Commissioner of Police in charge of Ekiti North Senatorial District, Ali Janga, has decried the high level of alarms being raised by people on the conduct of the governorship election today, Saturday.
The police boss, who spoke to news men today said: “I have visited three Local Governments Areas and there were no electoral manipulation anywhere. People raised false alarm by sending distress calls to us, but many of them were found to be false when we got there.”
Ali Janga, who commended the people for their massive turn out to cast their votes and INEC for the transparency in the discharge of its duties, said: “election materials were distributed as early as possible and they were guarded by security. And the turnout was very impressive.
“With what I have seen, I know that Ekiti people are determined and desirous of choosing a new leader.”
Ali Janga was among the three CPs deployed in Ekiti by the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris to monitor the election and work with the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Operations, Habilal Joshak.
He is in charge of Ekiti North senatorial district, comprising Ikole , Ido/ Osi, Oye, Moba and Ilejemeje.
File Photo: President Muhammadu Buhari delivering speech at UN General Assembly meeting in New York
The absence of accountability has allowed people to steal with impunity, making Africans poor when they should be rich.
The mark of African political leadership has too often been characterised by the reneging on pledges of clean government and indulging in corruption. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. Yet, regrettably, the political classes of my continent have often behaved like those who suffer from an addiction – blaming others for those consequences made by their own hands. But as with all addiction sufferers, eventually it is no longer possible to elude responsibility, and they are inexorably led to the day of reckoning.
This made the first African Anti-Corruption Day this week, for all 55 countries of the African Union, an important step in recognising both the realities and responsibilities for corruption. It is symbolic, of course, as is my appointment as the first AU champion on anti-corruption – but it is a call to action.
The AU’s recent Mbeki report calculated that as much as $50bn (£38bn) is misappropriated from my continent each year – more than three times the US overseas development assistance to Africa. The recovery of this amount would be transformational, as billions of Africans suffer when hospitals are without basic services, schools without chairs, people without water and young people without jobs. That is the consequence of this corruption, when vast sums are stolen from the wealthy: for it is impossible to steal such amounts from paupers. It is theft that makes the citizens of Africa poor when they should be rich.
There will be those who doubt the capacity of Africa’s peoples to take on corruption with any great success. There has been much hope followed by much failure before. But doubters need look to the fundamental change these very same citizens bring across my continent every month through the ballot boxes of Africa’s many fast-maturing, multiparty democracies: this is change made possible for millions by access to information and organisation that they have seized and harnessed through improved communications and social media.
Ejection and election is today made rapid by this great power and, understandably, brings great expectations of those assuming office. It is a power to hold them accountable for success or failure – a power few African politicians, or leaders of the international community, truly thought would ever hold.
What my election as Nigerian president– much due to a campaign made possible by mass communication – has taught me is that democracy’s strength comes from this accountability, and the demand that the rights of all are equally upheld. This includes the right of those accused of crimes of corruption to a fair trial before an impartial court of law, and to be believed innocent until proven otherwise.
When once I was army head of state, special military tribunals – not civilian courts – heard corruption cases. Trials could be hastened, as lawyers to defend the accused often preferred not to be found. Arrests were quick, as were verdicts. This was possible because I was not accountable, something my younger self might well have viewed a distraction. But the absence of that accountability has allowed others to steal and be corrupt with impunity.
We are fast transitioning to the time when political accountability in Africa becomes no longer the new but simply the expected – but we are not there yet. That is why our citizens’ campaign will force those who steal to be held accountable too. For just as a thief does not steal successfully without a place to hide their stolen goods – so an addiction needs a supplier. That is why action against corruption requires its recognition and treatment both for its perpetrators and its enablers.
• Muhammadu Buhari is president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the African Union’s champion on anti-corruption
Belgium national team has defeated England 2-0 in a match played today, Saturday, at Saint Petersburg Stadium before 64, 406 spectators, to place third in the ongoing World Cup tournament in Russia.
Belgium side began on a serious minded note as Meunier opened the scoring as early as the 4th minute.
They sealed the third place spot with a second goal at 82nd minute by Hazard as they trailed tackles with England national team.
Recall that Belgium had defeated England in the group stage in the tournament
When they clashed in the group stages, England made eight changes and Belgium made nine, for a game that neither seemed too keen to win for fear of ending up on the “harder” half of the draw.
It was Belgium who ended up edging the contest and finishing top of Group G after Adnan Januzaj’s brilliant strike in the 51st minute.
The Action Democratic Party (ADP) has pulled out of the PDP led coalition of political parties ganging up to wrest power from President Muhammadu Buhari led APC government in 2019, saying that it does not want to parley with those who destroyed the country in the first place.
The ADP said that it was never part of the arrangement in the first place as it was not in a hurry to hobnob with those who mismanaged Nigeria for sixteen years and now regrouping in an un-strategic haste to resume unprecedented loot of the nation’s treasury.
National Chairman of the party, Engr. Yabagi Sani said at a news conference that the party is the third force that Nigerians have been waiting for to take over power from both the PDP and the APC and provide the credible alternative to end killings, hunger and executive lawlessness.
“You will recall that on the 9th July, 2018, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in conjunction with about 34 other Political Parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to field a common Presidential Candidate for the 2019 general elections. The Parties are also to collaborate in several other areas to ensure that the APC-led Federal Government is defeated in the impending elections.
“Let me say here for the avoidance of doubt that we are not part of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP). ADP is the third force that will provide the Credible Alternative Nigerians passionately yearn for to end hunger, wanton killings and executive lawlessness.
“At our inception in June 2017, we proclaimed to Nigerians that ADP is a child of necessity that will deepen democracy and good governance to establish the credible political platform that will rescue the country from the imminent collapse of the political space.
“We also promised that ADP will introduce a corruption free leadership selection process that will create a new leadership class with commitment, focus and force of will to rebuild the Country after the damage done by PDP and APC.
“We vowed that we would provide an All-inclusive Governance Model that would mobilize and unite all Nigerians to build a new nation.
“It is incontrovertible that the PDP and APC are two sides of the same coin. For sixteen years, PDP ruled this country with impunity and without regard to the universally accepted norms of democracy. Stealing, misappropriation and all forms of corruption became parts of the state policy.
“ADP is not prepared to jettison its values and constitutional provisions like the use of direct primaries as against the often used corrupt delegate system by the other parties in the Coalition.
“ADP is also not in a hurry to hobnob with those who mismanaged Nigeria for sixteen years and now regrouping in an un-strategic haste to resume unprecedented loot of the nation’s treasury.
“It is important to know that those who pushed Nigeria to the precipice are the drivers of the Coalition and have nothing new to offer. To collaborate with them, is to sleep with strange bedfellows.
“The ADP is not averse to any political Coalition that can bring about a positive overhaul of the Nigerian system. But this shall be done with true patriots who are not a part of the Nigerian problem.
“In the desire to acquire power, we shall not compromise the basic principles and ideology that informed our birth which includes All-inclusiveness, Democratic Empowerment of the Youth/Women and Party Supremacy.
“We find it extremely difficult to compromise our principles and align with ‘ANYTHING BUT BUHARI.’ Let it be known that for us, it is not negotiable that Buhari must go. He has failed and those who love him should tell him that his time is up.
“At ADP, we believe the time has come for a generational shift in leadership and not putting old wines in new bottles, which are what the PDP led coalition represents.
“It is instructive to remember that it was a similar ragtag coalition that brought the rudderless APC to power in 2015, so Nigerians must wake up and resist another deceit by the same desperate and corrupt politicians.
“We are committed to the birth of a new Nigeria that offers hope to all. We shall pursue policies that will ensure transformation in Health, Education, Infrastructure, Security, Employment etc. What Nigeria needs is a new direction championed by true patriots. ADP is determined to drive this process.
“We shall be calling on like-minded Patriotic, God fearing and credible Nigerians who are determined to join the ADP led coalition to rebuild Nigeria and make our nation the pride of Africa, fulfilling its God given potentials, purpose, and promise of happiness.”
The Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN)had also earlier pulled out of the coalition, saying that members will not be part of any alliance that will take “the country back to Egypt.”
Forty seven year old member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Dipo Olorunrinu has been arrested with 37 year old Wale Oye and 47 year old Ganiyu Ajiboluwa who claimed to have been armed by the lawmaker for political expedition.
The spokesman of the Lagos State Police Command, CSP Chike Oti, in a statement today, Saturday, said that Wale Oye and Ganiyu Ajiboluwa were arrested on July 12, at about 5.45 p.m. by a team of Inspector-General of Police X-Squad operatives on patrol at Apple Junction, along Festac extension, Amuwo Odofin.
The statement said that a single barrel Mossverg pump action rifle with identification No. B/NO D512429, one Zirve Magnum pump action rifle with No. B/NO 45639 and two live cartridges were recovered from the suspects, adding that during interrogation, the suspects claimed the guns were given to them by Dipo Olorunrinu to escort him to a political rally. The spokesman said that the lawmaker was arrested and admitted ownership of the guns.
“To further prove that the weapons were his, he produced expired licences dated 2015 and 2016, respectively. He could not justify his refusal to surrender the guns during the window period offered in the last nationwide mop up of illegal firearms and ammunition exercise.
“Investigation is in progress and further findings on the matter will be communicated to the general public as usual.”
Saudi German Hospital has arrived in Nigeria to establish a medical Referral Centre and 100-bed hospital in the nation’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT). A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in that respect, was today, Saturday, signed between the West Africa Healthcare Services Company of Nigeria the Saudi German Hospital.
A statement by the Atiku Media Organisation, said that the MoU was signed at a private ceremony in Abuja by Adamu Atiku Abubakar for the West Africa Healthcare Services Company of Nigeria and Dr. Reem Osman, Chief Executive Officer of Saudi German Hospitals UAE behalf of her company. The Saudi German Referral Centre and Hospital Abuja is a partnership of Saudi German Hospital and West Africa Healthcare Services Company of Nigeria but managed by the former. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is the founder of the of the West Africa Healthcare Services Company of Nigeria said that the Referral Centre and the diagnostic centre and 100-bed state-of-the-art hospital will “bring great changes to the medical sector of Nigeria, for the benefit of Nigerians.” Details of the MoU includes the employment of Nigerian medical experts and arrangements for world renowned doctors from the Dubai branch of Saudi German Hospitals Group to visit Nigeria on a regular basis to provide health services. “Basic medical service will be provided here while those cases which need further medical management will be referred to the 300-bed Saudi German Hospital located in Dubai, the biggest in the Emirate of Dubai. “We plan to quickly follow up this Referral Centre with a full-fledged diagnostic centre and later a 100-bed state-of-the-art hospital. We believe that this type of investment in our health sector will help to reverse the trend of our highly trained medical professionals seeking employment abroad at great cost to our country.”
Present at the signing of the MoU were the President and Founder of Saudi German Hospitals Group, Engr. Sobhi Batterjee, directors of the partnering companies, associates of the former Vice President and family and friends.
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in group Photograph with members of the PDP NWC led by National Chairman Prince Uche Secondus | Photo credit: The Whistler NG
Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo has forgiven the many sins of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which he formally resigned from ahead of the 2015 general elections, pledging to work with the party in the 2019 polls.
Responding to apology tendered to him by the PDP national chairman, Uche Secondus when the party’s leadership met with him in his Abeokuta Hilltop residence today, Saturday, Obasanjo said in Yoruba proverb that one does not hand over his child’s waistband to an enemy just because the band did not fit the child’s waist.
The former President, who tore his PDP membership card in 2015 indicating his resignation from the party, now expressed his preparedness to join forces with the party to fight for the course of nationhood.
He assured that Nigeria’s glory would be restored, regardless of what it takes, even as the PDP leaders, made up of members of the National Working Committee (NWC) and leaders of the Board of Trustees (BOT), admitted that mistakes were made in the past.
They reminded Obasanjo of the significance of forgiveness as a divine directive.
Obasanjo was quoted as saying that he would join forces with well-meaning leaders across the country to prevent the nation’s drift to lawlessness.
This was even as Secondus hailed the commitment of the former President towards the development and stability of the nation, recalling his personal inputs both as military and elected President.
He charged Obasanjo to lead from the front, as he had always done, adding that young leaders have a lot to learn from him.
Last week, the African Democratic Congress (ADC), a party that his home to loyalists of the former President, signed a Memorandum of Understanding alongside 37 others with the PDP to field a joint Presidential candidate in the 2019 elections.
President Muhammadu Buhari has been invited to deliver a keynote address at the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), at The Hague, Netherlands on Monday.
The President, who leaves for that country tomorrow, Sunday, according to his spokesman, Femi Adesina, is the only world leader that was so invited to deliver the keynote address during the Solemn Hearing to commemorate the anniversary at Courtroom 1 of the ICC’s Headquarters at The Hague.
The statement by Adesina said that Buhari is expected to use the opportunity, as the current anti-corruption champion for the African Union, to reaffirm Nigeria’s support to the fundamental values of the Rome Statute and to the ideals of the ICC as well as highlighting his administration’s campaign against corruption in Nigeria.
It said that after the event at the Courtroom, the President will have a bilateral meeting with the ICC Prosecutor, Ms Fatou Bensouda, adding that he will also attend a dinner hosted by Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, the President of the ICC who is a Nigerian.
Buhari is also expected to meet with the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, to discuss bilateral issues such as migration, peace and security, and economic cooperation.
The President and his delegation will have a separate roundtable with some Dutch Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of companies based in Nigeria with a view to urging them to expand their investments, especially in agriculture, oil and gas in Nigeria.
President Buhari will also tour the Port of Rotterdam and Shell refinery Pernis, Hoogvliet, adding that on the margins of the President’s visit, Nigeria and the Netherlands will sign a Memorandum of Understanding on bilateral consultations.
The statement said that those who will accompany the President include Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State; the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami.
Others are the Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh; the Minister of State, Industry, Trade and Investment, Aisha Abubakar; the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru; and the Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala-Usman.
A large number of people gathered at the old Government House, Oke-Ayaba, Ado Ekiti | Photo Credit: OnlineNigeria.Com
Would-be voters have thronged the Government House in Okesa area of Ekiti State to collect N4,000 each to cast vote for the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Professor Kolapo Olusola in tomorrow, Saturday election.
The electorates who in their thousands stormed the seat of power through the Deputy Governor’s office and linked up with the government house were discussing aloud about the election as they marched to the hilly office of the governor.
The Nation gathered that the government house which was crowded by the electorate are highly organized as they were all divided according to the ward that individual belong.
One of the electorate who simply identified himself as Tijani, a student of Ekiti State University said he had to wait and collect his own share of the national cake since it is free.
It was a peaceful environment as it was highly organized and some of the ward representative are seated with the comprehensive voters register in their hands to cross check the name of the would be collector.
Women and Okada drivers packed their machines in front of the deputy governor’s office and passed through a small gate that linked up the office to the governor office to collect their dole.
The world football ruling body, FIF, has over-ruled Nigeria’s Supreme Court judgment by recognizing the embattled Pinnick Amaju as the authentic chairman of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF).
The Supreme Court had, on June 5, set aside Pinnick’s election and recognized Giwa as substantive chairman of the Nigeria’s football clearing house.
In a letter, the FIFA President, Gianni Infantino insisted that Pinnick is the NFF chairman because he was the one duly elected.
”It is also clear to all within the family that there can be no interference in the running of the national federations by any party, especially those outside the football family.”
The FIFA President stressed that Nigeria as a member-association of FIFA, would be at the risk of facing the world body’s sanctions if the situation continue as it is now.
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Belgium national team has defeated England 2-0 in a match played today, Saturday, at Saint Petersburg Stadium before 64, 406 spectators, to place third in the ongoing World Cup tournament in Russia.
The Action Democratic Party (ADP) has pulled out of the PDP led coalition of political parties ganging up to wrest power from President Muhammadu Buhari led APC government in 2019, saying that it does not want to parley with those who destroyed the country in the first place.
Saudi German Hospital has arrived in Nigeria to establish a medical Referral Centre and 100-bed hospital in the nation’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
African Anti-Corruption Day Is A Call To Action, By Muhammadu Buhari
The absence of accountability has allowed people to steal with impunity, making Africans poor when they should be rich.
The mark of African political leadership has too often been characterised by the reneging on pledges of clean government and indulging in corruption. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. Yet, regrettably, the political classes of my continent have often behaved like those who suffer from an addiction – blaming others for those consequences made by their own hands. But as with all addiction sufferers, eventually it is no longer possible to elude responsibility, and they are inexorably led to the day of reckoning.
This made the first African Anti-Corruption Day this week, for all 55 countries of the African Union, an important step in recognising both the realities and responsibilities for corruption. It is symbolic, of course, as is my appointment as the first AU champion on anti-corruption – but it is a call to action.
The AU’s recent Mbeki report calculated that as much as $50bn (£38bn) is misappropriated from my continent each year – more than three times the US overseas development assistance to Africa. The recovery of this amount would be transformational, as billions of Africans suffer when hospitals are without basic services, schools without chairs, people without water and young people without jobs. That is the consequence of this corruption, when vast sums are stolen from the wealthy: for it is impossible to steal such amounts from paupers. It is theft that makes the citizens of Africa poor when they should be rich.
There will be those who doubt the capacity of Africa’s peoples to take on corruption with any great success. There has been much hope followed by much failure before. But doubters need look to the fundamental change these very same citizens bring across my continent every month through the ballot boxes of Africa’s many fast-maturing, multiparty democracies: this is change made possible for millions by access to information and organisation that they have seized and harnessed through improved communications and social media.
Ejection and election is today made rapid by this great power and, understandably, brings great expectations of those assuming office. It is a power to hold them accountable for success or failure – a power few African politicians, or leaders of the international community, truly thought would ever hold.
What my election as Nigerian president– much due to a campaign made possible by mass communication – has taught me is that democracy’s strength comes from this accountability, and the demand that the rights of all are equally upheld. This includes the right of those accused of crimes of corruption to a fair trial before an impartial court of law, and to be believed innocent until proven otherwise.
When once I was army head of state, special military tribunals – not civilian courts – heard corruption cases. Trials could be hastened, as lawyers to defend the accused often preferred not to be found. Arrests were quick, as were verdicts. This was possible because I was not accountable, something my younger self might well have viewed a distraction. But the absence of that accountability has allowed others to steal and be corrupt with impunity.
We are fast transitioning to the time when political accountability in Africa becomes no longer the new but simply the expected – but we are not there yet. That is why our citizens’ campaign will force those who steal to be held accountable too. For just as a thief does not steal successfully without a place to hide their stolen goods – so an addiction needs a supplier. That is why action against corruption requires its recognition and treatment both for its perpetrators and its enablers.
• Muhammadu Buhari is president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the African Union’s champion on anti-corruption