By Banji Ayoola
A pressure group, Ondo State Council of Professionals, OSPC, said on Tuesday that it has uncovered an alleged plot to discredit the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the October 10 governorship election in the state, Mr Eyitayo Jegede, SAN.
It alleged in a statement by its coordinator, Mr Cornelius Ayedire, which was sent to The Radiance, that the plot was to create an artificial boundary dispute between the neighbouring Akure and Idanre communities, “for selfish political reasons,” and thereafter blame Jegede as mastermind of the imaginary dispute.
According to the statement: “the evil was being perpetrated to present the Peoples Democratic Party flagbearer, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), as pursuing an “Akure agenda.”
It said: “findings revealed that some leg workers of certain politicians had been erecting sign-boards on Idanre lands, with the inscription, “This Land Belongs to Akure.”
“We all know that this is the handiwork of some desperate politicians; and from findings, this is no more than the design of some jittery politicians who are threatened by the love for Jegede in Idanre community.
“These people myopically reasoned that ‘since Jegede is so much loved in Idanre, despite being a native of Akure, let us create a situation presenting Akure as trying to take over Idanre lands, so as to make Jegede lose Idanre support’.”
It urged “the peace-loving people of both communities to see those erecting the false sign-boards as “idle hands in the services of the devil, represented by their political sponsors.”
Besides, the statement “stressed that any land dispute that the respective palaces of the traditional rulers of Akure and Idanre were not aware of, or that the natives of the two communities knew nothing about, could only mean a wicked lie.”
It added: “what the people of the state should be concerned with now, is how to make a positive change in the governance of Ondo State, through the October 10 governorship election.
“The truth is that, we have never had it so bad in Ondo State, as we professionally have been rendered idle and hungry; because the few government jobs that were available had been contracted to family members and cronies of the man at the top, many who are often invited from a neighbouring state.
“So, for the professionals of Ondo State, who pay taxes and many rates regularly, to benefit from the good of the land, we must de-emphasize ethnicity and see what a particular governorship contestant has to offer, as against where he comes from.”
