A former member of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Hon. Lafisoye Akinmoyede (a.k.a. Lafi) has reacted to the report that he was arrested by the police in Osogbo over assault on a chieftain of APC in Lagelu Local Government, Hon.Remi Adebayo, saying that it was sharing of Ileýa gift items that led to the crisis.
Hon. Lafisoye explained that what happened was that the party chairman in Lagelu Local Government, Hon. Adeleke had invited only 11 leaders of the party who are former Chairmen and former honourable members that had served in the said local government on the platform of the APC to his house at Iwo road on the 29th July, 2020 for a meeting on the sharing of Ileya gift items donated by the Senator representing Oyo Central Saaenatorial district and the federal house of representatives member representing Lagelu/Akinyele federal constituency, Hon. Olu Akintola.
He said that the chairman informed them that he does not want the party executives in the local government to be involved in the sharing of the Ileya gift.
“The bone of contention is that during the meeting, the complainant, Hon. Remi Adebayo mentioned the name of Segun Ogunyemi (a.k.a. Segmos) who is a former leader of the Legislative Arm in Lagelu Local Government to be among the leaders invited to the meeting. I raised an objection that “Segmos” did not qualified to be part of us as he did not meet the criteria for selection into the meeting. My objection did not go down well with him and that is where commotion ensued.”
Hon. Lafisoye Akinmoyede said that contrary to the claim by Hon. Remi Adebayo on those that had left the party, enthused that what he said on radio was that he wanted to step aside from politics for some time as a result of the trauma he had gone through during his trial over late Sugar’s death but he did not said he would not participate in partisan politics again.
The former lawmaker who denied breaking chair on the complainant’s head, disclosed that it was not only him that the complainant reported to the police for assault but other eight leaders including Hon. Biodun Adedeji, Hon. Debo Arowomole, Hon. Kehinde Adeleke, Hon. Peter Dairo, Hon. Gbenga Adekanmbi, Hon. Femi Akintunde and Hon. D.A. Lawal respectively.
He added that the police only invited them for settlement, stressing that the party Chairman in the local government, Hon. Adeleke had informed the police that the matter was purely party affairs which would be settled amicably. He added that the police had asked them to nominate two people among the leaders that were invited to come and brief them after the matter has been settled.
“I want everybody to know that I am not a violent person as being portrayed. Yes, I said that I step aside from politics for sometime but when I was invited as one of the leaders of the party in my local government for sharing of Ileya gift items, I consider it necessary to honour the invitation to ensure that there was no rancour and everything went smoothly. My being step aside for sometime does not mean I left my obligation as a leader in the party.” He submitted.
