Better Oyo Movement, BOM, a sociopolitical group at the vanguard of all-round development of the state said it received with sadness, news of the collapse of the bridge linking Lanlate to other Ibarapa towns, after nearly eight hours of nonstop raining, on Tuesday, 5 July, 2022.
Recall that pictures and videos of the collapsed bridge had been circulating on social media as at the early hours of Tuesday, with the people lamenting government’s gross insensitivity to their plight.
In a statement released in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, and signed by its Chairman, Dr. Femi Fakunle and Secretary, Engr. Tunji Hammed, BOM lamented that but for the neglect of the Oyo State Government, solution should have been found to the bridge, which had already been decrepit for almost two years, and which the State Governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde himself saw when he last visited the town.
“We’re disappointed that the hallmark of the Makinde-government is promise and fail, and the cover-up of same with humongous propaganda. If not, the Governor, who last visited Lanlate on Friday, 11 February, 2022, and promised the rehabilitation of the Eruwa-Maya Road, under which the bridge falls, should’ve swung into action and speedily effected the repair” the release said.
While noting that the group wasn’t really surprised, as nearly all promises made by the Governor during that February visit had all turned “audio”, a situation the Group referenced in her release of Wednesday, 11 May, 2022, she consequently reminded the Governor of the dangers of not fulfilling promises made publicly.
“That our governor is reputed for breaching gentlemanly agreements and promises isn’t a laudable testament,” BOM queried.
“BOM recalls that when His Excellency visited Lanlate, during his working visit to the Oyo State College of Education, he promised payment of the arrears of the consequential adjustment to the new minimum wage, the release of the sum of N136Million as Intervention Fund and 2022 Capital Grant in two tranches, as well as the repair of the Eruwa-Maya Road, which would’ve catered for this collapsed bridge. Till date, none of these promises, which His Excellency staked his integrity on, vowing all would be sorted within 4 weeks, has seen the light of the day,” the statement regretted.
Blaming the Speaker, Oyo State House of Assembly, Hon. Adebo Ogundoyin, who represents the area in the State Assembly, and Hon. Oluyemi Taiwo, Member Representing Ido/Ibarapa-East Federal Constituency, who unfortunately is an indigene of Lanlate, BOM wondered how the two prominently-placed politicians, who are also members of the ruling party, could be so grossly insensitive to the immediate developmental challenges of their people, to the extent they could not serve as watchdogs of their people’s interest in the Oyo State Government they claim to be stakeholders in.
“How Honourables Ogundoyin and Taiwo, can sit back and watch the misery of their people completely beggars belief. How they cannot take the Governor to task to fulfill promises he openly made to the good people of Lanlate, 5 months ago, is a testament to the politics of non-challance, deliberate non-concern and gross insensitivity,” BOM noted.
BOM, therefore, reminded the Oyo State Governor, and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to note that her deliberate underdevelopment of the Ibarapa region, advertised by a terrible lack of visible projects in the last three years, and the conscious neglect of the Oyo State College of Education, Lanlate despite a working visit paid by the Governor, aftermath of which is the now collapsed single bridge connecting the town to the rest of the world, amongst other injustices, were being duly noted and regrettably recorded; to be repaid in due course by the good people of Lanlate.
“The resurgence of the PDP, we can proudly recall, commenced from Ibarapaland, with the victory of Hon. Ogundoyin in the rerun following the demise of then Speaker, Hon. Michael Adeyemo, in 2018. The Ibarapa people, had voted enmasse to protest the poor treatment the Ajimobi government was meting to staff of tertiary institutions; three of which belonged to Ibarapa region. How the Makinde Government can forget this in a hurry is an inexplicable wonder,” BOM commented.
