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Oyo state government has described as blatant falsehood allegation of destroying billboards and harassment of those erecting them by wife of PDP gubernatorial candidate, Teslim Folarin and some Labour Party chieftains.
In a release issued by the DG of the Oyo State Signage and Advertisement Agency (OYSAA) Pastor Yinka Adepoju, the government said it was a cheap profiling by the opposition.
Text of Mr. Adepoju’s reaction is as follows:
“I read with disbelief and rude shock the Story of one Mrs Angela Folarin in the Sunday Tribune where she claimed that some officers of Operation Burst accompanied our work men to a billboard site along Ring Road Ibadan with the intention of pulling down Senator Folarin’s campaign poster and replace same with Governor Ajimobi’s poster.
“She added in the said story that the officers assaulted her when they discovered she was taking their photograph. I wish to make it categorically clear that the submission made by Mrs Folarin in that report is totally incorrect and very untruthful.
The Ajimobi Campaign Organization had, in the cause of preparing for His Excellency’s Electioneering Campaign, acquired reasonable number of strategic billboard sites from owners long before now to take care of the Outdoor Campaign of the entire package.
“The billboard site mentioned happened to be one of the numerous sites acquired and we have a clear evidence and necessary approval to back up this claim. On Friday 16th January, at about 5pm, our work men were at the said site to carry out their lawful duty of fixing Gov Ajimobi’s posters when in the middle of this activity some political thugs arrived the scene, beat them up and chased them away, claiming that the site belongs to Senator Folarin.
All appeals made to them to stop their unruly behavior fell on deaf ears as they were bent on claiming the site by force which they succeeded in doing.
“On Saturday 17th January, our work men were ordered back to reclaim the sites but again, a sizeable number of political thugs with the help of some policemen drove them away. As a law abiding group of people who abhor violence in all its entirety, we quickly lodged a report at the Oluyole Police Station and sought for necessary assistance to recover our sites, this of course was turned down.
“This injustice was immediately reported to the Oyo State Commissioner of Police Mr Kola Sodipo who advised against any violent reaction but rather suggested that we should make an official report to his office on Monday 19th January promising that a proper investigation would be carried out to ascertain the rightful owner of the billboard site and the site recovered and delivered accordingly.
“We stand by the Commissioner’s promise knowing, fully well that truth shall prevail and the whole world will be able to judge this ” he said.
Pastor Adepoju said that not only was nobody assaulted, but it was the Folarin group that had been the one destroying Ajimobi posters and billboards, chief of which are the ones at Beere and Idi-Ape, Iwo road among others.
