LIKE LAGOS, LIKE OFFA!!!

Offa rerun: Protests rock Kwara over election result-PUNCH

Members of the All Progressives Party in Ilorin and Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State on Monday protested against the announcement on radio of the result of the rerun election held in Offa  LG on Saturday, in which the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Segun Olanipekun, was declared  the winner.

 According to the radio announcement and a statement from the Deputy Director, Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission, Mr. Dauda Nurudeen, the PDP’s Olanipekun  polled 35,937 votes against 20,161 reported votes scored by the APC candidate, Mr. Saheed Popoola....
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When I read this story, I laughed and remembered how the ACN did the same thing in Lagos after the 2011 LG poll. The PDP cry blue murder then but the all-powerful ACN shut them out. Retired Justice Fatal Adeyinka, Chairman LASIEC told the PDP to go to court and challenge the result he announced. The party did as directed and got two or three results upturned in its favour by the tribunal. But at the end of the day, the appeal court gave those places back to ACN!!!
I covered an area where the PDP out rightly won the poll. Attempt by the ruling ACN to rig that area was resisted by the people. The story and picture of already thumb-printed ballot papers of ACN inside ghana-must-go sacks and school bags caught with pro-ACNs were published. Still the LASIEC gave the victory to ACN. The returning officer refused to announce the result just like this one in offa had done..... The rest in history.

MY TAKE:

I am neither a PDP nor ACN (now APC) apologist. But I am a supporter of fairness and justice in all circumstances. Just as i blamed and condemned the then ACN for stealing the mandate of the people in Lagos State then, I hereby condemn the PDP in Kwara state for the same offence.

Having said that, what goes round....! I think the APC (ACN) is been paid back in its own coin. If the party thinks it can bully others in its areas of influence and control it should not forget that in other places, it will get brutalised and badly too!!!

In as much as i sympathise with the people of Offa Local Government Area in Kwara State, I make bold to say that the APC (ACN) prepared the foundation for what happened on saturday, far back in Lagos in 2011.

Nevertheless, 'what is bad, is bad.' We should all kick against recurrence of this flagrant usurpation of our mandate by desperate, non-performing and lazy politicians.
This case must not go un-addressed.

EGYPT: THE COST OF SILENCE

PRESIDENT MOHAMMAD MORSI OF EGYPT

Keeping silent in the face of tyranny and injustice is the hallmark of cowardice. When those who are expected to stand up for truth when it matters most decide to maintain silence or feign indifference, then, the entire humanity is in trouble. In this kind of atmosphere, the tyrants-individuals and nations-will trampled mercilessly and with impunity upon the rights of the masses. They will not stop at that. They will turn their lives into expendable commodities at will.

The above aptly explains the scenario now as events continue to unfold in Egypt after the infamous U.S-backed and Gulf monarchs-endorsed ouster of the country’s first freely elected democratic President on July 3, 2013.

Personally, I never expected anything short of what the self-acclaimed champion of democracy and human right, United States, is currently exhibiting. It is no surprise at all. The country has proved over the years that its democratic postures are only a façade to deceive the world. It has different standards for different countries base on its usually selfish and ego-tending interests. No need to expound more on this. 

The world knows where the U.S stands on the issue of Egypt’s coup, which it after all, sponsored.

Other allies of the U.S on their parts have been shouting in deafening silence in their condemnation of the coup. Like their America counterpart, they have not come out categorically to describe the charade as a coup. They continue to urge for a return to democratic path without calling for the reinstatement of the ousted President.

Except Turkey, Tunisia, Sudan, Nigeria and few other respectable countries that spoke loudly and continue to reject the coup, all others have maintained silence.

It is worthy of note the silence of the powers-that-be and the indifference of the Gulf Monarchs is undoubtedly laying a precedent, a dangerous one for that matter. Their actions is now a license for other potential coup plotters to come on stage especially in a continent like ours that has a rich history of undemocratic take-over of power. 

It will not be any surprising if the military in Greece, Bulgaria and other European states where citizens are protesting austerity measures introduced by their governments to improve battered economies, sack the governments. It will also not be unjustifiable for such military to kill and harass citizens who dare challenge them. Yes, this is because, a precedence has been laid in Egypt and justified by the United States of America as ‘expression of people’s will.’

PROTEST IN SUPPORT OF PRESIDENT MORSI

Let me state that those who refuse to speak up now may regret not doing so in not too distant future. What has happened in Egypt is a clear case of injustice. Attempt to call it another name, as being done by the U.S, is tantamount to standing the truth on it head.

One thing I know is that the cradle of civilisation will bounce back and when it does, it is only those who stood by it genuinely now that will stand tall among the true leaders of mankind.

IKUFORIJI’S IMMINENT DATE WITH PRISON

Adeyemi Ikuforiji: Will he fulfil his date with the Nigerian Prison soon?

In less than 48 hours, if the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, fails to meet the bail conditions set by Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Lagos, he may end up having a historic date with the ‘revered’ Nigerian Prison.

Ikuforiji is being tried alongside his personal assistant, Oyebode Atoyebi, for an alleged money laundering to the tune of N700 million.

The former trial judge, Justice Okechukwu Okeke (now retired), had earlier granted him bail on self recognition but Justice Buba, who newly took over the case, imposed a fresh N1bn bail on each of the them on Monday.

It was even learnt that Justice Buba had initially imposed N5bn bail with two sureties in like sum but it took the intervention of counsel for the accused persons Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) and Tunde Akinrimisi for him to reduce the bail sum to N1bn for each of the accused.

It would be recalled that an NGO, Kick Against Corruption, had petitioned the EFCC, alleging that Ikuforiji misappropriated the N7billion belonging to the house.

Ikuforiji denied the allegation.

Ever since the case was taken to court, there had been frequent adjournments without any headway. The development made many to conclude that the trial will go the way of others. So, the twist now will likely renew the hope that Ikuforiji’s case may after all be a jinx of most corruption trials in the country.

When the N1 billion bail condition was announced, what came to my mind was how the speaker of the House of Assembly that claims to be living above common standard will be able to get the huge sum. A colleague quickly pointed out that if the speaker meets the bail condition within the time frame given by the court, the EFCC must query further the source of the money and even the sureties!

The corruption case against Ikuforiji is like a cancerous lump that will not heal. It has really cast a huge shadow on the integrity of the Lagos State House of Assembly. At a point, some called for the speaker to resign. But he will not and his party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) will not hear anything of that.

His colleagues will also not discuss the issue even in the media. In an 

interview two years ago, a member of the house, Mubashir Obasa claimed there was no truth in the allegation and that was why the house had not given it any consideration. Again, the entire members held a world press conference to establish the innocence of the speaker. A mention of the case within the vicinity of the Assembly is a taboo! Whereas, a deep feel of the ambiance in the complex show a kind of division among the lawmakers on one hand and the general assembly staff on the other.

Sometimes last year, the news was rife that the EFCC was going to arrest the speaker in the assembly complex if his bid to quash the warrant of arrest issued on him by the court was not successful. The speaker rather than preside over the house sitting, he tactically asked his deputy to do so.

In the course of the day’s proceedings in the house, no mention was made of Ikuforiji’s where about. When I contacted his media aide, Rotimi Adebayo, to know his where about, he simply accused those who did not like Tinubu (former governor of Lagos State) of being behind the speaker’s travail.

Since the trial began, the Lagos Assembly has been having frequent adjournments and unnecessary recesses whenever the case came up in court. Although the house claimed this is normal, the generality of Lagosians and indeed Nigerians feel it is abnormal.

But now that a date has been fixed for the speaker to take an apartment in prison, will the house ask him to step down?

Events in the next few hours will determine.

The EFCC had, in September, invited Ikuforiji to its Abuja office, where he was questioned over allegation of misappropriating the sum of ₦7 billion belonging to the Assembly.

Just N2m Can Save Mikdad’s Life!

 

Mikdad: Begging for your urgent assistance!

The parents of two years old Jimoh Miqdad Akanbi have appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to come to the aid of their son who has been diagnosed with a large septa defect (whole in the heart).

Mikdad’s father, a bricklayer, said he had to make the appeal after all efforts to raise the over two million naira required for the surgical operation in India yielded no result.

According to him, he had written several letters of appeal to notable personalities in Lagos State including the Speaker of the State Assembly, Rt. Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, wife of the State Governor, Emmanuela Abimbola Fashola and others with no response so far.

Little Mikdad was first taken to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, in December 2012 for recurrent chest infection which necessitated frequent admissions.

After series of tests and medical examination, he was found to be having a large inlet ventricular septa defect with moderate pulmonary hypertension.

Mr Jimoh, who has been running from pillar to post seeking financial assistance for his child, said doctors at LASUTH had advised him on the need for urgent surgical closure of the defect in order to save the life of Mikdad. But as minutes tick and days pass, the needed sum is yet to be realised. The boy is currently placed on anti-failure drugs for survival!

Dr B.A Animashaun, a paediatrics cardiologist at the hospital notified Mrs Fashola about Mikdad’s condition through a letter dated February 19, 2013.

In the letter, Dr Animashaun noted that Mikdad ‘has a congenital heart disease (Large ventricular septa defect L-R shunt with flow related mild pulmonary stenosis). He requires surgical intervention.’

However, no response has been given up till now. Mikdad’s father said he personally wrote another letter to the speaker informing him of his child’s condition and also seeking financial assistance. Nothing, he said, came out of that effort as well.

‘My son’s condition is deteriorating every day. I humbly seek your financial assistance because as a bricklayer I do not have the financial capability to foot the bill and other expenses,’ Mr Jimoh appealed in a chat with our correspondent.

The case of little Mikdad draws tears from even a stone-hearted individual as his condition continues to deteriorate on a daily basis. 

All he requests from Nigerians is the life line of N2m for the surgery.

You may assist by dropping something for Mikdad’s survival at GTBank Plc. Account name: Jimoh Mikdad Akanbi. 

Account no: 0125778504 or LASUTH RADIOLOGY-II 1770560238.

The father can be contacted on 07043042750.

BOUNCING BACK!

JUST SAYING IT'S TIME TO BOUNCE BACK FROM INACTIVENESS ALL THESE WHILE. MORE STORIES AND PICTURES NOW!