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The Ondo State governor-elect, Chief Rotimi Akeredolu, on Wednesday, said he did not acknowledge a national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in his victory speech on Sunday because it was not expedient to do so. He said having acknowledged President Muhammadu Buhari, who is the recognised national leader of the party, and the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, it was safe to infer that he had acknowledged all the party’s leaders. Akeredolu said this while answering State House correspondents’ questions shortly after he and his deputy, Mr. Agboola Ajayi, met Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. They were led to the meeting, which was their first after their victory, by the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress Campaign Council in Ondo State, Governor Simon Lalong. The governor-elect, who said the relationship between him and Tinubu was cordial, explained that mentioning the name of the former Lagos State governor specifically woul...

The traditional ruler of Atijere community in the Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State, Oba Samuel Edema, has been chased out of his palace by some armed men from the neighboring community of Makun-Omi in Ogun State following a communal clash between the two communities. Atijere in Ondo State and Makun-Omi in Ogun State share boundary, but the two communities had been laying claims to the ownership of a piece of land. The ownership of the land was said to have been causing incessant crisis between the two communities. The National Boundary Commission was said to have intervened in the crisis before a fresh crisis erupted on Tuesday between the two communities, leading to many residents deserting their homes while some were injured. The traditional ruler said he escaped from being killed by the armed men who he alleged were sponsored by a local government chairman in Ogun State. He explained that he was guided out of the town by some of his subjects through the waterways. ...

Barring any last minute changes, the All Progressives Congress will today (Thursday), hold a mini convention to elect a new National Publicity Secretary. A usually reliable source in the party told our correspondent that the mini-convention is being convened to elect a new spokesman for the party. It was gathered that a former Sports Minister, Bolaji Abdullahi, from Kwara State, was being tipped for the job. The former occupant of the position, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, also an indigene of Kwara State, resigned from the post to take up appointment as Minister of Information and National Orientation more than a year ago. The embattled Deputy National Publicity Secretary, of the party, Timi Frank, tried but failed to act in that capacity. He has taken the party to court when it announced that he has been suspended. It was however gathered that the leadership of the APC had concluded the plans to elect another spokesman from the North-Central geopolitical zone, with Kwara State emerging th...

Nobel prize-winning author Wole Soyinka said Thursday he has fulfilled his pledge to throw away his US residency green card and leave the country if Donald Trump won the presidential election. Shortly before the vote, Soyinka had vowed to give up his permanent US residency over a Trump victory to protest against the Republican billionaire’s campaign promises to get tough on immigration. “I have already done it, I have disengaged (from the United States). I have done what I said I would do,” the 82-year-old said on the sidelines of an education conference at the University of Johannesburg. “I had a horror of what is to come with Trump… I threw away the (green) card, and I have relocated, and I’m back to where I have always been” — meaning his homeland Nigeria. The prolific playwright, novelist and poet won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986 and has been a regular teacher at US universities including Harvard, Cornell and Yale. At the same time he said he would not discourage others...

Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, on Thursday urged his counterpart in Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose to remain in the Peoples Democratic Party until after his state governorship election in 2018. Lalong advised Fayose to perish the thought of joining the ruling All Progressives Congress now that the party is consolidating its hold in the South West. The Plateau State governor said this while speaking to reporters during the APC North Central Zonal Congress, held in Abuja. The congress was organised to nominate people to fill vacant national party positions. Lalong led the APC’s national campaign team to the just concluded Ondo State Governorship elections. He equally expressed confidence that the party will win the upcoming Rivers Re-run election as well as the Anambra State governorship election. In an apparent response to Fayose’s threat to dump the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, Lalong said, “The one I am waiting for is Ekiti. “I understand that after Ondo, the man has bee...