The immediate former lawmaker representing Oluyole Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Abuja, Honorable Samson Olusumbo Olugbemi has warned his successor, Hon. Tolulope Akande-Shadipe, to desist from laying claims to most of his achievements with a view to attracting undue credit to herself.
Olugbemi represented the federal constituency at the Green Chamber between 2015 and 2019 under the platform of the All Progressives Congress before leaving for the African Democratic Congress (ADC) following the decision of the Unity Forum bloc to pull out from the APC in the wake of then ruling party’s intractable internal crisis of 2018.
In a statement issued on Friday and personally signed by the former federal lawmaker, Mrs. Akande-Shadipe was accused of “having an unbridled penchant for usurping the right to credit on account of many enviable record of achievements of her predecessor rather than exploring the opportunities available to her to add more value to the lives of the Oluyole Constituents.
“To set the record straight, it is in the know of many people that I successfully lobbied for the inclusion of the rehabilitation of some federal roads within Oluyole federal constituency in 2019 after more than three years of intense efforts aimed at getting these and many things done for the benefit of the whole Oyo State.
“Specifically on March 27, 2019, I got the nod of the leadership of the House Committee on Federal Road Management Agency (FERMA) for the inclusion of two major federal roads which pass through Oluyole local government to other parts of the country in the 2019 Federal Government Appropriation documents and this was duly signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari after it had been passed by the National Assembly.
“The roads, in question, are; Odo-Ona-Elewe – Idi-Iroko – Olugbemi – Adewole Road and Olofa – Elebu Road. This was in addition to several interventions of the Federal Government of Nigeria which I secured to the advantage of the people of the constituency who had been abandoned for long in the scheme of things. For the sake of record, another celebrated one was the iconic struggle which culminated in the reinstatement of over 90 staffers of Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN) who were wrongfully sacked from office.
“If a federal lawmaker had successfully secured the approval for the construction of some federal government projects in his constituency and the same projects could not be flagged off until few months after due to some paper works, it is not enough for his predecessor to hijack same and parade it as his or her own achievements. This would not be the first time she would be making this kind of mistake but I take it for innocent error on her part which must be corrected immediately.
“Interestingly, it was some members of the APC who drew my attention to the pomp and ceremony with which Mrs Akande-Shadipe celebrated the flag-off ceremony of the said projects last week as she claimed it was her efforts that yielded the projects. However, what she needs now is to study the record available to her and go all out to outdo all her predecessors in the areas of attracting more federal government attention to Oluyole federal constituency and prioritization of the overall welfare of her constituents.” Olugbemi stated.
