An aide to Senator Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe, Mr Bolaji Aladie, has said that his principal’s empowerment and other projects, including the widely criticised cassava empowerment, are not dictated by any politician’s gesture, noting the lawmaker is not in a supremacy contest with anyone.
Aladie was reacting to a report published earlier today by this medium on behalf of Senator Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe’s Constituency Office.
The Ravens NG had relied on a video of the Senator’s ally, Mr Zakari Funsho Yusuf, where he quoted Oloriegbe as saying he would organise another mega empowerment after Ramadan. The video emerged following the announcement of a 200 million naira worth empowerment program by the Saliu Mustapha Foundation, making commentators to speculate that the Senator was only being pushed by it.
Aladie, however rejected this claim, noting, “Our upcoming empowerment program is not in reaction to whatever any individual or group does but part of our purposive representation to the people of Kwara Central.
“It is instructive to recall that Sen. Oloriegbe convened a Town Hall Meeting on the 9th of April 2022, to give an account of his stewardship to the constituents and during which, he announced the next phase of his periodic empowerments program would come up in the first week after Ramadan. The statement which came against the backdrop of his donation of additional two vehicles to groups of women in the State chapter of All Progressives Congress was to inform the gathering of the proximity of the humanitarian exercise which is indeed a quarterly endeavour since the Senator assumed office.
“In the wake of the town Hall meeting, Mr Zakari Funsho Yusuf, an aspirant for the Asa/Ilorin West House of Representative seat, went the following day, Sunday, 10th April 2022, to meet some party members at Alapa, contrary to Afon, where the story reported him to have made the disclosure, in the bid to canvas support for his aspiration.
“During his interactions with the party members, Mr Zakari conveyed the Senator’s announcement to the gathering to reinforce their commitment and reassure them of the greater goodies that are in the offing. The video clip on which the outlet premised its unfounded report emerged from this session.
“The empowerment which is in furtherance to the year 2021 constituency projects, ought to have been done before now, but was shifted to later time due to the ongoing month of Ramadan, and the fact that we had then in the pipeline a town-hall meeting, and projects commissioning which we did at the date indicated above.
“Members of the public need to know that empowerment like other Constituency Projects is a continuous exercise for which budgetary provision is made annually for its execution and which also is dependent on the disbursement of funds to the executing MDAs.
“It’s inconceivable that the medium could be too impetuous to exercise due diligence by reaching out to the concerned source to enquire about the video before scuttling to publish the mischievous story that smacks of dishonesty.”
