Re-Aregbesola, Omisore and I By Victor Oriola The attention of Iyiola Omisore Campaign Organisation has been drawn to a tissue of lies wrapped up in the above article written by Senator Jide Omoworare and published in the last Sunday edition of Nation newspapers. While we could have ignored the piece as regurgitation by a schoolboy of jaundiced narratives from his teacher, we find it compelling to set the records straight especially as facts of history were distorted and misrepresented. The issues touched by the writer fall into three main angles namely the deceitful records of his boss in power as governor of Osun state for the past three years, the betrayal politics of Alliance for Democracy and the illegally conducted 2011 elections in Osun state. As we are trusting in you to accord us right of reply in line with professional ethics, we state categorically that the writer was economical with the truth especially starting from the last general elections in the state. It is on judicial records that prior to the 2011 elections , thirty eight stakeholders went to court seeking an order to stop the election on the ground that the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Ambassador Rufus Oluwatoyin Akeju was a biased umpire having served as a special adviser to Senator Bola Tinubu in Lagos and having been confirmed as a card carrying member of the A C N. The court granted the order, restraining INEC from recognising Akeju as REC and restraining Akeju from conducting or supervising the conduct of elections. The commission ignored the court order and allowed an A C N sympathiser to preside over election in Osun state. The suit no is FHC/OS/CS/26/2011and the ruling was delivered on March 28th,2011. The outcome was a massively rigged poll producing the writer and others as illegal winners. As law abiding citizens, the plaintiffs in the original case then went to court seeking invalidation of the election held against a subsisting court order and the court was about determining the suit when the A C N scared of eventual invalidation rushed to delay hearing of the substantive suit. The appeal by the A C N is still pending in the court of Appeal. It is also on records that INEC later appealed the original court ruling at the Court of Appeal. The case appeal number is CA/ AK/46/2011 with INEC and Akeju as the appellants and the PDP as respondent. Why Jide denied existence of court cases over his victory is still not clear. Is it not bare faced misinformation and deception that the writer failed to make reference to this obvious fact? We would have expected Jide to be distinguished enough to admit the above facts as he did on his scampering away from fresh contest after the 2007 election petition ruling. Elections he claimed to have won were illegally conducted and the court is handling the case appropriately. It would have amounted to endorsing illegality to file a petition against an election the court had ruled should not hold. Again ,the writer`s supposition that all previous elections except that of 1999 were rigged is a self serving, indicting accusations. First, the 2003 elections when Chief Bisi Akande was flushed out by Osun people was adjudged one of the best elections in the state. In Osun East senatorial district, Iyiola Omisore won despite being unjustly imprisoned during the period. The groundswell of sympathy guaranteed Iyiola`s victory even when he could not campaign round the district because of incarceration. It is equally deceitful to see only election won by opposition as free and fair. On his relationship with Chief Akande, the writer should have been tutored properly by his master. First, the Alliance for Democracy was formed in Omisore`s hotel room in Abuja under the watchful eye of late Chief Bola Ige of blessed memory. Jide`s master was carrying Senator Tinubu`s bag then in Abuja and the writer was a young man trying to find his feet. Omisore financed and bankrolled not just the party but the election of Chief Akande as governor of Osun state. Facts are sacred. Contrary to accusations that he disregarded and harassed the former governor, it is rather the other way round as he was hounded around in their desperate bid to betray agreement of one term agreed to within the caucus prior to the 1999 elections. The agreement of one term was immediately thrown overboard after the election of 1999.What followed was a campaign of calumny, ostracisation and orchestrated impeachment of Senator Omisore as deputy governor of the state on flimsy ground. Senator Omisore was betrayed by Chief Akande and others he helped. Their plan was to politically bury Senator Omisore despite all he did for them but God is ever on the side of the righteous. The writer was not part of the caucus and so he could not know that Senator Omisore was a victim of a callous cabal that un-gentlemanly abandoned an agreement it willingly entered into. We must also note that during the days of the United Nigeria Congress Party [UNCP] when Senator Omisore was a key player, the writer was a student. And we cannot but agree with the writer on the negative achievements of his master. After three years in office, his master has piled up a state debt of two hundred and twenty billion naira without any completed project to show for it. His boss admitted incurring close to a billion naira for chartered flights and hotel bill between Lagos and Ibadan under less than a year. Each mega school is awarded at the cost of Five Hundred and ninety five million naira, an inflated cost of more than sixty percent. Federal roads are been rehabilitated as a channel for over-inflated claims on federal Government while state roads are neglected. Jide`s teacher awarded a six billion naira contract of Opon Imo to his son without the tablets` availability and with the project`s doubtful applicability and usability in the state. The list is endless. The writer`s master has perfected a strategy of moving fund out of Osun through pony highly inflated projects. We need to put on records that Senator Omisore as the Senate Appropriation Committee chairman for four years transparently supervised the appropriations of almost 49 trillion naira with applause and commendation from the public. His tenure as chair of that strategic committee was a golden age of appropriation processes for the country. As a professional engineer, he undertook many top flight engineering projects. Thus Senator Omisore is not the usual politician but a tested and experienced hand that has the wherewithal to take Osun to a new level of collective prosperity. A word of advice is necessary for the writer. Facts of history cannot be distorted. When Mr Wale Oshun of the Afenifere Renewal Group attempted to muddle up history of Afenifere, we tutored him appropriately. For the writer, he should ask his boss to explain where he was when we were forming AD. And because his boss was not part of the inner caucus he himself may not know how pivotal Senator Omisore was to the party and the role he played in the making of Chief Akande as governor of Osun state. The injustice done to Senator Omsore was monumental. Jide Omoworare should toe the path of truth because truths exalt a nation and a person. On a final note, we want to note that the failure of Governor Aregbesola is known to all and sundry despite deceitful efforts to cover up his track. His abysmal inability to deliver on any project, his plunging the state into massive debt, his disruption of Osun school system and his callous mismanagement of state fund though pony projects are all properly documented. Our people will decide with electoral condemantion to their tormentors come 2014. *Mr Oriola,the media adviser to Senator Iyiola Omisore, sent this piece from Lagos
Posted on: Thu, 20 Jun 2013 13:27:50 +0000
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