Oyinlola, S/West PDP, others condemn Lagos AC over Bankole

By Tayo Ligali - 11.05.2008

GOVERNOR Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Osun State has condemned the statement credited to the Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress on Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Dimeji Bankole.

The AC, in a statement issued by its Publicity Secretary, Joe Igbokwe, published in a daily newspaper report on Tuesday (not Nigerian Tribune), described the Speaker as a “political upstart whose election is proving to be a mistake in the light of his mis-steps.

“He is far too insignificant and so anonymous that he can not stop the legitimate rights of the people of Lagos State.”

The Lagos AC was reacting to Bankole’s statement during his recent visit to Lagos that the state government should not hold elections in all the 57 local governments as all were not legally created.

Igbokwe said the AC considered the remarks made by Bankole as “the unfortunate outbursts of a peevish school-boy politician, an overwhelmed mediocre who is clearly carried away by the office he is occupying, and who has lost himself in a blaze of assumed self -importance.”

The AC stated that “Lagos AC serves good notice to Bankole that we are very ready for him.We assure him that he will end up more frustrated than the very grandfathers who hobbled the system to throw people like him up to mock and taunt Nigerians.”

In his reaction to the AC statement, the executive governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, while speaking with Sunday Tribune in his office in Osogbo, described the statement “as another fart from Lagos, another foul smell.”

“How on earth will AC say they want to remove our Speaker? Who has the majority in the House?,he querried,adding that it is a silly talk.

“What is the number of AC in the House to say they put him there? If PDP members did not vote for Dimeji, what is the number of the AC that will make him Speaker?

“I mean what is the logic in that statement. It is obvious that PDP members who have the majority will continue to produce the Speaker.

“I consider it another fart from Lagos because it doesn’t sound plausible. It is not reasonable.

“It is a game of numbers. We control the upper and lower chambers. We control 28 or 29 states in the federation and we are moving forward”, he said.

In his reaction, Alhaji Tajudeen Oladapo, the national vice chairman, S/West PDP, said, “AC is not a factor in the politics of the National Assembly. They will be exaggerating their own strength by believing that they can enthrone and dethrone speakers.

“They should stop taking the meekness of the PDP in the S/West as a sign of weakness,it is not. Whether they like it or not, the position of the PDP remains unchanged as regards the conduct of local government elections in Lagos State.”

Mr. Chucks Gabriel, a member of PDP in Lagos State, also condemned the AC for its comment on the Speaker.

According to him, “it is quite unfortunate that a simple advice by the Speaker that the Lagos government, controlled by the AC, should keep within the ambits of the law by not holding council polls in the new local governments in the state because they were not lawfully created has degenerated into naming calling by the AC.

“Igbokwe spoke like a dutiful official out to impress his pay master ,hence the abusive language.

“I believe the party official should have restricted himself to the main issue in the local governments creation,and which is the fact that those created by the Lagos State government cannot operate because they were not constitutionally approved as the National Assembly has not listed them in the Constitution, rather than resorting to mere rantings.”

In his reaction, Seyi Adebayo of the Lagos PDP accused Igbokwe of “opening his mouth too wide and committing a gaffe.”

He stated that “the statement by Igbokwe gives him out as one who belongs to the category of politicians who twist issues to suit their whims and capricies or that of those whose interests they serve.”