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Leader of the
opposition within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo state,
Lekan Balogun, has asserted that state governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala
lacks popularity in his hometown, Ogbomoso.

Mr.Balogun, one
time senator and Ibadan high chief, said in Ibadan on Sunday while
reviewing the last week’s anti-Akala rally in Ogbomoso that his lack of
appeal was one of the reasons why Mr Alao-Akala was opposed to the
rally staged by the opposition.

Describing the
rally as a success, Mr Balogun said it had put clouds to the governor’s
ambition to return to office next year as many people of the town are
equally aware of the governor’s bad performance and would not want him
to come back next year.

“Without the
meeting, we would not have known that the governor lacks strong
followership in Ogbomoso,” he said. “The experience made nonsense of
his often repeated allegation that the opposition to him is purely and
simply a localized Ibadan phenomenon; whereas, the governor is just
simply unpopular. In retrospect, it became obvious why the governor did
not want the meeting in Ogbomoso to hold at all.” Mr Balogun led other
party leaders,including former governor, Rashidi Ladoja; Senate Leader,
Teslim Kolawole Folarin; former Secretary to State Government (SSG) in
the state, Sarafadeen Alli and members of the PDP Implementation
Committee in the state led by their chairman, Yunus Akintunde, to the
rally.

Might is not right

Blaming the
government’s ‘might is right’ philosophy on the loss of lives reported
at the town before the rally, he said his group only got to know about
the incident through newspapers reports.

“Why should a
government bring out hoodlums to prevent the holding of a meeting
regardless the citizens constitutional right of association, freedom of
speech and movement, why? again, why should anybody be prevented from
using public places for lawful business? For instance, local government
halls, schools,these are public institutions that are collectively
owned and for which we should all have access for the purpose of lawful
transactions,” he said.

Mr.Balogun also
wondered why the governor would want to prevent those opposing his
second term ambition from holding rally in his town after doing same
for his own ambition at the homesteads of the said opposition.

“The governor had his so-called second term declaration a few weeks ago in Ibadan.

His faction is
known to have held meetings, rallies in Lagelu, my local government
area in not less than four or five times in the last one year and at no
time was there a threat to law and order,” he said.

Commending the
police for their response, the PDP leader noted that the state police
command ensured that the meeting was held peacefully and successfully.