EO6: Clamour for my inclusion among 50 Nigerians placed under travel ban by youth group unwarranted ― Omisore

FORMER deputy governor of Osun State, Senator Iyiola Omisore, on Tuesday said the recent clamour by Yoruba Youth Socio-Cultural Association that his name should be included among 50 Nigerians placed under travel ban through President Muhammadu Buhari’s Executive Order 06 was baseless and amounted to “pull him down syndrome”.

Describing the position of the group as misguided and handiwork of some failed politicians, he contended that their moves aimed at rubbishing his integrity and rising political profile would fail.

Making these disclosures in a press statement signed by his media aide, Mr Jide Fakorede, Omisore stated that “our attention has been drawn to a poorly written statement being circulated around by a faceless group called, Yoruba Youth Socio-cultural Association criticizing the exclusion of Senator Iyiola Omisore’s name from a purported travel ban list.”

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The statement reads “Ordinarily, we would have ignored this baseless and worthless allegation from this group as this clearly can best be described as the hands of Esau but the voice of Jacob, but for a few that may be misguided, we owe them a sacred duty of making this clarification.”

“This fictitious group is a creation of those who were not happy with the recent political developments in Osun State and who obviously do not mean well for the state but only trying to mutilate the high integrity of Senator Omisore. We have no doubt of the existence of some failed politicians who have scores to settle with the former Osun state deputy governor but are now feeling frustrated with his continuous rise in the political firmament of the country despite all their ”pull him down” effort.”

“These set of persons represents retrogression, deliberate falsehood and under-development. Again, they have failed. Let’s face the facts squarely. Senator Iyiola Omisore was wrongly alleged in 2016 and he surrendered himself to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for investigation and was given a ‘clean bill of health’ by the anti-graft body after a thorough investigation.”

” It is on record that no case was instituted against him in any court of our land and neither was he arraigned before any court either. He has been enjoying his freedom and has even presented himself for election into public office passing through all security screenings. So we ask, what is the noise about? The basis for placement on the watch list and travel ban is to ensure that those answering EFCC charges are held within the country and for someone not having a current case with the anti-graft agency, there may be no basis to restrict his movement.”

“Yoruba youths all over the world are known to be intelligent and industrious and will never subject themselves to be used by political jobbers and rejected politicians for a tasteless cheap plate of porridge. We know our youths will never make reckless statements like that.”

“Senator Omisore is busy with the arduous task of building alliance across different political parties with the aim of developing Osun State and using his contacts from his extensive network garnered over the years in the course of his private practice as a successful chartered engineer and will not allow distractions from fake group like this to discourage him.