POLITICS
Ekiti North Residents Carpet Senator over alleged Poor Representation
Residents of the Ekiti North Senatorial District have taken a swipe at the representative of the zone at the Senate, Olubunmi Adetumbi, for alleged neglect and poor performance in the constituency.
The constituents, including traditional rulers, traders, youth and others interest groups, had in a report of performance index compiled by the Catholic Diocese of Ekiti, powered by the Justice Development and Peace Initiative (JDPI), flayed the All Progressives Congress (APC) Senator, for allegedly failing to perform his duties effectively in Ido/Osi, Ilejemeje, Moba, Ikole and Oye local governments, where he was elected to represent in 2019.
However, the embattled Senator has described the verdict passed on him by the people as frivolous, adding that those making such damaging rating about him exercised such with venom and hatred by deciding to undermine his contributions in terms of service delivery.
The JDPI in a report signed by its Coordinator, Rev Father Emmanuel Akingbade and made available to newsmen in Ado Ekiti yesterday, the constituents accused the senator of not doing enough in his service to the people in the execution of N222 million cummulative projects earmarked for the district in 2020 federal budgetary provisions.
A break down of the report has the projects estimate as: N10 million naira for provision of 10- lock up shops in Ikole-Ekiti, N20 million to empower youths, N170 million for erosion control, and N60 million naira for completion of erosion control project phase II, Oke-Alewu, Ikole Ekiti.
Similarly, the budgetary provisions included: N48.77 million for research on creative industry and workshop, N47 million naira for workshop, N15 million naira for construction of 22 hand pump boreholes, as well as N10 million for the provision of motorized boreholes in Ayodeji Adeyemi Ajebandele street, in Otun Ekiti.
Also there are: N155 million for Training and supply of empowerment items: grants for farmers, artisans and youths, 50 million naira designated for Provision of ICT hub and N17 million naira Grant for scholarship for indigent students in secondary and tertiary institutions.
According to the JDPI coordinator, as of September, 2021, when the team visited the district, 75 percent of the funds for the 2020 projects had been released to the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, but there was nothing remarkable on ground to justify the money.
It further showed that the residents, complained bitterly about total neglect of the area in terms of erosion control project, particularly in Otun Ekiti, which is more prone to degradation and landslide.
“The constituents confirmed that despite public reports on the damage caused by the overflow of Odo Oranyan and Odo Iwesu, not much had been done to assuage the situation. In Oye-Ekiti, a constituent confirmed that the only erosion work being carried out is situated along Ayegbaju road and nothing indicated that it was a constituency project”.
JDPI equally added that the only skeletal constituency project on erosion control done by Adetumbi was at Ikole- Ekiti as well as an ICT hub he also built in Ifaki Ekiti.
But the Senator argued; “I have done my best to represent my people. Though I am compiling my own document regarding those projects I had executed, which I will make available to the public soon, particularly the journalists”.
The Abia Chapter of the INEC Staff Welfare Association (ISWA) has warned its members to uphold the integrity of the commission and guard against the culture of manipulating election results.
The Abia Chairman of the association, Mr Collins Eze, gave the advice at the group’s general meeting and end-of-year party in Umuahia.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen on the sideline of the ceremony, Eze said that the staff members were adequately aware of their enormous responsibility and should ensure free, fair and credible elections.
He said: “We have also told our colleagues that anywhere they find themselves they should make sure that they do the needful by ensuring transparency in the conduct of elections.
“We have always told them not to allow anybody to induce them with money to manipulate election results.
“I’m happy that they have been building the capacity of our colleagues on election processes.
“So, in the coming years, we won’t have any problem in ensuring free, fair and peaceful elections.”
He said that the end-of-year party was special as it afforded them the opportunity “to wine and dine together as well as thank God for sustaining them in 2024”.
Eze said that his leadership had introduced various means of assisting members in dire financial needs by providing platforms to solicit suppory for them.
He expressed gratitude to members for their support and cooperation, describing them as the “secret behind the success of this administration”.
He said that 34 of at least 350 staff members of the commission in the state retired from service in 2024.
According to him, the development has placed a huge financial burden on the association, in terms of their welfare and entitlement as members.
Report says that each member received a carton of tomato paste as Christmas gift from the association. (NAN)
A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be thankful to God that its 16-year administration was not probed by the successive APC-led governments.Okechukwu stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, while reacting to a statement by PDP congratulating Ghanaians for the conduct of free, fair and transparent general elections.
Report says that PDP had, in a statement, said that the verdict of the people of Ghana in the presidential election was a signal to the APC that its days were numbered. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, had said in the statement that the power of the people in Nigeria, just like in Ghana, would ‘surely prevail and end the APC’s oppressive rule’.This, he said, would “return Nigeria to the path of good governance, security, political stability and economic prosperity on the platform of the PDP in 2027.”However, in his reactions to Ologunagba’s statement, Okechukwu said that the PDP clan should thank God that former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Tinubu, out of sheer statesmanship, had refused to probe ‘the 16 locus years of PDP administrations’.Okechukwu, a former Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), described the 16 years of PDP administrations as ones full of squandering and lack of plan.He said that Nigeria had yet to recover from the humongous culture of impunity and trust deficit planted by PDP on the Nigerian soil.Okechukwu said corruption was among the culture of impunity, saying it governed the privatisation of Nigeria’s electricity value chain, a key element in the country’s industrialisation drive.“Another is the blatant rigging of the 2007 general elections which the foremost beneficiary, President Umaru Yar’Adua, out of good conscience and noble magnanimity, publicly acknowledged the malfeasance which characterised his victory,” he said.Okechukwu also mentioned what he called conscienceless sale of the legislative and ministerial quarters, the annual rentage of which, he said, was bleeding the country’s treasury.“Another one is the neglect of $23 billion Greenfield Refinery, which could have saved over $70 billion expended on importation of refined petroleum products and which simulated the economic hardship of today,” he said.On why, for nine years, the APC administration could not fix those challenges, he recalled the efforts made by the Buhari administration to reopen talks on the Greenfield Refinery which, according to him, the Chinese regrettably rebuffed.The former VON director-general said that Nigerians were not in a hurry to forget the deliberate breach of the rotational convention of president from the north to the south.He said that the country could not also forget the utter disregard for Section 7 of the PDP’s constitution which expressly mandated zoning.Okechukwu advised the PDP not to insult the sensibilities of Nigerians by assuming that citizens would easily forget how they were put in the harms way.He said that PDP should thank God that Buhari and Tinubu did not want to probe them, adding “that’s why Nigerians cannot decipher the difference between the two political parties.” (NAN)
Sen. Ned Nwoko (PDP-Delta) says that Local Government Administration is central to democracy in Nigeria as it ensures grassroots governance and service delivery at the local level.This is contained in a statement signed by Dr Michael Nwoko, the Chief of Staff to the lawmaker in Abuja on Monday.Nwoko said this on the occasion of the presentation of an award “Icon of Hope” to him by the Association of Local Government Vice Chairmen of Nigeria (ALGOVC).
He was represented by his Chief of Staff. He said that the importance of local government administration in the country could not be overemphasised, as it was the bedrock of democracy.According to him, local governments in Nigeria play key roles in the country’s democracy by promoting participatory democracy, providing services, and representing citizens.“Local Governments help determine local needs and how to meet them. They also act as a link between the centre, state, and local people.“They are created to decentralise power and bring the government closer to the people. They perform both mandatory and concurrent functions.“It is in view of this that I took it upon myself to enhance the viability of local governments through the Paris and London club loan refunds,”he said.Dr Folashade Olabanji-Oba, ALGOVC National Chairman, while presenting the award at its 7th Annual National Conference, said the award was in recognition of the lawmaker’s significant contributions to strengthening local government administration.She highlighted Nwoko’s critical role in ensuring the Paris and London Club loan refunds, a financial breakthrough she said enhanced the capacity of local governments nationwide.(NAN)
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