KSA and OBEY dream deffered

Leader of the opposition within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo state, Lekan Balogun, has asserted that state governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala lacks popularity in his hometown, Ogbomoso.

Mr.Balogun, one time senator and Ibadan high chief, said in Ibadan on Sunday while reviewing the last week’s anti-Akala rally in Ogbomoso that his lack of appeal was one of the reasons why Mr Alao-Akala was opposed to the rally staged by the opposition.

Describing the rally as a success, Mr Balogun said it had put clouds to the governor’s ambition to return to office next year as many people of the town are equally aware of the governor’s bad performance and would not want him to come back next year.

“Without the meeting, we would not have known that the governor lacks strong followership in Ogbomoso,” he said. “The experience made nonsense of his often repeated allegation that the opposition to him is purely and simply a localized Ibadan phenomenon; whereas, the governor is just simply unpopular. In retrospect, it became obvious why the governor did not want the meeting in Ogbomoso to hold at all.” Mr Balogun led other party leaders,including former governor, Rashidi Ladoja; Senate Leader, Teslim Kolawole Folarin; former Secretary to State Government (SSG) in the state, Sarafadeen Alli and members of the PDP Implementation Committee in the state led by their chairman, Yunus Akintunde, to the rally.

Might is not right

Blaming the government’s ‘might is right’ philosophy on the loss of lives reported at the town before the rally, he said his group only got to know about the incident through newspapers reports.

“Why should a government bring out hoodlums to prevent the holding of a meeting regardless the citizens constitutional right of association, freedom of speech and movement, why? again, why should anybody be prevented from using public places for lawful business? For instance, local government halls, schools,these are public institutions that are collectively owned and for which we should all have access for the purpose of lawful transactions,” he said.

Mr.Balogun also wondered why the governor would want to prevent those opposing his second term ambition from holding rally in his town after doing same for his own ambition at the homesteads of the said opposition.

“The governor had his so-called second term declaration a few weeks ago in Ibadan.

His faction is known to have held meetings, rallies in Lagelu, my local government area in not less than four or five times in the last one year and at no time was there a threat to law and order,” he said.

Commending the police for their response, the PDP leader noted that the state police command ensured that the meeting was held peacefully and successfully.