The news making the rounds on this day, September 30, is the story of events that characterized the just concluded Edo elections.
Almost all top Nigerian dailies have the Edo story on their front pages, however, there is another story garnering momentum and that is the tale of how some ministers are to be probed.
We begin today’s paper review with the story on The Punch, captioned: “CCB to probe Amaechi, Ngige, Fashola, AGF, others’ assets”.
The Code of Conduct Bureau has begun massive verification of assets declared by top serving and former public officers at the federal, state and local government levels.
A statement by the Chairman of the CCB, Mr. Sam Saba, released by the Press and Protocol Unit of the bureau on Thursday, stated that the exercise involved physical appearance of the concerned public officers before the bureau for conference and field verifications of their declared assets.
Conference verification requires public officers to present documents relating to their declared assets to designated officials of the bureau.
On the other hand, field verification involves public officers taking CCB officials to locations of their declared landed, fixed and other assets that could not be conveniently moved to the bureau’s office.
He stated that by virtue of Paragraph 11 of Part 1 of the Fifth Schedule to the 1999 Constitution (as amended), “every public officer is required to submit to the Code of Conduct Bureau a written declaration of all properties, assets and liabilities and those of his/her spouse (if not a public officer) and his unmarried children under the age of 18 years.”
He added that any statement in the declaration, found to be false by any authorities or persons authorised to verify it, “shall be deemed to be a breach of the code”.
He stated, “To this end, the Bureau has commenced its 2016 4th Quarter Cycle of Conference and Field Verification of Assets of top public officers. Accordingly, letters of invitation have been dispatched to ministers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, service chiefs and other top public officers.
“All invited public officers are to note that failure to honour the invitation by the CCB in this regard is a breach of the provisions of the constitution and could lead to prosecution at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
“Public officers not yet invited are to await their letters of invitation.”
He listed 76 public officers that had been invited by the bureau with a threat of the possibility of prosecution if they fail to honour the invitation.
Among the 76 invitees are 30 ministers whom, according to the bureau, have yet to submit themselves to the exercise.
Unlike Punch, several other papers carried the story of the battle for Edo state’s coveted seat. Some reporting on how Obaseki won the Edo gubernatorial race, while others reported on the tension within the state as protest and jubilation greet the election result.
Daily Sun bears the headline: “Protest, Jubilation as Obaseki wins”.
At least one person was seriously wounded on Thursday when anti-riot policemen fired teargas to disperse supporters of the PDP who were protesting against the result for Oredo council area in Wednesday’s governorship election in Edo State.
The victim fell and hit his head on the tarred Aduwawa Road when the teargas was fired by the heavily armed security operatives that manned the entrance of the headquarters of INEC office in Benin City.
Security had patiently appealed to the protesters to conduct themselves orderly and leave the premises of INEC for over an hour before they fired the teargas canisters.
The protesters had gathered, alleging that the results were overturned by the electoral umpire in favour of the ruling APC, threatening fire and brimstone if the right thing is not done.
Bearing placards with various inscriptions, the protesters made up of mostly women and youths in their numbers called the state governor, Adams Oshiomhole and his APC unprintable names.
Inscriptions on some of the placards were “INEC took bribe from APC, PDP won the 2016 election,’ INEC give us our actual results,’ ‘INEC give PDP their true result’, amongst others.
The Guardian joins in the discourse with the headline: “PDP protests as INEC declares APC winner of Edo elections”.
After hours of collating results, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday declared the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Godwin Obaseki as the winner of the keenly contested Edo State governorship election.
At 3:53 p.m., the returning officer for the election and Vice Chancellor, Federal University, Oye Ekiti, Prof. Kayode Soremekun announced that Obaseki polled 319,483 votes to defeat his closest rival, Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 253,173 votes.
The candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Osaro Onaiwu scored 876 votes while Labour Party (LP) came third with 182 votes.
But the PDP agent refused to sign the results sheet, the party having earlier at a press conference while collation was going on rejected the results, alleging that they were not a true reflection of the exercise. Altogether, 19 political parties participated in the election.
The Vanguard gives details of how Obaseki won the keenly contested Edo election.
Mr. Godwin Obaseki of the All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday, emerged governor-elect of Edo State upon his declaration as the candidate with the highest number of votes in the governorship election held Wednesday.
Obaseki polled 51.3% of the total votes cast in the election, according to the results declared yesterday. He was trailed by Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who polled 40% of the votes cast, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
The declaration was immediately challenged by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which accused officials of INEC of conspiring with APC and Edo State government officials to rewrite results gathered at the polling centres.
The returning officer for the election, Prof. Kayode Soremekun, who is Vice-Chancellor, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, declared Obaseki winner with 319,483 votes to the 253,173 votes credited to the PDP candidate, Ize-Iyamu.
We end this day’s review with The Nation which bears the headline: “Obaseki: we’ll deliver”
Edo state Governor Adams Oshiomhole said yesterday that the victory of the All Progressives Congress in Wednesday’s election has humbled Chief Tom Ikimi, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion and Dr. Raymond Dokpesi.
Governor Oshiomhole said Chief Tony Anenih narrowly escaped defeat.
He said the APC is committed to dismantling the rigging machine of those he described as political godfathers in the state.
Oshiomhole noted that Edo is the only state where election had been held in recent times without bloodshed adding that nobody died.
He said the victory had concluded his chapter in the struggle to end godfatherism.
He told reporters after the results were announced that “Over the last eight years, we have tried to orientate our people not just the voters but politicians that the season of election rigging where one or two godfathers wrote the results is over and we were committed to dismantling the rigging machine.
“We had a rerun in 2012 with all the godfathers on one side and new forces of change on my side, I won in all the 18 local government areas. Our people have spoken loud and clear that they believe in democracy, they just don’t want to be beneficiaries, they want to be the drivers of the process. This was showed by the way they conducted themselves on Election Day.
“It is outstanding and remarkable that tensed as the election was, out of 18 local governments, we won in 15 decisively. Those who were loudest in making noise had been revealed where they stand in relation with Edo people.”
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