Otunba Ajanaku stated this on Friday while fielding questions in an interview on Television Continental (TVC) monitored in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

According to him, “It is completely embarrassing that a supposed representative of the people and a lawmaker could engage in such a blatant lie in this critical period when there is strong advocacy against fake news by the federal government”.

The ZLP candidate further described the allegation of assassination as a mere ploy by Fijabi to gain people’s attention because of his dwindling popularity.

“Irrespective of the political difference, I don’t see him as my enemy. But with the magnitude of this accusation, he has seen me as a threat, which shouldn’t be.

“I am a grassroots politician and my people love me. They are confident that I will deliver”, Ajanaku added.

While describing his followers as law abiding who will never engage in violence, the ZLP chieftain said, ” I have consistently maintained that I represent peace. I always warn my people to be calm and if there is any provocation, they should report to the appropriate authority”.

Ajanaku, however reechoed his resolve to ensure that the issue is addressed lawfully ‘our member has been embarrassed and detained, so the law must take its course’

The post Fijabi’s Allegation: A perfect example of fake news, says Rotimi Ajanaku first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Fijabi’s Allegation: A perfect example of fake news, says Rotimi Ajanaku appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

With this development, Otunba Ajanaku has contradicted the allegation of assassination leveled against him which was earlier circulated on the internet.

The Chairman Committee on Telecommunication, Hon. Fijabi had earlier raised the alarm that his life was under a threat of political assassination.

Addressing a press conference at Fijabi House, Dugbe, Ibadan, yesterday, the APC candidate who is seeking third term re-election informed that he narrowly escaped political assassination three days ago at Sabo area of Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.

While requesting for protection from the police and Department of State Security (DSS), as he insisted that the case should be taken to court, Fijabi specifically alleged that his contender in the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Rotimi Ajanaku, was purportedly behind the alleged assassination attempt.

According to him, “Precisely, in the early hours of January 6, 2019, I had a meeting and after the meeting, I was driving home. Unfortunately, on getting to Sabo area of Ibadan, I was crossed by two branded vehicles of a party, precisely ZLP. The picture of a candidate was on the bus, and one Honda Accord car, belonging to one Rotimi Ajanaku, contesting also for Ibadan South West/North West Federal Constituency.

“I was crossed at Sabo between 12:30a.m and 1a.m. I was with one of my personal assistants, Yemi. We came down and on coming down, we noticed that like 10 of them came down from the bus and brandished guns and cutlasses. They asked me to lie down in the gutter, which obviously for one reason or the other, and because of my life, I lied down in the gutter.

“It was while lied down in the gutter that I summoned courage to call my father because we were in the same meeting together at Davies Hotel, Bodija. The next person I was able to call is officer in charge of Skynet, and I called the Oyo State Control Room.

“Fortunately, within 10 to 15 minutes, while the argument  was on, my father drove in. As he came down from the vehicle, one of the drivers of the bus came down and was fighting with my dad.

“From nowhere, Operation Burst came in, and the Commander of Operation Burst was even the one that led the team to the place that very morning. When he came down, all of them ran away, including Rotimi Ajanaku himself. But we were able to apprehend one of them. Ajanaku was arrested in the evening of that day and the bus was impounded.

“In searching the bus before we left that place, we could notice they still have a well-loaded and ready-to-use gun in their vehicle. In searching it, we noticed that cutlasses were wrapped in the posters in the bus, which they wanted to use against us”, Fijabi submitted.

But, in a press statement issued by Oladapo Tobiloba, Head of Media Team, Rotimi Ajanaku Campaign Organization, a copy which was made available to Mega Icon Magazine gave differing accounts of what transpired.

Contained in the press statement, Oladapo explained that on Saturday, Ajanaku’s team had gone to paste posters at Sabo axis of Adamasingba when the APC candidate, Fijabi attacked them.

He narrated further, “During this exercise around 12:,45 am on Sunday morning January 6, 2019 the team decided to get some refreshments at Sabo area. As members of this team alighted at Roundabout junction, through to Sabo , we just noticed a Toyota Hilux car and a Toyota Camry car with a tinted glass crossed our vehicle.

“Hon. Saheed Fijabi’s father, Chief Akinade Fijabi alighted from the white Hilux car and attacked one of the members of the team.

“While this ongoing, Hon. Saheed Fijabi also attacked another member of Ajanaku’s team who was attempting to record the scenario. In fact we have a 28seconds video recording of the incident as an evidence of the true story.

“Thereafter, there were struggles among our team to escape the onslaught just as Hon. Fijabi put a call through to ‘Operation Burst’. At no point was Saheed Fijabi was attacked or pushed to the ground. In fact, he pushed and rough- handled one of our members who was recording with his phone and smashed the phone. We have video evidence to backup this claim.

“We were surprised that Hon. Saheed Fijabi, judging by his exalted office could descend to the extent of lying that our team attacked him”, he added.

Ajanaku’s mouthpiece, who described the incident as political and battle of the titans, also tagged it as ‘Hon. Rotimi Ajanaku and the powers- that- be behind Fijabi’.

Continuing, he said, “If truly our team attacked Hon. Saheed Fijabi as he alleged, how come that up till this moment, there have been no report of injury on Hon. Saheed Fijabi. If he was pushed to the ground as he claimed, did he got treatment in any hospital because we do not believe he sustained any form of injury as peddled”, he questioned.

Oladapo  also added,  ” none of his followers at that scene has reported of having wounds”.

The post Alleged political assassination: ZLP candidate, Ajanaku’s account contradicts Fijabi’s narrative first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Alleged political assassination: ZLP candidate, Ajanaku’s account contradicts Fijabi’s narrative appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

The successful business magnate, Otunba Ajanaku, who had earlier struggled for the APC ticket with the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Telecommunications, Hon Saheed Akinade-Fijabi in a fierce contest, totally rejected the results of the shadow election, which he alleged was rigged.

He also alleged that the whole process was compromised by the party’s Returning Officer.

According to the result, Akinade-Fijabi polled a total votes of 279, while Ajanaku polled 259.Other aspirants who lost the primary election include a former member of the House and daughter of second Republic Governor of the state, Chief Omololu Olunloyo, Hon. Folake Olunloyo-Oshinowo, Yinka Gbolahan, Abiodun Ikumogunniyi and Kehinde Subair.

Confirming this on Saturday, a close source to Otunba Ajanaku who spoke to our reporter on the condition of anonymity disclosed that his principal (Ajanaku) left the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) because of impunity and imposition of candidates in the party.

He added that the APC had disappointed many democrats, loyalists and faithfuls, including Ajanaku during the last congress.

“Otunba Ajanaku joined the Progressives to strengthen the party, strengthen democracy and also to contribute his own quota to the development of our state and by extension Nigeria. He invested hugely and campaigned vigorously for APC, but he was maltreated and highly disappointed”, the source added.

He is expected to slug it out with other major aspirants like the incumbent, Hon Saheed Fijabi (APC), Dr Wasiu Olatunbosun (ADC) among others.

The post EXCLUSIVE: Ajimobi’s close ally, Ajanaku to officially declare for ZLP tomorrow first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post EXCLUSIVE: Ajimobi’s close ally, Ajanaku to officially declare for ZLP tomorrow appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

Dr Olatunbosun, on Sunday in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, also hinted that the present occupant, Hon. Saheed Fijabi and others who may be eyeing the seat are no threat to his ambition, as he is a master strategist when it comes to grassroot mobilisation.

APC Won’t Recognise Parallel Congresses – Spokesperson

The ex-council chief said he has the experience and the necessary requirements needed to provide adequate representation to the people of Ibadan Southwest/Northwest Federal Constituency, adding that he will pursue people driven programs and demand driven approach to representation, a strategy he claimed worked well for him as a council gaffer.

Having served as Chairman and Secretary, Contact and Mobilisation Committee of Governor Abiola Ajimobi campaigns in 2011 and 2015 respectively, Olatunbosun noted that he has garnered enough experience which has prepared him for the challenge ahead.

Plot to burn Oyo APC secretariat uncovered – Government alleges

On his chances of emerging as the candidate for the Africa Democratic Congress (ADC), a party he recently joined after dumping the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), particularly with the former state governor, Senator Rashidi Ladoja joining the same party, Olatunbosun submitted, “as long as internal democracy is allowed to take place, by the special grace of God, No problem”.

Reacting to the possibility of the ADC conducting a rancour free congresses within the short period of time, considering the various interests, Olatunbosun further observed that it depends on the sincerity of the stakeholders and the interim committee.

I’ m still in PDP, Akinjide debunks defection rumour

The ex-council boss of Ibadan Northwest Local Government, who is also against adoption of harmonised list for the party executives said, ” if it is based on the strength of each group no problem, but I will be strongly against equal sharing of positions.

“A group with a Senator, five house of representatives and six house of assembly members, with over 100,000 members can not share equally with a group that did not bring anything to the sharing table, or better still let each group test their strength on the field”.

The post Oyo: Olatunbosun speaks on federal reps ambition first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Oyo: Olatunbosun speaks on federal reps ambition appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

The Committee, on Tuesday during an oversight visit to the Ministry specifically rejected further discussions on the presentation after discovering many irregularities in figures quoted in the exiguous documents prepared to explain the performance of last year’s budget and the 2018 budgetary projections.

The Minister, Barrister Adebayo Shittu had earlier in his presentation said, “it is projected that revenue generation from sale of forms, spectrum licenses and renewal fees and other sources in 2018 would rise to about N1,300,000,000 (One Billion Three Hundred Million Naira), twice the size of last year because of the envisaged installation of Radio Monitoring Equipment”.

A member of the Committee, Hon. Anayo Edward, punctured the minister’s claim. The lawmaker further noted that the 2018 revenue projection of One Billion, Three Hundred Million Naira (N1,300,000,000) doubled the revenue projection in the preceding year which was Six Hundred Million Naira (N600,000,000).

Hon. Anayo informed that it was wrong to say the 2018 revenue projection doubled that of 2017 because the difference between the two figures is more than half, adding that such assertion is misleading.

Similarly, Hon. Abiodun Awoleye, having scanned through the documents observed lack of correlation in figures on pages of a document served members. Also, he condemned the nebulous figures quoted.

In a related development, another member of the committee, Hon. Kehinde Odeneye queried the ministry for not stating the status of the Rural Telephone Project for which money was appropriated in last year’s budget, adding that the minister did not specify where the projects are located and if they are working.

Other members who also frowned at the presentation were not comfortable with irregularities in figures quoted on pages of another document presented.

Hon. Anayo, however asked the chairman to discontinue the presentation saying it is against parliamentary procedure to work on an incorrect or uncompleted document because doing so will be efforts in futility.

He, therefore urged his colleagues to reject the plea by the Committee Chairman, Hon. Saheed Fijabi, that the Minister should be given the chance to answer questions raised by members.

Remarking, Hon. Awoleye hinted that this would not be the first time the Ministry will be making an un-coordinated presentation and submitting incorrect documents to the Committee. The lawmaker who is from Oyo state added that it would be wrong for the Committee to entertain further comments on the presentation. Rather, he supported the suggestion raised by his colleague, Hon. Anayo that the Ministry make a re-presentation.

On his own part, Hon. Odeneye said it is amazing that in a few pages documents, almost ten errors were detected. He said it is wrong for members to be making corrections on the document, rather, he said the ministry should correct the documents and re-present them during budget defence at the National Assembly.

Overwhelmed by his members’ decisions, the Chairman, Hon. Fijabi finally acceded to members request for a re-presentation. “I think there would not be any room for the discussion of the document based on irregularities discovered. Like my members have said, I think the ministry has to correct the documents and present it again during the budget defence.

“As I said earlier, our visit is a basic parliamentary one in furtherance of our duty to look into the books of the ministry. We are here to perform our duty, nobody is here to witch hunt anybody”, he explained.

Barr. Shittu who admitted  the errors and taking full responsibility for the irregularities, on behalf of the ministry apologized to the House Committee, saying that there was no justification for the inefficiency.

The minister said, “I want to apologise on behalf of the Ministry. I want to take full responsibility for these mistakes and want to assure you that we will put our house in order.

“I want to assure you that before the end of this week, we must have made necessary corrections present a correct document to the office of the Committee chairman”, he promised.

The post Why Reps Reject Communications Ministry’s Budget Presentation first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Why Reps Reject Communications Ministry’s Budget Presentation appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.