10 things to note from Nigerian newspapers this Friday morning

Beautiful morning! Here is today’s summary from Nigerian Newspapers:

1. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday morning declared Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress, APC, winner of the Osun State governorship election. The State Returning Officer of the contest, Prof. Joseph Adeola Afuwape, made the declaration after reeling out scores of all the 48 candidates that participated in the election one after the other.

2. The missions of the United States, European Union and the United Kingdom have given their appraisal of the governorship rerun election in Osun State. The missions, who were on the ground to monitor the exercise on Thursday said they received reports of incidents of harassment and intimidation of voters. It said it equally witnessed what appeared to be incidents of interference and have reports of harassment of party monitors, journalists and domestic observers.

3. The All Progressives Congress (APC) has postponed its governorship primary election across the 36 states of the federation, including the FCT, Abuja. The exercise was earlier slated to hold on Saturday. APC spokesman, Yekini Nabena, announced the new date Thursday night on Twitter. He wrote that the National Working Committee (NWC) has rescheduled the Governorship Primary Election to 30th September 2018.

4. The All Progressives Congress, APC, has referred to the Thursday’s Osun rerun election as credible. The ruling party in a statement by Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, APC Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy in Osun, denied claims by Senator Ademola Adeleke, the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate who alleged irregularities during the rerun election. According to him, PDP was lamenting over its inability to buy votes and manipulate like they did during the first election last Saturday. He said PDP agents were absent because the police thwarted their plot of buying and trying to use the PVCs of unsuspecting voters.

5. The All Progressives Congress (APC) has disqualified the Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan, also known as Ma Taraba, from seeking to govern Taraba State on the platform of the APC by the screening committee of the party. No reason was given by the screening committee for the failure to clear Mrs Alhassan.

6. The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Thursday demanded the cancellation of the rerun governorship election in Osun State. Kola Ologbondiyan, the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, made the call while rejecting the rerun process on Thursday. In a tweet, Ologbondiyan called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to reject what he termed, “electoral banditry.” Ologbondiyan also urged the electoral umpire to declare its candidate in the rerun election, Ademola Adeleke winner of the election.

7. Sen. Ademola Adeleke, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the Osun governorship election, has rejected the result of the rerun poll. Adeleke, in a statement in Osogbo by his campaign organisation’s spokesperson, Mr Olawale Rasheed, said he would seek legal redress. Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, the APC candidate defeated Adeleke with 482 votes in the rerun poll.

8. The ongoing nationwide strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, witnessed compliance in many states of the federation, including the FCT as ministries, agencies, and other government offices were shut down on Thursday.

9. The gubernatorial ambition of the Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu, might have been scuttled. This became evident Thursday night after his name was dropped from the full list of aspirants cleared to contest in 26 states by the party. A statement by the party’s spokesman, Yekini Nabena, stated that Shittu was not cleared because he does not possess the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate.

10. The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has expressed the fears that President Muhammadu Buhari may not handover power if he loses the 2019 presidential election. The leadership of the PDP met in Abuja on Thursday in an emergency meeting over the conduct of the rerun governorship election in Osun State. The party rejected the result of polls and said that the Thursday election was one of the worst days in the history of Nigeria. It called for immediate cancellation of the result.