*It’s a wild allegation, says Akala

By Ola Ajayi

IBADAN— AS 2011  elections gather momentum in Oyo State, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Lekan Balogun yesterday alleged that Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala had bought about six Armoured Personnel Carriers, APC, to unleash terror on perceived opponents during the poll.

Addressing newsmen yesterday, he argued that the governor should be questioned why he had been keeping APCs with himself without giving them to the police or the army who are the authorized users of these weapons of war.

According to him, the APC vehicles had been with the governor in the Government House for the past six months noting that “the action called for suspicion of bad intention on the part of the government.”

But, Prince Dotun Oyelade, Special Adviser on Public Communication to the governor described it as a “wild allegation, which is way off mark for Senator Balogun to read dark meaning to government motive on the APCs.”
He said “early last year at the peak of armed robbers’ invasion of the state, government set up a security committee headed by the Secretary to the State Government with police, bankers and a few others as members.”

“They resolved to partner on the procurement of APC to strengthen security in the state. Government has fulfilled its own pledge while we wait for other stakeholders to do likewise before we present it to the police. Government will not engage Balogun on the issue of getting fake police uniforms for thuggery in 2011. We would rather elevate the discourse instead of descending to his indecorous level”, he said.

Balogun said, “I saw them with my own eyes few months ago, and they had been there before then. They are about six or seven parked there close to the Presidential Lodge within the government house. They were neither bought for the Police nor the Army because if they were, they should have been handed over to the authorities. How long will it take  government to hand over the vehicles if they were intended for the police or the Army?”
With the alleged breakdown of all institutions in the state, he said the state had become ungovernable and made a fresh call for a state of emergency.

As a person who cares for his people, he said the state was under siege and something urgent must be done to free the innocent people from the claws of those trying to strangulate it.

Also as a preparatory to the 2011 elections, Balogun expressed fear on the rumour that the state government had sewn police uniform for some political thugs so as to foment trouble during the election.