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Our Inauguration Legal, Valid – Ogun PDP Chairman

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The new chairman of the Ogun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Honourable Samson Bamgbose, has said the inauguration of the new State Executive Committee last Friday complied with the laws of the land and therefore valid.
Bambgose, who said this on Sunday, was reacting to a statement credited to Prince Uche Secondus and Senator Umaru Tsauri, National Chairman and National Secretary of the PDP respectively, dissociating the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party from the newly inaugurated state executive committee in Ogun State.

But Bamgbose, in a statement, noted that while the position of the NWC was not unexpected, “it is disturbing that our leaders in this great party still do not understand (or just don’t care) that all politics is local and that handing over the structures of the PDP to Ladi Adebutu (whose only desire for seeking such control is to guarantee his ambition of being the candidate of the party for the Ogun State gubernatorial elections in 2023) is a recipe for depletion of the commitment of members to the party in Ogun State and defeat at the polls.”

According to the new chairman, the issue as to which organ of the party is empowered to conduct congresses for the elections of party leaders in Ogun State had been resolved in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/636/2016, which reposed the powers in the party’s state executive committee.

He said, “The courts in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/347/2012 and successive cases (particularly Suit No. FHC/L/CS/636/2016) have sought to create a special case for the conduct of congresses and primaries in the Ogun State Chapter of the PDP.

“Therefore, in its judgment in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/636/2016 of 24th June 2016, the Federal High Court (echoing its earlier judgment in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/347/2012) ordered (inter alia) in favour of the Adebayo Dayo led PDP Ogun State Executive Committee (OGSEC) as follows:

“That an order is granted to the Plaintiff (Adebayo Dayo led PDP OGSEC) restraining the 2nd Defendant (PDP) by itself, its agents, servants, proxies and surrogates from henceforth conducting the affairs of the PDP in Ogun State, including meetings, congresses and/or primaries except through the new officers of the party that have emerged from congresses conducted by the plaintiffs as listed in the exhibits attached to the affidavit in support of this originating summons.

“That an order is granted to the plaintiff directing the 1st defendant (INEC) to deal exclusively with the new Ogun State officers of the PDP that emerged from the congresses conducted by the plaintiffs (as listed in exhibits attached to the affidavit in support of this originating summons) in the conduct of the 2nd defendant’s (PDP’s) programmes in Ogun state including congresses and primaries of the party until the four years tenure to which they have been elected is spent.”

Bamgbose said the validity of the judgment had been challenged at the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court where it was dismissed.

The PDP chairman stressed that the organ empowered to conduct congresses for the PDP in Ogun State is the judicially recognized state executive committee.

He added, “Currently, the unassailable position is that congresses have been validly concluded by the outgone, judicially protected PDP OGSEC and new officers (that emerged in accordance with the terms of the orders in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/636/2016 set out above) have been validly inaugurated on the last day of the judicially recognized and specified tenure of the outgone leadership.

“My colleagues and I (following that inauguration) have now legally and validly taken over the running of the affairs of the Party in Ogun State.”

The PDP state chairman described the claim that the congresses that produced the new state executive and the inauguration contravened the interim injunction order made by Justice Inyang Ekwo, in suit No FCT/AB/CS/208/2020 on March 4, 2020 directing the maintenance of status quo until the hearing of the notice, Bamgbose as untrue because there was no interim injunction against the conduct of congresses in the state.

He explained that Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/208/2020 was instituted by some national officers of the PDP to seek a review of the judgment which had ordered that only the said authentic PDP state executive could conduct congresses or primaries of the PDP in Ogun State.

According to him, the plaintiffs had applied for an order of the court to stop the PDP OGSEC from conducting congresses and the court had refused the application and directed that the defendants be put on notice.

Bamgbose said “By March 3, 2020, when this matter came up, a preliminary objection had been filed on behalf of the Adebayo Dayo led OGSEC, challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the action.

“In the face of this preliminary objection, the court could not and did not entertain any application to stop the conduct of PDP congresses in Ogun State; the Supreme Court has directed that in such circumstances the court whose jurisdiction is being challenged cannot make any order against the interest of the party challenging its jurisdiction.

“It was whilst adjourning the case for hearing of the preliminary objection and other applications that the judge on his own volition made the remark that “parties should refrain from doing anything that will tamper with the res of the action.

“This was not an order restraining conduct of congresses or for maintenance of status quo as misrepresented in PDP NWC.”

Bamgbose added that to consolidate the position of the executive, “we decided to take ourselves outside possible allegations of breach of the ‘order’ or of contempt of court by appealing against the order and filing an application for its stay. It is a known dictum in law that a party cannot be in contempt of court when he disobeys an order he has appealed against and filed an application to stay.”

Bamgbose said the state executive was willing to accord the national leadership of the party its deserved respect but the leaders must learn to operate within the ambit of the law.

He added that the state executive was amenable to working with the NWC to bring feuding groups together in the state and position the party to take over the reins of government in 2023.

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Frozen Account: Adeleke Directs Attorney General to Drop Lawsuit Against EFCC

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Re-elected Governor of Osun State, Ademola Adeleke, has instructed his Attorney General to withdraw the suit filed against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the freezing of the State government’s bank account.

Adeleke disclosed this in an interview with Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, hours after he was declared winner of the August 15 governorship election.

Asked whether he is ready to put the political disagreements and the EFCC case behind him, the governor said he has decided to move on following President Bola Tinubu’s intervention.

“I’m putting them behind. What else do I want? I have instructed my Attorney General to drop it. Mr. President has done well. He called me. What more do I want?” Adeleke said.

The governor had earlier challenged the EFCC’s decision to secure an order freezing the state government’s account, describing the move as politically motivated and disruptive to the administration’s activities.

President Tinubu subsequently directed the anti-graft agency to lift the restriction and discontinue the related legal action, following concerns over the timing of the freeze ahead of the Osun governorship election.

On allegations that some of his supporters and officials are being invited and questioned by the EFCC, Adeleke said he has directed his lawyers to provide the necessary assistance.

“Well, we have been talking. I have been calling all my lawyers to go there. I’m sure the APC in Osun, according to them, they are telling us they are using federal might,” he said.

Adeleke, however, said he does not believe President Tinubu is aware of some of the actions attributed to federal agencies.

“Most of these things, the President doesn’t know. The President has a lot of foreign work and jobs to do,” he said.

According to the governor, some of his aides were invited by the EFCC for questioning but were released after no wrongdoing was established.

“I told my people, go there. We haven’t got anything to hide. And when they go there, they ask them questions, and then they will say, ‘Go on.’ Can you imagine my spokesperson? You are inviting my spokesperson – is my spokesperson a finance minister or accountant?” Adeleke asked.

He described the invitations as a distraction and alleged that former Osun State governor Gboyega Oyetola was behind the development because of his relationship with President Tinubu.

“All these things is Oyetola because he is the cousin to the President. He is dropping the President’s name. I know that the President didn’t know about the EFCC one. That is why he had to call me and stop it,” Adeleke said.

The EFCC froze an Osun State Government bank account earlier in August as part of an investigation into the alleged handling of about ₦11 billion in Ecology Funds, intervention funds and Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) funds.

The commission said it had detected suspicious movements of funds and restricted the account to prevent further transfers while its investigation continued.

The development triggered a dispute between the commission and the Adeleke administration, with the governor describing the action as politically motivated and taking the EFCC to court.

President Bola Tinubu subsequently directed the EFCC to return to court to vacate the freezing order and discontinue the related action, saying the timing could create the impression that a federal agency was being used to interfere with the election.

Adeleke secured a second term as Osun State governor, winning 511,067 votes against APC’s Bola Oyebamiji, who scored 444,815. ADC’s Najeem Salaam came third with 17,180 votes. Adeleke won 19 of the state’s 30 LGAs, while Oyebamiji won 11.

Following his victory, Adeleke described the result as a triumph for democracy and pledged to transform Osun into an industrial hub.

He also called for unity, saying there was “no victor, no vanquished.”

His re-election sparked celebrations across the state, particularly in Osogbo and his hometown, Ede, with his nephew Davido also celebrating on social media.

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INEC Resumes Upload of Osun Election Results after 3Hours Pause

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has resumed the upload of results from the Osun State governorship election to its Result Viewing Portal (IReV), with more than 92.53 per cent of polling unit results now available on the platform.

Tribune Online reports that 3,482 results had been uploaded out of the 3,763 polling units across the state, representing 92.53 per cent of the total results expected on the portal.

Concerns were earlier raised after result uploads on the IReV portal appeared to stall for about three hours.

The delay triggered reactions from several social media users, including Afrobeats star David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, who questioned the halt in the upload process.

In a post on X, he wrote, “INEC IREV uploads have been stuck for almost 2 hours now. 3292 out of 3763 results submitted and then silence. This is not acceptable Why has the uploading stopped?@inecnigeria

Another X user, @mundus01 tweeted, “Osun IReV uploads have been stalled for over 2 hours. The last result was published at 8:48:08 p.m. The portal is online, but no new results are appearing. @inecnigeria, what is happening? This doesn’t look good.”

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Food for Living: Love What You Do (Pt. 2)

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By Henry Ukazu

Dear Destiny Friends,

Last week, we laid the foundation of loving what you do. We discussed loving the topic as it relates to family, career, health, relationship, personal development, purpose and spirituality.  Today, we shall be focusing on how loving what you do can be a game changer.

It’s instructive to note that in the dictionary of life; when you love what you do and what you do loves you, you are destined for not only success, but also greatness. One may be wondering how this works. Trust me, it is difficult to succeed in a major, or profession one doesn’t like.

The journey of life can be challenging, stressful and unpredictable. When one is trying to set up a business, there’s bound to be setbacks maybe due to a new policy or meeting up with the requirement, there could challenges of funds; in academics, if one choose a major one likes, despite the associating challenges that may arise, one will still manage to pull through because he that is in him is greater and stronger than he that is in the world.

Also, in relationships and marriage, if one values friendship, they won’t allow their ego to have influence over them. Rather, they will invest time and resources in the relationship. That’s why it’s always good to place values above physical features in a human body when it comes to settling down for marriage because at the end of the day, the human body features can fade away, but values and friendship will not fade away, rather, it will serve as the binding factor that keeps the relationship.

One’s career is not an exception; one can tell who likes their job and one who doesn’t like their job. In workplaces, if one is happy at work, they tend to put in extra hours to get the job done. But when they are not happy with the job, they’ll do the bare minimum just to get through.

Let’s spend a minute to understand how loving what one does can be a game changer in one’s life. Just imagine, one is inspired to write a book, there will be challenges, however, it is the inspiration and determination of the person that will determine if they will finish strong. But if they are inspired by the wrong source, they might finish weak. Here is the gist, it is your desire to succeed that will outweigh your fear of failure.

Again, imagine a scenario where one is starting a business but has no resources and structure behind him. The fact is that if the person loves what he’s doing, it will be hard for the person to give up because their force is internal. I can vividly remember when I was working on my first, second and third book, I had many reasons to quit, but I refused because I love the work I was producing.

Furthermore, when you love what you do, you’ll endeavor to learn something new in addition to spending quality time to improve the work. I say this because rational minds don’t invest time and resources in what they don’t like. There’s a saying, if you want to know a man, give money, women and power. One of them would like to subdue him, but if he’s able to overcome them, he is a man.

This principle of loving what you do cuts across all facets of life whether we are taking care of families, academics, religion purpose, health, career, finance and even spiritual life. For families a man/woman who is intentional in building their family, must love their family and loving their family intends sacrificing for the family.

For health, if one loves their health, they won’t take harmful substances, just because they love their health; they will be intentional in exercising, and in doing so, they must love exercising.  For finance, an intentional person must spend time learning about stock, budgeting and investment. These are avenues to show that they have interest in growing their income.  Even in spiritual life, when one shows interest in loving God in truth and spirit, God has a way of coming through for them because they have been tested and trusted. This is simply how life works. Even in relationships if one loves their partner, there’s a high probability they would like to invest time and resources into that relationship.

In summary, endeavor to love what you do because there’s a certain level of spiritual strength, blessings and corresponding opportunities that’s associated with success, when one loves what they do. This is basically how life works.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny- Actualizing Your Birthright to SuccessUnleash Your Destiny and The Six Pillars of Success . He can be reached via info@gloemi.com

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