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| Prince Harrison Adeyemi |
Prince
Harrison Adeyemi, a member of Ogun State
House of Assembly (OGHA), represents Ogun Waterside State Constituency at the
OGHA, revealed that his six years of unflinching support for Gov. Amosun on the
field and in the house as not brought dividends neither to him nor his
constituency.
The
two term state Legislator who made this known to journalists at Abeokuta, the
Ogun State capital, in an interview at the weekend, likened his years of
support for the Governor as a wasted years.
The
former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmaker before his defection to the All
Progressives Congress (APC), reveal that there a deal reached with the Governor
after 2011 polls as conditions for joining him and APC, The agreement was that
Governor will fix about four identified vital roads in Ogun Waterside like
Ifire to Ibu community which I had earlier told them. I told him of Togburin
and Agodo – Lokula road as well as from Ayila to Itebu Manuwa road. We also
discussed the road from Ifire to Imakun. I told him then that my ticket for
second term should also be given to me.
Harrison lamented that six years down the line, Amosun has not only failed to
honour his own part of the deal, but is also subtly undermining the lawmaker's
political career by making him appear as not representing the people of Ogun
Waterside State Constituency effectively.
I was
elected in 2011 as a member of the state House of assembly on the platform of
the. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). So, when I got to Abeokuta here, the
Governor invited me and asked me to support them and their party due to one
reason or the other, because there was conflict between him and Chief Osoba
then.
" And given what we were seeing then in the state, I believe what we
needed then was change and we believe what he (Amosun) was doing what the
state needs. So, we joined the party, we had dialogue and came together. Our dialogue
was that if I joined the party, the Governor would develop my Local Government.
"We were about four that joined from PDP, he told me to go and get him the
support of the others which I did. I did that because I believed what we want
from government is the dividends of democracy and that with these, things
will be possible.
"I don’t want a situation whereby the government will be hiding under the
disguise that ‘the honourable is not doing anything, the honourable did not
join me, the honourable is an opposition, and doesn’t do anything,' I had to
team up. As the first tenure was going to end, we started contesting, we
started campaigning but he did not fulfil his promise of tarring those
roads.
"Before these, I built a school, before building that school, I told them
that I want to build a school in Ibu community and that I need the
government's approval because, it is my time and I was with the
government. There are about five primary schools in that community and the
nearest secondary school is about five kilometres away.
"So, I felt the school should serve them all. People were very happy when
I built the school. I built six classrooms with two offices and two toilets
there as a constituency project. Till date, I pay the teachers about Two
hundred and eighty thousand Naira (N280,000) monthly for the past four years.
"It is a public school, it is a constituency project. I did it but I am
still the one running it, for the fact that we hope the government will approve
it in time as a constituency project.
"We went to him, appealed to him, called his friend, Prince Dapo Abiodun
and lots of people to him, even, Odubela who was the Commissioner for
education then, we met with him and discussed, yet he turned a deaf ear and
didn’t do(approve) it. And before the elections, I went to him in
company of the Speaker (Suraj Adekunbi), Mr. Speaker knelt down before
him, begged him that he should approve our school.
" He promised that day that he would call the Commissioner for Education
to approve that school, but, after we left there, nothing was done about it.
That is about three years now, he didn’t do it and he said that after
elections, he will attend to rural needs which we agreed. We went into the
election, we started campaigning and willingly without anyone forcing him, when
we went to campaign at the primary school in Abigi, he told the people that he
will tar the roads in three months even before his election (2015
polls) and we believed him.
"As I talk to you, nothing has been done in that regard. So, after our
election, at a meeting we told him that ‘Governor, you are not helping the
situation, it is as if you stands to destroy the image of the party.’ It is as
if I am not competent to represent the people of my Local Government, you shouldn’t
abandon that community.
"He told me he would do something but he didn’t do anything. There was a
meeting we held last month, suddenly we saw a message from the speaker that
there would be an emergency meeting with the Governor, but, firstly we
must assemble in his office before going to the Governor. He said we should all
put on white cloths, so I was wondering, from waterside I had to drive down to
the office to ask them, ‘why should you ask us to wear white dresses?’ Because,
that was the time we had issue with Commissioner for works that was when we
suspended him.
"So, we had to get to that place and on getting there, the Commissioner
for works was already there with some other Commissioners. So, he was talking
about how we suspended the Commissioner, he was even bragging, we just had to
exercise patience. We expressed our own side of the matter, he asked the
commissioner for works to apologize and he did.
"The Governor appealed to us and we agreed that day that the suspension
will be lifted. After the Governor informed us that he is interested in taking
loans, that was when my annoyance came up, that was when I separated from him.
He called us that we should support this loan, we listened, but, it was a shock
for all of us except for those that were formerly aware like the Speaker.
"We asked that ‘why this emergency loan since there are other loans he had
been involved in, can he explain how he has spent the other loans?’ He tried to
manoeuvre that, he didn’t explain, but, he declared the floor open for
questions on his N65.7bn loan. He asked every member to say his mind on
the loan and how they feel they will contribute to the loan. When it got to my
turn, I told him he was unfair with the people of my Local Government, that
since I joined the party, I have been supporting him but, I see no reason
why it is difficult for him to do any capital project, even five km road(in my
area). I told him that it is unfair, I told him to his face in his office. I
also spoke about the school he refused to approve, he felt bad and he was
annoyed with that statement.
"By his response and submission, he said he is not interested in the rural
areas now, that he cannot abandon central such as Ifo and Ota where there
are good votes and go to the rural area to spend his money there and at
the same time, the vote from that side does not count. In the presence of us,
he said the vote of Ogun East does not count which means a lot to us. That
means in his tenure he will not do anything that means my being with him will
not fetch us any benefit in my Local Government.
"Then I assessed my journey with him for six years like I am going to market
and an armed robber takes away money from me; I was not killed by the
armed robber so I decided to go out and arrange myself, then I decided to dump
him because he has nothing to offer my Local Government, he doesn’t see the
vote from my Local Government as part of his success. So, this is why I decided
to just stay away from him and be on my own," Harrison said.
The aggrieved lawmaker however disclosed that he is still in APC but now
identified Prince Dapo Abiodun as his leader in the Ogun State chapter of party
and not the Governor anymore.
He
noted that it is an irony that while Abiodun who was the Ogun East Senatorial
candidate of APC in the last general elections helped the Ogun Waterside Local
Government with N50m electricity project, the Governor that the area assisted twice
to get to power had not done any project for them.
"However, I am still
in APC. I don’t want to be a politician that will not be stable in a political
party. I am still with Dapo Abiodun in APC. There are lots of propaganda that I
belong to Yayi, I belong to this. I have my reasons why I still remain
with Dapo Abiodun. He told me that he is ready to contest the gubernatorial
election come 2019. Dapo Abiodun did a lot in our Local Government; the
Governor we voted for twice cannot do something worth of one million naira
while Dapo Abiodun we haven’t voted did electricity worth N50million.
"As at today we still benefit and people are enjoying it in our Local
Government. As far as the person is contesting for gubernatorial election as
proposed by him, I think the Local Government should support him. Dapo Abiodun
was the architect of my success for this second term. If you give me ticket and
there is no machinery to run election, it is zero; it is as if you are putting
me into problem.
"All things I used during the election were provided by Dapo Abiodun,
which means he is up to the task to be a leader. And as am saying, Dapo Abiodun
sponsored the entire APC candidate from Ogun East senatorial district," he
said.
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