An Oyo State-based None Governmental Organisation (NGO), Accountability To Humanity (AH) on Sunday fired the Oyo state government over alleged pre election vote-buying.
The group called on the security agencies to begin probing fund releasing by the state government from 2022 till after election.
Our correspondent reports that the governor of the state, Seyi Makinde had in last week approved Twelve Million, Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (N12,750,000) for each local government to commence empowerment of market women, widows and students across the 33 local council areas.
The group said it was surprised that Makinde who didn’t do such empowerment for over three years in office is now using the state money to buy vote before elections.
AH in a statement issued by its Coordinator, Ade Alade and made available to journalists in Ibadan, the state capital, the NGO wondered why the state government which failed to make the local government’s fund available to the caretakers now using the money to buy vote ahead of elections.
According to the group, the vote-buying is not limited to the market also extended to traditional rulers by increasing their salaries and also increasing the subvention of tertiary institutions in the state.
“We are watching with keen interest in the way Oyo government is wasting resource all because of desperation for the second term. This is the unacceptable in a saner clime. People are watching even from outside the state. Why buying vote ahead of election if you have done well in the last four years?
“Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have make any comment on this development but we are compel to react because we are concerned about the future of our dear state. Our people should be more concerned about the next four years in Oyo state. This government has proved that politicians are enemies of the masses and for Nigeria to be great, we must all speak up against such policies,” the statement reads.
Similarly, Better Oyo Movement (BOM), a group at the vanguard of the sociopolitical development of the state, has slammed the Oyo State governor, Engr Seyi Makinde, over his last minute approval to local governments to commence empowerment of market women, widows and students across the 33 local council areas, over three years since taking over the reins of government.
The Oyo State Government, the group maintained, had approved the sum of Twelve Million, Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (N12,750,000) per local government to prosecute the said last-minute empowerment programme.
BOM, in a release in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, wondered why it took the Makinde government over three years to realize its folly of not reaching out to these critical and important segment of the society, which Governor Makinde’s ill-advised unitarian management style of local government funds had caused to be neglected and uncatered for.
The release, signed by the group’s Chairman, Dr. Femi Fakunle and Secretary, Engr. Tunji Hammed, informed the governor that it was shameful, and indeed evil, to deliberately suffer people, only to let them off the hook, two months to another election.
“We’re indeed alarmed at this deliberate display of wickedness by a government which had always postured as pro-people and advertised everyday business of government as exclusive achievements, now empowering market women, widows and students, two months to another election wherein the governor is a jittery and nervous participant.
“Indeed, this last-minute approval shouldn’t even be celebrated in normal climes, as this should have been what local councils should’ve continuously done from 2019.
“But since Governor Makinde chose to be the purse and allocator of the legitimate funds of local councils, to the point where purchases by councils as far as Irepo, Kishi, have to be allocated from Agodi, Ibadan, thus castrating this all-important segment of the society, this kind of last-minute, fence-mending, vote-buying strategy cannot but be emplaced, the group noted.
Similarly, BOM condemned, in its entirety, the viral video wherein primary school students were made to sing in defence of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), noting that such a trend, if encouraged, would erode the innocence of these young ones; pushing them into the murky waters of dirty politics, which appears unnecessary, at this point in time.
“We can only urge whomsoever is behind this childish act to desist from doing so, in the interest of all stakeholders,” BOM contended.
Reminding the Governor that no amount of vote-buying or manipulation can save him from the impending electoral doomsday, BOM argued that; “even if he opens the entire vault of the Oyo State government, his rejection at the polls by the good people of Oyo State remains unshaken, and shall be actualized on Saturday, 11 March, 2023”.
