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Ekiti Governorship Poll: Oyebanji wins ADC candidate Bejide’s ward
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) governorship candidate, Ambassador Dare Bejide, has lost his polling unit and ward to Governor Biodun Oyebanji of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the ongoing Ekiti State governorship election.
Bejide, who hails from Ward 2 in Ekiti South-West Local Government Area, shares the area with IT expert and politician Makinde Araoye.
Results from Polling Unit 004, Ward 2 showed Oyebanji polling 140 votes, while Bejide scored 37 votes. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) recorded 2 votes.
The outcome gave the APC an early advantage as collation of results continued across the state.
Result Summary – PU 004, Ward 2, Ekiti South-West LGA:
APC: 140 votes
ADC: 37 votes
PDP: 2 votes
LG crisis: Osun PDP chairmen resume in councils
Chairmen and councillors elected in the February 22, 2025 Osun local government election on Friday resumed in some council secretariats in the state, despite warnings from the All Progressives Congress.
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The deputy spokesperson for Osun State Governor, Oladele Bamiji, said the resumption followed the judgment of the Federal High Court, which declared that the tenure of the current APC chairmen running the council areas in the state had ended.
A Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo, the state capital, on Monday dismissed a suit filed by APC chairmen elected in the October 15, 2022 LG elections seeking to determine when their tenure of office would end.
Following the court ruling, Bamiji said the PDP chairmen returned to council areas in Ede North, Ede South, Iwo, Boripe and Ila Local Government Areas.
Saturday PUNCH gathered that at the entrance to the premises of Olorunda Local Government Area in Igbona, Osogbo, there was a shouting match between police operatives and PDP officials who attempted to return to the secretariat.
The gate of the premises was eventually locked against the PDP officials.
Police operatives deployed in large numbers to the area and other security agents later engaged the PDP officials in discussions before they left the area.
However, while addressing journalists in Osogbo on Friday on behalf of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria in the state, one of the APC chairmen, Adegoke Ogunsola, accused the PDP chairmen of forceful takeover of council areas.
Ogunsola also said the APC chairmen had already filed an application for stay of execution of the judgment, adding that the process had been served on the respondents.
But giving further insight into the resumption, Bamiji insisted the PDP chairmen remained the legally elected local government administrators in the state.
“They (PDP) are the legal chairmen, and they ought to be in the local government anyway, but for the backing of the immediate past Inspector General of Police and the abnormal situation we have in Osun State with the commissioner of police, APC has no business in the council.
‘Bandits not alone, getting support from those power’ — Ex-NYSC DG
A former Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, Brig-Gen Maharazu Tsiga, rtd, says bandits terrorising communities may be receiving backing from powerful individuals in government and other positions of authority.
Tsiga made this statement at a press conference in Kaduna about late Major-General Rabe Abubakar, rtd, who died in bandits’ captivity in Katsina State.
According to Tsiga, who was also kidnapped earlier this year from his hometown in Katsina, he had horrible experience in bandits’ captivity during the period.
The former NYSC DG recounted that his time with the bandits exposed a deeply troubling support system operating beyond the forests, involving informants, logistics suppliers and individuals allegedly connected to positions of influence.
“These people may be having the backing of those in power. One of the days I was there around 2 a.m., this issue came up. Somebody called and said, ‘Please, Kachala, are you ready to buy 10 cartons of ammunition?
“He said, ‘Yes, but let me finish with one old man.’ When he finished talking and was talking to me, I asked him jokingly, ‘put me inside this business now.’
“He said, ‘Who are you? You are a retired general. You don’t have office. We are talking to people who are in office now,” Tsiga recounted.
UK destroyed my reputation, integrity — Alison-Madueke
Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has accused United Kingdom authorities of destroying her reputation through a failed corruption prosecution that lasted more than a decade.
Alison-Madueke, who was acquitted on Wednesday by a jury at Southwark Crown Court in London, made the remarks during an interview with BBC on Friday.
The former minister had faced five counts of accepting bribes and conspiracy to commit bribery following a 13-year investigation by the UK’s National Crime Agency.
Speaking after her acquittal, Alison-Madueke described the investigation and prosecution as “painful and traumatic.”
“I’ve not been allowed to travel. I’ve not been allowed to work. They destroyed my reputation and my integrity,” she told the BBC.
The former minister, who served as Nigeria’s petroleum minister between 2010 and 2015 and was the first female president of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, said the case had taken a significant psychological toll on her.
“When your freedom is taken away from you, it has a very deep impact upon you psychologically.
“I knew that I had never done anything nefarious and I had never done any of the heinous things I was being accused of doing,” she said.
Alison-Madueke was first arrested in 2015 but was not charged until 2023.
Prosecutors had alleged that she received benefits from oil businessmen who held government contracts, including luxury goods, chauffeur-driven vehicles and access to high-value properties in the United Kingdom.
During the interview, she claimed documents that could have supported her defence had gone missing in Nigeria.
According to her, the documents included receipts showing that some payments made on her behalf had been reimbursed.
“Those items were taken away by our intelligence forces” from her Abuja residence in 2015, she said.
She also criticised both Nigerian and British authorities over the handling of the case.
