BY OLA AJAYI

IBADAN-The governor of Oyo State, Sen Abiola Ajimobi, has taken exception to insinuations and outright accusation in some publications (not Vanguard) that he ordered policemen to “brutalize” protesting students of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, who staged a protest to the Governor’s Office on his day of resumption.

This came as the students apologized to the governor for the Tuesday protest on the  fateful day, they shut the entrances of the secretariat when the governor was having an inter-denominational prayer marking his assumption of office.

In a statement from the Governor’s Office, the governor maintained that none of the protesting students was either molested or brutalized, either at his instance or that of his security aides.

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state, speaking through its Secretary, Alhaji Bashir Akanbi, had alleged that the students were “beaten and stripped naked by security personnel attached to the governor’s office.”

The statement urged the opposition in the state not to “decorate bare-faced lie as truth,” all in the name of antagonism, stating that even though the students sought to embarrass the governor on his first day in office by acting in a manner suggestive of their being sponsored by the opposition, as a father to them, Sen Ajimobi addressed the protesting students and assured them that government would address their grievances.

He wondered why the PDP would blame the new government, which was assuming office on its first day, as the State Secretary did, when the past PDP-led government increased the school fees of the students in the first place.

“We urge the PDP to play opposition of maturity and stop serving the people a broth of lies laced with antagonism. The new government in Oyo State has promised to review downwards the fees of students of The Polytechnic, Ibadan.
Also, the governor of Oyo State, Sen. Abiola Ajimobi, has approved the appointment of Alhaji Waheed Olajide as Secretary to the State Government, SSG.

The governor also announced the appointments of Dr. Adeolu Akande and Dr. Festus Adedayo as Chief of Staff and Senior Special Assistant (Public Communication) respectively.

Alhaji Olajide, 61, a chartered accountant, studied Chemistry at the then University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife. He proceeded to bag a Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Ibadan.

Ajimobi appoints SSG, others