About Deputy Speaker's Igbemo Situation Office
I have been reading all the negative stories that Jide Bello has been writing about me on Facebook even though he has access to me directly. I am surprised at his Pull Him Down Syndrome because I never knew he is like this! I think his attack on my person and office is as a result of misplaced and transferred aggression!
The fact that I don't have the luxury of losing my patience by unleashing my pen in responses because of my position does not mean that I should keep quiet when a supposed indigene of Igbemo who is far away from home deliberately decided to go for my jugular for selfish and personal reasons.
I would have ignored Jide Bello and his band of haters as I have been doing since he started his hate campaign over a year ago, but on a second thought, I see my response as an opportunity to let Igbemo sons and daughters know the true position of things and why he has embarked on a mission to pull me down!
Recently, somebody posted my newly renovated office in Igbemo on Facebook. Many people commended me but Jide Bello wrote and I quote,
" DEPUTY SPEAKER'S SITUATION OFFICE? How does that improve the standard of living of the people? What is its economic impact in igbemo Ekiti? As a people, we we should prioritize development and growth, instead of celebrating what isn't worth celebrating."
I laughed when I saw his comment because it is either he is completely ignorant of what is going on in his Igbemo community or he is deliberately mischievous or both!
For the avoidance of doubt, Jide Bello was a Councillor representing Igbemo ward under PDP during Fayose's regime between
2015 and 2017 and only defected to the APC few weeks to the Gubernatorial election of 2018 which produced Governor Fayemi of the APC. Not long after Governor Fayemi was sworn in as Governor in October 2018, Jide Bello travelled to the USA and the next thing, he started throwing stones from there to his home. He consistently maintained he has not seen any development in Igbemo since the assumption of office of this administration and he particularly picked on me by always making negative comments on Facebook about my every move!
To start with, I am not in the habit of joining issues with anyone on the social media and I don't blow my own trumpet but I won't keep quiet when detractors deliberately set out to malign my person. I am a combatant by nature and I am not afraid of confronting adversaries with unassailable facts and figures!
The Igbemo office is my second constituency office having opened my main constituency office in Iworoko last year, which is the officially recognised Headquarters of Irepodun/Ifelodun Constituency II. The Iworoko office is operational with staff.
The hall downstairs in my Igbemo Constituency office has been donated as the APC Ward Secretariat while my office is upstairs with some rooms allocated to the ward excos for their meeting. This is to allow for better bonding between my office and the excos of my ward.
Now to my brother who is talking about development and growth, I dont think he knows the meaning of the concepts he used carelessly!.
Let me remind him and others in his shoes what my humble self and other APC appointtees facilitated to Igbemo during the first term of Governor Fayemi and this present tenure and he should tell us what he and other PDP political office holders including a Commissioner and Vice Chairman of the Local Government did for the town or facilitated between 2014 and 2018!
*2010- 2014*
During Governor Kayode Fayemi's first term between 2010-2014, I and other political office holders in Igbemo facilitated the following:
1. 219 women were on the social security programme for the elderly, owo arugbo and this cut across party lines. They earn N5,000 monthly for 3 years.
2. 90 Igbemo women were on conditional transfer earning N5,000 per month and N100,000 each at the expiration of the programme one year after.
3. MDG hall was built as constituency project of Senator Ojudu during the same period.
4. Borehole was sunk by then MHR, now Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (MOB)
4. My humble self, Mojeed Jamiu and Hon. Ayodeji Odu contributed over half a million naira to repair about 7 boreholes across the town and many of these are still working till now.
5. There were 61 youth volunteers from Igbemo who earned N10,000 monthly and were paid N30,000 at the end of the programme one year after.
6. Four Igbemo youths were employed into Peace corps
7. 5 Igbemo youths participated on the Youth in Commercial Agriculture Development (YCAD)
8. I facilitated the employment of an Igbemo daughter, a graduate to the Federal Medical Centre in 2012 and she is still working there now. She is the daughter of a prominent Alfa in Igbemo. Hon. Ayodeji Odu facilitated the appointment of 3 Igbemo indigenes into the teaching service.
9. Onigbemo's palace fence was constructed in 2013/14 under the State Assisted Community Development Initiative at the cost of N3. 5m.
10. We facilitated the EKSU extension by upgrading the maternity on Igbemo-Ire road. Hon. Ayodeji Odu, Mojeed Jamiu and my humble self contributed money to sink a well there and give the maternity a facelift. The EKSU extension is still running and have been upgraded higher and it is serving the community well.
11. We facilitated the extension of Electricity from Iyedi junction to Ire road and repaired another damaged transformer.
12. We facilitated the Local Council Develooment Area (LCDA) headquarters of Ifedara to Igbemo. The town had been yearning for this for years while other towns also competed for it but Igbemo got it.
13. I and some other political political office holders contributed money to give the king's place a facelift. We contributed money for the upholstery and tiles in the palace.
14. Political appointees contributed every Christmas to distribute rice and other food items to Igbemo people in each quarter.
15. Every month, a total of N620,000 entered igbemo which amounted to N7,440,000 yearly through many welfare programmes like owo arugbo, CCT, Youth volunteers etc
16. I assisted 3 indigenes of Igbemo to get their gratuity which were due to them since old Ondo State in 2014. They are still alive!
17. Three editions of Igbemo Day were planned and executed in my office when I was SSA Research and Documentation and prominent personalities in Igbemo including our Kabiyesi will confirm the role my colleagues and I played to ensure the success of the Days.
●Apart from the above there are many Igbemo indigenes that we assisted privately. I am especially aware of many people that Hon. Ayodeji Odu empowered both financially and through working tools.
To be continued...
