“petitions Buhari, Tinubu, Oyegun
By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
Fresh crisis is now brewing in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State as the Minister of Communications, Barrister Adebayo Shittu raised, alarm of an alleged ploy by Governor Abiola Ajimobi to destroy APC in the state.
Barrister Shittu who is also one of the APC governorship aspirants in Oyo state for the 2019 election raised the alarm in a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu and the APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun respectively.
In the petition, the Minister alleged that as far as he was concerned, the petition was to draw the attentions of the APC leadership to the alleged manipulations by Governor Ajimobi so as to save the party from total disintegration in Oyo state.
‘ I don’t have anything personal against Governor Ajimobi, but to stress the importance of him not destroying the very platform that made him governor. The signs that Ajimobi is set to destroy the party are glaring to political watchers, as the voting population in the state is becoming disillusioned more than ever before.”he said.
Barrister Shittu claimed in the petition dated December 18,2017 that his offence to Governor Ajimobi which purportedly led to the demolition of his Computer Based Test (CBT) Centre under construction in Saki, his hometown by the agents of the state government was because of his governorship ambition in the 2019 elections and that all efforts made by him to draw the attention of the governor as at the time of writing the petition did not yield any result as Governor Ajimobi neither picked his calls nor replied to his text messages.
” I am constrained to bring to your notice the unsavory development in our great party in Oyo State and the unbecoming behaviour of Governor Abiola Ajimobi, who is expected to provide sound moral and exemplary leadership to the citizens of our dear State. This line of action becomes imperative in view of the sad turn of events in Oyo State APC. It is an open secret that the fortunes of APC has nosedived in the state due to Governor Ajimobi’s undue arrogance, grandstanding, nepotism, caustic and unguarded utterances and creating unnecessary divisions among party leaders and members thereby balkanising the party along group lines.”
Barrister Shittu added in the petition that “worse still, the traditional media and the social media are awash with various commentaries of the negative impact of Governor Ajimobi’s degeneration behavior in the fortunes of our party.” saying, “it is
on the basis of these facts and some decisions of the Ajimobi’s government as it affects the generality of our people that I have had cause in the past to criticise him and insist that the overall interest of APC as a political party in power should be paramount, rather than the egoistic feelings of the governor and his co-travellers”.
The Minister maintained that he was surprised that Governor Ajimobi was allegedly “harbouring some form of animosity against him despite that he and the governor had a meeting at the Oyo State Government House Abuja where both of them met to resolve all existing misgivings, adding that the governor assured that every differences were resolved.”
“At the meeting, I also mentioned to the Governor the outstanding issue of a Computer Based Test Centre under construction in Shaki, which has become a subject of dispute between me and the local government. I requested for his kind intervention to see to the success of the project which to all intents and purposes would not only assist examination candidates in my hometown but would also be a boost to our party.”
Barrister Shittu stated that “the governor promised to intervene and lay the matter to rest, for which I expressed my appreciation for his brotherly promise. The meeting ended on a good note with the hope of a better working relationship.”saying, ‘during the telephone conversation, it was amazing that the governor on his own reassured me that he was soon going to provide me with official documents to revalidate my ownership of the land on which the CBT Centre was being constructed”.
“Shockingly, the following day, I got information that agents of the state government invaded the site with a bulldozer, a pay loader and people suspected to be thugs, uprooted the on-going CBT building project and demolished over 2,000 9″ blocks on site,