Mary Nnah
A former aspirant in the 2018 gubernatorial race in Ekiti State under the umbrella of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Dr. Joseph Ayenimo, has berated the Nigerian House of Representatives to stop what he described as politics of witch-hunt, vendetta and sycophancy by making moves to allegedly stage-manage a probe of N165 billion funds injected into reforming the correctional centres nationwide under the supervision of the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.
Ayenimo argued that such probe, coming at this time, when Aregbesola has openly criticised his political benefactor and Presidential hopeful, Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, over the alleged imposition of Governor Gboyega Oyetola on Osun State people, was not only ill-timed but also being orchestrated to settle political scores.
Ayenimo, an Australian-based Industrial Chemist, who is currently a stalwart of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti, said the Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila-led House of Reps is rather displaying shameful sycophancy to Tinubu by moving against Aregbesola simply because the latter had chosen to look the presidential hopeful in the eye.
It was reported on Wednesday, February 16, that the Red Chamber had initiated a probe against Aregebesola over the N165 billion funds spent on the Correctional Centres (Prisons) across the country, alleging possible financial graft.
The report reads in part: “The House of Representatives on Wednesday has initiated a probe into the Correctional Centres (Prisons) across the country where N165 billion have been sunk without any improvement under the leadership of the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.”
“The probe is coming a few days after Aregbesola’ declared war against his leader and benefactor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Governor of Osun State, Adegboyega Oyetola ahead of the governorship elections in Osun in July 2022.
“The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila presided over the plenary on Wednesday where it was decided that Aregbesola and Prisons Chief, Haliru Haliru Nababa should be probed for mismanaging up to N165 billion in funds earmarked for prisons development across the country, People’s Gazzette reported on Wednesday.”
The report further reads: “The resolution followed a motion of urgent public importance by Ndudi Elumelu, the Minority Leader of the House on the floor of the House on Wednesday in Abuja. In his argument, Elumelu criticised the welfare of the workforce.
“The House is disturbed that despite this Act and increase in Budgetary Allocations to the Nigerian Correctional Service to drive its renewed mandate, the tempo, and quality of the Service have remained the same if not retrogressing”, Elumelu said.
But in his reaction, Ayenimo described the proposed probe as amounting to a deliberate act of political witch-hunt, which he said was quite unnecessary and doomed to fail.
Ayenimo in a statement said: “Honestly, the planned probe by the Red Chamber, coming at this time when Aregbesola has openly criticized his political godfather, for perpetually imposing his anointed candidates on others, as cited in Osun State, is ill-timed and a clear of political vendetta and nothing more.
“One would think that Nigeria has got to a stage where we would practice politics of clear conscientious borne out of absolute patriotism for meaningful progress and development, but what do we have here? A clear case of conspiracy against a man who was courageous enough to tell his political benefactor the truth about his wrongdoings, not minding whose ox is gored.
“Aregbesola, in my opinion, had merely cautioned Tinubu from perpetually toeing a path leading to infamy by openly rebuking the former Lagos State Governor and presidential hopeful to stop imposing his anointed candidate on the people of Osun State. He had advised him strongly to allow the people of Osun State to choose their governor by themselves and not have the incumbent Gboyega Oyetola imposed on them as it was believed was done in the last guber poll in the state.
“Aregbesola could have been emotional in doing this but he definitely does not deserve to now be a victim of a political witch-hunt by the lackeys of Tinubu in the Red Chamber. These legislators were elected into the Lower House to serve Nigerians not to be a rubber stamp to some god-fathers and begin to play politics in the business of lawmaking and overseeing activities of other arms of government. This is unpatriotic and l want to strongly advise them to desist from such ungodly ad inglorious path”, Ayenimo said.
Speaking further, Ayenimo observed that the House of Reps ought to be more disturbed by more pressing national issues such as the rising insecurity in the country, the travails of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) leading to incessant strike actions, massive unemployment, falling value of the nation’s Naira against Dollar and skyrocketing prices of foodstuffs which are more germane challenges that demand urgent attention by the lawmakers.
He said: “They ought to also be concerned about activities of other ministries other than the Ministry of Interior being headed by Aregbesola. Or do they want to tell us that it is only this Ministry that has issues?
“Their actions on the proposed probe of Aregbesola betray an act of settling personal scores through official activities. It is a clear case of manipulating official duties to settle personal and political scores. This is unexpected of them,” he said.
