Ondo LP gets new members, Okpara, others return to Abia PDP
From Niyi Bello (Akure), Gordi Udeajah (Umuahia) and Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu (Benin)

THE rank of Labour Party (LP) members in Ondo State swelled at the weekend in Ifon, headquarters of Ose Local Council, when hundreds of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faithful defected to the ruling party.

Led by former chairman of the Board for Technical and Vocational Education during the last PDP administration of Dr. Olusegun Agagu, Elder Samuel Aborowa, the decampees, at an impressive rally, said they decided to join the LP because of the leadership style of Governor Olusegun Mimiko.

The Aborowa group in the PDP, which claimed to have thousands of supporters at the grassroots, said its movement out of the party has sounded its death knell in Ose, reputed to be one of the councils with high voter population.

Justifying the movement at the rally which was attended by a colorful array of LP chieftains led by the Deputy-Governor, Alhaji Alli Olanusi, Aborowa said: “The Labour Party is made up of progressives, peace-loving and caring people. With the few months they have governed the state under the leadership of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, they have embarked on many projects that are people-oriented”.

Also in Umuahia, Abia State capital, members of the PDP in Abia Central District gathered in their hundreds to welcome back into their fold Chief Uzodinma Okpara, the former All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) governorship candidate in the 2007 election in the state and son of the late premier of the defunct Eastern Region, Dr. Michael Iheonukara Okpara.

Also received into the PDP membership were Hope Onyekwere, a retired permanent secretary in the state civil service, Chinwe Obike and Chris Ugwu.

Welcoming them into the party and presenting each with an umbrella, which is the symbol of the PDP, National Chairman of the party, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, urged all members of the party to love one another.

Ogbulafor also urged and all and sundry to join and re-join the PDP, which he said, is large enough to accommodate everybody.

Leader of the party in the state and governorship candidate in the 2007 election, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, said the large turn-out of party members attested to their poise to take over from the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) which performances so far he assured, the PDP will surpass.

Barely 24 hours after six local council chairmen and their supervisory councillors, two council vice chairmen and other party leaders defected from the PDP to the Action Congress (AC) in Edo State, the state chairman of the PDP, Chief Dan Orbih, yesterday described the defected council chairmen as non- performing officials who had been penciled down for disciplinary action by the leadership of the party.

Reacting to the rally held at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin at the weekend, Orbih said the defected members had failed to meet the party’s standard in their performances, hence the party had no regrets over their defection.

“They are the people whom the party has set up a committee to try due to their non-performance. They are the chairmen who have been under probe due to non-performance. So we have no regrets, it is good riddance to bad rubbish”, he said.

Also reacting to the claim that he did not emerge through known electoral process, Orbih said he was elected through a congress that was held in March last year but he was not sworn in due to litigation by an aggrieved factional chairman, Edward Sado, who eventually withdrew his lawsuit and even attended the rally where he (Orbih) was presented to members of the party as chairman.

If at all we love our people in Ondo State no one would for any selfish or evil reason make things hard for those working round the clock to impart positively on the State and make a difference.

Olorun a gbo igbe awon eni tire papa julo ni Ondo State.
Peace my people.

PDP LG chairmen defect to AC in Edo

Uchechukwu Olisah, Benin City – 01.11.2009

Six local government council chairmen, two local government council vice chairman and a host of other members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo state on Saturday defected to the Action Congress (AC) at a rally in Benin City, which the AC described as a political earthquake.

The local government council chairmen that crossed over to the AC were those of Etsako Central, Mr. Stanley Odidi; Oredo, Mr. Ogieva Gbajumo; Egor, Mr. Crosby Eribo; Ikpoba Okha, Mrs. Itohan Osahon, Ovia North East, Mr. Faustine Ovienroba, and Uhunmwode, Mr. John Obazee.

The vice chairman of Akoko Edo local government area, Mr. Akin Agboja, the vice chairman of Igueben local government area, as well as a popular business man, transporter, and Benin High Chief, Chief John Osamede Adun, alias, Bob Izua, popular PDP women leader, Chief (Mrs.) Evelyn Igbafe, and a PDP leader in the state, Chief Henry Okoror, crossed over from the PDP to the AC. The list of the over 90 defectors and a their followers who were in their hundreds included serving PDP councillors and supervisory councillors, former members of the state House of Assembly and the House of Representatives which cut across the 18 local government areas of the state. http://www.tribune.com.ng/01112009/news/news10.html

Yinka Oladoyinbo, Akure – 30.10.2009

There was pande-monium in Ikare-Akoko, Ondo State on Thursday, as a stakeholders meeting of the Action Congress (AC) slated for the town, ended in fiasco.

Many party leaders, including former commissioners, former members of the state House of Assembly, the state chairman of the party, Mr. Sola Iji, members of the executive of the party in the state, had to run to safety following the melee.

Sporadic gunshots were also witnessed in the meeting as men of the Nigeria Police, drafted to restore sanity, shot into the air to disperse the crowd.

One of the vehicles brought to the scene of the crisis, a Toyota Corolla, with registration number AA 960 KSF, was, however, vandalised by people suspected to be political thugs.

Some of the leaders that had already gathered for the meeting were the former Commissioner for Natural Resources, Dr. Akerele Adu; former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Jumoke Anifowose; the party’s Ondo central senatorial candidate in 2007, Mr. Bola Ilori, Mr. Afe Olowookere, among others. http://www.tribune.com.ng/30102009/news/news20.html

@Ebenezer, could it be that those “officials” have been hounded by too many unsolicited calls and hence have become wary of answering calls they do not recognise? I pray it is not a case of them feeling too important now to do this. Afterall they are public servants and must never forget that. The most important guys in Ondo State should be the ordinary people and this must never be forgotten. We have not fought so hard to have a democratic and egaliterean society in Ondo State only to have public officers wearing the mightier and higher than thou shoes. We must all learn from our past and make amends.

BE KIND TO PEOPLE YOU MEET ON YOUR WAY TO THE TOP AND WHEN YOU ARE AT THE TOP, FOR YOU COULD MEET THEM ON YOUR WAY DOWN. NO CONDITION IS PERMANENT.

Peace to my beloved people.