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The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State have exchanged words over the demolition of staff quarters of the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS).
Last week, the state government demolished one of the quarters to signal the commencement of demolition of the entire quarters and to also send signals to occupants of its commitment to the plan to convert the land to an estate that will be named after Mr Lere Adigun, who was Governor Seyi Makinde’s benefactor.
The APC had in a statement last Friday kicked against the move, describing it as wicked, and another policy summersault in a series of such for which the Makinde administration would be remembered. It argued that the state government could still use the free expanse of land in the premises for any project if it so desires and counts it as a priority but that it was needless pulling down structures that are serving staff of the corporation.
Reacting on Wednesday, the PDP described APC’s stand as part of continuous destructive criticism against Makinde’s laudable move to further modernise the state capital, Ibadan, by creating more beautiful GRAs in the state. It said pulling down “the moribund BCOS Staff Quarters should readily be a welcome development by any individual, group or political party.”
The statement by state PDP Publicity Secretary, Mr Akeem Olatunji, accused Oyo APC of ‘deceitfully and maliciously’ instigating BCOS workers against the government over a move that is targeted at improving the modernity of Ibadan city at no detriment to neither BCOS nor its staff.
The party noted that the state Commissioner for Lands, Barrister Abdul-Raheem Abdul-Rahman, during his last press briefing, had explained that “the state government will construct two modern GRAs which will stand the test of time out of the moribund expanse of lands behind BCOS for the purpose of providing beautiful and affordable housing for its growing population as well as shoring up its revenue base.”
It further explained that there was no parameter or basis of comparing the almost two years Makinde-led PDP government with APC’s eight years in government, describing the last administration as the “greatest mistake” collectively made by the people of the state, who on realising that, dethroned APC government in 2019.
It recalled that while the previous government spent less than N40 million on the corporation for eight years, the Makinde administration has already spent over N100 million on it in less than two years.
“Despite this very poor attention to the corporation, the APC government illegally sacked many of the staff while over 200 staff members including respectable veterans in the broadcast profession were redeployed to ministries and parastatals where their professional expertise are absolutely underutilized. All have been recalled by Prince Dotun Oyelade Management team put in place by the Governor Seyi Makinde led PDP government.
“The Seyi Makinde led PDP government in less than two years in office has installed world-class Digital Audio Satellite System for Hi-Fidelity crystal clear and seamless broadcast across all BCOS stations in all the zones of Oyo State.
“Beautification of BCOS and its environment, upgrade of broadcast facilities to world class at the ICT Division of Engineering Department for audio and video conferencing from all over the world has also been accomplished,” the PDP