Leading lawyers opinion

Notable lawyers have sharply reacted to Thursday’s impeachment of Lagos state deputy governor, Olufemi Pedro by the Lagos State Assembly. Chief Pedro had tendered his resignation, Wednesday, in the heat of investigation of gross misconduct against him for which a seven-man panel of investigation was set-up. But the state government denied receiving any letter of resignation tendered by him and hence, the Assembly went ahead with the impeachment and declared him impeached Thursday.

The special adviser to the Lagos State governor Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy had told journalists that governor Tinubu did not know of Pedro’s resignation.

However, in a reaction, Lagos lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi told Saturday Vanguard that the purported impeachment of the deputy governor was balderdash. Citing Section 306 of the Constitution, Gani Fawehinmi said:
“Femi Pedro resigned on Wednesday and the resignation took immediate effect.

A copy of that resignation was served the governor, the State Assembly and the state Chief Judge. Tinubu was served the original. Five lawyers from my chambers in Adindu Ugwuzor, Kolawale Abiri, Theophilus Akanwa, Adewunmi Bamidele and Muhammad Badru effected the service to the necessary quarters.

“As at Wednesday, Femi Pedro had ceased to be the deputy governor of Lagos State. So, how can the state assembly claim it’s acting under Section 188? What they did on Thursday was an exercise in futility. .

“And as you can see, Pedro was never accused of corruption. It’s a disgraceful thing for the State Assembly because it ought to know it is independent.It was a wasteful exercise because you don’t impeach somebody who is not occupying an impeachable position.”

In his own reaction, Chief[b] Tayo Oyetibo [/b]said: “A governor tenders resignation to the Speaker and a deputy governor to the governor. Pedro served everybody who should know about his resignation and once that had been done, you cannot impeach him. So, Pedro was not impeached. He resigned. The purported impeachment is jankara politics because you cannot impeach a governor or deputy governor after he had resigned.”

Abubakar Dan-Musa, Speaker of the defunct Kaduna State House of Assembly told Saturday Vanguard that resignation on the part of Femi Pedro had terminated the impeachment proceedings against him.

“Since the impeachment process did not take its full course before he resigned as deputy governor, then there’s no impeachment. No law says you cannot resign when an impeachment process is on and since Pedro resigned before the impeachment process was completed, his resignation terminated that process. So, there cannot be any impeachment because resignation terminated it.”


Femi Falana:
By virtue of Section 306 of the 1999 constitution that deals with resignation, once a public appointee or elected official has voluntarily resigned from office and has submitted his letter to the appropriate authority, he ceases to hold that office from that moment.

The question of his letter being accepted or rejected does not arise. Since Mr Femi Pedro quit office on Wednesday as Lagos State Deputy Governor, his purported impeachment by the State House of Assembly cannot stand in law. His impeachment cannot stand because he was impeached as a former deputy governor and not as a serving deputy governor. He should just go to court and set aside the purported impeachment.

Bamidele Aturu

Once Mr Pedro has resigned from office as deputy governor, the state government ought to have accepted his letter under the constitution. If he says he has resigned then he has resigned. The House can’t impeach somebody who has resigned.

The moment he tendered his letter of resignation, the State House of Assembly ought to have discontinued with the impeachment proceeding. But by going ahead with the impeachment it shows the level of intolerance of our politicians who will stop at nothing to be vindictive and this is not good for our democracy. He can go to court to challenge his purported impeachment.

Festus Keyamo

Mr Pedro’s impeachment can not stand. If he says he doesn’t want to work again, then he doesn’t want to work and he should be left alone. His impeachment can not stand because he has resigned effective Tuesday.

Anything that is done by the House after his resignation is null and void. If you accuse somebody in public office of misconduct and he decides to resign honourably as it is done in Europe, why do you still want to humiliate him by purporting to impeach him?

Bayo Omotubora
His impeachment is a nullity. It is not possible to impeach a deputy governor who resigned before the impeachment process was concluded. The House of Assembly merely did what they wanted to do. As of the moment he resigned, he had stopped being deputy governor, so impeaching him a day after is futile. The House of Assembly didnot impeach anybody.





AS YOU CAN SEE, MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE ARE IN DISAGREEMENT WITH YOUR CAMP. SO think before you type. LOL

@kitaun, tell that to the lagosians that have turned against your governor.

the only people justifying the impeachment are tinubu and his people. tinubu lost this one buddy


go and read what segun adeniyi had to say about the whole issue. i will no longer respond to fools like you

Having lived a lie for eight years, the governorship of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu eventually got its comeuppance and suffered an irreparable damage in its dying days. Lies,vindictiveness, paternalism and despotism of the worst kind- the essential staple of the governorship- coalesced in the impeachment of Otunba Olufemi Pedro by a House of Assembly shamelessly doing the bidding of the governor. This servile and small-minded act was carried out clear 24 hours after Otunba Pedro had resigned his position as the Deputy Governor. And a governorship started to unravel.

Flustered by the censure of an outraged public, the Tinubu administration has reached for lies as usual to explain away the indefensible and becloud the obvious and the crystal-clear. Its self-inflicted discomfiture was apparent in its response in form of an advertorial to a deluge of criticisms of the purported impeachment. The advertorial in some Sunday papers of May 13,2007,entitled “In Defence of Truth : Asiwaju Tinubu and the Impeachment Saga”,was confused for the most part and confirmed the worst fears of the public about the Tinubu administration .It reeked of arrogance, vindictiveness and inconsistency. Apparently, these gentlemen have never heard of Usman Dan Fodio’s admonition:” Conscience is an open wound; only truth can heal it”.


Thanks to the advertorial, the public was able to confirm,once again,that Governor Tinubu ordered his House of Assembly to impeach an empty office because Otunba Pedro committed an unpardonable “sin” by defecting to Labour Party. The House and the Tinubu administration had vehemently denied that the impeachment was about defection. Indeed this defection,which is not an impeachment offence,never made it onto any of the numerous notices of impeachment which the House cooked up in its desperate attempt to nail Otunba Pedro.

But the advertorial in question unwittingly put the administration and the House on the spot by declaring that the Lagos State Governor had tried to forestall “moves in the House to initiate impeachment proceedings against the Deputy Governor following his decision to decamp to Labour Party”. The advertorial, tongue in cheek,said the governor demonstrated “magnanimity” by causing a letter to be advertised in the newspapers” in fervent effort to seek public support for his pleas to the House to pardon his deputy on account of the defection”.


That the governor pleaded for Otunba Pedro is a blatant lie.In any case,why would a governor,except a paternalistic and deluded one, pretend to seek pardon when an offence has not been committed? Defection is a right; not a crime. Indeed, the whole House of Assembly and the governor defected from the Alliance for Democracy (AD) to the Action Congress (AC).Nobody asked for their scalp. Nobody called for the recall of the legislators: no one called for the impeachment of the governor, not to talk of begging for his pardon.


Even so, what the advertorial failed to mention was that the governor’s publicized plea then was a dubious one. It sought to make an issue out of the defection and set the stage for future punitive action while also contriving to portray the governor as tolerant. Which explains its ambivalent tone. The governor, in one breath,categorically said Otunba Pedro had not committed any offence as he had only exercised his freedom of association by his defection.


In another breath, however,he argued that he reserved the right not to involve him in governance again because of that same defection.

And that was exactly what the governor did. He ambarked on a whole gamut of mean-spirited actions against Otunba Pedro totally unexpected of his exalted office,such as physically barring the former Deputy Governor from the state executive council meeting in a way reminiscent of the treatment dished out to Pedro’s predecessor,Senator Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele.Civil servants and security aides attached to the former Deputy Governor were also made to spy on him and sabotage his activities.

The leave issue,which was also the subject of the worst form of spin in the May 13 advertorial, arose out of the vindictive actions of the governor.Here,too,as even the letters published by the Tinubu government clearly reveal,the former Deputy Governor acted with decorum and respect for his boss.Otunba Pedro had asked for his 2007 pro rata annual leave to last from 26th March to 16th April,2007.

But the governor, clearly irritated by the sight of his deputy, asked him to proceed on a leave of absence till May 22,seven days from the handover of government . Otunba Pedro seized the opportunity of that leave to attend to his health. He left Nigeria on April 23rd.He is still abroad. Pray, where is “defiance” in a reminder by Otunba Pedro before he left the country that he had only asked for leave till April 16th ? Indeed, Otunba Pedro had dutifully presented himself for work on April 16th,only to be told to flee for his life as some thugs were being organized to storm his office for daring to defect to Labour Party.

The maximum punishment contemplated for Otunba Pedro by the governor – impeachment – was not applied before now because the Tinubu administration had reasoned that its backlash could affect the installation of its governorship candidate.It was not out of magnanimity or tolerance as falsely claimed. And the desperation of this governor and his House of Assembly was exposed when, clearly seeing that they had left the impeachment too late with Otunba Pedro’s resignation, they nevertheless went ahead to impeach an empty office.


Always a gentleman,Otunba Pedro had borne insults, libel and atrocious injustice against him with his characteristic equanimity. In this sordid matter, he has emerged a symbol of amazing tolerance and restraint .The governor alleged without evidence that Otunba Pedro was planning to rope him(Tinubu) into a phantom coup.He promptly ordered Pedro’s campaign bill board removed around the Alausa seat of government. He equally said he could not trust his deputy with the treasury even when only the governor controls the state purse. Later,he called Otunba Pedro a traitor for joining other candidates in protesting the flawed governorship election in Lagos State.The governor failed to call his mentor,Vice-President Atiku Abubakar,a traitor for making the same case,demanding that election results in the 36 states,including Lagos,be cancelled.

Even now,the Tinubu administration continues to make wild and unsubstantiated allegations linking Otunba Pedro and the People’s Democratic Party with its many headaches. Perhaps,one of their most sustained lies is about a Council of States meeting where Otunba Pedro allegedly moved a “motion that the proceeds of the excess crude be used to fund the Independent Power Project of the Federal Government”.Trust the Tinubu government, this incoherent rubbish became a major impeachment allegation. Only that the House gave a slightly modified version of it by saying the money went to Delta State instead of IPP. But this allegation is a comedy of errors.


First, they don’t move motions at meetings of Council of States, a gathering of the president, past presidents and state governors It is strictly an advisory body. Its word is not law. So, whatever Otunba Pedro or anybody said at the meeting was not cast in stone. Otunba Pedro represented the governor at the meeting. Second, his contribution in question was that the Federal Government had no business sitting on the excess crude oil money in the face of decaying infrastructure .That position ,in effect, synchronized with that of the Lagos State government that it should be given its share of the money to spend as it wished. The minutes of the meeting can be obtained to know the truth.

It is instructive that Otunba Pedro’s contribution at the Council of States meeting was made in 2005.But,surpisingly,it became an impeachment allegation only in April 2007.Yet,the governor had repeatedly sent Otunba Pedro back to the same Council of States to represent him after the 2005 meeting. Perhaps, to continue to move more injurious “motions”?

All these lies portray an administration on its last leg, with its credibility in tatters. Only the truth can set it free. But,sadly,it continues digging itself deeper and deeper into the abyss of lies.Where cometh its salvation?

Hey guys, ive been reading some of your stuff, but after watching the champions league semi final b/w liverpool and chelsea, and after reading what jorge valdano just said about the teams,  i decided to share this with you.

If you were to poll most English football fans today on the question of who is the current best manager in the Premiership, Jose Mourinho and Rafa Benitez (along with Sir Alex and Wenger) will make up the top of the list. But not everyone is so enamoured with the Spaniard and the Port-u-geezer.

Jorge Valdano launched a blistering attack on the two coaches in response to the turgid Champions League semi-final which Liverpool and Chelsea served-up. this was what he said:

[b[i]]“Football is made up of subjective feeling, of suggestion - and, in that, Anfield is unbeatable. Put a shit hanging from a stick in the middle of this passionate, crazy stadium and there are people who will tell you it’s a work of art. It’s not: it’s a shit hanging from a stick. Chelsea and Liverpool are the clearest, most exaggerated example of the way football is going: very intense, very collective, very tactical, very physical, and very direct. But, a short pass? Noooo. A feint? Noooo. A change of pace? Noooo. A one-two? A nutmeg? A backheel? Don’t be ridiculous. None of that. The extreme control and seriousness with which both teams played the semi-final neutralised any creative licence, any moments of exquisite skill. If football is going the way Chelsea and Liverpool are taking it, we had better be ready to wave goodbye to any expression of the cleverness and talent we have enjoyed for a century.”[/[/i]b]


Dubbed the “Philosopher of Football”, Valdano has merited the right to his opinion by the weight of an impressive CV. The highlights of his club playing career were three seasons spent at Real Madrid between 1984-87, where he scored 40 goals in 85 appearances. But his greatest achievement on the pitch was reached during his second World Cup finals appearance in 1986, where his four goals helped Argentina to become World Cup Champions. Valdono, forced to retire due to hepatitis, later moved into management where he turned around the fortunes of Tenerife by keeping them up in the 1991/92 season, he followed that up by taking them into the UEFA Cup the following campaign. Then in 1994 he returned to Real Madrid, where he claimed a La Liga title.


With his experience both as a player and as a manager, Valdano has proffered an explanation as why Liverpool and Chelsea play the football they do.

“[b][i]The lives of Mourinho and Benitez have crossed in a world that is ever more scrutinised and exposed by the media, which is why they look at each other with such distrust, but they have two things in common: a previously denied, hitherto unsatisfied hunger for glory, and a desire to have everything under control. Both of those things stem from one key factor: neither Mourinho nor Benítez made it as a player. That has made them channel all their vanity into coaching. Those who did not have the talent to make it as players do not believe in the talent of players, they do not believe in the ability to improvise in order to win football matches. In short, Benitez and Mourinho are exactly the kind of coaches that Benitez and Mourinho would have needed to have made it as players.”[/[/i]b]
This makes a beautiful theory which Freud sef would be proud of. A football team plays in the image of its manager, who himself creates a team in the image of his own style (regardless of whether the manager actually realised that style or not). But does it stack up?

There are some aspects of Valdano’s comments which seem on the money. Throughout recent history, the Champions League was a competition for the best footballers and teams to rise to the top playing the most attractive football. Think of Real in 2000. Ajax in ‘95. Or Barca in ‘92.

And then you look at Liverpool today. Are Steve Finnan, Daniel Agger, Jermaine Pennant or Bolo Zenden in the top bracket of players in the world? Rather, they represent a more workman-like sort of player who fit into a well-oiled organised system who collectively bring success. Without much flair.

Things look slightly different when you analyse Chelsea’s style of play. It may be easy to generalise that Chelsea are a team built on solid foundations, but they do possess exciting talent and creativity in attack. For Didier Drogba to score more than 30 goals in a season you must being doing something better than simply being efficient. And this is no surprise when you have the likes of Lampard, Robben, Ballack and Essien in support.

What makes this theory difficult is that Valdano is using just two matches - albeit two matches which were as exciting as watching paint dry - to rationalise his conclusions. But when you throw other data into the mix the picture seems less sharp. For the past three seasons, the Champions League semis have produced tight matches. Last year there was only one goal scored in the tie between AC Milan and Barca. The season before, Chelsea and Liverpool produced a similar 1-0 aggregate scoreline after two legs. Three years ago, the same scoreline was again played out between Porto and Deportivo la Coruna. And four years ago, Milan went through to the final on away goals after drawing 1-1 with Inter.

History shows therefore that Champions League semis are not rich in goals.

What seems more plausible is that semi-finals are the games no-one wants to lose. With the final in touching distance, it is expected that matches will be cagey and tight. This may not be good viewing for the public, but it is a by-product of the high stakes involved. This has less to do with the managers and more to do with circumstance.

You get the impression that Valdano has been spoiled not only by his own talents, but also by a career in which he won the World Cup alongside Maradona. But the hard part in football is not winning competitions when you are blessed with being the best. It is winning competitions when you overcome the best against the odds. Football is about tactics, as well as pure raw talent. And Jose and Rafa are masters of the tactical game.


who do you guys pick as the better manager?

Mustay:

God catch pedro. He can now see how politics is played

and what is the sense in what you just typed? my guy fall back to your chelsea threads, wharrafuck is dis? comon! gerraut!

look there is no reason why anyone should take this thread or its contents personally, but there is also no need for name-calling, or character assasinations. just take it in stride. we all have lives we r living outside here. so when we express our views, lets restrict our objections to the views ONLY. no need to bash this person or that person. this is a freaking forum, not the court of law

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! kitaun i have places to go tonight. i can't believe im even wasting my time responding to your crap here goes

U called Tinubu a democratic despot, how? The same person that is being celebrated by the Awo family, having invited him as a special guest in recognition of his adhering fervently to the very principles of Baba Awo himself?

okay, so obasanjo shook mohammed abacha''s hand well well on the national spotlight the other day. he even praised his father for being a great soldier BIG DEAL!!! i don't know how being a special guest equates to being celebrated by the Awo family. mind you, nigerian tribune newspapers ( the awo family papers) were the first to open your role model's nyash with all the bank accounts he has acrued in the last 4 years. OUCH

U said he flashes chicken change and beer to helpless Lagosians? If I may ask, how many of the people in your neighbourhood has benefited from this since you know so much

sadly, i have colleagues who have been on his payroll for years. plus if you were in ikeja on election day, you will have seen it transpire there


Why is it that u are the only one privy to the info that Agbaje is holidaying away with the 200 Million he got from Tinubu, we asked u to give us details of his account no since u knew as much as when and where he deposited the amount . . . . any one that actually believes this story should have his medulla checked for unadulterated malfunctioning . . .the same Agbaje that has threatened to take his case to the elections tribunal?

my guy I am not on this website to be giving intimate details about what and how things happen behind the scenes. all i do is throw gist here. it is up to you to take or leave what i tell you. if u are looking for the account number, go to gtb apapa. MY LIPS ARE SEALED




Why do you keep repeating that your Oga was robbed when we all know that he had fizzled just immediately after the debate where Agbaje exposed the other side of him as he flagrantly displayed his short-fusedness just like your last post reeks of, like Oga like Servant innit?

dude, how do you explain femi pedro's name not being on the ballot papers in A WHOLE WIDE MUSHIN? besides, are you here to tell me that a single altercation in the debate changed the minds of voters ? may i humbly remind you that, over the course of the campaign season, we were all treated to all sorts of exposing stories in the radio, newspaper and leaflet ads of fashola (that he was a fake SAN, drug addict, homosexual etc) and obanikoro (criminal past, etc) on a daily basis don't be ridiculous. in fact, you know as much as i do that the debates did not count for jack.


The fact that Tinubu was magnanimous to him by not earlier influencing his impeachment shows how truly democratic he is, or do you disagree? Now that theya re hell-bent on impeaching him u call them clown-ass assembly members? Weren’t some of them quite close to Pedro as a deputy governor? If so, what happened to the rapport between them, see the fact is the people see PEDRO AS A TRAITOR and nothing more

:oplease please don't give me that crap. are you actually going to defend the assembly's actions for your information, the plan has alwyas been to try this impeachment thing regardless. how can the house of assembly say they will impeach him because of what he said during the debates. DID YOU NOT WATCH THE DEBATES? how is he a traitor for contesting and protesting results? last i checked, all the AC candidates in the other states, including baba i-thief-u abubakar (what can i say, i like his name ), called the results a sham.


why not tell us one traitable offense that has been committed? and why are they soooo sooooo adamant on impeaching pedro with 2 more weeks left in d administration? isn't there something that they are not telling us? hmmmmmmm


IGNOMINY IS THE REWARD OF BETRAYAL

be careful what you say on here. like a spartan warrior once said, choose your next words carefully, because they may be your last


Pedro claims Tinubu had been after him ever since he started his campaign, but even at that the same Pedro was present at Tinubu’s birthday party of March 29th, and no one tried to hurt, harass or assassinate him, then why should he now be the subject of attack after he had been humilated so terribly in the most disgraceful manner

don't be ignorant idiot. his exact words were "the governor's statements are capable of inciting the people against me". are you considering the fact that pedro might actually have gotten life-threatening calls and texts


how much more with a baby politician like Pedro that does not know that it is illegal to convene a press conference prior to the declaration of election results
my friend shutup there!!! so when pat utomi and the rest of them conveyed, it was legal? when i-thief-u did his press conference on sunday after the elections, it was legal? shurrafork up wit your double standards!


KITAUN, YOUR BASIS FOR JUSTIFYING OJUYOBO AND THE (ASS)EMBLY's actions is reminiscent of some of the same arguments Ojuyobo himself makes.

NAIRALANDERS, BEWARE! LIKE SANGODELE LIKE KITAUNN!!!




GET A LIFE BRO . . .Its not supposed to be a do or die affair u know?
i
ve already told you where i will be tonight. LACASSA SON! if u wan see me, u fit see me. no shaking, i go dey lacassa.



AND FINALLY, the other person to question my integrity is ha062 (for obvious reasons, he is on a lifetime mission to bring pedro down ) . like i said before, if you don't believe my shit, why read my shit?




LA CASSA TIME SONS! PEACE OUT!

it is up to you to tell us where your candidate agbaje is, not me.

don't be silly, why do u still wish to associate me as pedro? your accusation is played out fool, i aksed you to come to chocolat royal 4 times and you never showed up, so what is the big fuss for goodness sake? what were your reasons for not showing up four times?


i don't see anyone calling kitaun fashola
or femilangy or llcoolg obanikoro


so quit the ramblings and get off my case!! oloshi! some of the people contributing to this thread have seen me, and have had meaningful conversations face to face with me. in fact, you are welcome to come to lacasa every friday night. i will be there today, so if anyone is interested in seeing me, SHOW UP!.

but then again, you are in connecticut, abi is it tampa? we all know its not london, because of the time difference. its a small world, dude

and how am i supposed to know pedro's wherabouts?

the impeachment process is a charade. i don't think you need to be a genius to figure that out.

and what is really your issue with pedro? did he reject you in the past? jeez!



i am not surprised you are siding with kitaun, just like your candidate has thrown in the towel. shame shame shame!

the closest we ever came to a credible two-party system was b/w 1990 and 1993, sdp and nrc. and i must say, it was a system that worked perfectly.


we need a two party system. i know this may sound a bit obserd and draconian, but what they should do is come up with some sort of exam for all politicians to take. the questions should be issue-based. depending on what your responses to the questions are, the politician will be recommended to be on the left or on the right, sort of a conservative and labour thing.

that way, we move into a totally new realm of politiking in nigeria: issue-based

@ feelgood, i think its time we faced reality. nigerian politics will not allow for a president from the south-south.


it is a minority in the nigerian population. and in nigeria, we practice a form of regional politics. the north will alwayys field a candidate, and a northern candidate will always score higher numbers than a south-south president


the battle for the next president is actually between the south west and the south east.

the next 2 years will be critical, and here's why


1. in the south east, there is a power tustle going on there. with orji uzo capturing imo and abia, he has all he needs to begin an ascent into being arguably the most powerful person in that region of nigeria. hate him or love him, orji uzo kalu's role in ohaneze politics in the coming years cannot be undermined. patrick utomi MUST get the igbo political class to raly around him. it is unlikely that uzo kalu will run again, so pat utomi needs to start planting the seeds from today.

2. the south west is going to be obasanjo and his machinery. it is not forseeable that tinubu, being that he no longer wields much influence outside of lagos, will be able to impact the south west the way we thot he would last october. unfortunately, they had weak candidates in the whole south west, so the stronghold belongs to obj-for now.


2011, our next president will come from either south west or south east. it is a reality.

kitaun,

Owing to my present state of inactivity and boredom, I have not been able to utilise my cerebral capacity to the fullest, as my need to write has been limited in recent times, your post therefore gives me the unilateral oppourtunity to once again articulate my capacity for verbosity, impeccable elucidation, grammatical articulation, word juxtaposition competencies, capacity for anecdotes, metaphorical expressions, parabolic annunciations, oratorial gallantery and sagacity of a word connoisuer acquired through years of study and practice.


I thank you for the wonderfully ignorant post. I am greatly honoured, excited, exhillirated and filled with immeasurable joy, multifaceted gratification, empherical lucidity, sequin negative antagonism and sense of new adventure, that after the 2007 election/selection/imposition, and voters anhilation and multiple fingering, thumb and toe printing exercise, you have the audacity to come here and post such junk. I can only describe u as a microscopic piece of humanity and monumental mediocre whose brain capacity cannot even comprehend my person or meaning nor grasp issues beyond the dangling piece flesh between his legs ( absence of flesh isince you sound like u are of the feminine specie at times) voicing sublime mysticim and absolute arrant nonsense to gain recognition. It is the order of the day. Congratulations. I am so, so, delighted, it is incredible but, believable.

for you to question not only my integrity, but also to call out femi pedro in d manner you just did, is a shame. the bottom line is that you are very daft for calling the election the freest and fairest election, when there is video evidence of manipulation and suppression. moreover, if the man (pedro) is not relevant, why even bother to bring his name up? if he only got a mere 20,000 votes, why castigate him for voicing his discontent? if he has very little influecne over anything, going by his votes, why worry yourselves about what he says or who he alligns with? its because they know what they robbed the man of, and the want to do whatver it takes to shut him up from making mention of it.

perhaps, you should be asking jimi agbaje where he has been the past two weeks. holidaying with 200 milla in his kitty, perhaps? i am not even insinuating anything, but the onus of absolving guilt lies with mr agbaje at the moment. just as hao62 was adamant that femi pedro prove his integrity during the campaigns. i only told u what is circulating within the lagos press room.

in all honesty, i sure hope you have been promised a post in fashola's cabinet, because your vehement defence of tinubu baffles me. the hands of time will reveal things.

he who comes to equity must come with clean hands, so is it tinubu and his bunch of clown-ass(embly) members that have come with clean hands? *smh*.


i wont even bother to respond to fools and ignomnias like you anymore. kitaun, your staunch defense of an undemocratic despot, who will not hesitate to lower the boundaries of morality by merely flashing chicken change and beer to helpless and hopeless lagosians, is a compelete joke.

if you believe fashola truly has the mandate of lagosians, then you are probably dummer than you type.


i rest my case.

there really isnt, its a shame that the house of assembly is even considering it.

THIS is a nation of aggravated impunity. And nowhere is this impunity greater than in government. Quite often, to our unrelenting anguish and stunted development, we are just helpless spectators as those we elect abuse that mandate, personalize governance and dare us to call them to account. If in doubt as to how desperate things could get around here, check out the last-minute drama at the Lagos State House Assembly, where the legislators, apparently on the instructions of the governor, are trying to impeach the deputy governor, Femi Pedro.

With neither rhyme nor reason to their comical act, the legislators are embarking on an impeachment process about a month to the handover of government on May 29 and at a time that this nation is on tenterhooks. In saner climes, impeachment is a serious and solemn business. Without exception, all the impeachments in this democratic experiment have been anything but that. They have instead been monuments to unaccountability and a mockery of democracy.

So, what are the grounds of impeachment at the Lagos State House of Assembly? The House Majority Leader, Hon. Jide Omoworare, in his smug and often crowing remarks in the papers, gives an idea. The Lagos lawmakers would want to impeach their deputy governor because of their ‘concern’ for his safety.

Since Pedro had come out to say that the governor’s sustained attacks on him in the media constituted an incitement of the people against him and his family for which the governor should be held responsible in the event of an untoward incident, the lawmakers feel he would be safer impeached! In any case, Omoworare argued tongue in check, impeachment would pave way for Pedro to go on leave which the governor has pressed on him to no avail.

Really, one does not know whether to laugh or cry at this trivialization of impeachment as a legislative weapon. The surprise really is that this beer-parlour kind of conduct is not attracting robust condemnation. But then, haven’t unpunished cases of bare-faced impunity sent all of us into unshockability?

The lawmakers are not even hiding the fact that they are doing the bidding of the governor. The same Omoworare said in the papers that the lawmakers would halt proceedings if the governor remonstrated with them or the deputy governor sent his resignation letter to the governor! Here, we see servility at its most sickening.

Omoworare could not, perhaps out of garrulity, resist revealing the real reason why Pedro has been marked. The House Majority Leader said Pedro had been penciled down for impeachment since he defected to Labour Party from his boss’ Action Congress.

Please, perish the thought that this raucous bunch would not ignore the Supreme Court ruling in Atiku Abubakar’s case that defection to another party is not an impeachable offence and stop plans to impeach Pedro. Don’t even contemplate the outrage that a whole Alliance for Democracy House and governor, that ditched their party through which they were elected for Action Congress, would ever think of readying a lynch mob for a deputy governor that followed suit to Labour Party.

If you think of propriety, decorum and justice you are strictly on your own. None is an issue here. The mob is only gathering in the name of vendetta. And the governor is the puppeteer.

Proof? The governor and the Assembly Speaker, Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, had remarked immediately after Pedro’s defection that he had committed no impeachable offence. What has caused change in opinion between then and now? A bitterly contested governorship race in which the governor was not a contestant but one he nevertheless prosecuted like a war for his protégé, Babatunde Raji Fashola.

Pedro’s sin against the god-father was to have protested widespread irregularities that marred the election alongside other governorship candidates. The real unstated impeachment offence that Pedro committed as seen by the AC crowd that now consider themselves conquistadores was to call for the cancellation of the result of the election.

For this heresy, the governor called Pedro a traitor, saying he had betrayed the state. Perhaps, in the often Byzantine interpretation of the word ‘state’ in these parts, the governor is Lagos State. Yet, that weighty accusation of being a traitor only climaxed almost a one-sided attack against a silent and long-suffering deputy governor. The governor, among other things, had accused his deputy of planning with PDP’s Federal GPovernment to rope him into a phantom coup.

Tinubu also ordered the removal of Pedro’s campaign billboards and made the libelous remark that he could not trust his deputy with the treasury. In deference to his boss and decorum, the deputy governor never replied.

The only time he ever did in a robust manner, he drew the imperial ire of the godfather. Enter impeachment. And what did Pedro say? He said that he had a right to make remarks about an election in which he participated. And that, in any case, he was not alone in calling for the cancellation of the election as the Action Congress’ Presidential candidate, Vice President Atiku Abubakar, had joined his counterparts in other parties in calling for the cancellation of the governorship and House Assembly election results in the 36 states. Then, he said his safety and that of his family was threatened if he could be called a traitor by his boss because of a mere protest.

Sadly, the governor and his lawmakers are confirming by their conduct that Pedro’s safety fears were founded. Impeach a guy for saying his life may be in danger? It is a sad day.

Now, all manner of afterthoughts are being aired by the governor and his aides who have suddenly experienced a Damascus-road kind of conversion. The governor has said he never wanted Pedro as his deputy. His aides said Pedro is incompetent and fond of always betraying friends, for example Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, with whom he allegedly had a pact in the presence of the governor that Afikuyomi would have an unchallenged shot at the governorship.

Those in government must think the rest of us have cotton wool stuffed into our heads instead of grey matter. Did it have to take Pedro’s defection before his traducers noticed these so-called inadequacies?

Tinubu never wanted an incompetent man as a deputy, yet Pedro enjoyed the confidence of the governor so much that the deputy governor represented his boss at the Council of State meeting, supervised ministries and was at different periods Chairman of the internally generated revenue committee as well as tenders board. This same Pedro always acted for the governor anytime he traveled. As for the Pedro-betrayed-Afikuyomi refrain, this is most ridiculous.

Even when we discountenance the undemocratic nature of a conclave making a succession pact to pre-empt the wish of the Lagos electorate, it is tortuous logic to accuse Pedro of betraying Afikuyomi.

Clearly, if there was ever any pact, the governor broke it by anointing Fashola. In any case, Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi had said publicly that it was the governor that betrayed him, invoking the wrath of God on Tinubu.

The whole impeachment process is a charade. If the view of ordinary folks like me count for anything, it should be discontinued immediately. Lagos deserves peace. There should be limit to impunity.

@ Backslider, well said. objective analysis.


in my opinion, the immunity clause shoudl not exist in a country like ours. our leaders are vulnerable to corruption. in america, immunity or no immunity, the moment a serving govnor is embroiled in controversy, he resigns his position immediately. it is the opposite here.


the code of conduct booklet specifically states that if you are in government, you must close all foreign accounts you hold prior to being in government. if it is true that tinubu operated 16 accounts whilst in government, he is liable to be sentenced to a 10 year jail term.


what will be his defense when his immunity expires? besides, the courts can overrule his immunity claim, if they feel they have reasonable grounds to do so. tinubu may not even last till may 29

kitaun, maybe u can explain to us why your man tinubu is operating at least 16 foreign accounts. this is the person you look up to?


since you are the spokesman for AC here, perhaps you can do some explaining.

such a tragedy.

i agree it is a big shame. something is disturbingly wrong with our democracy.


tinubu is a man who claims to be a champion of democracy, yet his actions against his deputy is very unbecoming of a democrat.

LOL. i doubt

it was a rumour that he was hospitalized. lol it must have been started by his enemies

im a freelance writer. i dont have a fixed spot at thisday anymore.

all you have to do is comfront your man. ask him who those gentlemen are (oshibodu and edu). ask him why AC agents deputized for him. ask him about GTB yaba. these are things u can verify from him. let me be!


i will be writing an article in thursday's punch called i weep for nigeria. i will probably loose my accreditation after the article is published, but i am sure i will win a lot of readers over with my thought-provoking write up. i will post it here on wednesday.

EASY WITH THE NAME CALLING! IT IS UNWARRANTED AND UNESSESARY! JEEZ!!!

you dont have to reign abuses on me and my family because i am merely speaking the truth. i know it hurts.


ASK YOUR MAN who oshibodu and yomi edu are to him. and then come back and tell me they are not the ones who financed his whole campaign.



AND dont forget to ask him about the 200 milla.


i will say no more.

hao62, your foolishness bewilders me. the fact is i am on ground, you are not. you dont know jack about what is going on in lagos. everything i typed was a 100 accurate. dont worry, it will all come out soon.


jimi agbaje, believe it or not, is an unprincipled snake.

perhaps you should ask your man jimi agbaje himself what 200 million was doing in his bank account last monday. GTB Yaba branch. ask him. the press knows, my brother. a secret in nigeria lasts for only 24 hrs.


as per articles from thenewsng, LMAO. even the layman in lagos doesnt read that crap. like i said before, you are not on ground, so you wouldnt know jack. all you people who rely on print media and blog articles who think they know what transpires in nigeria. lets even look at the pedro case. tinubu says he made his wife a judge right? ok, his wife was made a judge in 2000. so tinubu has known pedro since 2000 innnit? pedro met afikuyomi in 2002. so tinubu has known pedro since before afikuyomi? *smh* even ur man tinubu is confused! besides, doesnt that make the judicary a mockery, if tinubu can claim he can hire and fire judges at his will? some of you people dont even think of the recklessness of this man's statements before your gullible selves believe.


for your information, JIMI agbaje was at the press briefing with the others. he signed the document but paid off the media to make it seem like he was nto a part of the whole thing. so dont get it twisted. he merely ran away when the candidates were supposed to face the media. things are not always what they seem. so before you come here and open your mouth, confirm your shit. fool.
http://ibctoday.com/News/ViewNewsItem.aspx?newsItemId=22517&rootVideoPanelType=1



my friend. go and ask jimi agbaje who yomi edu and oshibodu are. go and ask him these questions. ask him why these same people are on the payroll of bola tinubu. Your man jimi agbaje is actually the real fraud. go and ask him why AC polling agents were working for him.

FINALLY, may God handle you. it is a complete and utter treason for you to call someone with mr pedro's track record a fraud and a thief. i suggest you refrain from doing such.


i rest my case

I'm back! after a one week lay off

i see kitaun and co. have been going at it. here is my own take.

first i must commend tinubu and his bunch of cohorts. they really showed their rigging might last saturday. thats why folly (folarin) coker could come up to me on sunday night at Lacassa yelling in my face "you wan try us? even 20 pedros cannot outrigg us on election day!"

you had to be there to see it. i feel terribly bad for the likes of femi pedro. the 29,00 votes they said he had is laughable, because  people saw how they purposely supressed his numbers. he was out muscled unfairly. press people saw how it unfolded. the saddest story was a whole chuch in alimosho voting in one polling booth for femi pedro. the pastor rented a bus, and carried his congregation to the same booth, he almost had a heart attack when the INEC people in collabo with an AC polling agent said Labour Party only had ONE vote in that polling booth!!!!


speaking of polling booth agents, perhaps jimi agbaje might want to explain to us why AC polling agents where also deputizing as DPA polling agents as well. WTF?


i  don't know who i am even more ashamed of: jimi agbaje or tokunbo afikuyomi. press reports have been circulating that jimi, who kitaun refers to as a man of "principle", was bribed 200million naira by tinubu on monday morning. when i approached one of tinubu's commissioners, jide sanwo-olu, i was told that the bribe apparently was "a pat in the back for jimi, because of a job well done" what sanwo-olu meant by that remains to be seen. kitaun, explain to me how this is a man of "principle"

afikuyomi is even worse. this "seasoned democrat, veteran senator and fighter of causes" shamefully dropped his political ambition, supporters and well-wishers-24 hrs before election- for 150 million naira cash and a polling booth co-ordinator necktag. to add insult to injury, he saddend us all by popping cheap champagne with policemen on NATIONAL TELEVISION after the results were announced. i weep for our nation.


i really don't have any remorse for pdp. they were out-rigged on saturday. plain and simple. AC overwhelmed them on every level. after slugging it out with AC at the polling booth level, pdp ran to the ward coalation centers to continue round two. they were fooled, because the ward centers were mere decoys. instead, AC went straight to the local govt coalation centers. in partnership with the LGA chairmen and policemen, they locked out the Bode George PDP team and the other parties. pdp were too late!


we have been hearing different figures the lagos INEC commissioner was alleged to have been bribed with. the truth is moses ogbeh was helpless. the systematic, stepwise manipulation of results from the polling booth level to the LGA level overwhelmed the man. his job was to annoucne the results presented to him, fullstop.  whether or not he collected a bribe, he was helpless. he had no choice but to annoucne the sham result. from what i gathered, HE was the one who actually requested maurice iwu to transfer him this weekend, to avoid being slaughtered by anyone.


on tuesday, i sat with some of my colleagues, discussing the elections. we came to one consensus: tinubu has been playing with the psyche of lagosians for a number of years.


1. he has polarized lagosians, painting obasanjo and pdp as power-hungry mongerels who will do whatever it takes to posess power. what lagosians have failed to see is that this is actually an accurate description of Tinubu himself!

2. he has perfected the use of a modern weapon of oppression and manipulation, something even babangida and MKO could not: MONEY. it is what a colleague of mine at Tribune called "financial coup". the way he spent money over the past 6 months has been calculated and extremely reckless. if the figures are accurate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has spent close to 14BILLION NAIRA to execute his third term agenda. from the media, to the police, to the judges, to the civil servants, to some religious leaders and even Lagos INEC: tons and tons of lagosians have been on his payroll. it is indeed a tragedy that many of the people who have suffered for 8 years under his rule, were the same ones who facilitated his victory last saturday. it is what annother colleague of mine described as "a bought mandate", but i like to think of it as a "stolen mandate"



sentiments aside, i am proud of the campaign  femi pedro ran. don't forget that for 4 years, tinubu never complained about him, until he chose to run for governor. he has since been accused of planning phantom coup. tinubu has said he could not be trusted with lagos treasury. and now tinubu is saying the man is trying to cause chaos in lagos, only because the man participated in a press conference!! such immaturity by tinubu!!

whatver line of action femi pedro pursues,  there are hundreds of thousands of lagosians who will support him regardless.

femi pedro did not step down for fashola. afikuyomi did.

it is unfortunate that many of you did not see what my eyes saw on saturday. the manipulation, coersion, thuggery, vandalism and little disregard for the naira in Lagos! what a sham of an election!

the result published was doctored. everyone knows femi pedro was done a big injustice at the polls. even more worrisome was bola tinubu's determination to supress femi's numbers to diminish his relevance.

but bola tinubu will drown in his own craftiness,


sadly, many people jubilate. they dont care for the facts. things will unfold for themselves in the coming days.

hey

you guys
its been very interesting discussing with all of you. though we all have different views on the candidates, it gives me an opportunity to discuss and hear what other people say about my choice for governor and the other choices available.

for all those registered to vote, vote in peace on the 14th of April, and vote who you feel can a make a difference in your state (femi pedro of course).

i bet most of you forumists will probably not come back to this chat after defeat, but i would like to be wrong.

Have a wonderfull week.

9ja4eva, lagosians share your sentiments.

kitaun, the article is self-explanatory. why castigate facts?

@conja God bless you jare. na d kind of talk we need


@kitaun, when we started this thread, nobody resorted to character assasination. obanikoro has assasinated fashola's character in many ways. calling him a puppet, a dog, an alchoholic, a fake san, a drug user, gay, and a host of other things. likewise, fashola has assasinated obanikoro's character in many ways. i dont need to mention how. NOT ONCE DID WE COME ON THIS THREAD TO TALK ABOUT SUCH RUBBISH. SO when tinubu and agbaje try to assasinate pedro's character, we all know it is politics, and should not be taken seriously. Hoa62 comes into this thread, and his main mission is to assasinate femi pedro's character- calling a man of God a fraud and a thief. belive me, ha062 will reap what he has sown. God will reward him for all the slander and foul talk he has been prophesying against a man ordained by God.

and yes, i said it again. femi pedro has been ordained by God through the churches. insah allah, God's will shall prevail, because i believe this is a spiritual battle.


pound for pound, labour party cannot match up with AC or PDP. both parties have the money and the structure in place. both parties will split their votes. what Labour is counting on is bloc votes (Labourers, etc).

"hao62 you are not even in lagos. go to kosofe, and ask them who they are voting for. go to ibeju lekki. ask them who they are voting for. if you are so convinced that pedro is not winning shit, why are u even bothering posting on here? i think you know something

you are in america. you are a non-entity in this election. its about time you quit your ramblings. since you joined this thread, you have been typing hate messages towards femi pedro. you were probably sent here by your camp to smear femi pedro's integrity and reputation. when the results will be announced, i will like to hear your analysis.


mustay has already resigned. you might as well join him.


bubabe you have the right to vote for jimi agbaje. but you have to understand that mr pedro challenged his ability to govern, based on his track record. mr pedro has every right to ask jimi agbaje how he plans on managing a complex state, when his track record is questionable. jimi was the one who came off as arrogant, boring us with stories of how he came from a rich family and blah blah blah. or have your forgotten his response to koro's question? and then agbaje goes into the papers claiming to be the only descendant of awo. lets not even talk about arrogance, because agbaje's arrogance was glaring.

the people of lagos will decide.

bubabe, you are highly mistaken. first of all, mr pedro has never kept away from issue politics. i mean, you said you watched the debates yourself. this man is ready for the job.  thats the reason why he probably did not feel the need to respond to tinubu and agbaje's reckless statements more than he had already done.


even me as a non-christian understands the depth of this spiritual battle going on. the religious leaders themselves know what they are doing. it doesnt even have nada to do with money or influence. it is their faith. lets not make their decision political. all of a sudden, you want to condemn the decision of the church leaders? we are talking about the most influential christian leaders (oyedepo, okonkwo etc), bubabe, its deeper than you think.

the way the majority of the christian community has rallied around pedro has been mind boggling for people like us.


and then you mention jimi agbaje's integrity and professionalism. you must not have watched the debate. it is a lack of professionalism for someone to go on national television to question someone else's character. it is unprofessional for him to put the 'thisday' advert in the papers. it is even more reckless of him to claim to be a manufacturer of goods, when he was just a pharmacist.


in jimi's frustrations, he has been reckless and has shown his true colours.

femi pedro has the proven experience and integrity to manage a state as dynamic as lagos. he has the good will, and is generally seen as the best candidate. more importantly, he has the bloc votes that will boost his chances. he has my vote, as well as that of my household.

@jaroojorro u dont mean it? these were the cirumstances under which he left

and he managed to gain employment after underperformance? LOL!


my guy, your candidate has 7 more days. u better be looking for votes. when Mr Pedro has been ordained by powerful religious leaders who believe in him, all these things that you say are just things that you hope will detract pedro. his integrity dey kampe


kitaun, ur candidate is a non-entity in this race


isssues! issues! issues! issue-based politics, refrain from trash-talk!!!