These are the stories you should be monitoring today:
The national leadership of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) has rejected the results of Thursday’s supplementary election in Osun, which returned APC’s Gboyega Oyetola as winner and Governor-elect of the state, as it called it a black day for the nation.
National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, spoke after an emergency meeting of the PDP National Working Committee, said “the right of the citizens to be able to come out and vote had been trampled upon and the entire state and the wards and units have been seized by the security agencies who were acting on behalf of the APC to make sure the election is rigged by all means.
“We would think that it is a state or some units, but if you look at what has transpired so far from Ekiti to Osun State, Nigerians are groaning in pains especially the Osun people.
“We are sad that if this is what is going to take place in 2019, then the future of Nigeria’s democracy is bleak and we are sliding into crisis,” he said.
The Osun chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has faulted the claim by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) that the Osun supplementary election was rigged.
Kunle Oyatomi, spokesperson of the APC in Osun, said the PDP was “unable to manipulate the result this time around, so they are crying foul,” adding that the PDP had made elaborate arrangement to rig the election through the manipulation of the card readers and it was this process that made them got the votes, allocated to them in the first ballot.”
“We like Osun people to understand that the run off votes went that way because the PDP was unable to manipulate the card readers this time around and fortunately the police thwarted their plot of buying and trying to use the PVCs of suspecting voters. That is why some of their leaders were arrested. So the PDP should look for other excuse.”
The disqualification of both governorship aspirants was announced in a statement signed by the party’s acting National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, after a meeting of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) in Abuja.
The party also rescheduled the governorship primary across the country to 30 September, just as it asked state governors to serve as returning officers in the presidential primary scheduled for Friday.
The Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris has warned that the ongoing strike by the organised labour would deny workers their salaries, stressing that “the payment of salaries cannot be achieved in an atmosphere where the critical stakeholders are not allowed access to their offices.”
In a related development, Deputy President of the NLC, Peters Adeyemi, at the ongoing National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the Non-Academic Staff of Universities and Associated Institutions (NASU) on Thursday, said that the strike would not be called off until the federal government makes its proposed minimum wage figures known.
“As a member of the committee, I can authoritatively say that the committee had concluded its work except for the figures from the Federal Government’s team. So, reconvening the meeting is contingent on the figure that would be made available by the Federal Government’s team,” Adeyemi said.
The National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) has identified communities in four states and Abuja as locations where major earthquake may likely occur in the country.
Director General of NASRDA, Prof. Seidu Mohammed, who made this known at a Lecture in Abuja on Thursday, said Mpape in Abuja, Kwoi in Kaduna, Ijebu-Ode in Ogun, Shaki in Oyo and Igbogene in Bayelsa may likely be the epicentres of major earthquake if precautions were not taken.
“What it means is that we need a thorough study across the country to identify such hotspots so that we can constantly monitor them from satellite system and from data from outer space,’’ he said.
And stories from around the world:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran on Thursday of keeping a “secret atomic warehouse” just outside its capital and called on UN nuclear inspectors to carry out inspections. (Al Jazeera)
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Thursday that U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet was welcome to visit any time after she urged Caracas to allow an international investigation of the humanitarian situation in the country. (Reuters)
Canadian MPs have voted unanimously to revoke the honorary citizenship of Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. (BBC)
Brett Kavanaugh’s contentious Supreme Court nomination will be put to an initial vote Friday, after a dramatic Senate hearing saw the judge furiously fight back against sexual assault allegations recounted in harrowing detail by his accuser. (AFP)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday called on the United States to reverse its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and cuts in aid to the Palestinians, saying these had undermined the two-state solution to the conflict. (Reuters)
Temidayo Taiwo-Sidiq is a Journalist, Political Analyst and Satirist with major interest in Nigerian Politics, Governance and Sports.
Leave a reply