>
The governorship candidate of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) in Oyo state and former governor of the state, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala has highlighted some of the works he carried out in the Oke Ogun zone of Oyo state while in office between 2007 and 2011.
He spoke of them this during an interactive session with the people of Oke Ogun on Gravity 88.1 FM in Igboho as part of his campaign tour of the zone.
The ADP candidate stated that he is bold to canvass for votes in the zone because of his “sterling performance.”
His words: “My sterling performance gave me the boldness to say I want to contest again and come here to ask for your votes. I do not make empty promises and you all can see all I did because all our projects are durable and you still enjoy them.
“I constructed Alaga to Saki road terminating at the entrance to Oke Ogun Polytechnic, Saki to Ilesha Baruba road, Otu-Igbojaiye – Komu -Baba ode Road down to Ilero. So also is the road from Iganna – Ayegun after Iwere Ile down to the border between Nigeria and Benin Republic before Ijio town.
“I ensured that a school was established in town to curb the difficulty of our children in this town crossing the border to Benin Republic to attend school and I made sure teachers were posted to the school with extra incentives to make them committed to their duties. I know what I did but unfortunately, things are not the same again.”
Alao-Akala lamented the state of infrastructure in the zone, adding that he felt bad with what he saw during his campaign tour of the zone.
“This is not the Oke-Ogun that I handed over to him when I stepped aside eight years ago. All the roads I constructed, not a single kilometre had been added to it; even the ones I constructed are not being maintained; they have all collapsed and in terrible shape. I came into town through Sepeteri, the road is an eye sore. Equipments for the take off of the television station at Oje Owode were on ground and ready for installation when I was going on sabbatical leave because the people had no television station.
“I set up Alaga FM because the people only had Radio Cotonou and Kwara to listen to and were cut off from happenings within Oyo state. But as I speak, equipments meant for the television station have been moved to Ibadan and the buildings have been taken over by weed and animals; the buildings are caving in. If not for the initiative of the proprietor of Gravity FM, people would have gone back to the dark era when they listen to Cotonou radio or Ilorin FM because even the Oke-Ogun FM at Alaga was in comatose,” he said.
He asked the people of the zone to vote for him because he is the only one, among all the governorship candidates, who knows the area and the people very well.
“No governor ever in the history of Oyo State knows the nooks and crannies of the state like I do. I have gone to every community right till the border; I know their needs and can therefore give them exactly what will make life easier for them.
“No governor before or after me has ever visited Okerete town in Oke-Ogun here which is 91 kilometers from Saki town. If you don’t even know what the community looks like, how will you know what their needs are; governance is not on paper, I know the people and I know what to do for them,” Alao-Akala stated.
He promised to alleviate the sufferings of the zone by engaging in massive infrastructural development of the area if elected as the governor on March 2, adding “this was not my plan for my people in Oke-Ogun and even the state at large. We ran a government that had interest in human capital development and we have series of projects to show for it. Things are not working but I can assure you that better days are ahead by God’s grace.”