The people of Iseyin community have expressed their anger to the recent announcement of a list of fourteen Commissioners’ nominees sent to the State House of Assembly for screening, describing the exclusion of indigenes from the community on the list as disappointing to them.
Governor Seyi Makinde had sent the list of fourteen Commissioners to the Speaker, Oyo State House of Assembly, Hon. Adebo Ogundoyin on the 24th July which the latter read on the floor of the assembly on the same day.
The Spokesperson of Ebedi Frontliners, Iseyin, (EFI) a socio-cultural group, Alhaji Segun Fasasi in a statement released by the group on Sunday, said the announcement of the list came as a rude shock to the entire people of Iseyin as they worked for the success of Engr. Seyi Makinde’s victory at the last gubernatorial election.
Fasasi said the group at its emergency meeting called on Sunday 28th July spoke the mind of all Iseyin indigenes at home and in diaspora to condemn the exclusion of the entire community from the list of Commissioners sent to the House of Assembly for screening, adding that such was a reoccurrence of People’s Democratic Party (PDP)’s treatment to the community during the reigns of former governors Rasheed Ladoja and Alao Akala.
“We are very disappointed by the list sent to the assembly by the governor in which none represented Iseyin people despite our massive support for him and his party at the last gubernatorial election. Upon hearing the names on the list, our group summoned members to an emergency meeting which held at Iseyin today Sunday, 28th 2019 and we have spoken the mind of our people through this medium.
“The list is against the known principle of equality and the fact that the party in power in the State has its Chairman from Iseyin does not in any way reflected in this nomination. What could be the cause of this? It is clearly an injustice to us.
“We can easily say this act is a replay of the old PDP act whereby Iseyin has always been excluded from nomination for Commissionership. The only time Ladoja nominated an Iseyin person, it was a woman married to Ibadan while Akala did not give any to us. We condemn this and would rather not want to say it was a clear intended act to spite us for just no reason,” Fasasi said.
The group’s spokesman said those mocking the people of Iseyin for voting against All Progressive Congress (APC) in the last gubernatorial election should try to see the plight of the people to know the cause of their action as according to him, all major roads leading to Oke-Ogun through Iseyin were abandoned by the last APC administration despite that somebody from the township was the Commissioner for Works and Transport.
Alhaji Fasasi called on governor Makinde to review the list and give Iseyin local government its due, as according to him no other local government in the State deserved the Commissionership better than Iseyin, judging from mass support which transformed to huge vote.