The Oyo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described as shameful former governor Ajimobi’s description of the issue of cars purportedly carted away by former government officials as mundane.
The ruling PDP, in a statement by its publicity secretary, Mr Akeem Olatunji, said Ajimobi should rather prevail on his loyalists to return government property and not justify theft.
In what it described as not statesmanlike, the PDP said it was sad that Ajimobi was playing to the gallery and pampering wrongdoing in the carting away of cars.
“We read with serious consternation, comments credited to the former Governor of Oyo State, Senator Ajimobi, especially in respect of the dissolved local governments and the missing cars belonging to the state government.
“While we are very much aware that the state government is dealing with the twin issues with all the seriousness, we are, however, appalled by the statement credited to the former Governor, which amounts to a father attempting to pamper a thieving child.
“We know that it is not in the character of statesmen to pander towards the axis of evil and pamper wrongdoing by whoever and that is why we are saddened at this attempt by Ajimobi to give justification to the allegation of theft.
“It is shameful to see Ajimobi describe the monumental theft of government property by some persons as a “mundane issue.”
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“Some officials of the government led by Ajimobi refused to return cars and other items belonging to the state after their tour of duty. That cannot be a matter to be celebrated or described as “mundane” by anyone.
“Should we classify theft as mundane because it was perpetrated by some political “demi god’s” who happened to serve a previous government?
“What is expected of Ajimobi is to prevail on his loyalists to return any property belonging to the state they might have illegally kept aside,” the statement read.
With reference to Ajimobi’s proclamations of a hugely successful eight years in office, the PDP said those achievements fell short of expectations of residents of the state and was a celebration of failure and uncompleted projects.
This is as the party said it was aware of plans by Ajimobi to pressurize the Makinde government to fail from the outset through his utterances, last-minute spending and refusal to cooperate with the transition committee.
“Our people are not unaware of the series of landmines positioned on the path of the new government by the administration of Ajimobi. We are all witnesses to the series of last-minute spending and the refusal to cooperate with the transition committee. Those are not the antics of statesmen.
“We will also state it loud and clear that the PDP is not in doubt that the new driver in Oyo State is competent and ready to remove all cobwebs and cogs in the wheels of progress. We will all be witnesses to the success story.
“We, however, make bold to state that the said achievements he claimed to have recorded fall way below the pacesetter status of Oyo State. At best, Ajimobi’s laps amount to a celebration of failure; what with the uncompleted projects all around.
“With the funds his government claimed to have committed to capital projects, we should not be talking of poorly executed contracts and abandoned roads everywhere even after a government has spent eight years in office,” the statement further read.
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