Former Attorney- General (AG) and Commissioner for Justice in Oyo State, Micheal Folorunso Lana, has accused Governor Abiola Ajimobi, of lawlessness and using the state apparatus to torment the citizens. This accusation followed the arrest and conviction of five of the members of Temidire Saw millers Plank Market Association on Monday by a Mobile Court presided over by Ola Oni, at the former Social Democratic Party (SDP) state secretariat, Old Ife Road, Ibadan. But, the State Commissioner for Environment and Habitat, Lowo Obisesan, described the accusation of Lana as baseless, alleging that he was interpreting law to suit his own purpose and not as it should be logically interpreted. The five accused were sentenced to four months imprisonment with a fine option of N50,000 each by the Mobile Court for allegedly occupying a private sawmill put under lock and key by the government agents last week, an action described as contravening a section of the State Environmental Law. Lana, who is a Counsel to the embattled association described the situation as inexplicable, accusing the state government of barbarism, noting that the law under which the accused were tried and convicted was only known to the government as it had never been published for public consumption. He recalled that the association had secured court injunction before their forceful ejection from their original market at Temidire area in Old Ife Road, Ibadan in Egbeda Local Government Area of Oyo State, where it had been since 1984 and over which the current Commissioner for Environment and Habitat. Lana described the Monday arrest and conviction of the accused as attempt to subvert the court contempt against Obisesan, but vowed that everything within the armpit of law would be done to ensure the protection of fundamental human rights of his clients. The development was another dimension to the crisis raging between the state government and the Temidire Sawmill Plank Market owners over their forceful displacement by the government from their former market site at Temidire. Hitherto, the saw millers, numbering about 2,000 under the aegis of Temidire Saw millers Plank Market Association had been forcefully ejected by the state government from their original site at Temidire as part of government’s urban renewal project following which the state government was sued and injunction granted by Oyo State High Court. It was in a bid by some of the displaced saw millers/plank sellers to eke out a living that made them to relocate to the private sawmill said to be owned by one of the former founders of the Temidire sawmill/plank market at Hope Area about two months ago pending the determination of the suit in court. Trouble however started again last week as the men of Youth Empowerment Scheme of Oyo State (YES-O) allegedly stormed the private sawmill at Hope Area and allegedly locked up the place, a development that forced the association to accuse the state government of witchunting.
Posted on: Wed, 22 May 2013 18:54:07 +0000
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