By Ismaeel Uthman
Controversies have surrounded the
destruction of a billboard hosting the
picture and complimentary messages for Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the Minister of Interior, FederalRepublic of Nigeria.
The billboard, which was erected at Jaleyemi junction, Osogbo, State of Osun by a socio-political group, ‘Jaleyemi For Good Governance’ was allegedly destroyed last Friday by some unknown persons.
According to the Chairman of the group, Rasidi Bello, the billboard on which Aregbesola’s picture appeared was torn and taken away.
Bello, who spoke with OSUN DEFENDER on Tuesday, stated that while attempting to fix replace the billboard with a new one, two members of a group loyal to Hon. Lasun Yusuf, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, approached and warned them not to hang the banner.
He said: “While we were attempting to fix the billboard and replace the banner with new Aregbesola’s picture and complimentary words around 6PM on Monday, one Monsuru, popularly called Esu told us not to hang the banner. Another ‘guy’ known as Ibadi came to join him and also told us that we should not hang the banner. They said they wanted to hang IleriOluwa’s banner on the billboard. The two of them are members of a group loyal to Hon Lasun Yusuf.
“Later, Nurudeen Adebayo, the leader of the group came and ordered his boys to attack us. They started throwing stones and broken bottles at us. We had to leave the place for them. They brought and spread out a big banner of IleriOluwa. ‘Sponsored by Sola Oladepo’ was written beneath the banner. Later, they uprooted the billboard and took it away.”
Corroborating Bello’s claim, the Leader of the JaleyemiFor Good Governance, Idris Muftau, stated that members of the group had contributed to fix the billboard with a new banner on which ‘Aregbesola: An Icon of Dynamism, the source and symbol of promotion of socio political excellence and good governance in the State of Osun’ was written with picture.
According to Muftau, the billboard was erected in 2016 and the group paid a sum of N16, 500 to the Osun Signage for them to host the new banner on it.
He said the thugs that attacked them on Monday came back on Tuesday morning and threatened them not to dare erect any billboard at the spot again.
Muftau said: “We were surprised that members of the Lasun Yusuf group could be telling us they wanted to host Ilerioluwa banner on our billboard without prior notice or due consultation. If anyone is going hang IleriOluwabanner in this place, it should be given to us. We worked for him and we are for him. It is absurd that two members of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) even joined the people that attacked us.
“One of our members, Adetayo Adeleke was injured and rushed to the hospital. We reported the case at Oja Oba Police Station and the Divisional Police Officer led a team to the Jaleyemi junction to see the place the billboard was originally erected by us.”
Investigations by the medium revealed that the said Lasun Yusuf group had dissolved into the APC and wanted to demonstrate their loyalty to Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and as such, resorted to hang a banner for him.
All efforts to speak with members of the group proved abortive; as nobody was ready to release their phone numbers.
