The people of Esa-Oke in Osun State, the hometown of the late political enigma, Chief Bola Ige (SAN), trooped out in hundreds to declare their support for the state Governor and candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the August 9, 2014 poll, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.
The Esa-Oke indigenes also swept away the feet of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the election, Senator Iyiola Omisore; the Minister of Police Affairs, Femi Adesiyan; and others who had earlier visited the town.
The mammoth crowd, armed with brooms, began the sweeping from the palace to the town hall and later to the streets of the town.
The number of the people kept increasing as several groups, market women, aged men and women among others joined the rally.
Various anti-Omisore songs rented the air as the people rained curses on the killers of their son, Ige.
While addressing the mammoth crowd, the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Esa-Oke, Chief O. Ogungbe, thanked the people for being peace loving during the visit of those he described as unwanted visitors who invaded the town with armed policemen, armed thugs, hemp smokers and masked men.
Ogungbe noted that the youths had insisted that the unwanted visitors will not be allowed access into the town, which they see as being insulting after the alleged involvement of Omisore and Adesiyan in the death of Ige and Omisore’s uncomplimentary remarks about Ige and his kinsmen.
It took the intervention of Aregbesola for the PDP team to be allowed into the town.
The late Ige’s son and the state Commissioner for Lands, Physical Planning and Urban Development, Architect Muyiwa Ige, who is popularly known as Arole Ige, thanked the people for their support for the administration of Aregbesola and praised them for remaining steadfast in spite of lies, propaganda, insults and intimidation being peddled around by the opposition.
The younger Ige, who led the party leaders and others in a house-to-house campaign, urged the people not to be attracted by the greek gift, empty promises, whims and caprices of the opposition.
He debunked the lies that the governor is planning to relocate the state College of Technology, established by his late father, from the town.
He said: “They don’t have anything to offer us.
“They don’t have manifestoes.
“They have nothing upstairs.
“All they know is ‘chop I chop’ like a greedy man eating two corns at the same time.
“They don’t know how Rauf runs an unusual government, turning every nook and cranny to befitting places to behold.
“What did they do in the eight years?
“Nothing.
“They did not employ a person either at the state level or even federal where they claimed to be rooted.
“Here in Esa-Oke, over 100 youths are O’YES cadets, more than 40 are in civil service, the good roads they drove their exotic cars they bought through your money was done by this administration.
“Some of our children here were sent to Germany for O REAP training while another six of our children are currently in Germany for the mechatronic training.
“The administration has established a world class mechatronics institute within the premises of the Osun State College of Technology, Esa-Oke and that activities will commence as soon as the mechatronics trainees return this month.”
In his address, the Special Adviser to Aregbesola on Agriculture and Food Security, Festus Agunbiade, praised the people for coming out in large number as he urged them not to ever fall into the antics of the opposition party.
Agunbiade said: “This is purely demonstration of love and faith you have in us and our party.
“This is not a rented crowd.
“We did not import people from neighbouring towns not to talk of inviting people from Ekiti, Oyo, Ogun and Lagos States.
“They will be dazed with the result on the election day.
“We shall not run away and we will protect our votes.
“No amount of intimidation can deter us.”
The rally and the house-to-house campaign lasted for several hours.
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