Ogun LG polls, peaceful, orderly
The ongoing local government polls in Ogun State got off to a good start on Saturday. This newspaper can exclusively report.
Election into chairmanship and councillorship positions are currently ongoing in the 20 local government councils of the state, with the major political parties, including the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) saying that they will have a good showing.
In the polling units surveyed in major cities such as Abeokuta, the state capital; Ijebu Ode, Sagamu, Ota and Ilaro, election materials arrived on schedule even as voters expressed confidence that the exercise would be concluded without any hassles.
Findings by reporters across the state have not shown any incident of voter harassment or ballot box snatching so far.
This contradicts the false alarm raised by a major opposition party in the state to the effect that the election has been bedevilled by violence.
Some voters, however, complained of late arrival of materials even as officials of the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OGSIEC) interviewed across the state said materials have reached all polling units in the State and they expected voters to come out in large numbers and exercise their franchise.
[12:43 PM, 11/16/2024] Mathew ND: Wike not available to scammers, hustler masquerading as activists – Aide
Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media to the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has reiterated that the Minister will not give attention to “professional scammers and hustlers” who are masquerading as activists.
In a statement on Saturday, the Spokesperson to the FCT Minister said most of those jumping from one social media platform to another to speak against the FCT Minister were doing so because he ignored them and is making the “Yahoo Yahoo” antics through which they have sustained themselves to fail.
He said; “While growing up as a child in the hilly town of Okemesi Ekiti, one of the lessons I learned from my grandfather was never to wrestle with pigs. He was constantly telling us that the danger of wrestling with a pig will be that at the end of the fight, sane minds won’t be able to differentiate between you and the pig you fought with.
“Therefore, as a matter of principle, we won’t dignify some people with any response.
“This is more so that we know how a certain emergency activist diverted election money to purchase a petrol station. We know how some so-called activists have fought themselves over protest money, including the one in 2019.
“In 2016, when I was contesting for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) National Publicity Secretary, someone approached me, telling me that there will be a lot of money to be made if I emerge. He said all I needed was for us to work together and that he would be the one to source for information to be used to issue press statements against public office holders. His would be to approach the public office holders concerned and get money out for us.
“Today, that fellow is one of those parading themselves as activists. Therefore, we won’t dignify them.”
Speaking further, Olayinka said; “The style of these hustlers masquerading as activists has always been the same. They will threaten and blackmail you by making noise in the media or organizing protest against you. They will be the same people that will arrange someone to approach you that the ‘activists’ can be reached and that they can help. The moment you agree, they will come back with bills that you must pay, and once you pay, they move on to another targets, in most cases, public office holders.
“There are some whose area of core competence is to organize press conference for or against, and get paid.
“Unfortunately for this hustler-activists, Wike is not one who plays that kind of game, and that’s the reason they are frustrated.
“Therefore, for us, they will shout, shout and shout tire, the Minister will keep ignoring them and focusing on his jobs, delivery of which can be seen across the FCT.”
On the issue of grabbing lands, Olayinka challenged those making such allegations to provide evidence of lands owned by anyone, that the FCT Minister grabbed.
“If supposed educated people are going about calling removal of shanties that are posing security threats to the people land grabbing, obviously, their education is a waste.
“People just saw lands that are not occupied and moved their without authorization from anyone. Under the trees, they built houses with planks, covered them with tarpaulin.
“For instance, when the FCT Minister visited the shanty in Wuye, which shared fence with a residential estate and is close to a rail-line, the occupants were honest enough to admit that they had no authority from anyone to live there. They also admitted that previous governments had cleared the shanty 21 times and that the recent one was the 22nd time.
“The occupants’s only request from the FCT Ministry is for them to be relocated to somewhere else, and a meeting was held with their representatives on Tuesday.
“So if this is what our hustler-activists are referring to as land grabbing, I pity those who still see them as educated,” he said.
