The member representing Oyo Federal Constituency in the lower chamber of the National Assembly, Hon. Kamil Akinlabi, has debunked a claim by members of the Alaafin Traditional Cabinet, the Oyomesi, that he made an unguided, false and unfounded statement in an interview he granted a section of the media where he noted that “everybody knows the base of crime in Oyo town”.
The said interview was published by the media about eight months ago, but the Oyomesi in a letter to the Commissioner of Police, Oyo State Command, dated April 22, 2014 and released to the media, alleged they had waited that long with a belief that the lawmaker would retract the said statement.
However, reacting to the various allegations contained in the letter, including his having no means of livelihood before becoming a member of the House of Representatives and sundry others, Akinlabi said if he gave so much credit to the Alaafin about his upbringing and political ascendancy, it was borne out of being well brought up by his parents as a Yoruba man.
He said between him and the Alaafin, they both knew how he got into politics, which was a far cry from what could be discussed openly, adding: “The Alaafin knew who did what in that regard.”
Reminding the Oyomesi of the inherent danger of peddling outright falsehood, which they knew to be so to their persons and history, he said they knew he was a professional in the building industry, with a thriving career in Abuja before he ventured into politics, wondering at what stage of his life he became a taxi driver as they claimed.
He said rather than tagging the entire people of Oyo as criminals, the base of crime in the town is known to everybody, including members of the Oyomesi, urging the security agencies to invite key members of the society and ask them questions in this regard.
His words: “I’m not given to raising unnecessary alarms or making frivolous statements.
“The Oyomesi too know what I’m saying about the base of crime in Oyo and when called upon, they will help the police tremendously.”
Akinlabi wondered why the Oyomesi, as elders in the community and as institutional checkers on the excesses of the Alaafin, would stand the truth on its head just to satisfy their pay master, saying if the past Oyomesi had conducted themselves the way the current members are doing, history would have put them in the position of servitude.
He described as self delusion the thinking that an individual would continue to determine the fate of the people till eternity.
He said those who had held political offices in the town before him, including late Alhaji Haruna Elewi, also suffered the same persecution like he is doing from the same quarter where they are calling for his head.
The lawmaker cast doubt on the genuineness of the petition as one of the alleged signatories to the letter, Basorun of Oyo and the Head of Oyomesi, the traditional prime minister, High Chief Yusuff Akinade Ayoola, had earlier on been placed on suspension following his refusal to continue the naked dance in the public, which had become the trade mark of the current Oyomesi.
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