Don’t Repeat Ekiti Rigging Strategy Under Any Guise, APC Warns Jonathan, PDP

Gentlemen, we have additional information to give you on
what has now become Ekitigate. Contrary to the general belief,
it was not just the military that was involved. It was the entire
gamut of the nation’s security agencies: The police, the State
Security Service (SSS) and the Civil Defence. They were all
constituted into a task force that was deployed to each local
government and placed under the command of the PDP. We
have the names of all the servicemen involved in the criminal
act, as well as their service and telephones numbers. On the
morning of the Ekiti election, not one APC leader was a free
man or woman. They were either in detention, in hiding or on
the run, because the task force carried out its duty with brutal
efficiency.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has warned the Jonathan
lead administration and the ruling party, Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) that it should not repeat Ekiti rigging strategy
under any guise.
This was made known, Monday, during a press conference by
the APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in
Lagos.
The Statement read thus
As you are very much aware, the final countdown has begun to
the Presidential and National Assembly elections scheduled for
Saturday, March 28th.
As the clock ticks toward the D-Day, we are compelled to alert
Nigerians, local and foreign election observers and indeed the
international community to the strategy being employed by the
PDP-led Jonathan Administration to manipulate the elections,
using what we call the Modified Ekiti Rigging Strategy.
It is no longer news that a Captain in the Nigerian Army, Sagir
Koli, has exposed how the Administration used the military to
rig the Governorship Election in Ekiti on June 21st 2014.
According to Capt. Sagir, soldiers were put at the behest of
designated PDP officials at each of the 16 local governments in
the state to work with the officials to rig the elections.
Once the PDP officials pointed out any APC leader in a
particular local government, such leader was either arrested and
detained or simply hounded into hiding. APC leaders who were
arrested also had the funds in their possession, including
money to pay party agents and for other logistics, confiscated
as they were detained till well after the election.
Gentlemen, we have additional information to give you on what
has now become Ekitigate. Contrary to the general belief, it was
not just the military that was involved. It was the entire gamut
of the nation’s security agencies: The police, the State Security
Service (SSS) and the Civil Defence. They were all constituted
into a task force that was deployed to each local government
and placed under the command of the PDP. We have the names
of all the servicemen involved in the criminal act, as well as
their service and telephones numbers. On the morning of the
Ekiti election, not one APC leader was a free man or woman.
They were either in detention, in hiding or on the run, because
the task force carried out its duty with brutal efficiency.
In view of the global outcry over the Ekiti show of shame, there
is a plan to slightly modify it for Saturday’s election, hence
what we have now termed the Modified Ekiti Rigging Strategy.
Since indications are that the military is no longer willing to be
used for such an illegal act, and other security agencies know
they will be under the searchlight on election days, those who
are averse to a free, fair, credible and violence-free polls have
simply come up with the plan to sew military and police
uniforms for their party thugs to wear on election day so they
can rig the elections for the PDP! A large number of uniformed
personnel on election day will be those donning fake uniforms
and ranks, and their mandate will be to rig for the PDP and
terrorize opposition members and supporters.
They have also mobilized ethnic militias across the country:
MASSOB in the South East; OPC in the South West and ex-
militants in the Niger Delta. Mobilized under the pretext of a 9
billion Naira pipeline contract, the marching order given to the
ethnic militias is to destabilize the election in their respective
regions, thus rendering it inconclusive. After all, the PDP knows
it cannot win a free, fair and peaceful election. The highly
disruptive and armed protest by the OPC in Lagos last Monday
was a dress rehearsal for the plot.
Also, thugs have been trained in several South Western States,
particularly Ondo and Ogun States, to disrupt the coming
elections. In Ondo State, training was organized by the PDP
new leadership in Ilaje/Okitipupa zone. These thugs, numbering
over 300, were given two weeks training in weapons use under
a Commander/President called Miti. They have now been moved
in 12 buses to join the Ogun State Group from where they will
be dispatched to other states in the South West, with arms.
For the Northern part of the country, the plot is to deploy the
Special Forces, who were trained in Belarus, to the liberated
territories in the North East, ostensibly to hold the liberated
territories but in reality to rig the election for the PDP. Also,
Vice President Namadi Sambo has met with security chiefs in
Kaduna with a request that they must deliver 2 million votes to
the PDP anyhow, with promises of mouth-watering incentives
include cash and promotion
Gentlemen, the Inspector-General of Police and the Service
Chiefs are also part of the plot. You will recall the unlawful
warning issued by the IGP urging voters to cast their ballot and
immediately leave the polling units. A similar order is expected
to be issued by the Chief of Army Staff ahead of the election,
and the orders are aimed at harassing and intimidating voters
as well as ensuring they do not stay around to prevent the PDP
rigging plans. We urge Nigerians to ignore such unlawful
directives which are not grounded in the Electoral Act, as
pointed out by the INEC Chairman. Nigerians must not only
vote, they must stay behind to protect their votes. Without
being disruptive, they should use their phone cameras to
document proceedings at the various polling booths, so that no
one will tamper with their votes. All they are required to do is
to conduct themselves peacefully.
We are here to sound the alarm loud and clear: We will not
accept accept a repeat of the Ekiti rigging strategy in any form,
modified or
not. Voters must not be harassed or intimidated and they must
be allowed to defend their votes, as supported by the Electoral
Act. Those who are bent on rigging the elections must know
that Nigeria will be under a global spotlight on election day. No
polling booth, no matter where it is located, will escape that
spotlight.
In this regard, we want to commend the international friends of
our country, Nigeria, in particular the United States and Britain,
for their support in making sure that the forthcoming elections
are free, fair, credible and violence-free. Many of you must have
read the OP-ED page article jointly written by US Secretary of
State John Kerry and British Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs Phillip Hammond.
We at the APC associate ourselves with that timely article, in
which the authors urged ”all eligible Nigerians to vote, resist
those who attempt to incite violence, and to come together as
one country to defend the country against terrorist threats”.
They went further: ”There are good reasons why the
international spotlight is firmly fixed on Nigeria during this
critical period and why we have come together to support an
open and credible electoral process. Nigeria is Africa’s largest
democracy and what happens there will have an impact well
beyond its borders. A successful election, free from violence
and with wide participation, accurate vote counting, and
responsible leadership from the candidates would inspire the
region and spur future progress and prosperity. It would also be
a historic show of support by
Nigerians for democratic values and an equally firm rejection of
the brutal terrorist group, Boko Haram, and others who
advocate or perpetrate violence.”
We urge all our members and supporters, and indeed all
Nigerians, to show uncommon courage and patriotism by doing
whatever it takes, lawfully, to defend their votes. We urge them
to repudiate those who are planning to foment chaos or rig the
polls.
To those planning to disrupt or rig the elections and instigate
violence, we ask them to heed the warning signals from the
international community, as aptly conveyed by Mr. John Kerry
and Mr Phillip Hammond, that ”any person who incites violence
at any stage in the electoral process, or who seeks power
through unconstitutional means, should be held accountable
and should understand that the consequences will be severe,
both domestically and internationall

LAGOS 2015: WHO HOLDS THE ACE? SEE THE RESUME OF AMBODE AND AGBAJE

But for the desperate, last minute shifting of the polls
earlier scheduled for this month at the behest of
Nigeria’s military high command, acting obviously on
behalf of an embattled President Goodluck Jonathan and
his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), state governorship
and House of Assembly elections would have been
taking place today across the country including Lagos.
The electoral battle in Lagos would have been a two-
way affair between Mr Akinwumi Ambode of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) and Mr Olujimi Agbaje of
the PDP. Both men are household names in Lagos. Their
posters, billboards and other souvenirs dot the
landscape of the Centre of Excellence. Their variegated
messages dominate both the electronic and now
ubiquitous social media. They have a new date of
engagement scheduled for March 11th if the electoral
magicians do not abort the elections once more.
Jimi Agbaje is not new to the Lagos State governorship
race. In 2007, he contested for the position on the
platform of the Democratic Parties Alliance (DPA).
Despite having run what was widely considered a
brilliant and innovative campaign, he emerged a distant
third in that election to the incumbent, Mr Babatunde
Raji Fashola (SAN). The latter’s widely adjudged two-
term brilliant tenure comes to an end this May. Some
analysts contend that Jimi Agbaje is contesting on a
firmer, surer, more solid platform this time around. Even
though, the PDP has never succeeded in supplanting the
progressives from power in Lagos since 1999, it is still
perceived as a more viable dais for competing
effectively in Lagos than Agbaje’s defunct DPA.
Yet, others argue that the PDP platform is indeed Jimi
Agbaje’s albatross. Agbaje is often described as a good
candidate running on a rotten platform. The PDP has
monopolised power at the centre since 1999. In the
period, it has controlled the bulk of the country’s
resources. Yet, all the country has to show for it is
illusory statistical growth without concrete content in
terms of their material well-being. Indeed, under the
PDP’s watch, Nigeria lies humiliatingly prostrate and
subject to mass poverty, hunger, chronic insecurity,
monumental corruption, unbearable unemployment,
unbelievable impunity and utter ignominy in the comity
of nations. Can Agbaje convince the people of Lagos to
entrust their fate in the hands of a party with such a
deplorable record of performance especially given the
undeniably impressive strides the state has taken under
the guidance of the progressives in the last 16 years? It
is improbable.
It is possible to argue that there is really no big deal
about Agbaje jettisoning his professed commitment to
structural change in Nigeria throughout his political
career only to pitch his tent with a PDP so obviously
committed to maintaining Nigeria in her current
dysfunctional shape and structure. After all, political
vagrancy and promiscuity have become part and parcel
of our political culture and no party can self-righteously
cast the first stone against the other. In any case, have
the Afenifere old guard not assured us all that President
Goodluck Jonathan will implement the recommendations
of the moribund National Conference if he is re-elected
for a second term in office? Of course, this is sheer
baloney.
The Jonathan National Conference was an illegal and
illegitimate contraption, a sheer waste of time and
resources and a wily tactic for an administration running
out of options to buy time. If the Jonathan presidency
could do nothing concrete with the National Conference
report when it had near total dominance of the National
Assembly, is it now that it is much more considerably
weakened in both chambers that it will get the
recommendations of the conference through the national
legislature? Anyone who cannot see that Dr Jonathan
enjoys the centralized and excessive powers of the
Nigerian state and presidency as it currently exists to
genuinely desire any meaningful structural change in the
country deserves a doctoral degree in political naivety.
But then, the thrust of this piece is to seek to find out in
who’s hands – Agbaje or Ambode – it will be safer and
wiser to entrust the almost one trillion dollar economy
of Lagos State especially at this crucial period of the
state’s evolution? A careful examination of the
curriculum vitae of the two candidates as gleaned from
their respective websites should give us a clue. Let us
start with the PDP candidate, Mr Olujimi Kolawole
Agbaje. He was born on March 2, 1957, to late Chief
Julius Kosebinu, a banker and Mrs Margaret Olabisi
Agbaje, a teacher. Agbaje obtained his secondary school
education at St Gregory’s College, Lagos, and graduated
as a pharmacist from the then University of Ife (now
Obafemi Awolowo University). Agbaje’s CV does not tell
us what he did between his graduation from Ife and the
setting up of his company, JAYKAY Pharmaceutical and
chemical company in 1982. However, he was Managing
Director of the drug manufacturing and distribution
company between 1982 and 2005 when he decided to
venture into politics. Again, we have no indication of the
net worth of the company or the expansiveness or
complexity of its operations under Agbaje’s guidance.
Agbaje served as a Member, Pharmacists Council of
Nigeria (1999-2006); National Secretary, Nigerian
Association of General Practice Pharmacists
(1987-1990); National Chairman, Nigeria Association of
General Practice Pharmacists (1987-1990) and
Chairman, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Lagos
State Branch (1994-1997). Other non-executive public
service appointments Agbaje has held include Member,
Lagos State Task Force on Fake and Adulterated Drugs
(1989-1993); Member, National Drug Formulary and
Essential Drugs List (1986-1993); Member, Lagos
Hospitals Management Board (1994-1999). In addition
to being a Faculty Member of the African Centre of
Leadership, Strategy and Development Centre, Agbaje is
a Merit Award Winner of the Lagos State Chapter of the
Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Fellow,
Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria and Fellow, West
African Post Graduate College of Pharmacists. Agbaje
has participated in various international programmes
including the Executive Management Programme at the
Wits Business School, Johannesburg, Cape Town
Business School, South Africa and the World Health
Organization training course on good manufacturing
practice in the pharmaceutical sector.
Now, what about Mr Akinwunmi Ambode? Born on the
14th of June, 1963, at Epe General Hospital, Epe,
Ambode had his primary school education at St Jude’s
primary school, Ebute Meta. His father served as a
teacher in Lagos State before retiring after 34 years in
service. Ambode passed the National Common Entrance
Examination in primary five and gained admission into
the Federal Government College, Warri. Ambode
recorded the second best result in West Africa in the
Higher School Certificate Examinations in the Social
Sciences in 1981. At the age of 21, Ambode graduated
with honours in Accounting from the University of Lagos.
He scored a double when he both qualified as a
Chartered Accountant and completed his M.Sc degree
programme in Accounting from the University of Lagos
specialising in Financial Management at the age of 24.
Ambode started his public service career in November
1985 as Accountant Grade 1 at the then Lagos State
Waste Disposal Board (now Lagos State Waste
Management Authority). Over the next 10 years, Ambode
acquired considerable experience serving as Council
Treasurer in several Local Government Areas of Lagos
State including Alimosho, Shomolu, Mushin, Epe,
Badagry and Ajeromi-Ifelodun. In 1988, Ambode earned
the award of the United States Fulbright Scholarship for
the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program in Boston
University, Massachusetts, on Public Leadership with
emphasis on Finance and Accounting. In 2000, Ambode
was appointed as the youngest ever Auditor-General for
Local Government in Lagos State. Thereafter, he was
elevated as the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of
Finance in January 2005 and in February, 2006 he was
given the additional responsibility of Accountant General
of Lagos State. At the time, he was the youngest
Permanent Secretary in the service and only the second
person to hold both positions of Permanent Secretary
and Accountant General at the same time.
Under Ambode’s leadership, the State Treasury Office
(STO), raised the state’s budget performance at an
average of 85% annually, ensured payment of civil
service staff salaries before the end of each month,
launched the e-platform for the payment of monthly
staff salaries, ensured prompt payment of gratuity and
pension arrears of the State Universal Basic Education
Board and Local Government old pensioners. Apart from
initiating and sustaining the annual retreat for Heads of
Accountants in the Lagos State Public Service as well
as Local and International training for staff, Ambode co-
organised the first ever National Tax Retreat in
association with the Joint Tax Board/Federal Inland
Revenue Service in 2005. He was the Chairman of the
Technical Committee that produced the Lagos State
Economic, Empowerment Development Strategy (LEEDS)
document and helped achieve the feat of clearing and
publishing arrears of statutory audits of Local
Governments in Lagos State from 1995 to 2004 within
12 months. His financial ingenuity has been publicly
acknowledged as a key factor that enabled Local
Governments in Lagos State survive the illegal seizure
of their statutory allocation for over one year by the
Obasanjo administration.
Ambode is an Alumnus of Wharton Business School and
also attended courses at Cranfield School of
Management, Cranfield, England, Institute of
Management Development, Lausanne, Switzerland,
INSEAD, Singapore and the Harvard Kennedy School of
Government, Boston, Massachussetts, USA. On
voluntarily retiring from the Lagos State public service
in August 2012, Ambode successfully transited to the
private sector by establishing Brandsmiths Consulting
Limited, a company that is presently consulting for
Federal, State and Local Governments on the transition
to the new International Public Service Accounting
System and offering other financial advisory services.
These then are the profiles of two illustrious and
accomplished sons of Lagos State seeking the consent
of Lagosians to pilot the affairs of the state after
Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola’s distinguished tenure.
Who has the requisite experience and expertise to build
on current achievements and lift Lagos to a new
pedestal of excellence in a world characterised by
unpredictable financial and economic turmoil? I leave
the answer to you, dear reader.

Oath of neutrality! 12,000 Ad-hoc staff administered in Taraba state — INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
in Taraba on Saturday administered the oath of
neutrality on the 12,000 ad-hoc staff it trained for the
March 28 and April 11 polls.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that
Magistrate Yazeedu Aliyu of the Chief Magistrates’
Court, Jalingo, administered the oath on behalf of the
commission.
Speaking at the occasion in Jalingo, Mr Fabian Yame,
INEC’S Head of Public Affairs in the state, explained
that the exercise was aimed at ensuring that the ahoc
staff were unbiased.
Yame said the exercise was being carried out in all the
local government headquarters across the state.
The spokesman, who also disclosed that INEC was fully
prepared for the elections, urged all stakeholders to
collaborate with the commission to ensure a peaceful,
free, fair and acceptable polls.
the nation: