Ogun Female Lawmaker Cries Foul As Her Official Quarters Demolished
The political community of Ogun State got heated up within the early hours of Sunday as touts & thugs who are alleged to be on an assignment from the Executive Governor, Ibikunle Amosun demolished a section of an apartment in the legislative quarters belonging to Hon. Adijat Adeleye Oladapo; a member of Ogun State House of Assembly representing Ifo 2 State Constituency.
An eyewitness who was on the spot when the thugs who came in a government house Hilux van told NigerianEcho that they came in by breaking the fence at the back to demolish a mini-apartment which the two-time law maker was only constructing for the accommodation of Corps member attached to her office.
When NigerianEcho correspondent got to the scene and questioned the men who were carrying out the demolition, they couldn’t tell who sent them. They later took to their hills as shown in the picture above.
The Akute-born politician who is unarguably the most vocal lawmaker in the Assembly at the time of the demolition was on the Ibadan-Lagos Expressway conveying her children back to school. But when she got wind of the demolition , she had to take a U-turn so as to ascertain what the rationale behind the demolition on a sunday morning.
Speaking on the spot, Hon. Oladapo confirmed to have been earlier served a letter from the General Manager (GM), Urban & Regional Planning notifying her that the building was illegal, but all attempt she made to meet with the GM was futile as the man was not available.
“I left my quarters this morning to take my children back to school immediately we left the church, but few minutes into my journey as I was on the Expressway to Lagos I got a call to notify me that my quarters has been burgled and a demolition was being carried out on a property under construction within my compound. They said the building is illegal, but since I got a letter from the Urban & Regional Planning that the building is illegal, I called their GM who told me to ‘settle it politically’. A statement that got me amazed and amidst my amazement I called Chairman House Committee Lands & Housing, Hon. Remmy Hazzan to ask him to wade into the issue and he even encouraged me to go on since my colleagues in Assembly also have different attachment to their quarters. But as a law abiding citizen I stopped work on the building till further notice if we can so resolve the issue. Now coming to demolish a building which they say is illegal immediately after I left for church on a Sunday morning and coming through the back fence is what I will not take, why can’t they go through the main gate which was obviously opened? This ‘illegal’ demolition of an ‘illegal’ property is better described as correcting illegality with illegality and a pointer to the fact that my life is not safe, if some thugs using the government van could come to the legislative quarters through the back on a day like this, then what can happen at night when I and my kids & aides are fast asleep. This is threat to my life’. The aggrieved lawmaker lamented.
Findings by NigerianEcho revealed that Hon. Adijat Adeleye has been tagged by the governor himself as being ‘anti-Amosun’ for her closeness to a former ACN gubernatorial aspirant, Hon. Abiodun Akinlade who Amosun sees to be the only threat to his 2015 re-election ambition. Notable among the disloyal attitude of Oladapo as the governor claimed was her absence at the “One Year in Office breakfast” meeting which she didn’t attend. She was the only member of the Assembly that was absent among the 26 members at the event. Hence the demolition is a pay back for not being on the governor’s side.
When our correspondent made attempt to get the comment of the Speaker of OGHA, Rt. Hon. Suraj Adekumbi who was at the scene, he declined to make any comment. He was seen pleading with Hon. Oladapo not to make it a media affair.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media & Communication Mrs Funmi Wakama also claimed not to be aware of the incident when we called her.
