Date Published: 09/08/10

Ibadan People rise in defence of Alao Akala

Alao Akala

Overwhelming majority of the people of Ibadan Land are solidly behind the  Governor of Oyo State, Otunba Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala and will  give him their  total support  in the coming elections.

The Forum of Political functionaries comprising   all the elected and appointed office holders of Ibadan heritage took stock and  made the declaration in a statement issued in Ibadan this week Wednesday.

Reacting to the flurry of criticisms against the state governor by some politicians in the city, the forum  posited that  the baseless criticisms and attacks were a direct result  of the complete failure  of four  Ibadan born politicians to illegally and unfairly hijack the leadership of the party  form the present Ibadan  people who have been running the party successfully from 2007.

 In the statement signed by Professor Soji Adejumo and AlhJI sina Alabi , the Ibadan political office holders said that the people of the state  would not be deceived by the antics of  these politicians  as it has become well known that they  were merely fighting for  a selfish an unjust  cause.

For  almost two years now, there had been a heated struggle for the soul of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)   in the state before  it was  finally put  to rest  on Monday with  reports in major newspapers that the national executive  of the party had conclusively dropped the idea of  dissolving the  executive committee  of the party in Oyo State.

“it is obvious that the  likes of  Senator Teslim Folarin, Senator  Rasheed Ladoja , Wole Oyelese  and Lekan Balogun  went  on the offensive now   because they have failed woefully  to hijack the  state executive committee of the party  through unjust and illegal means.

“They have further confirmed by these recent,  ill motivated attacks that  all what they want is  the soul of the party they had  for the past four years tried hard to destroy. This shows clearly that these politicians are not fighting the cause of Ibadan people but rather selfish and anti people agenda.”

“It is however gratifying that unlike in the past, people of Ibadan, politicians and non politicians alike  are no longer deceived by the false claims of  these politicians that they were fighting for the  people.

“ the people of Ibadan Land  have come to know  them in their true colours and this is why , all of them are now virtually without any  followership. For Ladoja , all the key politicians in his fold  including the highly respected chairman of the group have left him.   All the young elements too in his fold too have abandoned him.  The case is the same with the other three including Senator Folarin who never had  any political structure  not even in a ward in the state.  In addition, Senator Folarin since almost eight years even as Senate Leader has not brought any federal project  to any of the eleven local government areas in Ibadan land.  

The statement  pointed out that apart from the fact that the illustrious present  governor had surpassed  all his predecessors in office, Alhaji Lam Adesina and Senator Rasheed  Ladoja  in particular in terms of  provision of both physical and social infrastructure in Ibadan Land, the unprecedented peace and growth recorded during the  tenure of Otunba Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala showed that, the present  governor  is more committed to Ibadan than the two put together.

The Ibadan political office holders said that they were not unmindful of the intent of  the perpetrators of the latest attacks to cause disaffection ,  disturb the peace prevailing  peace and distract the governor from  his noble duties  maintained that the governor through unprecedented  modern administration have put in place functional machinery in place that would ensure flow of governance unimpeded.

They therefore urged the people of Ibadan land and Oyo state in general to continue giving their good support to the government of Otunba Akala  promising  that the governor  and all the political functionaries are resolute to ensure that wicked  and self centred people with penchant for vengeance and  violence are not allowed to into government again.

“ what did we witness from 2003 to 2007? It was the worst period in the history of Oyo State brought about  by inept leadership with  clumsy governance “

They had done it before when  they put all sorts of landmines and booby traps including spurious allegations to prevent Akala from becoming the governor; they also sponsored over ten cases against Akala and PDP, ask them what did they achieve, ?  failure. They have failed to take the party and they will continue to fail,” the statement added.