Jethro Ibileke/Benin
A group, Ondo State Professionals in Benin, has condemned in strong terms, demonstrations allegedly carried out by members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Akure, in protest over the recognition of candidate of the Ali Modu-Sheriff faction of the party for the November 26 gubernatorial election, Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim, by the INEC.
The protesters who demonstrated along major roads in Akure, the Ondo state capital, allegedly made bonfires at several points on major roads in the town, which was said to have destroyed the roads.
The Group said it has “watched with disgust the events of few days ago of the so called protest, which was stage-managed to look like a state-wide protest by the Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko,” adding that the protest portrayed the people of the state as barbaric and uncivilised.
Chairman of the Group, Dr. Ibikunle Falana, who signed the press statement issued in Benin said there was no need for the protest since it was an internal affairs of the party.
He described the protest as “ill-conceived and unwarranted,” adding that it should have been confined to the secretariat of PDP or the State Government House controlled by the PDP and not on the streets of the town paved with the tax payer’s money.
Falana who accused Mimiko of not doing enough for the people of Ondo state during his eight years as Governor, urged the people to vote for candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the election, Rotimi Akeredolu.
“The so-called protest was carried out by hoodlums and NURTW members who burned tyres on the major roads, thereby destroying the roads constructed with tax payers’ money,” he said, noting that traders were thereby prevented from doing their businesses and students prevented from going to schools.
“During the eight-year rule of Mimiko’s maladministration, the people of the state were impoverished and hunger became the order of the day. The masses could not boast of three square meals in a day.
“Unemployment has reached its pick, which has led to high rate of kidnapping, robbery, prostitution and other high profile vices. The people of the state are yearning for a change to better their lives through Rotimi Akeredolu,” Falana said.