SOJI AJIBOLA, Ibadan
All Progressives Congress in Oyo State has insisted that Governor Seyi Makinde’s convoy was responsible for the death of a kid who was allegedly crushed to death during the Peoples Democratic Party local government election rally in Ogbomoso.
The party, in a statement by its Assistant Publicity Secretary, Prince Ayobami Adejumo expressed regret, and sadness over what it described as failed attempt by Governor Seyi Makinde to cover up his culpability in the killing of the young girl by one of his supporters.
Recall that the government had in an earlier statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Taiwo Adisa, absolved the government of complicity in the incident that led to the death of the girl.
It submitted that the girl was crushed to death by a vehicle that was not part of the convoy of Governor Makinde as being reported.
However, the APC in a statement said that it was a height of insensitivity and irresponsibility for Makinde to have made any attempt to deny the fact that the innocent girl’s life was cut short by one of his core loyalists, who drove recklessly to create fear in the mind of the people, as drivers of the governor’s convoy usually do.
The statement read “The whole world was made to see the video clip of a bewildered man carrying the lifeless body of a little girl, who was said to have been killed by a reckless driver in the convoy of Gov. Makinde. The man took the charred remains of the slain girl to the campaign ground of the PDP and nobody could challenge him because everyone knew his claim was right.
“However, a new twist was added to the unfortunate incident when the governor took to his Twitter handle to churn out barefaced lies in attempts to mislead the public and deny the fact that he was directly or indirectly responsible.
“He (Makinde) claimed the girl was hit by an individual driving a Toyota Matrix car who lost control of his vehicle and he added that the killer driver was not part of his convoy.
“But in the early hours of Friday, it came to the knowledge of the general public that Gov. Makinde was economical with truth as it was discovered that one Alade Nurudeen was actually the culprit. The same man (Nurudeen Alade) was not only a card carrying member of the PDP but also one of those appointed by the governor as handlers of the Park Management System (PMS) in the state.
“It is an established fact that those given the opportunity to amass wealth from revenue derivable from all motor parks pride themselves as park managers and people in power. They move around in unregistered vehicles as they usually replace authorized number plates with stickers which carry various inscriptions announcing the power vested in their overall boss (Mukaila Lamidi also known as ‘Auxiliary’).
“Nurudeen Alade was carried away with power conferred on his likes by Gov. Makinde and he caused another disaster which would haunt him forever. Immediately after the incident occurred, the thugs in the governor’s entourage knew the implications of what they had done and tried to conceal the identity of their colleague who committed the murder. They removed the implicating sticker on the vehicle but later, the truth came out and this development also made the governor delete all his previous tweets in which he had denied the obvious.
“It is on this note that we are urging all the relevant law enforcement agents to conduct detailed investigation into the matter and ensure that all the culprits, including those who had attempted to mislead the public, are brought to justice. No individual, no matter how highly placed, has the right to take the life of any other person and this particular case should not be swept under the carpet. We pray to God to give the parents of the slain girl, and others who have been killed by the same blood-thirsty PDP thugs the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.”