Today's Headlines: Abiodun opens defence, witness admits disruption of elections, How Oyetola’s ministerial nomination united Osun APC, PDP senators.

Ogun tribunal: Abiodun opens defence, witness admits disruption of elections.

According to Punch news, Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, on Friday, opened his defence at the state Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital.

Abiodun opened his defence after both the Peoples Democratic Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission had closed their cases in the petition filed by the PDP candidate, Ladi Adebutu.

The PDP and Adebutu in the petition marked, EPT/OG/GOV/03/2023 took Abiodun and his party, All Progressives Congress, to the tribunal on the alleged non-compliance to the Electoral Act and corrupt practices during the March 18 election in the state.

While Adebutu closed his case after calling 94 witnesses and tendered over 200,000 documents as evidence, INEC closed its case without calling any witness.

When the tribunal resumed sitting on Friday, Abiodun through its counsel, Prof Taiwo Osipitan, SAN, opened his defence in the petition.

Abiodun called his first witness, Jimoh Gbadebo, who admitted disrupting elections in seven out of 14 polling units in Ward 6, Sagamu, Sagamu Local Government Area of the state.

According to Gbadebo, who is the Ward Collation Agent for APC, the affected polling units were Units 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 11 and 12, all in Sagamu.

He explained that the witness said masked political thugs invaded the unit and disrupted the exercise by destroying the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, ballot boxes and papers about four hours into the election .

He added that the same group of thugs disrupted elections in the seven units by moving from one place to another.

Photo Credit: Google.

How Oyetola’s ministerial nomination united Osun APC, PDP senators.

According to Punch news, Osun politics took a new turn at the Senate chamber when lawmakers in the People Democratic Party threw in their support behind the former governor of the State, Gboyega Oyetola.

Oyetola, a ministerial nominee of President Bola Tinubu appeared in the Red Chamber on Friday for his screening.

The PUNCH reports that both parties have been at loggerheads in the state since the emergence of Senator Ademola Adeleke as governor of Osun State.

There have been various fights and bickering between both political parties particularly since Oyetola lost the governorship seat to Adeleke.

Recently, the Osun State APC has described the commissioner-nominees rolled out by Adeleke as the worst assemblage of government actors that would ever be witnessed in the history of the state.

This was some days after the PDP accused the former Senate spokesperson Ajibola Basiru of submitting the names of its party chieftains to Security operatives.

The most viral of their fracas was that of a clash that occurred due to a sitting arrangement at the Osogbo Eid praying ground between some aides of Osun State Governor and Basiru.

Benue sets up panel on state varsity’s finances, contracts.

According to Punch news, The Benue State governor, Hyacinth Alia, has commissioned a visitation panel to audit the Benue State University, Makurdi from 2016 to date.

The panel led by Chairman, Prof. Gabriel Moti, will investigate the application of funds allocated for specific projects and also assess staff development problems.

Alia, who was represented by the deputy governor, Chief Sam Ode, also urged the members of the panel to evaluate the relationship between the management and stakeholders of the institution, assess the conditions of physical infrastructure and

instructional materials and scrutinize student enrollment within the period.

The governor told the panel to approach the assignment with the utmost diligence, thoroughness and to be impartial and called on the management of the University to give their full cooperation and support to the panel.

Reverse fee hike or face mass action, NANS tells varsities.

According to Punch news, The National Association of Nigerian Students has said it will storm tertiary institutions that proceed to implement fee hikes across their campuses.

NANS executives while addressing a press conference at the International Press Centre, Ikeja, Lagos on Friday, warned that university management needed to obey the directive of President Bola Tinubu to halt fee hikes on their campuses.

“We want to seize this moment to warn that failure to comply with the directive of the Federal Government on the matter of fee increment will leave us with no choice but to evoke a nationwide confrontation.

“We will not only take our protests to the streets, but we will also bring them to your respective university gates,” the NANS National Public Relations Officer, Giwa Temitope, said in a statement.

On July 31, 2023, President Tinubu directed the authorities in all federal institutions of higher learning to avoid arbitrary increases in sundry fees payable and where possible defer further increases so that parents and students would not face too much difficulty.

On July 21, 2023, the management of the University of Lagos announced an increment in the tuition fees of the undergraduate students of the institution, citing “prevailing economic realities.”

The management increased the fees from N19,000 to N190,250 for students studying medicine while for courses that require laboratory and studio, the students were to pay N140,250.

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