Makinde berates Atiku over failure to sympathize with Oyo on explosion

By Ade Adeloye , Ibadan

Oyo state governor, Seyi Makinde on Monday berated former vice president and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, for lacking humanity, and failing to express sympathy with the government and people of Oyo state over the recent explosion that rocked the city.

Makinde , who expressed surprise that his party’s presidential candidate did not care about the colossal loss of lives and property in the explosion despite the magnitude of the disaster.

He expressed disappointment yesterday while playing host to the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the last general election, Peter Obi, in his Agodi Secretariat Office, Ibadan.

Makinde said of the three major presidential candidates in the 2023 election, President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peter Obi of Labor Party (LP) have both reached out to commiserate with him and the people of Oyo state except Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.

The Governor, who expressed appreciation to Obi for making out time to visit him in Ibadan and not allowing political affiliation to supersede humanity, regretted that it was his own party’s presidential candidate that has yet to reach out to him despite being in the same party.

“I should use this opportunity on behalf of the good people of Oyo state, to thank His Excellency, Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra state and also the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the last election.

“I thank you because politics didn’t sip into this; you came to commiserate with us over the explosion. Actually, investigation is still going on, it was simply illegal miners storing explosives in an environment where they shouldn’t be, a place where people are meant to live; it’s not a mining site.

“So, all the lapses that allowed such to happen are being looked into. I’m particularly grateful because the President called me; we have three musketeers that went for that election.

“The President has reached out to me, you have reached out to me, but my own party candidate, not even a call or text message, I mean I’m saying this openly so that our leaders would know that, yeah, you have time for politics, you have time for governance, and you have time for humanity, so, we want to say thank you so much, we appreciate this visit”, he added.

In his brief remarks, Peter Obi expressed commiseration to Governor Makinde and the people of Oyo state over the recent devastating explosion that rocked Ibadan.

The former Governor of Anambra state equally sent condolences to victims and families of those who lost their lives to the tragic blast, while praying God to comfort the bereaved families.

Obi equally commended Governor Makinde, for rising up swiftly and responsively to curtail the situation and showing what he said governance should be all about.

“It is necessary that when things like what happened here in Ibadan happens, and the government responds in a manner the government should respond, that everybody come to participate and commend them for doing the right thing and that we all do the right thing”, Obi noted.