Group Kicks as Reps Member Donates SUV to APC Chieftain

Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan

A group, the Oluyole Progressives Force (OPF), has faulted the donation of a Lexus RX 300 SUV by a member of the House of Representatives representing Oluyole federal constituency, Hon. Tolulope Akande-Sadipe, to one of the chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the constituency, Alhaji Razak Akilapa.

The OPF, in a statement in Ibadan yesterday,y described the gift of the car, estimated at N15 million, to a single person “in a 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 group, comprising youths from all the 10 wards in the constituency, in the statement signed by Emmanuel Shodimu, (Chairman) and Esther Tolase (Secretary), stated that with the action of the lawmaker, she has shown clearly that what matters to her is 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 uplifting of the constituency.

The youths argued that the N15 million “expended to just gratify one leader if used wisely on the deprived people of Oluyole at N250,000 per youth and woman for business start-ups would have been sufficient to permanently transform the lives of 60 Oluyole youths and women with their families.”

The statement read: “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 cannot comprehend why a woman whom we knew had nothing before becoming a member of the House of Representatives would gift a car of about N15 million 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 N15million unproductive car to an 85-year-old man.

“Not only that the members of Oluyole Progressives 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 added that while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) possesses a befitting party house and meeting place in Idi-Ayunre, the headquarters of the local government area, the House of Representatives member did not consider such a noble legacy important, but the purchase of a luxury car of N15 million for an individual.

 It then urged the youths and women of the constituency to “rise against 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 youths declared that it is high time the real progressives and the entire masses of the area discarded “the greedy, backward and retrogressive old politicians who have been retarding the progress of the local government area and federal constituency for years.”

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