Better Oyo Movement (BOM), a sociopolitical group at the vanguard of the all-round development of the state said it read with utter disgust and great embarrassment, the statement circulated by Engr. Akeem Olatunji, Publicity Secretary of the State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in defence of Alh. Mukaila Lamidi, a.k.a. Auxiliary, Chairman of the state Park Management System (PMS), who in a now viral video, had threatened to eliminate Senator Teslim Folarin, Oyo State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In a statement on Tuesday, 9 August, 2022, in Ibadan the Oyo State capital, the group described the issuance of a statement defending a known thug, an ex-convict and a terrible albatross to the Seyi Makinde Government, as the height of shamelessness by a ruling party, considered a primitive continuation of Engr. Olatunji’s desperation to get noticed by a government that has consistently treated him as pariah.
“Engr. Olatunji has always tried to curry the favour of the Makinde Government to no avail, and has used his position as party spokesman to consistently issue statements which are at best childish, error-ridden and amateurish – attempts which only chase shadows, instead of treating real and topical issues,” BOM noted.
“We can only sympathize with Engr. Olatunji, knowing that while his failed attempts at getting “noticed” have yielded nothing but crumbs, others in the same boat have become emergency millionaires; earning tonnes and tonnes of millions from inflated exercise book contracts,” BOM opined.
Deriding Olatunji’s “eye service,” despite Governor Makinde’s disdain for his person and style, advertised in being yanked off the Oluyole Federal Constituency House of Representatives’ ticket in favour of Mojeed Mogbonjubola, who stakeholders had earlier rejected, and the governor calling Engr. Olatunji certain unprintable names not worthy of being repeated here, while exiting a WhatsApp group administered by the PDP spokesman, BOM informed Engr. Olatunji to know that his position is one of great importance to the image of his party, hence not worthy of being treated with kid gloves like he currently does.
Carpeting the State PDP for defending Auxiliary who had been fingered in several criminal activities, spent time in prison and uses the PMS platform to constitute nuisance, BOM wondered why the PDP could allow its spokesman issue a statement defending the indefensible, which in turn casts aspersions on the supposed integrity of the ruling party.
“To demonstrate that the statement defending Auxiliary was hurriedly packaged, we invite members of the public to note the misspelling of “unrestrained” as “unrrstrained”, “beam” as “bim” and the description of Senator Folarin as Senator representing Oyo North (until some respondents on Facebook called Engr. Olatunji’s attention to it), amidst other schoolboy errors. We in fact query the structure of the communication system in the PDP which allows such statements to be issued to members of an informed public like Oyo State,” BOM said.
Cautioning the State PDP and its spokesman from issuing statements at all costs, ostensibly “for the sake of being seen to be working,” without taking time to genuinely define a position, articulating same with concrete and current evidences – instead of putting out jaundiced ad hominem, the group whose release was signed by its Chairman, Dr. Femi Fakunle and Secretary, Engr. Tunji Hammed, opined that the ruling party needed to learn that the art and act of public relations had moved beyond merely issuing statements, even when obviously disadvantaged, in the case of the Oyo PDP with grammar, and its lickspittle, Alh. Mukaila Lamidi a.k.a. Auxiliary with reputation, but to sometimes keep quiet publicly while cautioning the black sheep, privately.
“We urge Oyo PDP to be mindful of statements issued from its publicity department, lest the public accepts all badly-strewn pieces from that end as the consensus opinion from that party, which we believe still has some refined gentlemen in its membership,” BOM maintained.
“What Governor Makinde and the PDP should do, is to warn Auxiliary against tarnishing government’s image, as any overt or covert support for his excesses will cost the PDP dearly come 2023,” the statement submitted.
