*He was misquoted – Ajimobi

BY OLA AJAYI

IBADAN – A chieftain of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, in Oyo State, Senator Lekan Balogun has described the present Action Congress of Nigeria’s, ACN, administration in the state as  irresponsible.

The statement which is an indication that some of the chieftains of the PDP believed to have fought for  the victory of Governor Abiola  Ajimobi of Oyo State have started to distance themselves from the ACN-led administration.

Senator Balogun spoke at the turning of the sod of a 148-year-old mosque that was destroyed by the August 26 flood disaster.

According to him, the Ajimobi-led administration had not actually assuaged the suffering of thousands of the victims in the city.

He said the state government has not yet distributed the relief materials that people of goodwill gave to the government for onward transmission to the victims.

“Even though, the governor has some links with Aliwo area of the city, he expressed surprise that he did not deem it fit to do anything for the community.

“They have not been responsible. I learnt that they were giving some of the victims the sum of N10,000 but this is not a comprehensive approach. The governor is from Aliwo, he should have come and feel the pains of the people,”  he said.

He said the re-construction of the mosque was to gulp not less than N100million.
He described the mosque as a monument left behind for them by their forefathers.

In a swift reaction, however, Ajimobi said, “the Senator must have been misquoted. Not only does the Oyo State Government have very high regards for Senator Balogun, he is a very good friend of this government. Indeed, he has a direct line of communication with this government.”

According to the governor; “A few weeks after the flood, the government set up a committee to assess the impact of the flood and proffer solutions to it. The committee recently submitted its report and confirmed that 2,105 houses were destroyed by the flood.

“Has the revered Senator gone through the list of the affected houses  and found out that the mosque in question was not listed?

“Senator Balogun is too knowledgeable to gloss over these glaring facts. We are left with no option than to conclude that he was misquoted.”