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Ekiti 2018:NEC Declares Kayode Fayemi Winner

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Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Kayode Fayemi, has won the Ekiti State governorship election.

Fayemi defeated current Deputy Governor of the state and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Kolapo Olusola, and over 30 others in a keenly contested election.

He was victorious in 11 out of the 16 local government areas of the state, polling 197,459 votes, and edging out his closest rival Olusola who got 178,121 votes by 19,338 votes.

Based on the votes secured, INEC’s Chief Returning Officer for the election, Professor Idowu Olayinka, declared Fayemi the winner.

Saturday’s election was highly anticipated as it pitted both the APC and Fayemi against one of their biggest critics and a key member of the opposition.

The buildup to the election was filled with drama and heightened expectations but led to fears of violence, with more than 30,000 policemen eventually deployed to provide security.

It, however, started rather smoothly with electoral materials and officials getting to polling units visited by our correspondents on schedule.

In Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, there was a large turnout of voters and more than 60,000 people eventually voted there, the largest votes cast in a local government during the election.

Apart from reports now and then of card reader malfunction, one of the first issues to pop up was the allegations of cash inducements by observers and party agents.

A few hours into the start of the election, the police arrested some persons for allegedly distributing cash to voters.

By midday, both Fayemi and Olusola had suffered hitches at their polling units.
In the case of Fayemi, the card reader smoothly read his PVC enabling him to vote but it failed to read that of his wife and it took several attempts before she got to vote.

After voting, the former Ekiti governor told reporters he was confident of victory and that the day will be celebrated.

In the case of Olusola, the card reader failed to recognise his card when he tried to vote at his polling unit – Ofomofuru Hall, Ward 2, Okokuru in Ikere-Ekiti.

He only got accredited to vote after INEC National Commissioner, Anthonia Simbini, intervened.

Both candidates did not dwell on the hitch, however, with the focus more on voter inducement and intimidation.

The victory puts Mr Fayemi on course for a second term as governor of the state, an ambition he failed to achieve in 2014 when he was defeated by Governor Ayodele Fayose.

Fayemi had gone on to head the Policy, Research and Strategy Directorate of the APC’s Presidential Campaign for the 2015 election before becoming Minister of Mines and Steel Development.

Fayose, whose administration repeatedly accused Fayemi’s administration, was keen to ensure that his deputy succeeds him and that Ekiti remains under the leadership of the PDP.

When he came out to vote, the governor repeated his calls to supporters of the PDP to vote and protect their votes.

Although it was a close contest, Fayemi and the APC prevailed

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The British Left Two Devils Behind When They Left Nigeria -Bode George

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“I have said it before, there are two devils left behind when the British left Nigeria. The first was tribalism. They planted it as a devil and the second is Religious bigotry. What has these issues got to do with managing people.

“Nobody selected himself that I want to be Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa man. No. You just popped out and whether you are a Muslim or Christian is irrelevant.

“In all religions that I know, you are told to love your Neighbor as yourself. What you will not accept, don’t do it to another neighbor because if you pack up and die, that’s the end. Let us have an impact of governance.” -Chief Bode George On AriseTV News

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After years of evading arrest, NDLEA nabs most wanted Lagos drug baron, Temo

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After many years of wearing the toga of invincibility, the overall head of the Mushin, Lagos drug cartel, 57-year-old Alhaji Sulaiman Jimoh (alias Olowoidiogede, populary known as Temo), has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, at his enclave after an initial resistance from him and his horde of hoodlums.

In the last two years, the NDLEA had intercepted large consignments of illicit drugs worth billions of naira owned by Temo but he has remained largely evasive while a few encounters with him and his armed gangs in his Mushin enclave had resulted in gunfight.

Some of the recent seizures of his shipments include: a 14, 524.8 kilograms of Ghana Loud, a strong strain of cannabis sativa, smuggled into Lagos from Ghana in two trucks and a J5 bus intercepted at Ojuelegba area of Lagos in the early hours of Sunday 28th January 2024; two truck-loads of the same substance weighing 8,852kg intercepted at Eleko beach, Lekki Lagos on 4th May 2023 and 252kg of Loud seized from his enclave in Mushin on Wednesday 26th July 2023. Indeed, in the last two encounters, his men engaged NDLEA operatives in gunfight.

The drug kingpin was very notorious for always being on the move to evade arrest but with persistence and determination of the Agency aided by modern tools and intelligence, the concerted effort to get him paid off at 10am on Monday 22nd July 2024 when NDLEA’s surveillance teams on his trail tracked and pinned him down at Igbarere street, Mushin. A reinforcement of about 50 operatives was immediately mobilized to the area while he was attempting to escape in a Mercedes Benz SUV GLE 350 marked 01G-300G. His attempt to escape by mobilizing hoodlums to engage and distract the operatives however failed after which he was overpowered and whisked away from the chaotic scene while his men surrendered to the superior firepower of the anti-narcotic agents who also succeeded in recovering the Mercedes Benz SUV the suspect was found in.

In his reaction to the arrest of Temo, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) commen

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Peter Obi Writes Onanuga, Demands Apology, N5bn within 72 Hours

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The Presidential Candidate of our Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi has demanded from the Special Adviser on Communication and Strategy to the President, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, the retraction of his wild allegation, linking him as behind the planned mass protest being planned for August.

Obi, writing through his counsel, Chief Alex Ejesieme, SAN of the MADIBA Chambers, said that the allegation which was widely published in social and mainstream media and read by many within and outside the country maligned his hard-earned reputation as a man who indulges in violence when all his antecedents are vivid that he abhors violence even in the face of extreme provocation.

“It’s our client’s conviction that the publication was a calculated plot to demean, ridicule, humiliate and embarrass him by the estimation of every right thinking member of the society”

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