Crises Brews as Ex Council Boss accused of ‘hijacking’ new Osun LCDA

By Abdulrofiu Agboola

Hon Tope Adejumo

Crises brew as Ijabe community of old Odo Otin local government area of Osun state, on Wednesday, September 28, 2016, accused ex boss of the local government, Mr. Tope Adejumo, of scuttling all agreements entered into by communities in the newly created Local Council Development Area, LCDCA.

Specifically, members of the community alleged that Mr. Adejumo unilaterally changed the agreed location of the new LCDA headquarters to Oyan, while component communities had earlier agreed it should be sited on a parcel of land located in the centre of all communities in the LCDA.

In a statement obtained in Osogbo on Wednesday signed by Hon. Segun Oyegbade, Alhaji Mustafa Olagunju and 8 other leaders and chiefs, the Ijabe town said it had written several petitions to Governor Rauf Aregbesola on the matter, none of which was responded to.

According to the statement, apart from changing the site of the headquarters from a central location to Oyan town without recourse to other towns in the new LCDA, the community also accused Adejumo of plans to foist an indigene of Oyan on the rest of the LCDA whenever election is held.

This they claim had been perfected through the delineation of new wards, the exercise that gave Oyan 5 wards while the rest of the LCDA got 5.

“On our collective request for the delineation of wards into 10 wards, the same Tope Adejumo (allegedly) altered the request in transit and allocated 5 wards to his town (Oyan) without considering the population, landmass, communities, various establishment within the council area to give them edge over all other communities.

“The 6 kilometer road approved by Governor Aregbesola for our area was also hijacked and diverted to Oyan alone. This is the same problem we had when we were in the same Odo Otin local government, Okuku. Out of 9 consecutive slots for political offices given to our area, Oyan alone got 8”, the community further alleged.

The community consequently appealed to Governor Aregbesola to correct the injustice that it has been subjected to, adding that it has also resolved that, if the issues raised are not promptly addressed, “we will resort to self help”.

Efforts to reach the ex local government boss proved abortive as he did not pick the calls put across to him going to the press.