Nigeria Content Online

Few days to the end of Adebayo Alao-Akala’s
administration as the Oyo State governor, cracks are appearing within
its ranks as the commissioner for health, Babalola Owolabi has accused
other government officials of plotting to take his life.

The commissioner, who raised the alarm in Ibadan at
the weekend, accused ‘some desperate, greedy and intellectually
percolated cabal’ in the state government of being behind the plot.

Mr Owolabi, who was attacked at the weekend by a
group of armed gang suspected to be assassins, said he is suspicious
that his assailants are after his life for being outspoken and denying
them the chance of a last minute raid on the state’s treasury.

Threats and attacks

A gang of ‘four to six hefty men’ reportedly attacked
the commissioner at Conoil filling station, Mokola, Ibadan around 8.30
p.m. when he wanted to refuel his car on Friday.

According to him, the men, who were armed with knives
and other dangerous weapons, trailed him to the scene and attacked him
from the back after he alighted from the car.

Just two days before the attack (on Wednesday), Mr
Owolabi was accosted, beaten and almost striped by some thugs while he
was leaving the executive chambers of the Governor’s office after
attending the weekly state executive council meeting.

It took the intervention of the state
attorney-general and commissioner for justice, AbdulSalami Ladi
Abdullahi, for him to escape.

His offence, according to sources in the government
circle, was his “audacity” to blame Mr Alao-Akala for the Peoples
Democratic Party’s poor performance in the general elections.

Giving his comments on the role of cabinet members in
mobilising and campaigning for the elections, the commissioner
reportedly told the governor that he committed a grave political
blunder by allowing the hospitals in the state to remain shut for about
eight, owing to a strike by state’s health workers.

Mr Owolabi also said he pleaded with the governor to
address the issues the doctors and other health workers were agitating,
but that the governor ignored his reasoning.

‘Sense of responsibility’

Apart from his perceived effrontery, Mr Owolabi added
that he attracted the wrath of his adversaries in the cabinet for
allegedly declining the request to release N250 million from his
ministry’s treasury to an Ibadan-based socialite, arguing that there
existed no legitimate purpose and documents to justify the disbursement.

He was said to told a friend that he was not ready to do anything he would not be able to justify after leaving office.

Despite expressing fear for his life, Mr Owolabi
declined to suspects in the attacks, ‘in order not to jeopardize the
course of investigation’. He said he had reported the attacks and
expressed his fears to the Commissioner of Police, Baba Adisa Bolanta
as well as State Security Service (SSS) in the state. Both of them, he
said, promised to protect his life and property.

“I am still a member of the state executive council
and I am under allegiance not to reveal what are not for public
consumption. But, all my actions have been out of very serious sense of
responsibility and trust to the Executive Governor of Oyo State and by
extension the good people of Oyo State,” Mr Owolabi said.

No retreat

Mr Owolabi, who said he would inform the governor of
his travails today (Monday), said his beliefs and position has not
changed, despite the attacks.

“I will not be a party to any last minute arrangement
to deplete the resources of our commonwealth, and to my mind, this is
being true to the cause. I intend staying on the course,” he said.

He added that he plans to continue working with the present
administration till the end, explaining that his life is not more
important than that of ‘NYSC members who paid the supreme price in a
bid to salvage and rebuild this nation’.