Ogun
South-West PDP congress: Seyi Makinde, Ayo Fayose’s groups fight over 756 delegates
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and a former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, are to test their popularity with 756 delegates that will elect officials of the Peoples Democratic Party in the South-West on Monday. While Makinde is backing a former Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Taofeek Arapaja, for the position of chairman, Fayose is mobilising for Dr Eddy Olafeso. Olafeso, who is from Ondo State, is a former occupant of the office. He resigned to contest the party’s governorship ticket in the last Ondo State election, which he lost to Eyitayo Jegede (SAN). Makinde had wanted the congress to hold in Ibadan, but the Fayose faction wanted it in another venue, saying the Oyo State capital was not safe for it and its supporters. However, two days ago, the National Working Committee of...
South West PDP Congress: Ayo Fayose, others reject Dino Melaye as screening chairman
A group in the South West People’s Democratic Party (PDP) led by former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has rejected the choice of Senator Dino Melaye as Chairman of the Congress Screening Committee. The group insisted on Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, earlier agreed upon by both parties, saying “the sudden emergence of Senator Dino Melaye is suggestive of a planned hatchet job.” This was contained in a release jointly issued by Fayose, PDP governorship candidates in Osun and Ogun States, Senator Ademola Adeleke and Hon Ladi Adebutu respectively as well as the immediate past Zonal Chairman and aspirant in the next Monday, April 12th, Congress, Dr Eddy Olafeso. They said “What the party told us was that Senator Abaribe will be chairman of the screening committee. “To us...
Ekiti reduces stake in Wema Bank
Ekiti State, one of the shareholders of Wema Bank Plc, has reduced its stake in the bank by 666.670 million from 1.191 billion shares. Ekiti, Oyo, Ogun, and Osun States are shareholders in Wema Bank. While Oyo, Osun, and Ogun held 666.670 million or 1.73 per cent each, Ekiti held 1.191 billion or 3.09 per cent as at December 31, 2019. But in a notification to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), signed by the Company Secretary of Wema Bank Plc, Johnson Lebile, the bank said Ekiti State Government sold 666.670 million shares at 65 kobo per share on the floors of the NSE, amounting to N433.336 million. According to the bank, the transaction took place between March 3 and 4, 2021. With the transaction, Ekiti State now holds about 524.1 million shares. Neem Tree Limited remains the majority shar...
2023: Northwest speakers declare support for Asiwaju Tinubu
Serving Speakers and their predecessors from the Northwest zone of Nigeria have declared their support for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the successor to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023. Their declarations and promises are coming some weeks after a similar endorsement of Tinubu was carried out by their colleagues in the southwestern zone of Nigeria. At a meeting held in Kano for the states in the northwestern zone on Friday, the senior lawmakers declared that Tinubu remains the right person for the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at this time. Some of them argued that with the challenges currently being faced by the country, Nigeria deserves a leader who is detribalised and has shown over time that he has the capacity to lead the country. Praising Asiwaju Tinub...
Ex-Speaker Bankole meets Ogun governor
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole yesterday paid a courtesy call on the Governor of his home state, Ogun, Prince Dapo Abiodun, at the Oke-Mosan Secretariat. The two leaders held a closed-door meeting that lasted about two hours. Also at the meeting was the Senior Special Adviser to the Governor on Political Matters, Hon. Tunji Egbetokun. The former Speaker had defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress last week. He, alongside a former Governor of Ogun State, Mr. Gbenga Daniel, also visited President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday. The new APC members made the list of the 65-member Strategy and Contact Committee of the APC inaugurated on Tuesday by the chairman of the Caretaker Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee and Yobe State Governor, Mai Mal...
Ogun council polls: Governor Abiodun urges OGSIEC to conduct credible election
Ogun State governor Prince Dapo Abiodun has urged members of the newly inaugurated Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OGSIEC) to be transparent in their dealings with all political parties. The governor said this Friday while swearing-in the newly constituted 6-man electoral commission at the Executive Council Chambers of Governor’s Office in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, the state capital. Abiodun specifically charged new OGSIEC members to make fairness, firmness, dedication and objectivity their watchword as the state prepares for the local government poll to be conducted later this year. The governor said the inauguration was a demonstration of his administration’s commitment towards ensuring that democratic dividends get to the grassroots through electoral processes at the local gover...
Ogun government sets up coronavirus vaccination centre for journalists
The Ogun State Government on Thursday said it will begin to vaccinate journalists against COVID-19 on Friday, which it said was part of efforts aimed at ensuring that the Astrazeneca COVID-19 vaccine is brought nearer to the people The Chief Press Secretary to Governor Dapo Abiodun, Kunle Somorin, disclosed this in a statement, adding that the facilitation centre was set up to main-stream journalists into the vaccination process because they are frontline workers. “Journalists are frontline workers and deserve to be treated specially because their profession exposes them so much to the ravaging virus. They, like health workers and security people, were on the road when everyone else stayed at home at the height of the pandemic,” the statement said. ‘Therefore from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Frid...
Fleeing Ibadan kidnap kingpin arrested in Ogun
A notorious kidnap kingpin, Usman Hassan, who escaped from Oyo State after killing one of his gang’s victims, has been arrested in Ogun State. Usman and his accomplices had earlier been arrested in Oyo State after they had kidnapped a farm owner at Solalu village, collected ransom and subsequently killed him He sneaked into Ogun State for cover and proceeded to recruit other Fulani men into a fresh kidnap ring, which he formed in the State. It was learnt detectives from Ogun State Police Command stormed his hideout in Imala area and arrested him when they got the information about his activity from those he had tried to recruit into his kidnapping enterprise. The Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, who disclosed this in a statement, explained Usman had told detectives he con...
Ogun governor, others get coronavirus vaccine jab
Dapo Abiodun of Ogun has become the first governor to receive a dose of coronavirus vaccine publicly. Abiodun posted on his Twitter page he got the COVID-19 vaccine jab in Abeokuta under the Ogun state health commissioner’s supervision, Omotomilola Coker, on Tuesday. “I just had my dose of the Astra-Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The doses were delivered today in Abeokuta. It is first service to self then people, when we take the vaccine because we must silence the virus,” he tweeted using the handle, @dabiodunMFR. Abiodun, on Monday, received 50,000 out of 100,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines the federal government allocated to the state. After getting the jab, he said, “There is a portal that already exists, and there is a link that allows you to register or pre-register and identify...
Casual worker in court for ‘stealing’ 10 sachets of seaman’s schnapps
A 29-year-old casual worker, Babatunde Adewuyi, on Tuesday appeared in a Magistrates’ Court in Ota, Ogun for allegedly stealing ten packs of seaman’s schnapps worth N15,000. The police charged Adewuyi, whose address with theft. The prosecution counsel, Insp E.O. Adaraloye, told the court that the defendant committed the offence on Feb 23 at 6 p.m.at the NDL Company, on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Ota. Adaraloye said the defendant, who was a casual worker of the company, stole ten packs of seaman sachets worth N15,000. The prosecutor said that the offence contravened the provisions of Section 390(6) of the Criminal Code, Laws of Ogun, 2006. The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge. Magistrate A. O. Adeyemi admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N50,000 with one sure...
Zamfara schoolgirls kidnap: President Buhari has failed Nigeria – Wole Soyinka
Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka on Saturday said the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has failed Nigeria after terrorists abducted hundreds of school girls in Zamfara State. Soyinka spoke in Abeokuta, Ogun State, at the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Ogun award lecture and public presentation of ‘Chronicles of the happiest people on earth,’ the latest book authored by him. According to Soyinka, it is important for all to know that these were abnormal times, but that it seemed to him as times of shirking of responsibilities in key areas. “We cannot permit ourselves to accept the child hostage taking as a way of life, we just can not continue in this fashion, some thing drastic and meaningful has to take place and it has to be collective,” he said. Soyinka emphasised that ...
Wole Soyinka to Nigerians: Don’t accept child hostage taking as a way of life
Following the Friday abduction of over 300 school children in Jangebe in Zamfara State, Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on Saturday warned Nigerians against accepting kidnapping of school children in parts of the north as a way of life. Soyinka who lamented that the government and security agencies have failed Nigerians, said he did not know what else to recommend as panacea to the nation’s “abnormal times.” The octogenarian playwright spoke in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, at the ANA Ogun award lecture and public presentation of ‘Chronicles of the happiest people on earth,’ the latest book authored by him. The event was put together by the Association of Nigerian Authors, Ogun State chapter in collaboration with Abeokuta Club. The 524 page book was launched by foremost indigenous ...
