The Chief Press Secretary to the governor of Oyo State, Engineer ‘Seyi Makinde, Mr Taiwo Adisa, has raised the alarm that members of opposition in the state are striving hard to place the state under a siege.
Adisa stated this on Saturday while featuring on Impact Business Radio programme, Bottom Line, anchored by popular broadcast journalist, Anuoluwapo Omorinde.
According to him, “the essence of all these distractions is to bring the state down to one thing- insecurity, so that at the end of the day, whatever progress is being made in the state will boil to insignificant. What people, by that time will be talking about is the fact that there is insecurity, they are fighting here and there. There is commotion even when there is not. So, that is the siege they want to place Oyo State. I must tell you there are people orchestrating that. It is not coincident at all.
“Apart from the fact that there is no society in the world that is free of issues but check that of Oyo State, you begin to see people posting things that are not true about chaos happening in some certain places. Have you seen that in Adamawa, Borno, Zamfara before? Have you seen opposition members posting lies on the Facebook? Even in Lagos, how many pocket of crimes have you seen recorded in Lagos everyday? If you check Police index, can you compare what is happening in every other states of the federation with that of Oyo State? No. People only shout whatever they see or they don’t see in Ibadan on Facebook.
“They give opponents the content to monger rumour on social media. Every time there is going to be one incident or the other, how come it is one opposition member that will post it on the Facebook? Are there no indications that certain things are being propelled? They want to place Oyo State under a siege situation by making sure that people are restless and afraid. They want the people to be scared that the whole place is not peaceful.
“If you are a lover of the state and you want to really govern the state, do you want to govern a place of commotion or a place where development will thrive? If you are wishing Oyo State bad because you are not the Governor or because your party is not in power, then you are a bad person. Their is because you have to hope that the state should continue to grow. The tenure of Governor Makinde will end one day and when it ends, somebody else must step in and who is the person? Do you want to step into a Somalia rated situation or a State that is progressing and wants to grow further. So, we should think for our state as statesmen and think for our country as countrymen. As patriotic citizens, we should not think that because our party is not in position of authority, commotion should happen or blackmail whoever is there so that when election comes, the lapses will be used as launchpad.
“Let me remind them that those who ride on the back of a riger will always end in the bottom of the tiger. If you want to use evil plot to gain power, evil will consume such person. That is how it always happen. Donr wish your State bad because you are also citizens, indegenes or residents of the State. If you see a hint of something bad that is happening, tell the security agencies. Call 615. Call Amotekun or other government officials that can intervene. Don’t go to the Facebook to be posting such occurrences.”
“People should not raise rumor to the realm of reality. There is a broadcast by the governor made on the general situation of the state. If anybody wants to design himself as trouble maker, that is when such person will fall in line with what the governor was talking about – that the person should be arrested. So, if you call somebody a freedom fighter and there is a cause for the freedom fighting, then the person will clarify himself as a freedom fighter. If we say they are trouble makers and the Police say they are trouble makers, then the Police say they will be on top of the situation, then we should leave the Police to do their job. Is the governor an arresting authority or Executive authority?
“So, I want to urge the people not to link the governor to issues that are not but only the issues that have to o with the peace and development of the State.
On when the Governor will visit Ibarapa, Adisa explained: “You have got to know that there must be build up to the activities of government. In the order of protocol, they say the big man speaks last in most cases. Now, the big man will not be the first to visit. What has happened in the case of Ibarapa and Oke-Ogun is I was part of the delegation the governor sent to Ibarapa and that was not the first delegation but it was the delegation the CP was also part of. There was another delegation before that. When the issue of 7-day ultimatum came, one delegation went to Ibarapa the next day to meet with all the leaders, which was led by one of the Chief Security Advisers of the governor, to meet with the traditional rulers, Seriki and all the stakeholders in Igangan and other areas. They went to see what was happening themselves.
“The delegation brought a report to the governor and said some things. But there was a thinking that the speech by the Govenor was directed at any particular person and the committee was able to tell them that it is not but directed at criminals among us.
“The second team also went. After that, there were other series of activities. The chairmen of the affected areas have come to Ibadan for meetings. Up to yesterday, the was a meeting of all the service commanders, the CP and all stakeholders. So, those are build up to the time the governor will go there.
“When the governor is going, it has to be definitive. I will tell you that the governor is getting build up to that final visitation, which will now bring a seal to all the actions that have been taken. And we have all heard about the actions; more Amotekun corps will be taken there. The 200 personnel have already been deployed. Also, you have heard about more policemen. Even, the governor went to meet with the President on this matter to demand for more Police units because a state like Oyo should have like 7 or 8 units but we have two.”
