Oyo government accuses top PDP stalwart over Temidire market
The Oyo State government has accused a leading Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stalwart in the state of coordinating renegades among Temidire Plank Market sellers against government with the aim of causing disaffection between government and the people.
It made this known in a statement issued by the Special Adviser on Media to the governor, Dr. Festus Adedayo, in reaction to allegation of a government agency dispersing some of the renegades from the market.
Government had acquired the market some years ago and relocated the traders to the Fashade area of the state capital but this decision had generated bad blood between it and some members of the market who insisted that they would not move out of the market.
“It is apparent that the said PDP stalwart is doing this for an ulterior motive. He coordinates dissent against government at the market and is their arrowhead. In fuelling the renegades, he apparently hopes to score cheap political points and paint government in bad light.
“The market construction has been delayed for too long because of this prolonged, fuelled antagonism against government. Government considers the interest of the people first and not the narrow interest of politicians who are sponsoring the dissent,” said the statement.
The government said it had done everything humanly possible to advance the cause of building a befitting market for the people of Temidire but its efforts were frustrated by a cabal in the market whose actions were fuelled by a political undertone.
According to government, it had in the last one year or thereabout met leaders of the market several times, provided an alternative market for the plank sellers at the Fashade village, with all conveniences, including transformers, but because of the selfish interest of the said PDP stalwart, he keeps on building renegades against government.
Government denied claims that there was a subsisting injunction against it over its bid to construct a plank market for the people, maintaining that the earlier court injunction against it had been appealed and that since the case had been assigned to a new judge, it will have to commence “de-novo” (afresh) and as such, there was no subsisting order before the court over the matter.
