The Osun State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists has invited Governor Rauf Aregbesola, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Iyiola Omisore; and four other candidates to a public debate ahead of the election.
The Chairman of the NUJ in the state, Mr. Abiodun Olalere; and its Secretary, Mr. Bamigbola Gbolagunte, said this in a statement made available to journalists in Osogbo on Thursday.
Apart from the candidates of the All Progressives Congress and the PDP, the four other contestants invited for the debate are the Labour Party candidate, Alhaji Fatai Akinbade; Alliance for Democracy governorship candidate, Senator Sunday Fajinmi, Social Democratic Party candidate, Mr.Sunday Akinwusi; and the Accord Party candidate, Mr. Niyi Owolade.
The debate, according to the organisers, would hold on August 4 and would be broadcast live on the radio and television stations in the state.
However, Omisore said that he would not attend the debate because he would not be in Osun State on that day.
PUNCH

Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration yesterday said it  has paid to the state’s pensioners the sum of N24.3billion as pension and gratuity, while the local government staff, including teaching staff of primary schools and non-teaching staff of the local governments had received N13.6billion”.
The Government also said it inherited N4 billion pension arears from PDP administration while his administration paid N1.2 billion.
The government pointed out that the total debt of the state  was  N39billion  contrary to the claim by the People Democratic Party that it was N400billion.
Addressing journalists on the financial status of the state, the State Commissioner for Finance Budget and Economy Planing, Dr. Wale Bolorunduro posited that the total debt of the state was not beyond redemption, stressing that the state was buoyant to carry out its day to day duties to all citizens of the state.
According to him, “the philosophy of the present administration is based on the welfare and good living standard of the people and unlike in the past where the treasury of the state were looted and did not follow due process for seven years under Peoples Democratic Party.”
Bolorunduro disclosed that despite challenges posed by the dwindling revenue to the state from the federal government, the state government has paid a total sum of N23.5billion to pensioners as pension and gratuity to retired workers in the state.
He also noted that the 142 per cent pension liabilities the current administration inherited from the last administration was another critical issue that needed clarification for the benefit of the citizens of the state.
He said that the rail-roading of workers into the new contributory pension scheme by the PDP administration in the state despite their unwillingness had great impact in the state, noting that the previous administration that approved the forceful resignation did not consider the cash flow implication when granting the approval.
“For the avoidance of doubts, over 5,000 employees of the state joined the existing over 9,000 retirees in the state, while the local government retirees schedule also increased by about 3,500.
“The retirees, for the avoidance of doubts continue to enjoy their monthly emolument, albeit slightly reduced by 15 percent. The impact of this is a huge surge in the state’s salary and pension obligations from N250million in November 2011 to N600million monthly now”, he clarified.
The Commissioner said that the recent payment of salary, pension and gratuity to people in the state was not a panic measure and not because of the coming election, but mainly on prudent management of the lean resources of the state.
”The opposition mainly the PDP has nothing to say than to lie about the finance of the state. The party is known for causing confusion, so the motive of its crying. The Debt Management Office is a federal government agency and it has come out openly to clear Osun State of having debt beyond its capacity. The total debt of the state is N39 billion including the bond which has delayed for two years now”, he pointed out.
Bolorunduro contended that the state was in capable hands, adding that the approach approved by the state government for retirees to get their gratuity in ‘first in first out’ was to ensure that the most elderly citizens were taken care of, due to the belief that the elderly would have retired first.
THISDAY

THE Deputy Governor of Osun State, Mrs. Titilayo Laoye-Tomori, has called on the state’s electorate to vote massively for All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Rauf Aregbesola, in the August 9 gubernatorial election as a reward for the “uncommon” governance his administration has rendered to the state.

Speaking in Lagos yesterday at a book launch in honour of Aregbesola titled: “Oranmiyan Phenomenon and the Trinity of Progressivism”, Laoye-Tomori urged the people of Osun to make sure the transformation of the state continues by ensuring the incumbent governor gets re-elected through their votes.

She noted that the APC-led administration would continue to embark on projects that would bring succour to the people at the grassroots.

“Our people should vote to continue the benefit of good and uncommon governance and also document good achievements for progressives minds to write about,” she said.

Also, Deputy Governor, Kwara State, Mr. Peter Sara Kisira, noted that the fact that someone from Rivers State could write a book on Aregbesola in Osun State was an indication that he (Aregbesola) has not only performed, but also has established a unity point in Nigeria through his administration.

He said all the progressive-minded people in the state should ensure that the incumbent governor gets re-elected in order to complete the “good” projects he had started in the state.

The Deputy Managing Director of ThisDay Newspapers who reviewed the book, Mr. Kayode Kolawole, said the book is not a political tract but a compilation of the author’s observation of a performing leader.

Few days to the governorship election in Osun State scheduled for August 9, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that the performance of the incumbent governor was good enough to defeat the opposition in a free and fair election.
A former Deputy Governor of the state and chieftain of the party, Rev. Peter Obadan, who made this known on Thursday in Benin, stated that the party was not unaware of the plans by the Peoples Democratic Party to win at all cost in forthcoming election.
Obadan, who noted that activities of the opposition in the state had increased tension ahead of the election, expressed fear that the outcome of the Osun polls might spell doom in the state and the 2015 general elections, if the wishes of the people were subverted.
He called on the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Attahiru Jega, to ensure transparency by providing a level playing ground for the political parties and their candidates at the poll.
Obadan said, “We are quite in the know of what the PDP who control then power at the centre is capable of doing to win at all cost.
“They have forgotten that the President of Nigeria is not the President of the PDP but the entire country.
“On the strength of that, they are taking every election as a do-or-die affair.
“The PDP is frightened by this fact that on a free and fair election, that the incumbent governor cannot be defeated.
“The PDP at the centre boast of the manipulation which they are capable of manifesting in every election because they control the centre.
“They foresee that in 2015, that power will slip off their hand.”
DAILY TIMES

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As Armed Mask Officials Shoot Sporadically In Siren-blaring Vehicles In Osogbo, Iwo

Panic initially gripped residents of the State of Osun on Wednesday, when operatives of the Department of Security Service (DSS) in about 50 Toyota pickup vehicles suddenly started firing into the air, as their convoy rode through Osogbo, on their arrival in the state capital.

The officials, no fewer than 5,000, some of whom wore masks, were fully armed and were conveyed round Osogbo in the siren-blaring vehicles.

They were also sighted in Iwo and surrounding communities of Osogbo. OSUN DEFENDER observed that some of the operatives, who sat on the roof-tops of the vehicles, fired gunshots into the air, thereby causing fear among residents and road users.

Dressed in black T-shirts, black trousers with caps and fully armed, the officials drove from their office along Gbongan-Osogbo Road through Olaiya Junction to Oke-Fia.

A source however disclosed to the medium that the operatives were deployed from Abuja, the seat of the Federal Government.
Motorists and commercial motorcycle riders hurriedly parked their vehicles, while the armed officials took over the roads and just as pedestrians also abandoned the roads for the arms-wielding security men.

The Director of the DSS in the State of Osun, Mr. Andrew Iorkyar, when contacted by the medium on the telephone, said that the officials were deployed to the state for the purpose of the August 9, 2014 governorship election.
He said: “They are our men. They are patrolling round to familiarise themselves with the terrain. They are in the state to protect law-abiding people. They are not deployed to terrorise anybody.

“You know that there are allegations and counter-allegations of stock-piling or arms by some politicians. We don’t want any breakdown of law and order. So, our men are in the state to ensure peace.” Asked why the officials were shooting into the air, Iorkyar said he was not aware of that and he promised to find out.

He urged the people of the state not to hesitate to make useful information available to the service.

The Special Adviser to Governor Rauf Aregbesola on Security Matters, Mr. Amos Adekunle, when contacted on telephone by our reporter condemned the incident, describing it as intimidation. Some residents, who spoke to our reporter, condemned the shooting, saying it was not necessary, because there was no crisis to warrant it.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) described the shooting as a ploy to scare voters away from coming out to vote.
The party Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, who spoke with one OSUN DEFENDER on telephone, said the incident was totally uncalled for, adding that it initially left people running helter-skelter.
Oyatomi, who also issued a statement on the development, asked the people not to be intimidated by the security men presence in the state.

He said: “The incident was unwarranted because there was no riot. They came from Abere end; they passed though Olosan to Olaiya and Oke-Fia thence to Ilobu. They would move a few metres and opened fire. People began to run helter-skelter.

“If this is how the Peoples Democratic Party thinks it would capture Osun, they are joking because the people’s wish can never be subverted. “No citizens should be scared or should run away when they see and or hear gunshots from security people because they have committed no crime. People should go about their businesses and ignore them.

“A country in which the security operatives are the ones doing what we are experiencing to citizens in Osun, calls for the gravest concern,” Oyatomi stressed

OSUN DEFENDER

Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, yesterday condemned the show of force displayed by officers of the Department of State Services (DSS) in some areas in the state on Wednesday.

The masked-operatives had driven round the metropolis and shot sporadically into the air, an act that scared many residents.

Speaking in Oshogbo at the commissioning of the emergency call centre built for efficient security network in the state, the governor lamented that the display was meant to intimidate the people as no situation called for such.

Aregbesola stated that his administration will launch an official complaint to the authorities concerned, saying that they have no constitutional right to threaten or intimidate law abiding citizens of the state.

“We owe it a duty to let the whole world know what is happening here. This is against the right of the Nigerian people. We’ve all forgotten that we pay the salaries of the security agencies,” he said.

“We don’t pay for them to wear mask in our towns. They should only wear masks when they engage terrorists and if they have to operate in a region where seeing them might compromise their own safety and security.

“What would they say is the reason for what they are doing now other than threat, shock and awe? So, what this means is that they want to conquer and cow our people, which is a direct assault on democracy.

“I won’t take gun against them but I will not be quiet. We should all talk and condemn it because this is not about Aregbesola alone,” the governor stressed.

On the call centre, he explained that the facility will immediately alert security operatives at the dial of a distress call line (080067866786) that can take 24 calls at a time and 100 (hundred) calls when upgraded.

The governor pointed out that just as it has been done in all other aspects of public life in Osun, protecting the lives and property of the people is a task that has kept the administration busy and for which his administration will continue to shoulder.

He said it is a task for which his government was fully committed to observing, adding that government would leave no stone unturned in terms of welfare and security of the people.

“This Emergency Call Centre will go a long way in enhancing the effectiveness of the various security measures we have been putting in place for the safety of lives and property in Osun,” Aregbesola added.

“Towards this end, therefore, we have gradually been building a mutually reinforcing security system that will guarantee the pursuit of a ‘life more abundant’ in the State of Osun. We have, among other measures, set up a patrol unit, the Swift Action Squad (SAS).

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the federal government of terrorising and intimidating the people of Osun state, with a view to cowing them ahead of the state’s August gubernatorial election. In a press statement issued in Lagos on Friday by its national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party wondered why the government would send agents of the Department of State Services (DSS) to the state “to harass innocent citizens in an unprovoked and primitive show of power that could only be described as sheer gangsterism.”
”As widely reported, DSS agents, armed to the teeth and riding in over 50 trucks, drove around Osogbo and other parts of Osun state on Wednesday, blaring siren and shooting sporadically in the air, thus disrupting the normally-peaceful life in the state,” APC said. ”Residents who were visibly traumatised by the shameful display of state power ran helter-skelter and wondered why their government had sent masked men, or ninjas, to terrorize them. They now understand that the masked thugs who have been following the PDP candidate around on his campaign trail were actually government sanctioned. This is a power show taken too far, even with the well-known impunity tendencies of the Jonathan Administration.”
APC alleged that information at its disposal showed that 5,000 more DSS men were being dispatched to the state before the election, “on the basis of an orchestrated petition alleging that certain APC leaders are planning to foment trouble during the election.” ”The real purpose of this fake petition and the consequent deployment of thousands of secret police to Osun is to harass, intimidate and arrest the leaders of the APC in the state, in a repeat of what transpired in Ekiti,” the party stated. ”Flooding Osun with irresponsible DSS officials to terrorize the residents is another low for a government that is notorious for abuse of power and federal institutions.
It is no longer news that the military, the police and other security agencies are working for the Jonathan Administration, rather than for all of Nigeria. What is new is that the security agencies have now been unleashed on the citizenry. ”What rankles even more is the constant assurances by President Jonathan that the election will be free and fair. How can we have a credible election in an atmosphere of state-led gangsterism? How can we have a credible election when the FG that is supposed to protect the people and ensure violence-free polls is the same one that purveys violence? Where else in the world do secret police announce themselves by firing to scare away harmless citizens? When did masks become part of the uniform of the State Security Service agents?”
It reminded the DSS officers that the guns they were using to terrorise the people of Osun were given to them by taxpayers, and that they were indeed trained at the expense of taxpayers, hence it was totally irresponsible and unacceptable for them to turn their guns on the taxpayers. APC called on “local and international election observers to take note of the pre-election intimidation tactics of the PDP/Jonathan administration, which were designed to scare people away from the polling booths and provide the necessary atmosphere for electoral malfeasance.”
The party said that” it would not accept the same hear-no-evil, see-no-evil disposition of President Jonathan, who on one hand would be assuring the international community of credible polls under his watch, while at the same time looking the other way as his cabinet ministers, other appointees and the security agencies under his control break the law with impunity and become agents of terror.”
”Mr. President, you are responsible for the actions of the men and women you appoint into your cabinet. You are the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. You bear the ultimate responsibility for the acts of omission or commission of this category of public officials, as well as the security agencies. You must call them to order if indeed they are not acting under your orders.”