A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, Engineer Oyedele Hakeem Alao, has carpeted Governor Seyi Makinde, for turning the state into a theatre of hooliganism and thuggery, saying the people deserve to live in peace.
Alao in a statement he issued in Ibadan and titled, “The reemergence of hooliganism and thuggery in Oyo State: Time to call Governor Seyi Makinde to order”, said the peace in the state which was sustained by the APC administration for eight years has continued to be shattered by Makinde.
According to him, no day passes since the governor came to office that the state was not in the news for the bad things with thuggery, hooliganism, brigandage, killings and attack on innocent citizens not only across Ibadan, the state capital but other parts of the state occurring every day.
He said the governor has turned the state into a den of criminals which specialized in exporting thugs and people of questionable characters, stating that this was displayed during the South West Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) convention held in Osogbo, last year and last week arrest of 98 members of Park Management System (PMS), going to Ekiti State for “mercenary assignment”.
Alao also disclosed that members of the state PMS were behind the deliberate vandalization of his campaign billboards in parts of Ibadanland such as Total Garden roundabout and close to MTN Office, Yidi-Gate, stating that workers engaged to mount the billboards were not only chased away but also attacked and sustained various degrees of injury.
The gubernatorial candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the 2019 general election, while urging stakeholders in the state to appeal to Governor Makinde to stop the menace and return the state to its pacesetter status of what is good and noble, said the government has a duty to allow the people of the state sleep with their two eyes closed.
The statement read, “It is quite unfortunate that Governor Makinde is allowing the complete peace laboured for by all the stakeholders and enjoyed for eight years under the administration of a former governor, late Senator Abiola Ajimobi, to go down the drain. His administration has turned the state to pacesetter in exporting thuggery and hooliganism while the people have continued to live in fear.
“Governor Makinde has shrieked his responsibility as the Chief Security Officer by not taking any serious actions to curb the menace of thuggery and hooliganism which has become the order of the day not only in Ibadan but across other major towns in the state. The activities of members of the state PMS exhibited in Osogbo last year and the recent one in Ekiti State, are uncalled for and not good for the image of the state.
“The failure of the governor to rein in these street urchins and hoodlums who many believed is his creation and who have taken over the state is nothing but a failure on his part and incompetence of his government.”
Alao concluded by admonishing Governor Makinde to let the state achieve peace as defined by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in 1970, while delivering a lecture, calling for a positive state of quiet and tranquillity devoid of inter- ethic and inter-tribal disharmony, hooliganism, thuggery and brigandary.
