The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, on Wednesday, said he held no grudge against Governor Seyi Makinde.
There had been insinuations that Oba Adeyemi had ill-feeling towards Makinde following the recent siting of a mobile police force squadron in Ago-Are, Oke-Ogun area of the state.
Letters written to President Muhammadu Buhari by the Alaafin requesting for the siting of a police squadron in Oyo town had circulated across the social media bringing up insinuations that the governor opposed the Alaafin by siting the squadron in Ago-Are.
The Alaafin, who spoke while hosting Makinde in his palace, said if he had misgivings against Makinde he would write a letter privately to the governor or visit him at the governor’s office.
He explained that he only requested for a squadron because he was greatly disturbed by the menace of thuggery, gang violence perpetrated by boys of various gangs in the town.
Oba Adeyemi stressed that though he wanted the squadron in Oyo town because of the gang violence they faced, he respected decisions of persons in authority hence had no misgivings on the siting of the squadron in Ago-Are.
“I have been dealing with wealthy, influential persons in the society. We must not ridicule anyone in authority.
“There can’t be rift between me and someone in authority. I have been dealing with persons in authority over the years. Even during the Bola Ige era that they never wanted to see me, we became friends.
“When you have someone who is wise, educated and has read widely, one will be wise on how to deal with persons in authority.
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“As regards what transpired recently, I have no grouse against the governor. If I do, I will write a letter to the governor to explain.
“As Alaafin, one must not allow the governor to be ridiculed. If I have reservations against the governor, I will not hesitate to go and meet the governor.
“Bola Ige told me that whenever I have reservations, I should come to meet with him and that is how we became friends.
“The issue is that we have a problem in Oyo town, I see the boys of Apaara, Ilaka, Ajagba, Oke-Apo in the afternoon wielding machetes and threatening fire and brimstone. We cannot handle them,” Oba Adeyemi added.
In his remarks, Makinde stated that he was in the zone to commission the renovated Primary health centre, Aafin and the 40-bed isolation centre in Awe.
Earlier on Wednesday, Makinde also flagged off the Youths in Agribusiness Project at the Rural Community Development Centre (RCDC), Aawe.
He declared that agriculture, an area where the state has comparative advantage, is being leveraged to expand its economy.
According to Makinde, in a bid to ensure that those things were done correctly, the government paid the counterpart fund of N350 million for the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP), which will allow it to fix over 1,000 kilometres of rural roads.
The governor, who spoke at the 210 hectares facility with about 133 cultivatable hectares, decried how the facility had become moribund for years, noting that based on his experiment with Ajia, his village before he became governor, he knew what to do to restore the RCDC facility.
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