AC faults Akala’s comments on Alaafin, Adesina

Written by The Punch Monday, 26 July 2010

The Oyo State chapter of the Action Congress on Sunday took on the state Governor, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala, over his recent media comments on the allegations by a former Governor of the state, Alhaji Lam Adesina, and the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, that the governor was planning to kill them.

During a media parley on Wednesday evening, Alao-Akala had told journalists that he did not need to kill the Alaafin when he had the power as a sitting governor to banish him from his kingdom.

He had also boasted that killing Adesina could not boost his electoral fortune because the former governor was not a threat to his second term ambition.

But AC, in a statement by its Director of Publicity, Mr. Wasiu Olatubosun, in Ibadan, the state capital, described the statements credited to the governor as unfortunate and unbecoming of a public officer.

The party said Alao-Akala’s reaction showed that he was either economical with the truth or mischievous about the scenario.

The statement said, “You don’t need to be a student of history to remember what happened in December 2002, when our leader and former Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Chief Bola Ige, was murdered a few months to the 2003 general election.

“It would also interest Governor Akala to know that the democracy he is now a beneficiary of was as a result of the doggedness of some people like Lam, who fought the military to earn the title of ‘prisoner of war,’ and he has not reneged for once in fighting for the oppressed.”

On Akala’s claim that he won election with his father’s name while Adesina won using Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s name, the party recalled that Alao-Akala got to power through an alleged betrayal of his boss, Alhaji Rasheed Ladoja.

“We want to reiterate that the party will do everything possible to protect the traditional institution in the state from being haunted and harassed by power mongers,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, ahead of the 2011 elections, the AC has released its zoning formula for elective positions.

According to a separate statement made available to our correspondent in Ibadan, the state capital, on Sunday by Olatubosun, the governorship seat has been zoned to the Oyo South Senatorial District.