Ajimobi, Shittu in war of words

MINISTER of Communications Adebayo Shittu yesterday accused Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi of being afraid of him (Shittu).
He said Ajimobi was afraid because of going to jail if he succeeds him in office, owing to mismanagement of the state’s resources.
But the governor said it was the minister, who should be afraid because of the allegations against him.
Shittu, who spoke to reporters during his visit to the All Progressives Congress (APC) national secretariat in Abuja on the outcome of the party’s ward congresses, said: “I want to say that if anybody is desperate in the Oyo political firmament, it should be Governor Ajimobi, who believes that if Barrister Shittu succeeds him, he will be in jail. That is what he is reported to have always told people who mentioned me to him.
“He thinks that I am too principled, firm, unbendable and uncompromising when it comes to the issues of morality. It is he who is desperate to stop me, not me being desperate to become governor.
“The rules are clearly there and like somebody who believes in the rule as a lawyer and man of law and order, if I follow the rules to contest the primaries in a free, fair and credible poll and did not win, I will take up something else.
“I am not desperate to become the governor of Oyo State. It is the other way round because the governor is desperate to stop me for whatever reason.”
On whether he had taken advantage of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s APC Reconciliation Panel to bring about a solution to the disagreement between him and the governor,  the minister said: “I can say straight away that I am like any other Nigerian that heard that a committee was constituted. No invitation was extended to me for any purpose of discussions, negotiations, reconciliations or whatever. Nobody can blame me for that.”
Shittu said Ajimobi had failed in so many things “including human relations and others I cannot say openly in the media”.
He queried: Why is he afraid of going to jail if another Buhari like me comes to power in Oyo State? Why is he afraid of primaries?”
However, a statement issued by Ajimobi’s Special Adviser, Communication and Strategy, Mr. Bolaji Tunji, quoted him as saying that the minister should be the one to be afraid of going to jail in view of the damaging allegations made against him by all his aides, who resigned en mass following his refusal to pay their emoluments.
“In any case, Shittu should be the one that should be afraid of going to jail in view of many allegations made against him as minister. Few of these are his alleged illegally-acquired property in Ibadan and Abuja and sudden unexplainable and stupendous wealth not commensurate with his emoluments.
“In addition, his recent attempt to covert and appropriate a parcel of land belonging to Saki community, which was stoutly resisted by his own people, has shown his level of greed, avarice and penchant for appropriating what does not belong to him.
“Governor Ajimobi remains a distinguished senator of the country who had successfully traversed the corporate world and got to the peak of his career as the Managing Director and Chief Executive of a multinational; a position that requires a high degree of integrity, ability and capability.
“All these attributes have reflected in the way he has successfully managed the affairs of the state in the last seven years, which has transformed the face and fortunes of the state and had attracted unmatched number of investors to the state.”
The governor advised aggrieved stakeholders in the just concluded ward congresses to explore the party’s internal organs for seeking redress rather than engaging in actions capable of further sowing the seed of discord within the party.
As leaders and stakeholders in the party, the governor said it would be counter-productive to engage in actions and utterances that tend to further divide the party, adding that he would on his own part keep doing the best for Oyo State.
-Nation