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The All Progressives Congress(APC) in Oyo State, on Thursday described the position of the Pan-Yoruba Socio-Political organisation, Afenifere, on the imbroglio over the administration of local governments and local council development areas in the state as shocking, accusing the group of being partisan and bias in the matter.
It would be recalled that Afenifere, on Tuesday, condemned the Inspector General of Police (IGP) for sponsoring lawlessness in Oyo State over the dissolution of the local government chairmen administration in the state.
The group had after its monthly meeting in Akure, specifically alleged Adamu of foisting anarchy on Oyo State by directing the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Shina Olukolu, to take actions to implement the legal opinion of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) on the sacked local government chairmen in the state.
However, the APC in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Dr. AbdulAzeez Olatunde, stated that although some segments of the public have always argued that the organization has deviated from its ground-norm objectives saying that “Afenifere of today is now undisguised Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in body and spirit.”
“Ordinarily, one would have expected Afenifere to be seen as the father of all Yorubas in all the political parties, but we were been guided to believe that actions of Afenifere is contrary to our assumption and expectations.
“Several past incidents were cited to buttress their opinion of the leadership of Afenifere.
“Firstly, last year, May 29th 2019, when governors of three (3) South West States of Oyo, Ogun and Lagos States took oath of office, Afenifere leaders only attended the swearing-in of Gov Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, of PDP, ignoring the swearing-in of Ogun and Lagos State governors outrightly, who are from APC.
“Furthermore, the partisanship approach of Afenifere to Oyo State Local Government issues is seriously legendary,” Olatunde said.
The APC spokesperson said if the leadership of Afenifere were not bias in their approach, they should have called Governor Makinde to order when he was crossing his boundary by turning himself to judiciary, by claiming that the election of the local government chairmen was invalidly conducted.
“We would not have bothered reminding the Afenifere that they are PDP socio-cultural club if they hadn’t dabble into Oyo State Local Government Elections biasly.
“The ground norm of philosophers is that, he who must call anyone to equity must come with a clean hand must come with a clean hand,” he added.
Oyo APC further stated that the group has not bothered to ask the governor some salient questions before intervening in the matter.
“Did Oyo State PDP participated in the May 12 2018 local government elections?No.So where is the locus standi of PDP Oyo State in this case?
“After the May 12 2018 local government elections, was the Election Tribunal instituted?, if yes, how many cases were litigated?
“PDP Oyo State had also claimed that there were court injunctions that restraint the May 12 2018 LG election, let them produce it or them?
If Afenifere can make efforts to at least get the above narrative right, we are sure that they would have called Gov Seyi Makinde to order long time ago before now.
“Is Afenifere aware that Oyo State High Court ruled that status quo ante must be maintained in its ruling before Gov Seyi Makinde decided to form local government caretaker committee in breach of the court ruling?
It is very unfortunate that the Afenifere chose to embrace pettiness above national discuss.
“If Gov Seyi Makinde chose impunity and arbitrariness in intervening in the local government issues and the Federal Government called Oyo State Government to order by calling their attention to similar Supreme Court judgement in case of similar legal disposition to return the elected council chairmen back to their offices, where lies the sin of Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Inspector General of Police (IGP).
“Is Afenifere aware that the same Oyo State High Court whose judgement was termed “Kangaroo” by Gov Seyi Makinde because they ousted the power of the governor and the state parliament from removing the elected local government officials was also approached on Tuesday, January 28 2020, for restraining injunction of already taken actions which implied that Gov Seyi Makinde chooses when to obey Court judgement and in fact which section of Nigeria Constitution suits him to uphold, contrary to the oath of office he swore to,” the APC asked.
Also, the party thanked the security agencies in the state and the general public for their co-operation in the smooth resumption of the elected local government officials to their offices.
According to Olatunde, there is no winner, no vanquish, democracy is the winner. He said the party is synonymous with peace, adding “our elected officials are also ambassador of peace.”