Oyo LG Election: Tapa Community Kicks Over Imposition Of Chairmanship Aspirant, Appeal For Calm Among Residents
Wednesday July 12, 2023
..This is our turn to produce local government Chairman
Prominent leaders in Tapa Community of Ibarapa North local government on Tuesday kicked against the imposition of a Chairmanship Aspirant who is also the current Chairman of the council Lateef Lawal Akorede.
The leaders in a communique signed by former commissioner and member, House of Assembly in the Oyo State, Hon Funmilayo Orisadeyi and others argued that there was flaw in the selection of Lawal , and appealed to the Oyo State Governor, Engr Seyi Makinde and leaders of the People’s Democratic party (PDP) to order for a free and fair choice of Candidate for the forthcoming poll.
“His Excellency, Engineer Seyi Makinde,The Executive Governor of Oyo State, Governor’s Office,Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan.
Sir,
CHOICE OF CHAIRMANSHIP CANDIDATE IN IBARAPA NORTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT;
A SAVE OUR SOUL FROM THE PEOPLE OF TAPA
We write this letter to intimate Your Excellency with our unsavoury political experiences as a community with regards to the headship/leadership of Ibarapa North Local Government Area since its creation nearly three decades ago, and to appeal to you to use your good offices to bail us out of the political marginalisation we have been suffering as a community.
Ibarapa North Local Government was created in December 1996 by the then Military Government of Late General Sani Abacha. Tapa is one of the three major communities in the local government; others being Ayete and Igangan. Sir, since the creation of the local government about 27 years ago, Tapa has only had the opportunity of having her indigenes rule the local government for two years and ten months(2 years 10 months); the remaining period has always been between Ayete and Igangan.
To properly understand the seriousness of our marginalisation, we want to present a graphical illustration of the pattern of how the local government has been led since its creation.
Your Excellency, it is clear from the table above that Tapa as a community is being marginalised in the administration of the local government. The political arrangement on ground in our local government presently is that Ayete has produced the incumbent Chairman of the local government; Hon. Lateef Adebare Lawal while Igangan has produced the Member representing our constituency in the State’s House of Assembly, Hon. Peter Ojedokun with the understanding that when the tenure of the present chairman of the local government expires in May 2024, Tapa will produce the next chairman of the local government.
But we are surprised by developments in recent times when we began to hear that the incumbent chairman, Hon. Lateef Adebare Lawal from Ayete is the anointed candidate of Your Excellency for the chairmanship in the forthcoming local government elections.
This development is causing a lot of rumpus within our community and the type of peace we have here now is a fragile one as indigenes of the town are angered by the news. Our desire for peace and the need to forestall any break-down of law and order, which this unpalatable news might cause prompted us to convene a stakeholders meeting on the matter at the palace of the Elempe of Tapa, Oba Sunday Oyekanmi Titiloye, Abioje 1, on Tuesday, 11th July, 2023 where it was resolved that we should write Your Excellency Sir because we are not yet convinced about this so-called anointing of the incumbent chairman as the People’s Democratic Party’s flag-bearer at the elections because we know you as a just man who detests cheating of whatever form as equity, fairness and justice have being your watchwords since your assumption of office as the Executive Governor of the state.
You demonstrated this at the national level alongside some of your governor-colleagues in the build-up to the general elections early this year when you chose to support Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the then candidate of the opposition All Progressives Congress, so that power could shift to the South in the spirit of equity, fairness and justice.
We believe that if you could work with opposition elements to enthrone equity, fairness and justice at the national level, it should not be difficult for you to help address the inequity, fairlessness and injustice which the choice of Hon. Lateef Adebare Lawal, the incumbent chairman, or any other person or candidate from Ayete or Igangan might cause to our own community.
Tapa has an array of qualified and capable hands in the People’s Democratic Party from among whom the party’s chairmanship candidate could be picked.
Your Excellency, we have paid our dues as members of the party and as a community in terms of our support for the People’s Democratic Party and we are ready to continue to do more to enhance the chances of the party at both the local and state levels. We are trusting in you going by your impressive antecedents that you will use your good offices to see to it that justice is served in this matter. We promise you and your government our unalloyed support at all times so that you will take Oyo State to that enviable height you have envisioned for it.
Thank you Sir.
Yours faithfully, Hon. (Mrs) Funmilayo Orisadeyi
Former Oyo State commissioner and former member, OYHA.
Hon. Tunde Adegbenjo
Former Honourable member OYHA
Alhaji Bilau Dare Kongo – Ward 7 Leader
Mr Sulaimon Oguntoye Mayegun
Party Leader, Ward 9
Mr Gbile Olaniyan – , Ward 10 Leader
Pa Salau Popoola-Ward 9 Leader
Chief E. O. Olaotan
PDP Overall Leader, Tapa