I have kept repeating this statement over and over, if we allow the Media to take over the agenda that will shape the 2027 election in Oyo state, we are in soup.
Knowing this, some of us have decided to take it upon ourselves to keep exposing the hypocrisy of a large section of the Media in Oyo state.
A lot has happened within the state in the past 24 hours or so and I will be attending to them as much as I could in this piece.
First of all, I must give credits to the social media. Regardless of whatever reservations you might have against the social media, you also must recognize it’s importance when it comes to its ability to break some News items which entrenched interests would rather preferred to be buried.
Yesterday evening, I saw videos of, at least two gentlemen who claimed that they were attacked by some thugs, allegedly led by a young fellow named Victor Olojede, Governor Seyi Makinde’s Senior Special Assistant on Students Affairs.
I saw both videos on Facebook. The victims claimed that they were attacked by Olojede and the thugs while they were peacefully protesting against the insecurity In Oyo state.
In fact, they alleged that shots were fired at them during the attack and other dangerous weapons were also used to attack them.
After seeing the videos online, I searched all over the regular media spaces to see if the regular Media would use the story but my search yielded no positive results.
It was as if the incident never happened. The condition of one of the victims, from the video uploaded on Facebook, was very alarming. He was completely drenched in blood from head to toes. Yet, his story was not mentioned by the regular Media!
Not surprisingly, this afternoon, the rebuttal by Governor Seyi Makinde’s Aide, Victor Olojede was all over the place. I wonder how low we have gone to keep subjecting this very noble Journalism profession to ridicule, just because of bread and butter.
How could anyone be so comfortable to write about the defense by an accused person, the alleged aggressor, without making a single reference to the story of the alleged victims. I have read the rebuttal by the young fellow, Victor Olojede and I make bold to say that I am not impressed and neither am I convinced by his account of the incident.
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His story are better told to the Marines and I am so surprised that the Police have also not said anything about the incident. If they did, I am not aware of their reaction to the unfortunate incident. Where were the Police when protesters started fighting with ‘ stones and sticks’, to the extent that we saw victims who were severely wounded? I am asking this question because Olojede said some people engaged in a fight, using stones and sticks.
It is very unfortunate that we have a volatile situation in our hands and some senseless people still think that this is a time to be breaking people’s heads with stones or whatever objects used. As for Victor Olojede, my simple advice for the young fellow is that, he should remember that the position he is currently holding has an expiry date.
Again, this morning, we woke up to another unfortunate reports that the younger Sister of Chief Bayo Adelabu and her twin sons were kidnapped in broad daylight in the heart of Ibadan, the Oyo state Capital.
Until the time I am writing this report, I am not aware of any statements from the Governor of Oyo state, the Government of Oyo state, the Allied People’s Movement, APM and even, the gubernatorial candidate of the APM, Bimbo Adekanmbi, condemning the unfortunate incident or commiserating with the family of the victims.
Instead of that, I have seen the congratulatory messages from Governor Seyi Makinde and Bimbo Adekanmbi, felicitating Isaac Brown on the occasion of his birthday! Don’t get me wrong, I have no issues with either of Governor Seyi Makinde or Bimbo Adekanmbi, congratulating Isaac Brown on his birthday.
However, it is most insensitive that they have acted as if they’re not aware that a kidnapping incident of another hapless woman and her twin sons happened this morning. It is worrisome enough that this unfortunate incident happened within Ibadan, not in some remote areas of the state but it is more worrisome that the Governor of Oyo state, the Chief Security officer for the state is not taking the incident as seriously as he should have been.
I am surprised that the Governor has not deemed it fit to address the public about the efforts that Government is making to rescue the victims.
Sadly, the Oyo state House of Assembly sat today and all they did was to approve another Bond of 200 billion Naira for Governor Seyi Makinde, purportedly, for the purposes of refinancing risks and interest cutting on existing loans.
I was surprised to see that the House of Assembly felt that all that is required of them, concerning insecurity, is to call on the president to expedite action on the creation of State Police! We are seriously in soup in this state.
I thought the Oyo State House of Assembly, as the representatives of the citizens should have been drilling the Governor on why he refused to submit a memorandum for the creation of State Police in Oyo state.
I thought they should have been drilling him on why he paid a whooping sum of 7.8 billion Naira for the purchase of surveillance Aircrafts and the state is yet to take deliveries of the Aircrafts despite the fact that the Aircrafts have been purportedly paid for over a year ago.
I thought they would be sober and visibly angry about the fact that a young mother and her sons were kidnapped in broad daylight within the capital of Oyo state in the early hours of this morning.
I thought that someone, within the House would be provoked to raise a motion on a matter of urgent public interests regarding the breakdown of security in the state!
Alas! No one did. It was business as usual.
Like I said, it is very unfortunate that we now found ourselves in a situation where citizens could be kidnapped in broad daylight, within the state Capital.
However, what is more worrisome is the fact that the state Government is being insensitive to this unfortunate development.
Yesterday, an Aide of the Governor was accused of attacking those who are legitimately protesting against the security challenges in the state and Nigeria. Today, citizens of the state were kidnapped and everyone is acting as if nothing happened!
The other time, Governor Seyi Makinde was talking about his helplessness to do something about the abduction of the victims of the Bandits attacks at Ogbomoso. He has been playing a card which suggests that the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria must be blamed for whatever happened at Oriire Local Government.
What are we going to say about this unfortunate incident which happened in the heart of Ibadan? I have seen some alleged videos of the incident of the kidnapping. My first observation is the poor condition of the road where the incident happened.
I believe that road belongs to a Local Government Council in Ibadan here.We have been talking about the decapitating of the Local Governments by Governor Seyi Makinde in Oyo state for some time now.
It does look like the abductors leveraged on the poor state of the road and used it to their advantage during the operation. After seeing some of the alleged videos of the incident this morning, I asked myself, of what use are the vehicles Governor Makinde keeps buying for the Police, if they won’t be handy in this type of situations?
I asked myself, what difference would security cameras have made this morning if they were in place?
At least, we are also not expecting Tinubu to come and install security cameras in the streets of Ibadan, are we! The other time, Governor Makinde boasted that he, more than any other Governor in the South West, employed more personnel for the Amotekun Corp.
Mr Governor, where were the Amotekun Corp this morning? I was on a particular program on a Radio station in Ibadan on Tuesday.
I made a strong point about the fact that some people became terrible in Government just because a large number of the citizens have lost their collective responsibilities for fair reasoning.
A couple of days ago, I saw someone who said that he was afraid of taking the chances to vote for the APC because, according to him, the APC doesn’t pay salaries! Imagine that!!
I asked the fellow, how many Governors have emerged on the platform of the APC since the inception of the state?
I also asked him if he believes that the APC has life, to the extent that it is capable of acting in a particular way on its own. I now asked him to tell me, if the APM will be paying salaries since no one has ever emerged as Governor on the platform anywhere in Nigeria.
The fellow is a Teacher in a Secondary school in Oyo state. In the School where he teaches, the roads linking the school from all corners are disastrous. The infrastructures within the school are nothing to write home about. Pupils are asked to pay for chalks, exam papers and other necessary materials.
There are no functioning Libraries and Laboratories in the School, even, as Teachers, there are no decent offices for them to stay but the most important point he raised was that the APC doesn’t pay salaries!
I am beginning to understand, exactly what happened at Stockholm. I would have loved to talk extensively about Governor Makinde’s recent Bonds but this is no time to play politics.
My prayers are that the abducted victims across the state will be reunited with their loved ones very soon.
After that, we will have ample time to ask the right questions about this Bonds and the reasons why they were gotten.
For now, I want to plead with Governor Seyi Makinde, at least, for now, allow the Local Governments to access their monthly allocations in full.
Not only that, give them approvals to attend to security challenges in their respective Local Governments in line with the peculiarities of each areas. With the kind of money coming from the Federation accounts these days, Local Governments shouldn’t find it difficult to install security cameras where necessary.
They should also be able to at least, equip the Amotekun Corp with certain light weapons and ammunition to defend their Communities. I am surprised that the Governor kept talking about the size of the Amotekun Corp in Oyo state but are they well motivated to respond to challenges? Why are they also not seen patrolling?
Most importantly, Governor Seyi Makinde must swallow his ego and meet with the president. It is a matter of procedure and responsibility for him to do so.
What is the big deal in briefing the president about the challenges we are facing and asking for specific assistance where necessary?
That is part of his responsibilities as the Chief Security officer for the state. Only a moron would believe that the Governor has no roles to play in securing his state.
The President is said to have approved the request for the establishment of Forest Guards in Oyo state. Governor Seyi Makinde must bury his ego and collaborate with the office of the National Security Adviser so that they would form a synergy on how best to hasten the take off of this Force. ThisInsecurity: Governor Seyi Makinde’s Insensitivity And Indifference is no time for bulk passing and politicking.
Sola Abegunde.
