The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has called for a three-day prayer and fasting in preparation for Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s inauguration on Thursday.
In a statement by the Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, Kunle Oyatomi, in Osogbo yesterday, the APC said the event will climax an epic period in the nation’s political history, when the will of the people prevailed.
“Osun needs all the divine protection it can get against the machinations of people sworn to evil and brewed in violence, so that everything goes well.
“We therefore cannot afford to be complacent in a situation where lawlessness, impunity and reckless misuse of power appear to be the order of the day in a country that is precariously sliding into evil, darkness and man’s inhumanity to man only for political, selfish and irresponsible desperation for power.”

Pictures showing the walkway under construction along Ola-Iya to Osun River in Osogbo, one of Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s Iconic Street Development Projects in Osogbo, State of Osun on Sunday 23-2014.

Things seems to be getting tougher for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the August 9, 2014 election in Osun State, Senator Iyiola Omisore as he is still struggling to prove the allegation that his defeat was manipulated.
It would be recalled that Omisore had alleged that the election in the state was manipulated by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to favour Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
During one of the sittings, both his principal witness, his forensic expert among other were unable to proof that the election was rigged, irregular nor manipulated to favour Aregbesola.
“Even at a point under cross examination, one of Omisore’s witnesses created some ridiculous entertainment when he said that, by mutilation of the result sheet of INEC deposed to in his statement presented to the court, he meant that he was ‘forced to sign’ the document‎; leaving the entire court roaring in laughter,” Gazelle said.
Omisore’s case appeared to start unravelling from the very first witness he presented, Prince Bola Ajao, PDP state secretary, who told the court that he did not observe any rigging.
According to him, he was duly accredited in his ward, he voted, but did not observe‎ any irregularity and did not leave his ward until after the election.
But he was in court to give evidence that the election was rigged, based on what he was told by the PDP’s agents.
Also, one of the party’s agents who told Ajao that the election was rigged happened to be the same man who, in court, said that by ‘mutilation of INEC’s result sheet‎’ he meant that he was ‘forced to sign’ the result sheet.
However, most contradictory to Omisore’s claims so far, was that of his forensic expert who, after examining all the election papers, he gave evidence in court to the effect that there were no discrepancies in the papers he examined.
The expert said: “in the election results I examined for my principal, Omisore, there were no discrepancies”.
He told the court that he used the certified true copy (CTC) and the duplicates for his analysis, but he could not find any discrepancy‎.
He reports that “However, the coup-de-grace came under cross examination when this Omisore’s expert admitted to the court that he is not a registered statistician and that in two similar cases he had been involved, he lost.
“So, how Omisore intends to win this case will be determined in weeks ahead as the PDP’s candidate has until Wednesday this week to supply the critical evidence‎ to support his claim.‎”
DAILY TIMES

A delegation of investors from some Latin American countries have held talks with officials of the Osun State government as part of efforts to diversify the economy of the state to mitigate the effects of the dwindling revenue from the federation account.

The investors, who are from Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, were led to the state by the Nigeria Ambassador to Brazil, Chief Chive Kaave.
During the discussion held at the weekend in Osogbo, the state capital, both parties resolved to partner in areas like agricultural mechanisation, egg, rice and fish production, cassava processing, cooling storage and processing.
The Director General, Office of Economic Development and Partnership, Dr. Charles Akinola, who led the state delegation to the session in his address, explained the economic plans of the government under the leadership of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and how investors from the three countries can key into the Six Point Integral Action Plans of the government meant to banish hunger, poverty and engendered massive employment of the youths.
Akinola, who also spoke on the availability of favourable climate conducive for many agricultural produce, stressed the importance of rail line to support industrialisation of the state. He added that the present administration is interested in establishing mid regional market at Dagbolu to further industrialise the state through agriculture.
He said: “We are interested in all season farming and we need to do so because the state government plans to supply at least 10 per cent of the food consumes in Lagos and we need to go into commercial agriculture to be able to achieve this.
NATIONAL MIRROR

An NGO, Hope for Family Development Initiative (HFDI), has donated 190,000 vitamin A supplements and Albendazole tablets to Osun State Government.
Presenting the drugs to the government, the NGO said the donation was part of its social responsibility to ensuring healthy living in the state.
Executive Director of the HFDI, Mr Stephen Aremu, who presented the drugs to the state government said the drugs would assist in the care of children in the state.
He said the assistance was in support of the state government’s free health programme, adding that the organisation appreciates the efforts of the Governor Rauf Aregbesola-led government at ensuring healthy living.
Aremu said the gesture would go a long way at preventing eye defects, anaemia, diarrhea and measles among the children.
He stated that the NGO collaborated with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to procure the drugs.
Speaking on behalf of the state government, state Commissioner for Health, Dr Temitope Ilori, lauded the NGO for the gesture and assured that the drugs would be given to those meant for.
The commissioner, who was represented by Mr James Oloyede, a Director in the Ministry, commended the NGO for the gesture.
While advising parents to ensure that their children benefit from the gesture, the commissioner stressed the need for all parents in the state to benefit from the health care system of the state government.
DAILY INDEPENDENT

Osun State Police Commissioner, Alhaji Abubakar Marafa, on Thursday canvassed the engagement of youths at the grassroots to assist the police in stemming the security challenges facing the nation.
Marafa was speaking at an interaction secession organised by the command in partnership with the State Harmonised Vigilante Group in Osogbo, stressing that there is need for the engagement of the youths to assist the police in tackling the security challenges, which according to him are assuming new dimension by the day.
He explained that the involvement of the youths in assisting the police in policing the nation is the only way to guarantee safety of life and property in the country.
Marafa, who was represented at the event by the Area Commander of Ile-Ife, Abubakar Jimoh, said that the current security situation needs more intelligence reports and local assistance of persons, who are conversant with the terrain of the nooks and crannies of the country.
The Commissioner, who commended the leader of the Harmonised Vigilance Group, Alhaji Rilwan Hussein Yah’Salam, for the support of the group to the men of the command, assured that the command would ensure that the state is adequately policed.
According to him, “you as a community police, you must continue the good work of assisting the police at the grassroots level and the most important thing you must know is that, the police must always be your guide for you to carry out your duties in the most acceptable and desirable manner.
“Police are engaging the service of vigilance groups because the discharge of the responsibility of enforcing law and order, protection of life and property among others that are core traditional duties of the force, have appeared to be increasingly difficult to perform by the Nigeria Police alone”.
Responding, Yah’Salam reiterated his support to the Nigeria Police in combating criminal activities.
Yah’Salam assured that his men were battle ready at ensuring free-crime state in conjunction with Osun State Police Command.

Daily Independent

Osun state government in southwest Nigeria says the ongoing rehabilitation of Ede waterworks is aimed at enhancing water distribution to thirteen local government areas of the state.
Special adviser to osun state governor on water resources, Mrs. Tawakalitu Williams stated this in Osogbo, the state capital while speaking with newsmen on the level of development at the waterworks.
Mrs Williams, who noted that the rehabilitation had reached completion stage, explained that the waterworks had been furnished with twelve new water pump and 50kv generator as well as four transformers to ensure stable electricity supply to the waterworks.
She hinted that people of Ile Ife, Ilobu and Gbongan have been enjoying stable water supply due to the rehabilitation of the waterworks.
While noting that efforts were in top gear to replace damaged pipelines, the special adviser said the damaged pipes across the state had hindered adequate supply of water to some areas in the state.
She urged consumers to always pay their water bill to improve state internally generated revenue adding that government was committed to the promotion of welfare of citizenry.
RADIO NIGERIA

The expert witness of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the August 9 election in Osun State, Mr Samuel Oduntan has confirmed to the state Election Petition Tribunal that there was no any discrepancies in the results of the election he analysed for his principal.
The witness who had claimed to be a statistician early in his witness statement also made a u-turn while giving oral evidence before the Elizabeth Ikpejime-led tribunal on Thursday and confessed that he was not a registered statistician.
He said he used Certified True Copies (CTCs) and duplicates of the results forms of the election which had earlier been tendered by the petitioners and he found no discrepancies in the course of his analysis .
Omisore and the PDP are challenging the August 9 re-election of Governor Rauf Aregbesola and the All Progressive Congress (APC), while the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was joined as a party.
The witness who had stated in his written deposition that no voting point was created in the polling units being challenged by the petitioner, was confronted with the result forms of some of the units and he quickly made a u-turn that voting points were created, but not based on 300 voters per voting points.
Being drilled by the INEC counsel, Mr Ayotunde Ogunleye, the expert said, “I am not a registered statistician. In this kind of two analysis I have done in the past, those who employed me did not win the case.‎
“I did a similar analysis in the case of Kogi State and submitted the report, but it was not tendered for the case.
“I am not from Osun, neither did I monitor the election, but I was employed by the petitioners to do the analysis of the election materials”, he confimed.
Also answering question from the APC counsel, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), Oduntan said “in his comparison of the duplicates result forms given to the petitioners and the CTC of the forms, I found no discrepancies. I didn’t say I found any discrepancies.
The witness who had also claimed in his statement that the result forms he analysed were not stamped nor signed, confirmed to the tribunal that he did not see the original copies of the documents to ascertain whether they were signed or not.
Osinbajo subsequently confronted the witness with the fact that there were a lot of errors in his report of the purported analysis, which he denied.
While also being cross-examined by Aregbesola counsel, Mr Femi Falana (SAN), the expert witness confirmed that inspite of the fact that not all the polling units and wards in the 17 local governments in contention are being challenged, he based his analysis on all the wards and units of the 17 councils.
Earlier, the INEC counsel had objected to the admissibility of the report of the purported analysis of the expert, saying the document is inadmissible under section 84 (2 and 4) of the Evidence Act.
He argued that the document was a computer-generated evidence. Before it can be admitted, it must be accompanied by certificate of identification of the device through which it was made.
The tribunal reserved ruling on the admissibility of the documents, but marked it as exhibit.
Other witnesses who testfied after the expert witness were Adebisi Gbolagade who was the PDP Collation Agent for Ifelodun Local Government and Wasiu Olaitan, the PDP supervisor for Ward 4 of the local government.
Gbolagade said his party did not have party agents in many of the 105 polling units in the local government, inspite the facts that the agents signed the result forms.
He also confirmed to the court that all the PDP agents in all the wards submitted the result forms to him.
Olaitan also said he was not the one that signed the result form tendered by the petitioners’ counsel as the ward 4 collation agent, even though the document was signed.
OSUN DEFENDER

Hearing on the petition challenging the victory of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in the August 9 Gubernatorial election in the state of Osun continued on Saturday 22/11/2014 with tendering of voters register for Atakunmosa East, Boripe and Ede North Local Government.
There were a lot of serious observations raised by the counsel to Respondents ranging from missing pages in the register to certification of several pages of the register sought to be tendered and pencil inscriptions on all the pages of the document.
Specifically, In Atakunmosa East Local Government, the petitioner sought to tender voters register in ward 2,3,4,6,7, and 8. Apart from the facts that inscriptions were on all the pages, unit 3 of ward 6 has a missing front page.
In Boripe Local Government, the petitioner sought to tender voters register in wards 1-5. Apart from pencil inscriptions on all the pages of the register, ward 1unit 4 and ward 3 unit 3 have no page 1.
In Ede North Local Government, petitioner sought to tender voters register in 11 wards. Apart from the usual pencil inscription on all the pages of the register, INEC Counsel, Ayo Ogunleye Esq observed that ward 4 unit 004 pages 15,40,43,44,45,46,47,48 and 50 are missing while page 51 bears no certification.
Ward 5 unit 003 pages 31-41 are missing, while in unit 008 of ward 9 page 80 is missing.
The final straw was the observation that in unit 001 of ward 9, pages 20-29 have no certification. The documents were admitted in evidence subject to the objection of the Respondents being incorporated at the final address.
The learned Counsel for the Petitioner, informed court around 10am that they need a stand down till 3pm to enable them sort out other register from the remaining Local Government. The court granted the application after all the respondents indicated that they have no objection.
OSUN DEFENDER
Don’t Insult me, Aregbesola’s Counsel Tells Omisore’s Lawyer
Counsel to the Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Professor Yemi Osibajo, SAN, has warned the lead counsel to Senator Iyiola Omisore, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governorship candidate in the August 9 election in the state, Chief Chris Uche, SAN, against impugning the professional integrity of his team.
Osibajo was reacting to alleged consistent statements by Omisore’s counsel that Governor Rauf Aregbesola, APC and INEC legal teams were deliberately delaying the hearing of the petition filed against the election.
Uche, had at the continued hearing of the petition of Omisore and PDP against Aregbesola’s re-election before the Justice Elizabeth Ikpejime-led tribunal sought to tender the register of voters’ used in all the units and wards of the 17 local governments, including the ones not being challenged in the petition.
VANGUARD
 

The Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has described as saddening the death of popular entertainer and General Manager Unique FM Ilesa, Osun, Mr. Opeyemi Fajemileyin.

In a statement by the Director, Bureau of Communications and Strategy, Office of the Governor, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, Aregbesola described the death of Mr. Fajemilehin as one that has once again dealt a devastating blow to the media industry, particularly the broadcast section, robbing the country of another energetic man and a versatile journalist.

The Governor said the demise of the experienced Yoruba broadcaster will no doubt leave a huge vacuum in the media industry.

The statement said in part: “Once again, we have lost a very precious gift in the GM of Ara (Unique) FM. To say that his death has thrown us into a state of mourning is just a mild way of expressing our sorrow and sadness.

“Fajemilehin, in the past 25 years, practised journalism actively and distinguished himself among his peers as a thoroughbred professional. This made him and his programmes such as ‘Fajemilehin on FM’, ‘Pirilolongo Nji’ and Fajemilehin on the Rock,’ on Paramount FM 94.5, Abeokuta, darling of numerous homes across the South-West and other Yoruba-speaking places.

There is no contravening the fact that the nation, media world and particularly his Ara FM Radio Station, will miss Fajemilehin’s’s creative energy, love for the promotion  of our culture and managerial capacity.

On behalf of the myself, Government and people of Osun, I commiserate with his family colleagues and all his fans across Nigeria praying that may God admit him into complete eternal  rest.