Large number of angry Ibarapa youths on Monday besieged the state House of Assembly to protest against what they described as poor representation of Ibarapaland as the number 3 citizen of the state by the Speaker, Adebo Ogundoyin.
The aggrieved youths numbering almost 100 while speaking with journalists at the State House of Assembly through their leader on Monday 22nd March, explained that although, the Speaker held a security summit sometime at the peak of the crisis in Ibarapaland but noted that the summit has not yielded any positive result.
The Convener of Igangan Development Advocate, Oladiran Oladokun, who is the leader of the protesters told journalists that the security summit organized by the Speaker in Ibarapa failed to carry along critical stakeholders who could make productive inputs that would have been yielding positive results by now.
He alleged that most of those invited to the Speaker’s security summit were mostly politicians and associates of the lawmaker, adding that issues discussed at the summit were not holistically addressed even as he accused Adebo Ogundoyin of teleguiding participants at the summit.
Oladiran stressed the need for a fresh security summit which will address security challenges in the area holistically and called on the Speaker, Adebo Ogundoyin, to use his office to facilitate a fresh security summit that will have representatives of every community in attendance not politicians.
“We are calling for a security summit that will engage every stakeholder not just politicians. The artists, community leaders, pressure groups, even the meat sellers and butchers association, iyalojas association, mechanic, carpenters, farmers associations, and other critical security stakeholders.
“We want the son of the soil who is representing us all from Ibarapaland to be closer home, to always come around and feel the pulse of residents at the grassroots.
“I can assure you that almost all the chieftains in Ibarapaland, a general council of all our royal fathers, our kabiyesis, has never been held to a meeting once under the present Speaker and that’s one of the recommendations presented to him to call all the kabiyesis together and try to feel their pulse as the son of the soil.
“These are areas we believe he could delve into to dig deeper into for proper diagnosis of what’s happening in Ibarapaland,” Oladiran said.
Reacting to the Speaker’s security summit which was earlier held at the peak of the crisis in Ibarapaland especially after the gruesome murder of late Dr Fatai Aborode, Oladiran described the Speaker’s summit as a “figruine type.”
“It was a figurine type of security summit that happened on the go, people were not carried along, critical stakeholders who could make useful and productive inputs were not there because it was an impromptu arrangement.
“The truth is that the Speaker’s security summit was more of an in-house gathering. According to the information we reliably gathered, the Speaker had met with those few selected ones prior to the meeting and out words into their mouth.
“I am speaking with you as a leader of the Ibarapa youths and I have several youths organizations under me who give me situation reports from across the entire Ibarapaland so, everything I have told you is fact based not assumptiuosly,” Oladiran concluded.
Attempts to get the Speaker’s immediate reactions to some of the allegations by pressmen were futile as he was not available for comments as at press time.
However, the Special Adviser on media to the Speaker, Mr Oyekunle Oyetunji, who spoke on behalf of the Speaker, explained that the number 3 man held two successive security summits in Ibarapa as part of his efforts to find lasting solution to killings, kidnapping, banditry, rape among other security crisis in the area.
“We held two security summits at Ibarapaland. The recommendations at the Summit were already presented to the governor,” Oyetunji stated.
Speaking on members of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) who were reportedly arrested and detained by the police, the Speaker’s media aide quoted the Ogundoyin as saying that there will not be a miscarriage of Justice for the concerned OPC members.
“I am assuring the protesters that there won’t be a miscarriage of Justice for the concerned OPC members,” Ogundoyin was quoted as saying.
Oyekunle said the Speaker has assured that all the stakeholders will continue to work round the clock to ensure that the situation in Ibarapa gets better and insecurity is addressed.
