Makinde to Ajimobi: No law permits you to take away cars free of charge

The tango between the incumbent and immediate past government on the issue of cars carted away continued on Sunday with the Governor Seyi Makinde’s government chiding the former governor Abiola Ajimobi government for defending its taking away some government vehicles.

Apparently making reference to a press conference by aides of Ajimobi last Friday, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Seyi Makinde, Mr Taiwo Adisa, in a statement on Sunday, decried Ajimobi’s aides’ attempt to defend “propensity to loot government property” as one that debases the true Omoluabi culture.

In the statement, Makinde said the Ajimobi’s aides should not confuse the boarded vehicles with illegally taken cars, adding that also to be questioned is whether the appropriate amount was paid for the vehicles that were boarded.

Noting that there was no government instrument or law of the state House of Assembly that permitted vehicles to be taken away freely or in exercise of discretionary powers, the statement pointed to records showing that the immediate past government expended huge sums of money on the purchase of new cars at the twilight of the administration.

Makinde also described as false the claims by the Ajimobi aides of brashness, noting that the security operatives were civil in their procedures of carrying out the recovery of the cars.

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The statement read, in parts, “This government will not permit anyone to mix up facts in an attempt to defend a strange tradition of “vultures in governance” which is diametrically opposed to the Service Agenda of the Makinde administration.

“There is a clear difference when a vehicle is boarded and the appropriate amount paid. The records at the disposal of government clearly demarcate the illegally taken cars from the boarded vehicles.

“We also make bold to state that the officials charged with recovery of the said cars and the security operatives have so far been very civil in their procedures and no fewer than 19 cars have been recovered.

“Television cameras were on the toe of the officials who recovered the last set of five vehicles and those who took the cars away are well documented.

“There is no government instrument or law of the State House of Assembly that permits vehicles to be taken away “free of charge” or in the exercise of “discretionary powers” as shown in a memo elements of the past government secretly leaked in a bid to blackmail the incumbent government.

“Because the government in place in Oyo is all about probity, openness, and accountability, it will not condone attempts to seize public property or distribute them like a Father Christmas in the twilight of his trade.

“It is disheartening that some persons who have had the opportunity of serving our Dear state, a state of Omoluabi would openly defend any absurdity or propensity to loot government property in a manner that debases the true Omoluabi culture that defines us here.”