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Tag: ekiti

  • Gunmen kill Ekiti council accountant, kidnap two other officials

    There was pandemonium on Wednesday night at the Emure Local Government Area of Ekiti State as unknown gunmen shot dead the Accountant of the council, Mr Abayomi Ajayi.

    Two other employees of the council – the Coordinator of the state Primary Health Care Board, Dr Fashina, and the Administrative Officer, Pastor Onaade – were also kidnapped during the incident.

    The incident took place around 8pm along the Ikere-Ise Road, when the local government council officials were returning home from work.

    Sources could not agree on whether the three were in the same vehicle or not.

    A source in the council, who preferred anonymity, said, “I cannot really say how it happened, but the kidnappers have contacted the families of the two council officials.

    “They are demanding a ransom of N10m from each of the two families.”

    The Police Public Relations Officer for the Ekiti State Police Command, Mr Caleb Ikechukwu, told our correspondent on the telephone on Thursday that investigations had commenced into the matter.

  • 2019: We’ll repeat what we did in Ekiti, Osun elections – Police IG

    The Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris has said that the Nigerian police is prepared to replicate the feat it recorded at the Ekiti and Osun States Governorship elections in the forthcoming 2019 general elections.

    The IGP made this known yesterday at a two-day train the trainers’ workshop for senior police officers on election security management for the 2019 general elections in Abuja.

    Represented by the Commissioner of the Police Training College, Maiduguri, Reuben Akpan, the IGP said: ‘‘This workshop is coming at the right time, it came at the right time.

    “With the inputs from the Commissioners of Police, we have been having talks like this before, in addition to training like this. Definitely, it will cement some of the loopholes the police officers have during previous elections.

    ‘‘Different people are entitled to their opinions. Under the IGP, the elections that were conducted in Ekiti and Osun states, foreign media made issues about it.

    “If we can take that as a standard, that will be a plus for the police force. But we should be fair and neutral in our conduct.”

    He said the workshop was more fundamental as there were already identified threats that are likely to trigger violence in the 2019 general elections.

  • Supreme Court orders Ekiti to relocate LG’s headquarters

    Supreme Court orders Ekiti to relocate LG’s headquarters

    The Supreme Court on Friday ended the 19-year legal dispute over the right location of the headquarters of Ilejemeje Local Government Area of Ekiti State.

    Resting the case in its judgment, a five-man bench of the apex court unanimously ordered the Ekiti State Government to immediately restore the headquarters of the local government to Eda-Oniyo from where it was relocated to Iye-Ekiti shortly after the state was created on October 1, 1996.

    The case started in the High Court of Ekiti State with the suit filed in 1999 by the traditional ruler of Eda-Oniyo, Oba Julius Awolola, the Eleda of Eda-Oniyo, to challenge the sudden relocation of the headquarters of Ilejemeje local government from his town, as established by the state’s law, to Iye-Ekiti.

    The Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour-led bench of the apex court, on Friday, held that the establishment of the headquarters of the Local Government in Eda-Oniyo was backed by statute and could not be relocated elsewhere without the promulgation of a new law.

    Justice Paul Galinje, who read the lead judgment of the apex court’s panel, held that the act of the Ekiti State Government, relocating the headquarters of the local government from Eda-Oniyo to Iye-Ekiti “has no legal basis”.

    “The location of the headquarters of Ilejemeje Local Government in Eda-Oniyo is a product of statute and no law has been promulgated to relocate it to any other place,” he ruled.

    Justice Galinje upheld the earlier judgment of the Ekiti State High Court which had in 2001 affirmed that Eda-Oniyo was the lawful location of the Ilejemeje Local Government Area’s headquarters.

    The apex court set aside the March 6, 2006 judgment of the Ilorin Division of the Court of Appeal which had ruled otherwise.

    Oba Awolola had instituted the appeal in 2008 to challenge the judgment of the Court of Appeal which had ruled in favour of the respondents.

    The respondents to the appeal are the Governor of Ekiti State, the Attorney-General of the state and the Chairman of the Ilejemeje Lcoal Government Area of the state.

    It will be recalled that the Federal Military Government had October 1, 1996, created among others, Ekiti State with Ilejemeje Local Government Area as one of its 16 local government areas.

    The headquarters of the Ilejemeje Local Government Area was located in Eda-Oniyo with the backing of the States Creation (Transitional Provisions) Decree No. 36 of 1996 .

    But three months later, by a radio announcement, the Ekiti State Government notified the public of the relocation of the local government from Eda-Oniyo to Iye-Ekiti.

    Oba Awolola was said to have on behalf of the people of Eda-Oniyo protested to the office of the Head of State which informed him that it did not authorise the movement of the local government to Iye-Ekiti and continued to recognise Eda-Oniyo as the headquarters of Ilejemeje local government.

    But the protests were said to have failed to produce the desired result, following which the traditional ruler, representing the people of Eda-Oniyo, filed an action in the High Court of Ekiti State in 1999 against the Governor of the state, the Attorney-General and the Chairman of Ilejemeje Local Government Area.

    He sought, among others, declaratory orders that by virtue of the State Creation ( Transitional Provisions) Decree No. 72 Vol. 83 of 1996, and the Local Government (Basic Constitutional Provisions) Decree of 1997 and 1998, the headquarters of Ilejemeje Local Government area was Eda-Oniyo.

    He also sought a declaration that the relocation of the headquarters for Eda-Oniyo to Iye-Ekiti as illegal, null and void.

    He also sought an order restraining the defendants from recognising Iye-Ekiti as the headquarters of Ilejemeje Local Government Area and a perpetual injunction restraining them from carrying out the administration of the Local Government Area from any other town apart from Eda-Oniyo.

    The High Court ruled in 2001 in favour of Oba Awolola, but the Ekiti State Government had appealed against the judgment and won at the Court of Appeal.

    To challenge the decision of the Court of Appeal, Oba Awolola, through his lawyer, Mr. Oluwadamilare Awokoya, filed the appeal marked SC.194/2008 before the Supreme Court.

    In its judgment on Friday, the Supreme Court on Friday set aside the Court of Appeal’s judgment and affirmed that of the High Court.

    Agreeing with Oba Awolola’s lawyer, the apex court ruled that non-filing of the suit at the High Court within three months when the dispute arose in 1996 as stipulated in the Public Officers Protection Law of Ekiti State did not render the suit incompetent.

    While the dispute over the location of the headquarters of the Ilejemeje Local Government Area started in 1996, the plaintiff who was exploring other means of settlement did not go to court to challenge the decision of the Ekiti State Government until 1999.

  • Court remands Ekiti pupil for stabbing schoolmate to death

    Court remands Ekiti pupil for stabbing schoolmate to death

    An Ado-Ekiti Chief Magistrate’s Court has ordered the remand a 16-year-old pupil, Timilehin Kehinde, who allegedly stabbed his schoolmate to death.

    Timilehin, a student of Ado Grammar School, Ado-Ekiti, is facing trial for allegedly stabbing his colleague, Matthew Favour, in the chest on December 6 after school hours.

    They were said to be testing the efficacy of a charm believed to prevent penetration of weapons like cutlass, knife known in local parlance as “okigbe.”

    The incident forced an early closure of the school before vacation for Christmas/New Year festivities.

    The suspect was arraigned in court on Wednesday after spending one week in the custody of the Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) of the State Police Command.

    The Chief Magistrate, Mr. Adesoji Adegboye, said he needed advice from the state Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and ordered that the accused be kept at the State Children Correctional Centre.

    The accused, according to him, will be cooling his heels at the Centre pending the receipt of advice from the DPP’s office.

    Adegboye subsequently adjourned the case till January 18, 2019.

  • Ekiti: I never said I will probe Fayose – Fayemi

    Ekiti: I never said I will probe Fayose – Fayemi

    Gov. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State has clarified his stance on the fate of the immediate past governor of the state, Ayodele Fayose.

    Fayemi spoke with State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    Fielding questions whether he would probe his predecessor, Fayemi explained that there was never a time he said he would probe Fayose.

    According to him, reports of such probe are on the table of anti-graft agencies.

    “Well, I am sure I have never said anything about probe, and I do not say anything about probe.

    “Looking into books is the duty of any new governor, you need to know what you found in place, I just talked about visitation panel into the education sector in the state.

    “There are other sectors in the state, and it will be remiss of me not to check what we found when we came into office and share that with the citizens of the state.

    “It is just accountability not probe. I am not EFCC I am not ICPC, there are institutions that are charged with the responsibility to do that and its entirely up to them if they want to probe the governor or not.

    “ It is not my business, I leave Fayose to God, I have said that before.’’

    Fayose is presently being prosecuted by the EFCC over an 11-count charge of conspiracy and money laundering.

    Speaking on the state of education, Fayemi said that Ekiti had a tradition of being the intellectual capital of the country but it seemed to have lost that edge lately.

    He said that his government was working toward repositioning the sector, particularly at the basic and tertiary levels.

    The governor said that he had set up visitation panel in all the tertiary institutions in the state to review and recommend what the critical and challenging issues were and how government should respond to the yearnings of the sector.

    He said the government was taking specific steps to address access to education in the basic education sub-sector.

    “Before now, Ekiti used to be the leading state in terms of school enrollment in the country but the latest figures we received from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) makes it clear that we are lagging far behind.

    “We have moved from 96 per cent enrolment in the entire country to about 45 per cent meaning that about 55 per cent of our school age children are of school.

    “That is unacceptable in a state like Ekiti and we need to find out what has happened between 2014 and 2018 leading to this appalling figure in terms of school enrolment.

    “And one of the very first things we are doing to improve enrolment is to make sure that all fees and levies in the primary and secondary sector are removed, so we have removed that.

    “We have returned free compulsory and qualitative education to our basic education sector.’’

    Fayemi said that the government was also doing all it could to encourage more students to come into school.

    He said that the state government would commence the school feeding programme in Ekiti State in order to ensure that kids that did not have the opportunity to be in school were enrolled.

    “We are also ensuring that we pay salaries regularly because you cannot expect parents who have not received salaries for six to 10 months on the one hand and the children are being asked to pay education levy on the other hand to have the capacity to send such children to school.

    “So, it is a double whammy for such families, we need to make sure that education which we see in our party as a right and not a privilege at least at the basic level should be free, compulsory and qualitative and that is where we are returning Ekiti to,’’ he said.

    The governor dismissed insinuations that he was having disagreement with the labour union in his state.

    NAN

  • Ekiti PDP rejects Olujimi, pledges loyalty to Fayose

    Ekiti PDP rejects Olujimi, pledges loyalty to Fayose

    The State Executive Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State has reaffirmed former Governor Ayodele Fayose as the leader of the party in the state.

    The SEC dissociated itself from the purported stakeholders meeting which had earlier declared the Senate Minority Whip, Senator Biodun Olujimi, as the party leader.

    The SEC is the highest organ of the party in the state which comprised the State Working Committee, party’s chairmen and Secretary at local governments and wards and elected public office holders among others.

    In a communiqué issued at the end of their meeting in Ado Ekiti, the SEC alleged that Olujimi and a former PDP’s state secretary, Dr. Tope Aluko, were agents of the All Progressives Congress causing destabilisation in the PDP.

    Recall that Aluko had led some aggrieved PDP members to invade the party’s secretariat on Ajilosun Road, Ado Ekiti on Thursday to accuse the state executive members of making suspicious withdrawals from the party’s account.

    In the communiqué made available to journalists on Monday, the SEC, while condemning the invasion restated the expulsion of Aluko from the party.

    The communiqué added, “That any facilitation of crisis in the party this time of approaching election is regarded as an anti-party activity.

    “That the promoters of the crisis are agents of APC government employed to destabilise the party in the run-up to the presidential election.

    “PDP in Ekiti State under the leadership of Gboyega Oguntuase is committed to the success of all its candidates in the coming elections especially our presidential candidate, Alh. Abubakar Atiku.

    “That we affirm and believe in the leadership of Dr. Ayodele Fayose.”

     

  • Panic as Police take over Ekiti PDP secretariat

    The Ekiti State People’s Democratic Party (PDP) secretariat was on Thursday taken over by the police following its invasion by some aggrieved members protesting alleged mismanagement of the party.

    Led by a former PDP State Secretary, Dr. Temitope Aluko, the aggrieved party men chased out the State Working Committee (SWC) members and workers and took over the secretariat.

    The members also alleged state exco of “sharing millions of Naira among themselves at a period the party was in coma and weak to make any serious impact ahead of the general elections.”

    They also accused the state exco of failing to manage crises that erupted from the last congresses and primaries in the party

    After taking over, the protesting party members locked the secretariat for over two hours before the men of the State Police Command arrived and took over the place.

    Aluko explained that they carried out the action to “save the party from extinction” and to re-position it ahead of the 2019 general elections.

    Aluko said: “We already have some aggrieved members of the following the alleged imposition that in the last primary of the party and we are worried as we are concerned stakeholders.

    “We are here today to lock up the party secretariat, not because of anything, but because of some nefarious and fraudulent activities among our members.

    “After the exit of our leaders Dr Ayodele Fayose, we found out that the National Working Committee (NWC) has not been responsible to the issues on ground.

    “We are carrying out this action today after consultation with some of our leaders of the party and they gave us the mandate to go ahead until further directives of the party’s national leadership.”

    Reacting, PDP Publicity Secretary, Mr. Jackson Adebayo, said Aluko was not qualified to question the integrity of the state leadership of the party “having been expelled for anti-party activities.”

    Adebayo said: “As far as I’m concerned, Tope Aluko is an expelled member of our party and he does not have moral standing and he is not qualify to query, question or throw a challenge on how we run our party in Ekiti.”

    Police spokesman, Mr. Caleb Ikechukwu, a Deputy Superintendent, said his men took over the party secretariat temporarily to prevent breakdown of law and order following the reports the command received to that effect.

     

  • Ekiti PDP lawmaker shot by gunmen is dead

    Micheal Adedeji, a member of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, who was shot in the head by gunmen on Friday, is dead.
    Jackson Adebayo, publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, confirmed his death to TheCable on Monday.
    “The lawmaker died at the Federal Medical Center, Ido Ekiti, early this morning.”
    He said details of the deceased’s burial will be released later in the day.
    Adedeji, a member of the PDP, was attacked while traveling along Ikere-Akure road.

  • Ekiti lawmaker shot by unidentified gunmen

    Some unidentified gunmen on Friday shot a member of the Ekiti House of Assembly, Mr Michael Adedeji, at a close range at Ado Ekiti while driving to Akure, Ondo State.
    The News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) reports that Adedeji who was said to have survived by the whiskers was initially rushed to the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH) for treatment.
    He was later transferred to the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido Ekiti (FETHI), when his condition became critical.
    Confirming the incident, the Deputy Speaker of the House, Segun Adewumi, said in Ado Ekiti that Adedeji, who represents Ekiti Southwest Constituency II, was shot on the head.
    He said the lawmaker was immediately rushed to the EKSUTH where he was admitted at the Accident and Emergency unit for intensive medicare.
    The deputy speaker, a PDP member, disclosed that the victim was accosted and shot by the gunmen while reversing his car in a bid to escape.
    “When he was accosted on the way, the lawmaker wanted to flee the scene by putting his car on reverse gear, but these evil men opened fire on his vehicle and the bullets hit him on the head.
    “He was immediately taken to hospital in Ado Ekiti where he received emergency treatment,” he said.
    When NAN got to the Accident and Emergency Unit of EKSUTH at about 12 noon it was learnt the lawmaker had been referred to the federal teaching hospital in Ido Ekiti.
    Adedeji who had a problem with former Gov. Ayo Fayose, participated actively in the removal of the former Speaker, Kola Oluwawole and subsequent election of Mr Adeniran Alagbada of APC as new Speaker.
    He narrowly escaped being suspended by the house under the former speaker, but was made tender an open apology to the former governor at the house plenary.
    The Police Public Relations Officer,(PPRO) in the state, DSP Caleb Ikechukwu , said he would react to the incident as soon as it was brought to the notice of the state Police Command.
    NAN

  • Gunmen Kill APC Treasurer in Ekiti

    The Treasurer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ekiti State chapter, Mr. Moses Adeoye, has been killed by unknown gunmen.
    Adeoye was murdered Wednesday night when the gunmen reportedly invaded his house in Otun Ekiti in Moba Local Government of the state.
    The gunmen, according to the APC Publicity Secretary in Ekiti, Hon. Ade Ajayi, trailed the 54-year-old party leader to his home at about 9pm and killed him while having his dinner.
    Ajayi said the deceased was part of the party’s delegation that escorted Governor Kayode Fayemi on a thank-you tour to Ekiti North and South senatorial districts on Wednesday.
    He had earlier served as the chairman of the APC in the local government before his recent emergence as the state’s Treasurer of the party.
    Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer in Ekiti Caleb Ikechukwu said the police had launched investigation into the case.
    He said: “The case has already been reported with the police and our men have swung into action.
    “We have started our investigation to make sure the perpetrators are arrested. We commiserate with his family and assured the people of Ekiti State that the police are on top of this matter.”
    The APC Chairman in the state, Mr. Paul Omotoso, described the killing as shocking, calling on the security agencies to set machinery in motion to ensure that the killers are apprehended.
    Omotoso added that the party will soon send a petition to the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Bello Ahmed, and other security outfits on the murder of the APC chieftain.