Osogbo—There is palpable tension in Osun State as some
prominent citizens of the state under the aegis of Osun
Stakeholders, OS, say it is planning to hold a summit aimed
at finding solutions to problems bedevilling the state on
Thursday in Osogbo.

But the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC
is alleging that the summit is politically motivated and urged security agencies to perform their duties of maintenance of law and order.

Addressing newsmen ahead of the summit, a former Osun
State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr
Niyi Owolade, said it will involve 250 delegates that will
include all former governors, national and state assembly
members from the state.

Owolade said both ruling APC, and Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP, will nominate 20 delegates each, while other
political parties in the state will be represented by 20
delegates.

According to him, Governor Rauf Aregbesola and officials of his administration were not given personal invitation so as to give the gathering no political inclination and enable it
achieve the already set goals.

The governor, Owolade said may attend the summit, if
nominated among APC delegates.
Also contributing, Mr Yinka Odumakin, blamed the myriads
of economic problems facing Osun in recent time on lack of right ideas in managing its affairs and stressed that this
was what informed the idea of the summit, where issues
affecting the state will be dissected and solutions proffered
to them.

He noted that the summit was not meant to apportion blame or score cheap political points, but to assist the government tackle some difficult problems.
Planned summit, a ploy to forment trouble – APC
Reacting, the APC called on security agents to keep a close
watch on the summit.

“The APC has called on security agents to be doubly alert
and keep a close watch on the so-called ‘Summit on
Education and Finance’ planned for Thursday in Osogbo by
Senator Iyiola Omisore, the Osun PDP and its surrogates
christened Osun Stakeholders,” it said.

According to a statement by the APC Director of Publicity
and Strategy, mr kunle Oyatomi, the summit was a ploy
intended to beat security and create the atmosphere for
mayhem, which the security agencies had foiled on several
occasions.

“The APC called attention to the fact that since the strike
action of civil servants and teachers, the PDP had attempted
on several occasions under spurious camouflage to create
a situation of insecurity in Osun that is basically peaceful.

“The APC therefore, advised all lovers of peace and security
in the state to be careful, not to get trapped in a potentially
violent situation that the PDP is trying to create through a
voodoo summit.

“The APC wondered: since when the PDP became
concerned about education in the state, for it had all the
opportunity in seven years to put education in the front
burner, but left the sector to rot, until Governor Aregbesola
came in.

“Yinka Odumakin and the rest of the conveners participating
in the so-called Summit do not have any superior
contribution to make that could replace what Prof. Wole
Soyinka, erudite professors and other professionals in
education had given to the Aregbeosola-led government.

“The Wole Soyinka-led Summits’ advice and
recommendation on how to reposition education in Osun is
beyond what Omisore, PDP, and the so-called stakeholders
can ever produce.

“On the question of finance, which the summit purport to
discuss, the APC said that the conveners lack any moral,
political, professional or ethical basis to venture into that
area.

“In 90 months of their rule, they were limited to N300 million
internally generated revenue, whereas in about 40 months
of Aregbesola’s administration, he raised the IGR five times
as much without imposing any additional tax.

“Besides, the APC has it on good authority that the purpose
of the summit is to create an atmosphere that can lead
condusive to chaos and that the majority of those who will
attend that summit are PDP thugs, criminals, and vandals.”
“The citizens of Osun should not be deceived and ‘we appealto security agencies not to put down their guards, becausethe PDP in its desperation will clutch at any straw to createmayhem and the Thursday’s summit is one of them’, theAPC said.

Meantime, the Osun state chapter of the Peoples
Democratic Party, yesterday raised the alarm that it has
uncovered plot by Osun state government to retrench no
less than 10, 000 of its workers.

The modalities to be adopted to downsize according to PDP was being handled by a stalwart of All Progressive
Congress, APC, that allegedly did similar “job” during the
tenure of Chief Bisi Akande, when workers were retrenched.
But a stalwart of APC and member of the House of
Representatives Mr Ajibola Famurewa dismissed the
insinuations that Governor Rauf Aregbesola may be
considering sacking workers to reduce the state’s wage bill.

Famurewa said: “we are not thinking towards that direction
for now. We know what we are suppose to do in a situation
like this and the government is addressing it.

Source: www.vanguardngr.com/2015/07/tension-in-osun-over-planned-education-finance-summit/