BBNaija: Nigerians spent N7.2bn on votes

AgegePulse Magazine

Statistics emanating from the final day of the Big Brother Naija Season 4 ‘Pepper Dem Gang’ episode shows that Nigerians spent a whopping N7.2 billion on votes.

Announcing the results on Sunday, the host Ebuka Obi-Uchendu said that the season got over 240 million votes, out of which over 50 million votes were cast in the final week of the season.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that it costs N30 to cast a vote on the BBNaija Reality TV Show.

With the figure, Nigerians spent over N7.2 billion on votes alone.

Announcing the winner of the show, the host also disclosed that a record-breaking over 50 million votes amounting to N1.5 billion were garnered in the last week of the show.

The N7.2 billion figure spent on votes is higher than the allocation received by three Nigerian states for the month of January.

Meanwhile, Mercy Eke has become the winner of Big Brother Naija season four, winning with a wide margin.

*LAGOS PANORAMA*

Breaking: My life is under threat‎, says Adeleke

 Dapo Akinnrefon 

THE governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Ademola Adeleke has written a letter to diplomatic missions in Nigeria, raising alarm over threats to his life and alleged clamp down on his supporters ahead of Thursday’s supplementary polls. 

Adeleke In the letter already despatched to diplomatic missions, Adeleke catalogued the many infractions in the last Saturday polls,the refusal of INEC to declare him the winner in line with the constitution,the killing and maiming of his supporters ,the arrest of key leaders on trumped up charges and the manipulations of the electoral process. 

The letter was sent to the European Union,United States and several diplomatic missions in Nigeria and the United Nations. ‎The letter reads: “I am constrained to write this letter to intimate you, our diplomatic partners and friends of despotic happenings in Osun governorship polls which I won but for which I was not declared the winner. My life is under threat and leaders of my party are under siege before and after Saturday’s main polls. “During the campaigns, we were subjected to countless attacks.I escaped about four assassination attempts.Our campaign vehicles were severallly attacked and our rallies disrupted.

We went through the pre-election process under constant onslaught from political thugs and merchants of violence. “Despite the violence prone climate ,I still won the election. On live television, our votes were removed and protestations for re-addition of the votes were rejected. “Votes for the ruling party were jerked up and again the electoral umpire refused to correct the arithmetical errors.After all the manipulations which saw about 4000 votes removed from my total votes ,I still won by close to 400 votes. “In a brazen assault on democracy ,the returning officer in open breach of the constitution refused to declare me the winner even after fulfilling constitutional stipulations.

The officer erroneously justified declaration of the election as inconclusive based on violence in seven out of about 3000 voting units across the state. It w‎as a travesty of justice that is under challenge in court of law.‎ “Not satisfied with that rape of democracy, the ruling, APC immediately launched a coordinated manipulation agenda to rig the Thursday supplementary polls.Voters register of affected areas are been doctored ;unclaimed voters cards are been shared out;massive vote buying are ongoing ;and my supporters are been hounded.

Democracy is clearly under threats. “The agenda of the ruling party is to ensure that votes do not count.The target is to thwart the will of the people. The APC is out to subvert the will of the people ,an action that will have deeply negative impact on the sanctity of the electoral process ahead of 2019 polls.” 

Calling on the international community “to prevail on President Muhammad Buhari to allow votes to count by restoring my mandate” the PDP candidate said: “We count on you to mount pressure on the ruling party to restore people’s mandate in Osun state” “We make this request because Osun state is the cradle of Yoruba people.Denying them their inalienable right to pick their governor is a potent threat to democratic sustainability in Nigeria.Our nascent democracy has been under intense pressure and it is not in our collective interest to deepen the national stress index

. “We seek your intervention to prevent another rigging underway in Osun state. I am the holder of the sacred mandate of Osun people. We need the international community to assist Nigeria to make votes count”,he said. 

Vanguard

BREAKING: Protest rocks Osun INEC office

Femi Makinde, Osogbo

Hundreds of supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party on Monday stormed the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission to protest against the state rerun governorship election ordered by the commission.

The protesters carried placards with various inscriptions such as “No To rerun, “INEC don’t conspire with APC”; “The people spoke on Saturday, announce the results ” among others.

The protesters berated the INEC for not declaring Senator Ademola Adeleke the winner of the poll having scored the highest number of votes in the poll.

They said the people of the state had spoken and that majority of the voters wanted Adeleke as the state governor and that the peoples’ wish should be respected.

Details later.

Punch