5.2bn for the reconstruction of 58km dilapidated roads in Osun State. The concerned roads are those in Ede, Ada, Ede-Ejigbo, Ada-Igbajo, Ilesha, Osogbo and the entire stretch of five major towns in Ife North local government. Ife road project has been described as the biggest road construction in the area since 1976. Priorities differ. Needs differ. Different strokes for different folks.

Again, unlike in the days of Aregbesola when the government built 11 secondary schools with N16.5 billion shopped from commercial banks at almost 20% interest rate, Oyetola has chosen it simple; and yet is delivering quality education to our children. Akintade Abdullahi Akanbi of Osogbo Government High School, Osun State, is one of the success stories of this administration in the education sector. Akintade emerged top in the competition tagged 774 Young Nigerian Scientists Presidential Award ( 884 YONSPA) held in 2020. The student attributed his performance to the effort and contribution of his teachers. Since November 2018, when this administration berthed, prompt payment of teachers salary has been institutionalised. So the teachers are now better motivated to transfer knowledge than before.

Meanwhile, some of the mega schools upon which the previous government ran the state into perpetual debt have remained sparsely utilised. In their effort to be like Lagos by all means and created fortunes for "the boys," Aregbesola and his men built schools our people never needed. Today, some of the schools are now items for ridicule because they have been found to be structurally defective on the account of substandard materials they used in building them.

As at 2018 when the government of Aregbesola exited the state, the Lagos yearly IGR was N398 billion. The same Lagos Aregbesola's men are counselling the current government to copy simplistically. Whereas, their best IGR in 2018 was barely N10 billion. Since inauguration of Oyetola administration, the IGR has leaped to an enviable height. What their adminstration made in the whole of 2018, the current government made far above it in 6 months. The latest IGR report, covering 36 states, indicates Osun made N13.6 billion from Jan-Jun 2021. This is in spite of challenges associated with COVID-19. And graciously, the figures emanating from relevant government agencies suggest Osun IGR for this year will be about N30 billion. This feat is being achieved without noise, an idiosyncratic feature of the immediate last government in the state. The improved IGR of the state is a testament to the claim that Governor Oyetola is repositioning the state for financial prosperity. The state government, owing partly to its commendable sweeping governance reforms and partly to financial expertise of the policy drivers, is rewriting the story of Osun for good.

Nowadays, the government of Osun experiences industrial harmony because salary and pension issues are being deftly managed. Workers and pensioners receive their emoluments as and when due. Where there are handful of disputations, the government is interfacing with leadership of the workers and pensioners to ensure a lasting peace. Unfortunately, the commitment of this government to welfare of workers and pensioners is inadequately reported by the media. This gives room to cynics and those behind the failure of last government to manipulate data and instigate a trickle of dissatisfied pensioners to be froward with the government. In the last 36 months of Oyetola, the government has released over N150 billion to settle salary and pension payment. Of the sum, over N40 billion alone went into offsetting pension and gratuity. The government, on many occasions, has challenged cynics and political prevaricators bent on its destruction, to name a state in the country that can beat its achievement in pension management.

As of July 2021, the total pension payments of PDP government in Oyo State under Seyi Makinde, according to Jide Ajani, the governor's media adviser, were barely N13 billion. Similarly, the payment of N12 billion by Babagana Zulum of Borno in December 2020, which recently gained media traction, is no match to pension payments that have taken place in Osun State under this administration. Zulum whose government has not committed up to N20 billion to pension and gratuity payment, and is still indebted to pensioners, contrary to the misinformation in the media, is idolised. Unlike Zulum who obtained a N12 billion commercial loan to settle pension, Governor Oyetola has not borrowed a dime, still has paid over N40 billion to resolve pension and gratuity issues. But strangely, he is always in the face of the storm created by political tartuffes who, during their tenure, failed to remit 7.5% pension deductions to the pension fund managers for four years.

Undeniably, those who failed repeatedly in their time to deliver on their promises can not turn around to lecture a promise-keeping government a model it should adopt. In eight years of Aregbesola governorship, many important Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) were signed but did not see the light of the day. Some of the failed MoU include those signed by the state government with London Borough of South, IITA, American Green Environmental Global Solution, Growth and Employment in States 4th Scheme, Asa Palmilk Malaysia, Vergnet France, International Breweries, Andalusian Mining Industry, Australia and All Works of Life ( AWOL). In fact, after signing an MoU with the International Breweries Ilesha, a company founded by an Ijesha man, Lawrence Omole, Rauf Aregbesola's government unfavourable policies, excessive demands and inability to provide the company with required space, as agreed, for its expansion, made the company look elsewhere to drive its expansion policy. The company moved straight away to Sagamu, Ogun State, where expanse of land was readily available to it, to begin its new factory project there. The $250 million factory was commissioned by President Buhari in August 2018. Since that time, the Ogun State people have experienced a turn around, particularly in the areas of IGR and Corporate Social Responsibility. What was due to Osun was lost as a result of Aregbesola's greed and indiscretion. But today, those whose irresponsible actions caused us immeasurable financial adversity are the ones currently serialising articles in the national newspapers, theorising and postulating how a Range Rover can be bought by mere chest-beating.

seunmsg:
The PDP primary will be contested by Dele and Demola but the write up is all about Deji Adeleke. I have said it severally and i will say it again, Deji Adeleke should come out openly and contest for Governor if he wants to rule Osun state. Enough of running the contest by proxy through his poorly educated brother. Demola Adeleke cannot even run the campaign not to talk of running a state. It is not too late for Deji to also declare his intention to contest.

Yes, the best of the Adelekes should be put forward rather than the uneducated Demola they are bandying around.

Adeleke vs Adeleke

I almost shed tears when I read the stinker written by one of the rottweillers unleashed by the dancing Senator Ademola Adeleke of PDP against his kid nephew, Dele Adeleke. The two Adelekes, who used to be buddies, are now at loggerheads because of their gubernatorial ambitions in Osun State. Both of them have obtained the PDP nomination forms to contest the 2022 gubernatorial election. However, in the piece penned by one Jimoh Adekunle, said to be a hatchet writer for the senior Adelekes, Dele was called unprintable names including a family betrayal doomed for eternal destruction. Dele's much touted importance was deflated, rubbished with ungodly adjectives. Where he was not called a leech, a drunkard and womaniser, he was called a shameless and ungrateful gold-digger. Please find below snippets of the write-up. Damning. Damaging. Repugnant. I expect Dele Adeleke to put up a defence to state his position and clear his name. If not for anything, at least for the sake of his children and children's children who are at the verge of being robed with a garb of family betrayals in future.

***

" Dele Adeleke contesting against Demola Adeleke doesn't smell right and it is sheer betrayal and those prompting Dele do not want well for him and his children."

" Dele Adeleke was sponsored through his education. Not just that: the only jobs he has ever done were those given to him by Dr Deji Adeleke."

" He does not have the managerial experience to create wealth for himself not to talk of a debt ridden state like Osun."

" Dele Adeleke and his wife collect monthly allowance at the instance of Dr Deji Adeleke."

" Dele Adeleke's father, popularly called "Brother Kunle," lives in a house built at Akobo, Ibadan for him by the same Dr Deji Adeleke in addition to giving him a monthly allowance."

" Dele Adeleke has no roof over his head anywhere. The house in which his family lives in VGC, Ajah, was bought for him by the same finger he now chose to bite."

" Today is not the day to review the personality of Dele Adeleke and his troubles with women and alcohol."

" It was Dele Adeleke that released the damning information about Demola's academic deficiency when his plot to get Dangote to persuade Dr Deji Adeleke to field him instead of Ademola Adeleke in 2018 failed."

" Everybody close to Dele Adeleke knows that he cannot fund an election. The N21 million he paid for the PDP Nomination form was not his money. He can't afford such expenditure."

" PDP goons supporting Dele Adeleke are a bunch of money mongers and jokers with no interest of the poor masses at heart."

" There is no greater curse that can ever compare to the curse that comes upon a family betrayal."

" It is obvious the leaders of Osun PDP are either being mischievous or they are reading the mood of the electorate wrongly."



Osun 2022: Adeleke vs Adeleke By Adebayo Adedeji

https://www.newsindicator.com.ng/2021/12/13/osun-2022-adeleke-vs-adeleke-by-adebayo-adedeji/

https://insightlinks.net/recurring-jailbreaks-and-leadership-inadequacy-by-adebayo-adedeji/

Recurring jailbreaks and leadership inadequacy

By Adebayo Adedeji

On November 17, the Kenyan leader, Uhuru Kenyatta, fired the country's prison chief, Wycliffe Ogalo, over terrorist jailbreak. He did not entertain any excuse. He was tired of such excuses. He only wanted results. And he felt sacking the appointees who failed to discharge their responsibilities was the first step in seeking solution bedevelling the country's prison management.

Alike in Nigeria, on 6th December 2014 when a jailbreak was recorded, the Niger controller of Prisons was sacked and all other officers on duty that day was suspended by Abba Moro, the then Minister of Interior. Again, in the wake of incessant escape of inmates from some prisons in the country , the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Service Board (CDFIPB), on August 16, 2016, approved the dismissal of 23 prisons officers and suspension of 11 for their complicity in the escape of prisoners from prisons in their care. That was the period General Abdulrahman Dambazau was the Minister of Interior.

But today, under the headership of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, there seems to be no end in sight regarding the incessant jailbreaks which have now become a sort of embarrassment to the country. Notwithstanding the telltale evidences of operational lapses in the country's prisons, the leadership of these prisons continue to offer excuses to shield their lapses so as to save their jobs. There is no available data to suggest an officer of the Nigerian Correctional Service, in recent time, has been reprimanded over jailbreak. The only information available was that of dismissal of three officials for smuggling cannabis into the Kaduna Central Prison!

Since 2010, the correctional centres have received over N700 billion in allocation. In the last 2 years alone, under the leadership of Aregbesola, the centre has received over N100 billion without anything to show for it. Overcrowding has often been cited as the justification for jailbreaks. But beyond overcrowding, what is the prison authority doing about poor prison facilities, inadequate security features like CCTV, motion sensors and high electric fences? How is the huge allocation voted for the agency spent? Right questions must be asked because the correctional facilities are daily subjected to unrestrained attacks.

In the last one year alone, there have been 15 incidents of jailbreaks across the country where 5,238 inmates have escaped. Of the number, over 4,000 of the escaped inmates have not been found. The situation is worrisome; therefore, it behooves on all patriots to come to the rescue. The impact of the frequent jailbreak on our fragile security situation is enormous because more criminals, now out of custody, will be available to perpetuate heinous crime.

In the light of the above, many citizens have called for actions from relevant authorities to stem the tide because one jailbreak motivates another. In 2020, Nigeria's House of Representatives had scathing remarks for the leadership of the Nigerian Correctional Centre for failing to secure the prisons inspite huge resources voted to it.

On its own part, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, Huriwa, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the prison chief, Haliru Nababa and the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, the political head of the agency. Huriwa describes the recurring attacks as grave threat to Nigeria's national security which requires the president pass a "resolutely firm message to his appointees that indiscipline, dereliction of duty and all forms of shows-of-shame would not be tolerated. "

Huriwa appeals to the President to demonstrate that he is a leader who would not tolerate half measures. The constant negative stories of jailbreak in Nigeria, according to the group, are capable of tarnishing the global image of the country, hence the appeal to the President to end the episodes of failures by his appointees in the prison sector.

Similarly, in his recent piece entitled "Aregbesola Has No Business Remaining in Office," Thisday newspaper's Yemi Adebowale writes that "Aregbesola has failed woefully in his critical role of protecting Nigeria's correctional centres. I can boldly say that this minister has failed because he is not focused on his job. He has been spending more time and resources on his Osun State politics where he runs parallel ward, local and state executives of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Aregbesola appears more concerned about this."

He further states that the minister has been misusing the personnel of the security agencies under his Ministry for political gains in Osun State rather than positioning them appropriately to secure the correctional centres. Adebowale refers to the HURIWA allegation against Aregbesola where the minister was said to have given express approval for the transfer and deployment of hundreds of civil defence officers to Osun " to protect personal building and provide security covers for persons fighting proxy political wars on his behalf."

The writer restates the call for immediate sack of Nababa and Aregbesola for their failure to give the needed leadership in the Nigerian Correctional Service. Unfortunately, the minister seems unperturbed. Just yesterday, after a Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja, multiple media sources quoted Aregbesola to have boasted not to ever resign despite the rampant successful attacks on the nation's custodial facilities. He was reported to have said he and his men were doing their best, so the call for his resignation was mischievous and unneccesary. The supercilious reaction has, again, brought to fore the level of premium public office holders place on citizens' demand for accountability and quality stewardship. Nobody would have thought that a public officer with adequate emotional intelligence, found to be lacklustre in his assignment, would have such temerity to be haughty and placid as Minister Aregbesola was yesterday during the media interview.

Regrettably, we will continue to widen the gulf of ineptitude in the system if we hold up to incompetence and indecorous conduct of politicians assigned to discharge key roles in government. Citizens must be resolute in their demand for sack of irresponsible and arrogant officials.

Aregbesola Has No Business Remaining in Office

Phone 08054699539 Email: yemi.adebowale@thisdaylive.com


The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola should be embarrassed as the man supervising the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) after the terror attack last Sunday at the Jos Medium Security Custodial Centre. The persistent jailbreaks across the country show ineptitude at the ministerial level. I’m not sorry to say that the leadership at this level is deficient. The Controller-General of the NCoS, Haliru Nababa should also be ashamed of his role and statements pushed out so far after the Jos jailbreak. The post-attack accounts of the NCoS show frightening incompetence. Aregbesola and Nababa have no business remaining in office a day longer. This should be the standard if we want to move this country forward. I’m surprised that they are yet to resign


During the attack, the terrorists freed 262 inmates, some suspected to be their members. They entered the Jos correctional centre unhindered, operated for hours and left unimpeded. This is the same centre surrounded by an armada of security agencies. There is the Plateau State Police headquarters/Police barracks in front of the custodial centre and the DSS behind it. The headquarters of Operation Safe Haven is also within the neibourhood. Yet, terrorists entered easily and came out unchecked. What a country!

A day after the attack, instead of burying its head in shame, the NCoS issued a statement saying one of the attackers trapped in the facility was neutralised in an exchange of fire between the armed squad of the service and the gunmen. Scores of terrorists entered the facility, set free hundreds of inmates, and all the NCoS achieved was killing just one of the gunmen trapped in the custodial centre. The truth is that the armed squad of the NCoS simply abandoned their posts when the better armed terrorists arrived. Other security agents around also failed to respond appropriately. This is the level Nigeria has deteriorated.


The NCoS boss, Nababa, promised to go after all the terrorists, vowing that they would face the full wrath of the law. How many of the terrorists that attacked Owerri, Benin and Oyo correctional centres has Nababa apprehended, months after the attack? Not a soul! Has security improved in all other correctional centres after the attacks? It’s an emphatic No! Nababa was just showboating. This man has nothing to offer this country.

By last Tuesday, Nababa had realised his folly. He then blamed inadequate funding for the inability of the NCoS to deploy technology for manning custodial centres nationwide. The NCoS boss admitted that the guards on duty on the day of the attack in Jos were overpowered.


As for Aregbesola, he recently confessed that 4,860 inmates of the Nigerian correctional centres escaped following successful jailbreaks in Benin, Owerri, and Oyo, among others. Only 954 of that number had been rearrested. As the supervising minister for the NCoS, Aregbesola has failed woefully in his critical role of protecting Nigeria’s correctional centres. I can boldly say that this minister has failed because he is not focused on his job. He has been spending more time and resources on his Osun State politics where he runs parallel ward, local and state executives of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Aregbesola appears more concerned about this.


The most painful part is that Aregbesola has been misusing the personnel of the security agencies under his Ministry for political gains in Osun State rather than positioning them appropriately to secure the correctional centres. The facts are there. A recent report of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), confirms this. The Association reports: “HURIWA has observed that on a weekly basis, particularly on Thursdays, armed men from the Correctional Services and those of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), are stationed at the venues where The Osun Progressives (TOP), a caucus of the Osun State APC suspected to be loyalists of Aregbesola, who are laying claims to the leadership of the APC in the state, hold their meetings.


“Again, reports have it that on Saturday, August 14, this group, alongside some suspected political thugs, under the protection of the armed men from the NSCDC, allegedly attacked the state secretariat of the APC, wherein some persons were reportedly injured in the process.”

HURIWA reports further that on the 16th of October, 2021, while Osun State’s APC held its Congress at the Osogbo Stadium, where all heads of security agencies in the state and INEC were present, only the NSCDC personnel and its leadership were absent for no other reason than political manipulation, “instead, they went to another part of the state to provide cover for alleged Aregbosola’s political loyalists who also claim to be holding a state congress.”


It adds: “In fact, NSCDC men were seen on national television wielding weapons and standing behind the former State Secretary of the party, Rasaq Salinsile, who announced himself as the chairman of the party in the state on a day NSCDC personnel ran riot and shot ceaselessly and sporadically into the air in the Ogo Oluwa axis of the state’s capital, causing avoidable panic.

“More worrisome is that there are indications of clear communication gaps between the Office of the Commandant General and the Minister`s Office for the deployment of tactical and combatant teams of NSCDC to all correctional centres in Nigeria, which was allegedly declined by the Minister


“However, there was an alleged express approval from the Minister for the transfer and deployment of hundreds of NSCDC officers to Osun State to protect personal buildings and provide security covers for persons fighting proxy political wars on his behalf. To show the import attached to these over and above the statutory mandates of the NSCDC, Osun State Commandant of the NSCDC, Mr. Emmanuel Ocheja, personally leads most of the operations.”

Aregbesola has failed to convincingly defend these allegations. Well, they are so difficult to defend. The facts are glaring. It’s appalling that this minister has not been fired.

On the flip side, the Senate on Tuesday mandated its Committee on Interior to carry out a full scale investigation into the causes of jailbreaks across the country. Accordingly, the upper chamber resolved to summon Aregbesola, the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and Nababa to determine the status of correctional centres nationwide, with a view to finding out the challenges in order to prevent recurrence.

For me, this is another waste of time by the Senate. The problems are glaring, compounded by the ineptitude of Aregbesola. It is the political will to do the needful that is lacking. NCoS guards are poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly motivated. The personnel are also inadequate. Above all, leadership for the NCoS at the ministerial level and at its headquarters is lacking. Nababa and Aregbesola must go if this country is interested in the progress of the NCoS. This is the only way forward.

https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2021/12/04/aregbesola-has-no-business-remaining-in-office/



https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2021/12/04/aregbesola-has-no-business-remaining-in-office/

Maxymilliano:
Lol ... And the best way to give back to the already impoverished and starved people of the State is to share Derica of rice a congo of garri ?

What do the Adelekes share to impoverished PDP members?

http:///s4002aa32211123en_ng?link=1&client=news

Osun Food Support Scheme: Government Takes Palliatives To Markets As Beneficiaries Shower Encomiums On Oyetola

...no going Back In Giving Back To The People – Special Duties Commissioner

The monthly Food Support scheme of the Osun State Government on Monday, took a strategic dimension as the palliatives were taken to some markets in the State for distribution.

This is to ensure that citizens who are not captured under the World Bank Social Register adopted by the State for the distribution also benefit from the Food Support scheme.

It will be recalled that the State government last week flagged off the 8th edition of the scheme, which it said had reached over 240,000 beneficiaries so far.

Among the markets where food items were distributed on Monday are Akindeko Market, Igbonna Market, Oluode Market, Oja-Oba Market, Shasha Market, Ota-Efun Market, all in Osogbo, the State capital.
Others are Erin-Osun, Ifon Market among others in Osun Central Senatorial District.

Some of the beneficiaries who appeared elated and enthusiastic after receiving the palliatives commended the administration of Governor Oyetola for the gesture.

They prayed God to continue to uphold the Administration for prioritising the welfare and well-being of the citizens.

Mrs. Kudirat Adeyemi; Mr. Fatai Aremu, Mrs. Idowu Olayiwola and Mr. Risikat Amoo who are petty traders at Akindeko market, Osogbo, expressed gratitude to the government for taking the good gesture to their domains.

According to Mrs. Adeyemi, “the initiative is a reflection of the passion and love which the Administration of Governor Oyetola has for the masses as it had shown clearly that he has the welfare of the people at heart.”

Also, some of the beneficiaries at the Igbonna, Oluode and Ifon markets, applauded the government on the sustenance of the scheme since its inauguration.

Mrs. Olasunkanmi Ayooade, a fruits seller at Ifon market, said, “I must commend the government for sustaining this initiative. This is highly impressive and impactful.

Though, I never thought I could benefit from this but with this, I have a positive story to tell. It is a good thing that aside the style adopted for distribution, it is now being taken to market places.”

Speaking on the initiative, the State Commissioner for Regional Integration and Special Duties, Engr. Hon Olalekan Badmus , said there was no going back in giving back to the people.

He said the market approach strategy was adopted as part of effort to further reach out to the masses at the grassroots, saying the present administration was making deliberate efforts to ensure that citizens benefit directly and indirectly from policies and programmes of the government.

“We have gone to see how far we have been able to reach out to the people. We have relied on the World Bank-sponsored Social Register to reach out to the vulnerable citizens.

However, in trying to ensure that we have more reach, we have introduced market approach. We are targeting all the markets in the State.

“For this month, we are beginning with 20 selected markets in the three Senatorial Districts and for the Central, we are beginning with Osogbo Federal Constituency and for the West, we are beginning with Ede federal, and for Osun East, we will start with Ijesa-South Federal Constituency.

“There is no doubt that Governor Governor Adegboyega Oyetola is passionate about the welfare of the people, and the massive turnout of the people at various markets visited is an indication that they love the Governor and his Government.

“It is a good thing that the Governor is giving back to the people and we shall continue to maintain this by ensuring that the welfare and well-being of the people are guaranteed”, he added.

Osun Mega Schools: Why Aregbesolaists are against Integrity Tests

By Olusegun Adeniran

The decision of the state government of Osun to conduct durability tests on identified defective buildings in some of its schools has created another rumpus.The rumpus is the handiwork of the Rauf Aregbesolaists, a gang of political fanatics professing their loyalty to former Governor Rauf Aregbesola, a current federal minister. The Aregboslaists are unabashedly against the tests.

The question is: why are Aregboslaists fearful of the Integrity Tests to be conducted on challenged buildings? It is because they have skeletons in their compound. Simple. The mega school projects, initiated to serve as a conduit-pipe to fleece the scarce resources of the state, was wickedly inflated and was done with substandard materials by cronies and relatives of the former governor. One of the contractors has been identified as Bashiru Aregbesola, a blood relative of the embattled former governor. Documents have revealed this poignant assertion and everyone is welcome to challenge it.

Background to the issue: On February 1, 2013, the Vanguard newspaper headlined with the report of the demolition of 3,000 school buildings by the state government of Osun led by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. The government claimed then that 4,000 building were in deplorable condition and it was its plan to flatten the buildings to pave way for its planned mega schools. Many citizens of the state expressed concerns over the far-reaching destruction of the structures which they reasoned could have been renovated and be put into better use, rather than the wanton dismantling and investing humongous state resource on building white elephant projects. One of the concerned citizens was Senator Akinlabi Olasunkanmi, former Minister for Youth Development. According to Olasunkanmi, the establishment of mega schools for a financially struggling state like Osun was a misplaced priority and might end up in mega catastrophe for the state. Nevertheless, the government did not bulge. It went ahead to obtain a loan of N16.5 billion, at a cut-throat commercial interest rate, to construct eleven (11) secondary schools, surnamed Mega Schools.

True to the predictions of many perspectival Osun citizens, the mega schools are turning out to be mega catastrophe for the state. We all woke up to a freightening "Osun Mega School Building Collapses, Injures 2" headline of July 10, 2014 of the Nigerian Tribune. What could be responsible for the collapse of an Ejigbo mega school that had not even be commissioned? Many reasons were advanced, including glaring material failures.

So on assumption of office of Governor Oyetola, successor to Aregbesola, having been inundated with complaints by a number of employed facility managers of the shocking, accelerated deterioration and alarming disintegration of some of the schools under them, Oyetola asked one of the facility managers, Engr C. B. Olajide to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the physical conditions of the 10 functional model schools and turn up the repair and rehabilitation needs. Olajide, a civil engineer, it must be noted, was a Senior Special Assistant to Rauf Aregbesola. Her report, submitted April 2019, was shocking as it was damning. She complained of wide range of defects owing to heavy usage of substandard materials. The structural concerns raised in the report, which specifically questioned the safety of occupants of two of the schools, were what made the issue be escalated to the State Executive Council by the Commissioner in charge of Education. A committee, headed by the Deputy Governor, was set up to collaborate with the contractors responsible for the construction of the schools, to ensure the concerns raised were addressed. The committee in its report called for urgent rehabilitation of some of the schools. It also recommended a durability tests be conducted on the challenged buildings. The Council, after receiving the report, directed the Ministry of Works and Transport, headed by Engr Oluremi Omowaiye, to liaise with relevant professional bodies to carry out further assessment as to the safety of the users of the facilities.

And, according to the Secretary to the State Government of Osun, Prince Wole Oyebamiji, the directive to the Ministry of Works resulted in a Committee made up of seasoned professionals, who presented a Preliminary report on October 11th, 2021 indicating that school buildings at Ikire, Ile-Ife, Osogbo and Ikirun showed some serious concerns. The building experts' report recommended further and detailed structural tests.

While Leaders of Thoughts and genuine opinion moulders have lauded the Oyetola-led government for its meticulousness and concerns about safety of the students and staff of the identified schools, the lieutenants of the former governor are taking time to take a swipe at the government for its noble action, describing it a witch-hunt and an attempt to impugn the legacy of their principal.

Why should a governor sacrifice the safety and lives of the people he was elected to serve for pecuniary gains? This was the mistake made by former Governor Aregbesola. This is the mistake Oyetola has vowed not to rehash, hence his insistence on procedural appropriateness in relation to the State's mega school buildings.

Dr Olusegun Adeniran teaches in a private university in Osun State.

History555:
Yet osun as backlog of unpaid salaries, pension and gratuity.

What a shock

Backlog owed by the immediate past Governor, Rauf Aregbesola. The current governor has not owed workers a dime since he came on board. And he has put machinery in place to see to gradual offsetting of the inherited workers emoluments.

Osun is one of the few states that have implemented the Group Insurance for workers. The state also, since November 2020, has been implementing the new minimum wage. The government of Oyetola has released close to N160bn to settle pension and salary commitments in the last 35 years in the saddle. No state has a better record except Lagos.

The petition of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, to President Buhari accusing Rauf Aregbesola of lack of capacity, is strongly worded. The allegations leveled against Aregbesola and his ministry are weighty, damning and damaging. Aregbesola should be made to come clean on his activities in the Ministry of Interior. The sensitive office he holds makes him a statutory member of the National Security Council. A member of such an important Council should be above board, and not one known for petty and unpleasant conduct capable of bringing the security of the country to danger as Aregbesola is doing at the moment.

i
HURIWA notes that the petition to call the Minister to order is germane “owing to the fact that every jailbreak portends the release of possible arsonists, murderers, assassins, armed robbers, kidnappers, rapists, terrorists, and all manner of criminals that make the society a dangerous place to live in.”

ii

“More worrisome is that there are indications of clear communications gaps between the Office of the Commandant General and the Minister`s Office for the deployment of tactical and combatant teams of NSCDC to all Correctional Centers in Nigeria, which was allegedly declined by the Minister.”

iii

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria says it could no longer keep quiet “as the integrity of the Nigerian prisons is being systematically eroded and breached thereby creating rooms for prisoners to escape the long arm of the law with the attendant consequences to the national security interest of the nation.”

iv

HURIWA says the group has carried out an investigation to ascertain “the cause of the lethargic leadership incapacitation in the parent federal ministry with mandate to administer the Nigerian Correctional Centres and the findings are what we have tabled as a petition to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to demand that the federal minister of Interior be compelled to sit up and work or be booted out to stop further compromises of the integrity of the Prison system in the country.”

v

According to Huriwa, "It is worrisome that in the face of the implications of the successful and attempted jailbreaks reported across the country in the last eighteen months, which have been adjudged to be the highest so far in the cycle of any administration since the return to civil rule in 1999, the Interior Minister; Rauf Aregbesola appears more concerned with allegedly misusing the personnel of the security agencies under his Ministry for political gains in Osun State rather than fully deploy them appropriately where they are needed to secure the correctional centres that are the cornerstone of Nigeria’s judicial system."

vi

" HURIWA has observed on a weekly basis, particularly on Thursdays, that armed men from the correctional services and those of the Nigeria Civil and Security Defense Corps, NSCDC, are stationed at the venues where The Osun Progressives, TOP, a caucus of the Osun State All Progressives Congress suspected to be loyalists of Rauf Aregbesola who are laying claims to the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state hold their meetings."

vii

“Again, reports have it that on Saturday, August 14, this group, alongside some suspected political thugs under the protection of the armed men from the NSCDC allegedly attacked the state secretariat of the All Progressive Congress, wherein some persons were reportedly injured in the process."

viii

" Also, on the 16th of October, 2021 while the State APC held its state congress at the Osogbo Stadium where all heads of security agencies in the state and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC were present, only the NSCDC personnel and its leadership were reportedly absent for no other reason but political manipulation. Instead, they reportedly went to another part of the state to provide cover for alleged Aregbosola’s political loyalists who also claim to be holding a state congress."


ix

" In fact, NSCDC men were seen on national television wielding weapons and standing behind the former State Secretary of the party; Alhaji Rasaq Salinsile, who announced himself as the chairman of the party in the state on a day NSCDC personnel ran riot and shot ceaselessly and sporadically into the air in the Ogo Oluwa axis of the state capital, causing avoidable panic in the state."



Press Release

https://www.sunnewsonline.com/huriwa-petitions-buhari-over-incessant-prison-breaks/

THE FREQUENT PRISON BREAKS IS A THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY:

Gentlemen of the forth estate of the Realm, we can no longer afford to keep watching helplessly as the integrity of the Nigerian Prison is being systematically eroded nd breached thereby creating rooms for prisoners to escape the long arm of the law with the attendant consequences to the national security interest of the nation.

HURIWA has therefore carried out an investigative activity to ascertain the cause of the lethargic leadership incapacitation in the Parent Federal ministry with mandate to administer the Nigerian Correctional Centres and the findings are what we have tabled as a petition to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to demand that the federal minister of Interior be compelled to sit up and work or be booted out to stop further compromises of the integrity of the Prison system in the Country.

Here below are the issues we have tabled before the President and have pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately investigate the allegations we have raised with view to fixing down the broken down security architectures in the Prison facilities across the Country.

Dear President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR,



PETITION AGAINST THE ALLEGED USE OF PERSONEL OF THE SECURITY AGENCIES UNDER THE FEDERAL MINISTRY OF INTERIOR FOR POLITICAL GAINS IN OSUN STATE BY THE HONOURABLE MINISTER; OGBENI RAUF AREGBESOLA RATHER THAN FULLY DEPLOY THEM APPROPRIATELY WHERE THEY ARE NEEDED:

We, the undersigned leading and prominent Civil Right advocacy group; Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) wishes to draw the attention of the Nigerian President; His Excellency; Muhammadu Buhari to the clear and unambiguous symptom of a failed leadership in the Ministry of Interior due to political distraction on the side of the Minister; Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and the need for the Minister to be called to order or asked to quit and face local Osun State politics.

It is worrisome that in the face of the implications of the successful and attempted jailbreaks reported across the country in the last eighteen months, which have been adjudged to be the highest so far in the cycle of any administration since the return to civil rule in 1999, the Interior Minister; Rauf Aregbesola appears more concerned with allegedly misusing the personnel of the security agencies under his Ministry for political gains in Osun State rather than fully deploy them appropriately where they are needed to secure the Correctional Centres that are the cornerstone of Nigeria's judicial system.

HURIWA has reportedly observed on a weekly basis, particularly on Thursdays, that armed men from the Correctional Services and those of the Nigeria Civil and Security Defense Corps (NSCDC) are stationed at the venues where The Osun Progressives (TOP); a caucus of the Osun State All Progressives Congress suspected to be loyalists of Rauf Aregbesola who are laying claims to the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state hold their meetings.

Again, reports have it that on Saturday, August 14, this group, alongside some suspected political thugs under the protection of the armed men from the Nigeria Civil and Security Defense Corps (NSCDC) allegedly attacked the state secretariat of the All Progressive Congress, wherein some persons were reportedly injured in the process.

Also, not too long ago, precisely on the 16th of October, 2021 while the State APC held it’s State Congress at the Osogbo Stadium where all heads of security agencies in the State and INEC were present, only the NSCDC personnel and its leadership were repprtedly absent for no other reason but political manipulation. Instead, they reportedly went to another part of the State to provide cover for alleged Aregbosola’s political loyalists who also claim to be holding a state congress.

In fact, NSCDC men were seen on national television wielding weapons and standing behind the former State Secretary of the party; Alhaji Rasaq Salinsile, who announced himself as the chairman of the party in the State on a day NSCDC personnel ran riot and shot ceaselessly and sporadically into the air in the Ogo Oluwa axis of the State capital, causing avoidable panic in the State.

More worrisome is that there are indications of clear communications gaps between the Office of the Commandant General and the Minister`s Office for the deployment of tactical and combatant teams of NSCDC to all Correctional Centers in Nigeria, which was allegedly declined by the Minister.

However, there was an alleged express approval from the Minister for the transfer and deployment of hundreds of NSCDC officers to Osun State to protect personal buildings and provide security covers for persons fighting proxy political wars on his behalf. To show the import attached to these over and above the statutory mandates of the NSCDC, State Commandant of the NSCDC; Mr. Emmanuel Ocheja, personally leads most of the operations.

Referencing the Establishment Act of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (2003), empowers para-military agency to function in the “enhancement of security network and formation within the country, so as to develop structures and training strategies that would contribute to the national security with a broader vision to put to work efficiency in service delivery with a fresh zeal; bring credibility into concept of security,” Aregbesola’s action so far has portrayed him as a man not worthy of holding a public office of such national strategic and security importance.

It has therefore become pertinent that Your Excellency implements sanctions in calling the Minister to order and direct him to appropriately deploy personnel of the Security Agencies under his Ministry to perhaps fortify prison security and other critical national assets rather than been deployed for political assignments.

This petition to call the Minister to order is germane owing to the fact that every jailbreak portends the release of possible arsonists, murderers, assassins, armed robbers, kidnappers, rapists, terrorists, and all manner of criminals that make the society a dangerous place to live in.

Beyond this, the successful and attempted jailbreaks across Correctional Centres in the Country have all exposed the gross incompetence and ineffective leadership at the Interior Ministry since Rauf Aregbesola’s assumption of office as Minister due to political distraction on the side of the Minister.

Hence, His Excellency, the President should expedite actions in curtailing the excesses of Rauf Aregbesola in his privileged position as a minister in using the Security Agencies under his Ministry for alleged political gains by exploring the use of sanctions that disallows public office holders to be involved in this phenomenon of using personnel of security agencies for personal interest and for advancing political expansionist tendencies.

This is because deploying sanctions in calling Rauf Aregbesola to order would provide accountability for and be a deterrent to anyone involved in using their position to divert the attention of security agencies to personal interest.

Signed:

Comrade Emmanuel Onubiko

National Cordinator.

Osun IGR Improvement in H1 2021

When we hail Governor Oyetola and his economic team for the good work they are doing in ensuring Osun is placed on comfortable financial pedestal so the government can finance its laudable plans, cynics and naysayers think it is an empty claim aimed at burnishing the governor's brand. But facts don't lie.

Osun under Oyetola is daily recognised for serious work and breaking boundaries. The statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics yesterday, 08 November 2021, indicates Osun IGR leaped to N13.6bn in the 1st Half( H1) of 2021 from N8.9bn in the 1st Half( H1) of 2020. That is an increase of N4.7bn ( 52% improvement). Remember the yearly IGR as at 2018 when Oyetola came on board was N10bn. So what Aregbesola made in yearly IGR was what Oyetola made in just first 6 months of 2021. Remarkable. If this is maintained, there is plausibility that Osun IGR will scale to N27bn for 2021. And to have a better control of finance and fund government expenses excellently, it is estimated that Osun must generate N36bn in yearly IGR. I have more hope that this is achievable even before 2023.

This is good news we get each day that makes us continue to support the exemplary leadership of Governor Gboyega Oyetola, the financial encyclopedia. We will not relent in our support for his administration no matter the bile and curses the enemies of progress daily heap on us.

Johnnyessence:
weree Adedayo elder, you will wait tired. Check google for Senator Ademola Adeleke Cv. Imole de okunkun parada ni gbogbo ipinle Osun. Baba iyalaya gbogbo yin ti wolu. You won’t have peace on his candidacy. When his Oyetola the complete encyclopaedia of failure in governance going to demolish the mega schools baba Afusa used the tax payers money to built? Osun Apc, eti jetan. All the details of distinguished Senator Ademola Adeleke is on google, check it out.

Show us his CV here and stop brailing.

Johnnyessence:
this clueless propaganda doesn’t hold any water again and again. Post another propaganda. Senator Ademola Adeleke has gone to US to have another degree in Criminology and justice from Atlanta Georgia metropolitan University. Oyetola should just be preparing for his handover notes. Now Oyetola want to demolish the mega schools Baba Afusa built with Osun State tax payers money.

1. Did Ademola Adeleke obtain HND before ND like one of your leaders in Osun PDP, Gani Olaoluw Aseejere?

Ademola in the attached video some 4 years ago claimed he was a specialist in Criminology, blablabla. So he only went to school in 2019 to obtain a Diploma, not even a Degree in Criminology, and you are beginning to stake him in your mind as the next governor? Where is his WAEC result?

Can you post Ademola Adeleke CV here for others to see? What is his professional experience? Does he have boardroom experience? Osun needs a serious professional in the mode of Oyetola, not a nondescript loafer like Senator F9 pending pending.

Okerenla:
Osun will not vote for a man with questionable academic credentials.

Ademola Adeleke should first of all show the electorate his WAEC.

Validated:
Just like they all endorsed Andy Uba in Anambra abi? E go shock una this time around. Every sane Nigerian knows that APC is evil party. NEVER AGAIN!

Osun will not vote for a man with questionable academic credentials.

zealousayo:
In fact, I'm from the Zone (Osun West). Was Adeleke the one contesting? There were aggrieved members in the district then like Akin Ogunbiyi who felt he should have been compensated for coming second behind Adeleke in the gubernatorial primary election by being the PDP Senatorial candidate for Osun West. They worked against the party then. Akogun Lere Oyewumi that contested under PDP is not really an influential politician (He was just a former ALGON chairman). The local government Oyewumi hails from, what's her population compare to Iwo where the current senator representing the district( Engineer Lere Oriolowo) hails from? There were many factors that contributed to why PDP lost the election. After all, PDP won in Ede.

They won in Ede with how many votes compared to the 2017 by-election and the 2018 gubernatorial election?

zealousayo:
In fact, I'm from the Zone (Osun West). Was Adeleke the one contesting? There were aggrieved members in the district then like Akin Ogunbiyi who felt he should have compensated by being the PDP Senatorial candidate for Osun West. They worked against the party then. Akogun Lere Oyewumi that contested under PDP is not really an influential politician (He was just a former ALGON chairman). The local Oyewumi is from, what's population compare to Iwo where the current senator representing the district( Engineer Lere Oriolowo) hails from. There were many factors that contributed to why PDP lost the election. After all, PDP won in Ede.

How much do you know Osun politics? You called Oyewumi a really not influential politician, but Ademola Adeleke made him the Director General of his campaign? He is not influential and he was made the senatorial candidate in 2019?

zealousayo:
I don't have any problem with Oyetola, but I don't support usually support people (especially executives) for a second term. Besides, Oyetola is using a stolen mandate. Apart from regular payment of salary, he hasn't done anything tangible. Some poster up there said Oyetola will easily win the election if PDP field Oyetola, that's laughable! Had Adeleke not defeated him before? Even Oyetola knows that Adeleke is the biggest threat to him if they both contest against each other.
Note: I'm from Osun.

Why couldn't the Adelekes deliver their senatorial district in the 2019 election? Know the fact and know some truth.

Coolsperm:
Osun people have said yes to Adeleke

Which Osun people said YES to Ademola Adeleke? Ademola Adeleke who has been running from media interviews since he returned from his educational excursion some months ago? Yeye dey smell.

Here is a section of the 25km Ede-Ara-Ejigbo road constructed by the Gboyega Oyetola Administration.

Bash92:
I guess part of the good work that doe not need pictorial evidence is the osogbo to ifon Road. More than 8 years now the roads have not been fixed. The other day Ooni was complaining of the bad roads in Ife. You know why Ede people voted massively for the PDP in 2018? It's because of the bad roads in Ede, at a point 80% of the roads were not motorable.

Apart from the fact the Adeleke's are from Ede, the people believe he was the only one that could help fix the roads and that he will not want to spoil the good name of the family.

Truth be told, i prefer Oyetola to Aregbesola anytime any day, at least he his not collecting loan up and down and managing the meager state budget well, due to the frivolities by Aregbe(May God judge him). He his doing the projects he can and finishing them so that there will be no abandoned project later.

But in a free and fair election in Osun today between Adeleke and Oyetola. Adeleke will beat him. People still feel cheated because of the stolen mandate, so this time people will not give them a chance for rerun.

You are being economical with the truth. You claim Oyetola has not done any road in Ede. What of the 25km Ede-Ara-Ejigbo road?


Again, you hype the Adelekes as if they are the only family in Ede. Do you know Matrix Energy? Do you know Ambassador Adejare Bello? These are two of many personalities in Ede that are equally loved by the people. The 2019 senatorial election result in Ede, which is the only election under Oyetola, has proven that APC is penetrating the PDP stronghold. That APC won Osun west senatorial election in 2019 is an indication that the Adelekes are losing the grip on the electorate in their stronghold. The election held barely 5 months after Oyetola's inauguration when he was just settling down is a pointer that Ademola Adeleke will find it difficult now that his government has rehabilitated more than 20 health centres in Ede.

Are you aware some of the grassroots mobilisers helping the Adelekes win election have joining APC? Do you know Zobo Lotto? Do you know Imam? These were folks that worked for Ademola the last time. Today, they are with IleriOluwa.

badoh:
Oyetola will never pray to have Adeleke contesting against him cos he knows Adeleke is a big threat to him. Instead of you people to showcase with pictorial evidence what the current governor has achieved so far for people to judge his performance, you're saying he will win. With the current hardship in the country, any APC governor that is unable to deliver dividends of democracy will definitely find it difficult winning a second term.

Do you live in Osun? If you do, you won't ask for pictorial evidence?

Kundagarten:
Liar! You're rather praying the PDP don't field Adeleke again.
Remember Adeleke beat him the first time round before INEC shenanigans. It will be impossible for Oyetola to beat Adeleke considering the division in Osun APC.

There is division in APC but there is unity in PDP, isn't it?

Osun 2022 and endorsement galore for Oyetola

By Adebayo Adedeji

If teachers, road transport workers, NLC, TUC, babalojas, iyalojas, Christian priests, Imams, and organised indigenous religion practitioners endorse you for re-election, you do not need to ache your head further, for God has really answered your prayer. You only need to vocalise your Amens to claim it. This should be the case for the incumbent governor of Osun State, Gboyega Oyetola, whose re-election bid has become a project enlivened and promoted by all the movers and shakers in the state.The endorsements keep pouring in daily. The organised labour unions represented by the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Nigeria Labour Union, Trade Union Congress, Nigeria Union of Pensioners, etc, have, on different occasions, thrown their weight behind the 2nd Term ambition of the man many have described as not only a performing governor, but also a governor with human face.


The latest in the endorsement galore is that of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW. But as expected, the cynics and the rejected politicians are struggling terribly to foul-mouth the road transport workers' open display of love for the Oyetola government. The invidious politicians who, in the years past, purchased premium slots in the newspapers and Television to broadcast a similar endorsement, are commissioning fiction mercenaries to downplay effects powerful endorsements, like that of the NURTW and other groups, would have on the gubernatorial campaign of Oyetola.

What is endorsement and what causal effect does it have on election?

Fernanda Leite Lopez, in "The Tuesday Advantage of Politicians Endorsed by American Newspapers" published in The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, describes an Endorsement as a formal way of signaling and mobilising group support for a candidate. It, he stresses, is a real commitment, rather than an empty statement, that promises concrete actions by groups and members. It is an essential part of campaigning as it can add credibility and validate a candidacy. It improves a candidate's reach and encourages voter turnout for him. It gives positive optics to a campaign. It is on record that the May 2013 endorsement of Rauf Aregbesola by the NURTW improved his public rating and encouraged a battalion of opposition party leaders to join the All Progressives Congress ahead of the 2014 gubernatorial contest. Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Isiaka Adeleke, two former governors of the state and PDP chieftains, are ready examples of those who joined APC because the public perception was favourable to the ruling APC. Nobody wanted to be left behind in Siberia. Everyone wanted to identify with the winning team. The bandwagon effect: that is what an endorsement does.

The public, definitive and stated preference of Oyetola by influential unions like NLC, TUC, NUT, NURTW, will boost the governor's chances in the next year's election. There is a vast body of literature that shows a strong and positive relationship between votes and received endorsements, including Erickson (1976), Coombs (1981), Bullock (1984), Lieske (1989), and Krebs (1998).

In Osun State, two blocs determine votes: the Formal workers and Informal workers. The Formal workers are the government workers ( active workers and pensioners).

The Informal workers, in this context, are workers in the structured and unstructured private employments. They are the artisans, the road union workers. The Iyalojas, the babalojas. What shaped the opinion of the Formal bloc? Timely payment of their salary and pensions. What do the Informal workers want? Projects. Road projects. Empowerment programmes. Infrastructure that would ease stress of plying their trade. Chief Bisi Akande lost the Formal, but had the Informal. He lost his re-election in 2003 to Olagunsoye Oyinlola. Oyinlola seemingly had the Formal but lost the Informal, he again lost his re-election to Rauf Aregbesola, a pan-Osun candidate in 2007, even though Aregbesola was a debutant in Osun politics at the time. Aregbesola, in his first term, had the two blocs in 2014 and won his second term election convincingly, notwithstanding the federal resources deployed by the opposition PDP. Unfortunately, Aregbesola faltered along the way. He lost the Formal but had the informal. Aregbesola's inability to sunstain an amitie with the workers, pensioners and their unions, made the 2018 election strenuous for his party's candidate, Gboyega Oyetola. The governing party did not only lose bunch of his votes in its strongholds, it also lost in Ijeshaland, Aregbesola's acclaimed place of origin.

The party was defeated in four of the six local governments in Ijeshaland to obtain 46,140 votes as against PDP's 48,859 votes. In the same Ijeshaland in 2014, APC had cleared all the six LGs, obtaining 65,039 votes as opposed to PDP's 36,488 votes. The 2018 election was a definite resentment to Aregbesola who, immediately after his re-election, chose to experiment with the welfare of the civil servants and pensioners by activating a modulated salary, otherwise known as half-salary. As at the period the 2018 election was conducted, the Aregbesola government was owing workers and pensioners close to 30 months of their entitlements! This impacted on the negative rating of APC.

But today, the story has changed. Oyetola has got both the Formal and Informal blocs. His performance is as profound as it is inspiring. In the last 35 months, over N150 billion has been released to settle pension and salary commitments. Regardless of the debt burden bequeathed to it by Aregbesola government, debt amounting to over N200 billion as at inauguration in November 2019, Oyetola government continues to steady the state to economic prosperity. Of the debt, the current government has offset about N70 billion of it. With the financial challenges occasioned by the heavy deductions, the state, since last November, has begun to implement the N30,000 Minimum Wage. The civil servants are happy. So also the pensioners.

As the government is amenable to the demands of the civil servants and pensioners, so it is closing the Infrastructure deficit. Moro-Yakoyo-Ipetumodu-Ife-Ibadan expressway, first constructed in 1976, has been rehabilitated. The project, described as the biggest construction project in the history of Ife-North Local Government, was done in a record time of nine (9) months, in line with the principle of the administration that completion time for all projects should not exceed 10 months. The 25km Ede-Ara-Ejigbo has been done. 13km Ada-Igbajo road has been done. The 4.1k Ilesha Roundabout-Sabo-Akure Expressway has been done. And according to Oluremi Omowaiye, the state's Commissioner for Works, 10 roads, alongside the 0.64km Olaiya Flyover, would be ready for inauguration by end of the year. Again, in the coming weeks, contracts for reconstruction of six networks of roads in Ifeland would be awarded.

In equal breath, the government has constructed/rehabilitated primary health centres in nearly all the 332 political wards in the state. The contract for the last batch of 17 health centres has been awarded. This is in addition to the nearly completed 120-bed project in the State Specialist Hospital at Asubiaro, Osogbo.

The Osun Food Support Scheme, inaugurated in April of this year, is another social intervention programme of the Oyetola administration that is connecting it to the people of the state. The scheme, targeted at the most vulnerable citizens of the state, is aimed at improving the well-being of the beneficiaries. Since take-off of the scheme in April, 210,000 beneficiaries have been covered. And the government is not slowing down. The government, according to the Commissioner in charge of the project, Olalekan Badmus, is planning to increase its reach so more citizens can be serviced. Badmus similarly assured the citizens of the government's commitment to sustain the project. He also indicated the government's plan to initiate a monthly cash-support progamme for the senior citizens and widows in the state. The programme would be code-named "Itoju Agba, Itoju Opo."

Oyetola's exemplary leadership is reflected in every facet of governance in the state, including in the traditional institution and local government administration. He believes communal peace is much needed if the drive of his government to attract investors is to have any headway. It took the leadership of Oyetola to settle the 34-year-old obaship tussle in Ikire in March this year. Similarly in April this year, the Owaloko of Iloko-Ijesha tussle was resolved by Oyetola, 9 years after it was declared vacant at the transition of Oba Oladele Olashore in June 2012.

In the words of Prince Adebayo Adeleke (Banik), the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in the state, " It took the God-given sagacity of Governor Oyetola to restore peace into the Apomu Kingdom, leading to the installation of Oba Kayode Afolabi. Governor Oyetola has also resolved the issue of Alara of Ara in Egbedore Local Government which began at the exit of Oba Sunmonu Omolaoye Ekundayo in February, 2010. The tussle sorrouding the Apetumodu of Ipetumodu stool of Ife North, which began in November 2017, has also been put to rest by this government. We have been able to create this harmonious relationship because the governor is deliberate about bringing a lasting peace in the state. He addresses issues without political bias and fixation."

The achievements so far are what have endeared Oyetola to the people of the state. The acheivemnts are the reason for the floodgate of endorsements currently turning the stomach of the naysayers and detractors. The achievements in the last 35 months, no doubt, would speak glowingly for him in the next year's gubernatorial election. Governor Oyetola has worked to deserve a 2nd Term in office. And by God's grace and overwhelming support of the people of Osun State, he will get it. The trending endorsements -- the public display of affection for his person and government -- are just icing on the cake. No foul-mouthing can stop an idea whose time has come.