…Stakeholders and Council Members Notified of Schedule Adjustment.

In a recent development, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has announced the postponement of the eagerly anticipated Agriculture and Food Security Summit, along with the National Council on Agriculture and Food Security Meeting, both initially slated for November 2023.

The decision to defer these significant events stems from the imperative to ensure a seamless launch of the Dry Season Wheat Farming initiative under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme and Agro-Pocket Programme (NAGS-AP). This strategic move aims to address potential challenges and guarantee the successful implementation of the program.

With numerous key stakeholders and participants deeply involved in time-sensitive activities associated with the dry season wheat program, the Ministry deemed it necessary to reschedule the Summit and Council Meeting to accommodate their commitments.

Mr. Kingsley Osadolor, the Technical Advisor (Strategic Communication) at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, signed the official statement released on the 20th of November, 2023. He emphasized that the new dates for both the Food Security Summit and the National Council on Agriculture and Food Security Meeting will be communicated in due course.

This announcement follows matters raised during the question and answer session at the end of the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Ministry and John Deere earlier today. The Ministry remains committed to keeping all stakeholders and Council members informed as developments unfold.

Stay tuned for further updates on the rescheduled dates of these crucial events shaping the trajectory of agricultural growth in the nation.

The Chief Executive Officer of Social Plus Africa Communications Ltd extends congratulations to Usman Ododo, the Governor-elect of Kogi State.

Commending the outgoing Governor, Yahaya Bello, for his dedicated efforts in preserving his legacy, Mr. Momoh conveyed his sentiments through a press statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary, Hajiya Abdullahi Mulikatu.

Following the announcement by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Usman Ododo, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, emerged victorious in the governorship election with a total of 446,237 votes.

The declaration was made by the state’s returning officer, Johnson Urama, at the INEC collation centre in Lokoja at approximately 10:24 p.m.

Ododo secured victories in 13 out of the 21 local government areas in the state, while the SDP candidate, Murtala Ajaka, was declared the runner-up with 259,052 votes, winning in eight local governments.

Dino Melaye, the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, secured the third position with 46,362 votes but did not win in any local government.

Hundreds of PDP supporters in Bayelsa State on Sunday staged a peaceful protest in Yenagoa against the alleged manipulated results of Saturday’s governorship election conducted in Nembe-Bassambiri, Nembe Local Government Area.

They alleged that the election did not take place in Nembe-Bassambiri and that the results from the polling units in the area were concocted.

They had at about 9:30 am converged on the Isaac Boro Peace Park at Ovom on the Mbiama-Yenagoa Road before marching towards the gate of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Bayelsa State office, along the Swali Market Road.

But as the protesters approached the Swali Road from the Lambert Eradiri Road and moved past the roundabout connecting Mgbi Road, several armed security operatives mounting a checkpoint on Swali Road stopped them from getting close to the junction leading to the INEC office entrance.

The security operatives blocked the road with Armoured Personnel and several security patrol vans while taking strategic positions around the area.

Speaking in an interview with reporters, the state Commissioner for Education, Gentle Emelah, said they embarked on the demonstration because eligible PDP voters in Nembe-Bassambiri were disenfranchised and it was unacceptable.

He called on INEC and the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Obo Effanga, to reject results from Nembe-Bassambiri, insisting that voting did not take place in the community.

Emelah said, “We are here to tell the world that election is not violence. Election is a serious responsibility. Everyone that is having electoral rights ought to cast his vote.

“But what is happening in Nembe-Bassambiri is not acceptable in the sense that you cannot disenfranchise eligible voters and coerce INEC to do your bid. We are saying that a level playing ground should be provided to every adult of voting age to cast his or her vote.

“We know that there was no election in Nembe-Bassambiri. So because of that, we are taking INEC to discard that result. And if at all, let them revisit the Bassambiri issue and make sure that everybody will have the right to vote.”

Also speaking, the state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Diriyai Dambo SAN, described the incident in Nembe-Bassambiri as “a rape on democracy”, claiming that the party’s supporters who were travelling to Nembe ahead of the governorship polls on November 10 were allegedly subjected to a life-threatening situation.

Dambo said that balloting was not conducted in Nembe-Bassambiri, particularly in constituencies 2 and 9, and that fake results were written and posted on social media.

He demanded that INEC should apply itself to the rule of law and do the right thing in line with the commitment of President Bola Tinubu to ensure free and fair elections in the country.

Dambo, an indigene of Nembe, said, “If what we are here for is allowed to go on, then there will be a massive rape of democracy. We are here because we were disenfranchised in Nembe-Bassambiri where I am from. Precisely, on the 10th of November, most of our people with about 58 buses left Yenagoa to Nembe with escorts.

“When we got there, the SWAT Team was blocking the entrance to Nembe with other APC acclaimed youths. They said we should come down for a search. One of our boys identified as Kile came down and they manhandled him. He escaped by the whisker. Thereafter they started threatening us, up to the extent that they threw tear gas at us. They said we could not come in, to the extent that most of them were scared for their lives so they had to leave.

“Subsequently, we now saw that there was no election in Nembe-Bassambiri, constituency 2 and 3. And we now found out that results started coming out on social media, results that were uploaded in the BVAS. And you see that these results are the kinds of results that are so outrageous, we don’t know where they are coming from.

“So we are here to appeal to INEC, we are not coming to disparage INEC. We just want them to follow the rule of law and ensure that they do what is right thing in line with Mr President’s resolve that there have to be free and fair elections in the country.

“They would have allowed everybody to come into Nembe-Bassambiri and vote; one man, one vote. But this one, none of us went in there to vote, only the APC people were there. They manipulated everything and started posting results on social media. We don’t want that to continue. So we are here to appeal to INEC that they should look into those results very well and do what is right.”

The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the Kogi State governorship election, Senator Dino Melaye, has called for the cancellation of the election due to the “irregularities that marred the election.”

Melaye, in a press conference on Sunday in Lokoja, the state capital, said that the irregularities that marred the Saturday election in all three Senatorial Districts were unprecedented in the history of the state, and should not be allowed to stand.

He described the exercise as ‘shameful and unhealthy’, regretting that the Independent National Electoral Commission “has not learnt any lesson to realise, ameliorate and palliate the problem they created for the democratic process during the general elections in the country, still repeating the same in the governorship election.

“Yesterday in the five Local Governments of Central Senatorial districts in Kogi State, there was no election. In the end, surprisingly, accreditation was done manually. The BVAS was not used. Prepared sheets manifested even before accreditation and evidence is all over the media.

“INEC as a matter of urgency must cancel the election. In many areas where I won, my agents were told there were no available result sheets to enter the results and we have evidence to back up these claims

“As I speak to you, it is shameful that this is what our democracy has descended to. INEC has manifested ever than before, that they can not be trusted, they are biased, they are compromised and they can not be neutral umpire.”

The two-term Senator representing Kogi West said that INEC officials and youth corps members were caught yesterday with prepared result sheets even before the commencement of the processes.

He added that a youth corps member was arrested with a prepared result and  N1 million.

“They were deliberate suppression of my votes in Lokoja and Kogi Local Governments. This was deliberately done by Governor Yahaya Bello and APC to make sure that even their orchestrated arrangement didn’t come second.

“Because they do believe that there will be a second ballot and they believe if there is a second ballot, I have influence and tremendous support in the central and I can make an inroad in the East. So they preferred any other person to become second,” Senator Melaye posited.