The Ede community on Wednesday warned Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State to stop policies which could precipitate crisis between the town and Osogbo, the state capital.
The National Vice-President of the Federation Council of Ede Descendants Union, Chief Moshood Adeleke, who led chiefs and other leaders of the town, said this at a press conference held at the palace of the Timi of Ede, Oba Munirudeen Lawal.
The community said the governor was supporting the Osogbo community to annex part of the land belonging to Ede.
The Ede community said Aregbesola recently directed the General Manager of the Osun State Capital Development Authority to rename all government establishments, settlements and communities within the capital territory as belonging to Osogbo.
He said, “This is the crux of the matter and this is why we are calling the attention of the general public to the decision of the Osun State government to ignite the suppressed tension in the state through its obnoxious and biased decision to annex a large part of Ede-North Local Government Area to Osogbo in disregard of the consequence of such a volatile policy.
“Therefore, Ede community views the directive as a slap on our collective integrity and an attempt to personally cause confusion and tension in the state. More so, such a draconian directive has never been implemented since 1991 when Osun was created. It does more harm than good.”
The community accused the state government of establishing a new town called Oranmiyan Town, situated within Edeland. It said the MKO Abiola International Airport being constructed in Ido Osun in Ede land was also named to be in Osogbo.
The community vowed to resist attempts to annex its land to Osogbo, saying the people would not watch that happen.
Adeleke said, “That is why we want the whole world to know that the Governor of Osun State harbours vendetta against Ede community. He is deliberately pursuing anti-Ede policies, anti-Ede programmes and activities with the intent to frustrate, victimise, subjugate, alleviate, punish and rubbish the peace-loving people of Ede without justification,” he said.
“It is also very unconstitutional for Mr. Governor to have attempted to annex part of Ede North Local Government to Osogbo Local Government. There is nowhere in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, which empowers Mr. Governor to arbitrarily put part of a local government to another. An attempt to do this is a total violation of the constitution and a breach of the law,” he added.
The media aide to the governor, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, when contacted declined to pick calls put across to his telephone line to find out the reaction of his principal to the allegations.
Punch