Former aides of the immediate past Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo state on Friday advised the present administration in the state led by Engr. Seyi Makinde to desist from deliberate campaign of calumny “as this could lead to the breakdown of law and order which the state had hitherto enjoyed in the last eight years”.
They also advised Governor Makinde to squarely face the serious task of governance instead of embarking on the mundane attempt to malign his predecessor in office and paint him and his aides in bad light, among the populace.
The governor’s aides, led by former Commissioner for Education, Prof. Adeniyi Olowofela, gave this advice at a press conference which was held at the premises of the Oyo State council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Iyaganku, Ibadan.
Speaking at the press conference, Prof. Olowofela said “It has come to our notice and our investigation has also revealed that there is deliberate smear campaign against the immediate past administration. This is in order to destroy the legacies of the immediate past administration and to individually and collectively malign us.
“These orchestrated propaganda started a few weeks ago when the former administration was accused of awarding the Iseyin-Oyo road to a faceless contractor at a cost of N2billion per kilometer which had be debunked.
“Not only that, the present administration had also revealed that the state has a debt profile of N150b which has been found to be incorrect according to report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Going further, a bulk of the debt is tied to the $200m (N72b) loan from the World Bank which makes up the so -called debt profile.
“Before its tenure ended on May 29, the Ajimobi administration had not taken up to 30% of that loan. It is a draw down loan whereby payment is released is released for and as projects are executed “, the ex – commissioner explained.
While reacting to the alleged recovered vehicles from some Ajimobi’s aides and political office holders by Governor Makinde, he said, ” these are orchestrated campaigns of calumny and cheap propaganda aimed at rubbishing the well-known giant achievements of the Ajimobi administration which we were part of. We have always challenged the current administration to come up with names of people alleged to have taken vehicles away illegally or without justification. Till date, they have not been able to do so”.
Olowofela, however posed four questions to challenge the present administration as follows:
1) Which mechanic workshop the vehicles were recovered from?
2) Who took such vehicles to mechanic workshop?
3) Were there no documentation given to the mechanic when the vehicles were received? If there were documentations, then they should tell the whole world the circumstances that led to the vehicles being in the workshop?
4) When were the vehicles taken to the workshops?
He specifically alleged one Olopoeniyan as one of the prominent government apologists behind the present smear campaign, adding that they have been going around mechanic workshops, waylaying and picking up vehicles alleged to have been illegally taken away. “Some of these vehicles have either been boarded or officially taken to mechanic workshops for repairs”.
Continuing, the aides further alleged that Makinde has embarked on the recruitment of social media personnel to step up this smear campaign, counselling that propaganda and outright falsehood will not benefit his administration and the generality of the people of Oyo state.
” Empowering touts into taking pictures from mechanic workshops, car snatching on the street under the guise of retrieving government vehicles could lead to a situation of anarchy where men of the underworld would capitalise on this untoward behaviour, to snatch people’s vehicles on the road, encouraging brigandage, breakdown of law and order, which had been ceased to exist in the state under the stewardship of Senator Abiola Ajimobi”, the University Don advised.
