By Gbenga Olarinoye

Osogbo — Governor Rauf Aregbesola has described Justice Folahanmi Oloyede ,who petitioned the state House of Assembly to investigate him and his deputy, Mrs Titilayo Laoye-Tomori for alleged mismanagement of the state resources as a blatant liar and an incompetent judge.

The seven-man investigative panel set up by the House to investigate the petition have since dismissed it for lack of merit and also recommended the judge to the State Judicial Council, SJC, and the National Judicial Commission, NJC, for sanction.

But a human rights activist in the state and Chairman, Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State CSCEO, Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman has urged the women activists in Nigeria to rise up in defence of Justice Oloyede, whom he described as a courageous woman judge.

Aregbesola had at the 50th birthday party organised by the speaker of the state Assembly, Hon. Najeem Salaam, taken a swipe at the Judge, saying she has lost her integrity in the judiciary.

His words: “It is time for me to speak on the petition written by one of the judges in the state. I want to say that there was no basis for the petition. Its all lies. She is a judge that doesn’t know herself as judge. You can only see a judge and they are not to be heard. She (Oloyede) doesn’t have any substance in the petition. She lied against me.

“Newsmen should have checked the financial statement of the allocation before writing their stories. Most of them want me out of office but I will triumph. If I had collected N538 billion as alleged, Osun would have turned to Dubai. I am happy Buhari went to USA and it was said that one million barrels of crude oil are being stolen everyday.

“Is there any country that would lose such every day that won’t suffer economic hardship? God will open economic doors to Osun soon. I was accused of not living in the state. I was perturbed by this report but the weekly executive meeting register proved them wrong.

“I have never gone on leave since November 2010 that I came into government. There is no truth in judge’s petition. I will tell my side of the story bit by bit. I am confident that before the end of the month the hard time will start to ease in the state,” the governor added.

Rep commends Assembly’s decision
In another development, a member of the House of Representatives in the 7th Assembly representing Ife Federal Constituency, Mr Rotimi Makinde, has hailed the verdict of the Osun State House of Assembly to dismiss the petition of Justice Folahanmi Oloyede against Governor Aregbesola.

In a statement issued yesterday in Lagos, Makinde said the ruling of the assembly has shown that falsehood and deceit can never defeat truth, adding that Osun State can now move on after the cacophony of lies by Justice Oloyede.

PDP hails planned parley
Meantime, the Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has commended Governor Rauf Aregbesola for heeding its call for Stakeholders Summit to solve the myriads of problems confronting the state, but denounced what it called unserious parley being called.

Speaking on behalf of the party, Prince Diran Odeyemi, the Director of Media and Strategy said; “This is not the kind of stakeholders meeting we asked him to call, hiding behind federal and state legislatures to convene the stakeholders meeting is deceitful and evidence of lack of seriousness by Ogbeni Aregbesola.”