>
Some All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders and chairmen of local governments in Oke Ogun area of Oyo State have advised the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, to stop inciting the public against the state governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi.
The party men under the aegis of a group, G18, in a statement signed by their coordinator, Mr Kareem Goke Kasali, on Wednesday, accused Shittu of trying to pitch the people against Governor Ajimobi.
The Minister was reported to have said, during a media interview at the weekend, that the governor was ruling the state with impunity by failing to conduct local government election.
The group said Shittu ought to have commended Ajimobi for obeying the court ruling that suspended the election instead of accusing him of impunity. They accused him of deliberately ignoring the difference between impunity and the rule of law.
G18 called on Shittu to think about the consequences that would have followed if Governor Ajimobi had disobeyed the court order by Justice John Tsoho of an Abuja Federal High Court, which restrained the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) from going ahead with the February 11 election.
It said: “We expected the minister to have acted like a stakeholder, which he called himself, and meet with the governor on whatever clarifications he needed rather than trying to cause tension and disturb the peace and orderliness which the administration of Governor Ajimobi has restored to Oyo State after a long time. But since he failed to do that, it has become clear that whatever he said was in bad blood and should be ignored by the people of the state who are in the know as to why the local government election could not be held as planned.
“We, as leaders of the APC in Oke Ogun, also call on the minister, who is one of the leaders of the party in the zone, to desist from acts that could put our zone at loggerheads with the governor, who means well for Oke Ogun and the entire Oyo State. We also remind Alhaji Shittu of his words in November 2015, when he became minister, that he would be loyal to Ajimobi, who he described as his governor and leader, saying he would not compete with the governor. We hope he has not started competing unnecessarily with the governor.”
READ: Ajimobi to appoint new caretaker committees pending resolution of LG election legal tussle
Recall that some village heads, arguing that the creation of new LCDAs tampered with their domains, obtained an order of an Abuja Federal High Court restraining OSIEC from conducting the planned election.