*Say Money Can Transform Lives Of 60 Ordinary Persons, Families
The Oluyole Progressive Force (OPF), a political movement crusading for the rights of youths and the masses in Oluyole Local Government Area (LGA) of Oyo State, has faulted the recent donation of a Lexus RX 300 luxury SUV car by the lawmaker representing Oluyole constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Tolulope Akande-Sadipe, to one of the leaders in the constituency, Alhaji Razak Akilapa.
The OPF in a statement issued in Ibadan today described the gift of the car estimated at a princely N15 million, to what it described as a single person in a federal constituency of thousands of suffering, starving and unemployed youths and women, as “absurd, misplaced, anti-progressive and against the interest of the suffering masses of the federal constituency.”
The OPF, which comprises youths from all 10 wards in the federal constituency, in the statement signed by its Chairman, Comrade Emmanuel Shodimu, and Secretary, Esther Tolase, lamented that the action of the federal lawmaker had shown clearly that what mattered to her was allegedly how to use the leaders of the party to secure a third term and perpetuate herself in the National Assembly and not the progress and upliftment of the generality of people of the constituency.
Hon. Akande-Sadipe recently presented the car to Alhaji Akilapa.
The presentation took place during a get-together organised in honour of the party chieftain, in Ibadan,the Oyo State capital.
The OPF youths argued that the sum of N15 million expended to “just gratify one leader”, if used wisely on the deprived people of Oluyole at N250,000 per youth and women for business start-ups, would have been sufficient to permanently transform the lives of 60 Oluyole youths and women alongside their families.
”This is absurd. It is unreasonable. If they are making so much money in the House of Representatives, wisdom dictates that they should spend it wisely to better the lives of their constituents rather than wasting it on unproductive luxury cars.
“We can not comprehend why a woman whom we knew had nothing before becoming a member of the House of Representatives would gift a car of about 15 million Naira to a man to mark his 85th birthday.
‘’This humongous money, if it had been used wisely, was enough to transform the lives of 60 persons in the federal constituency for life.
“It would impact the families of the people and uplift the economic activities of the local government area. But our own honourable chose to gift a N15m unproductive car to an 85-year-old man. Sad!.
“Not only that, the Oluyole Progressive Force who are mainly registered members of the All Progressives Congress, lamented that the House of Representatives Member chose to satisfy a single person when the people living in and trading on the street leading to Olomi Primary school being used for the weekly meeting of APC have been complaining bitterly on the poor state of the road for more than a decade. The road has now become impassable,” the group noted.
In addition, the OPF stated that while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) possesses a befitting party house and meeting place in Idi-Ayunre, the headquarters of the LGA, the Oluyole House of Representatives member did not consider such a noble legacy important but the purchase of a luxury car for one individual.
The OPF therefore asked the youthsp and women of the federal constituency to rise against what it described as such “oppressive tendencies” and ensure that their elected representatives do only those things that would promote the growth and development of the party and the constituency.
The youth declared that it was high time the real progressives and the entire masses of Oluyole discarded those they described as greedy, backward and retrogressive old politicians who, they claimed, have been retarding the progress of the one constituency for years.
*PHOTO CAPTION: Hon. Akande-Sadipe (right), Alhaji Akilapa (centre) with the Lexus Luxury SUV car keys.
