Aregbesola has mismanaged Osun –Omisore

Senator Iyiola Omisore
| credits: en.wikipedia.org

In this interview, the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate in Osun State, Senator Iyiola Omisore, speaks on the murder of a former Minister of Justice, Bola Ige, among other issues. TUNDE ODESOLA reports.

Are you sure you are going to win this coming governorship election in Osun?

Of course, yes! I mean the indices are there for all to see; the decaying infrastructure, the disrupted education system, the religious bigotry, infrastructural inconveniences, societal malaise, impoverishment of our people.

But anywhere Governor Aregbesola goes, he’s always followed by a crowd of admirers, indicating that he’s still popular among the citizenry.

If you go, they will follow you too.

What are the things you think he (Aregbesola) has done wrongly?

Well, like Baba Awolowo would say, when you criticise, you should provide better alternatives. One, on the issue of education, he has taken a wrong step completely. What he has done is against the tenets of education, it is against the culture of the Yoruba and it is against our integrity too as freeborn Yoruba people. Lumping students from Islam-based faith schools with students of Christianity-based faith schools together and expecting one religion to supersede the other is wrong. This is an invitation to chaos. Having the same uniform for all students is not our culture. It is wrong for children to walk about 10 kilometres to school in the morning; you are going to have dropouts.

How would you reconstruct all the schools that were pulled down in the merger and construction of mega schools?

That’s the price we have to pay for bad leadership. You have to carry the mess but we will try and comfort our people more.

How come you are always associated with political violence?

This is the game plan of the APC. They know my political potential and worth and they know that the only way to downplay my political influence is to give me a bad name. This campaign of calumny against my name and person has been going on for a very long time. But we didn’t realise this for a very long time. Over time, people we have been interacting with, who have met us one-on-one, have had cause to apologise for holding wrong assumptions against my person. They often would say, “So this is Omisore? We are sorry for holding a wrong opinion about you. Many have begged God to forgive them for peddling falsehood against us. I had initially felt that we are all practising politics and had expected everybody to be fair but I was wrong. The APC brought down its propaganda machinery to give me a bad name because they are afraid of my political potential. But they cannot succeed because the people have known the truth. They said Omisore didn’t go to school, that he’s an illiterate; how can an illiterate bag a PhD? Can you imagine somebody, who is an illiterate, saying a PhD holder never went to school?

As an altar boy while growing up, one would think you would prefer a life of clergy to the life of politics you’ve chosen.

Being a Catholic and having attended Catholic schools while growing up and having been exposed to the Catholic way of life – I’ve always been exposed to reverend fathers, reverend sisters – hence I served as altar boy for so many years when I was growing up. Initially I thought of becoming a reverend father but along the line my parents prevailed on me that I shouldn’t be a reverend father for obvious reasons.

It is a widely held belief that you bought your acquittal from the Ige murder charge at a price.

It is unfortunate that Nigerians of these days, especially among the APC, when judgement is not given in their favour, will bring in propaganda. But if you understand the perception of the trial, the judgement was even that we have no business in court. There was a police report, which says Omisore didn’t have any business with Chief Bola Ige’s death. But the leadership of the Alliance for Democracy in the South-West just said just go to court. The issue of acquittal doesn’t even arise at all.

Is it morally right for you to contest election while you were behind bars, standing trial for murder?

The Nigerian Constitution is very clear over eligibility to contest election. Many people have cases in court for 10 – 15 years and they move about freely while they attend to their court cases. The only difference was that I was being detained. The constitution is very clear that every accused person remains innocent until the contrary is proved in court, so basically, that doesn’t debar me from all my rights. It was on that strength that I contested election. I was eligible to contest. At no point was I indicted of any electoral offence that would have worked against me from contesting any election. As it was said in the Senate at that time, some senators had cases in court and they were coming from home, some cases take several years. Some cases just keep you behind bars for obvious political reasons.

Is it right of you to receive a VIP treatment in prison while standing trial for murder?

Well, I don’t know what you mean by VIP treatment but all these I’ve heard from the rumour mill too. Some people said I was living in Premier Hotel. Anybody that says I received VIP treatment in prison, I just pray that God should send such a person to prison so that the person too can have VIP treatment. The prison condition was so harsh. I’ve never seen such in my life before. We were living in a cubicle in a cell, the toilet was where we ate and we drank. Some of our colleagues would be defecating early in the morning when you were sleeping and you will be hearing as hot shit jets through their anuses making ‘parapapapapa’ sound. Some of them will be shouting ‘mo fe yagbe, mo fe yagbe, mo fe yagbe oo!!! – meaning, I want to defecate ooo. And they will shit in the open. It was so humiliating and very bad. You will see very big cockroaches and very big rats. In fact, my prayer that time was for God to prevent fire outbreak from the prison because the warders would lock you up at night and go away. That was my prayer everyday at night before I slept because if there was a fire incident, we would all just perish. I’ve already sued the Oyo State government for malicious prosecution, I charged them N20bn and up till today, we are still court.

Did you kill Bola Ige?

I did not kill Bola Ige at all. I can’t kill anybody, anyway, not to talk of Chief Bola Ige. Chief Bola Ige was my leader. He was like an uncle in-law to me. At no time did I consider that idea. I’m sure Chief Bola Ige today in his grave will be cursing those people who used his name to punish us. When I spoke with Sir Dele Ige (Bola Ige’s brother) before he died, I told him if Uncle Bola was alive, he would have moved against those kind of things. If Uncle Bola was Uncle Dele Ige, by the time you’re telling lies against me, Uncle Bola would have moved against it and say, “No, don’t tell lies against Iyiola o.” But Uncle Dele didn’t do so because of the pressure here and there. And of course, the agenda of Chief Bisi Akande and Alhaji Lam Adesina was just to win re-election. Baba Alayande came to meet us in prison, Pa Adewale Thompson came to meet us too and they said it was bad enough that Bola Ige died but how can you now punish young innocent people? They said Bola Ige was their younger brother and that they didn’t want him dead but that how could you put innocent people in the gallows? My belief is that the AD was covering the real cause of Bola Ige’s death. They know Bola Ige’s killer but in order to let that person escape, they use other people to cover up in order to divert people’s attention.

Did you instigate the removal of his cap at the palace of the Ooni of Ife?

No, how could I? I wasn’t there when his cap was removed. When his cap was removed I was with the Kabiyesi Ooni. I was the one that even called on State Security Service officials around to look for his cap. At that time, the Afenifere was already polarised. They had thugs everywhere and they had factions everywhere.

I don’t know where that (removal of cap) might have come from. At that point, there were divisions in Afenifere basically and so I don’t know who must have caused these crises. But at the point of removing Chief Bola Ige’s cap, I was not present. I was not there at all. But Uncle Bola Ige came to meet me, I was the one that even came out with the Ooni to say they should go and look for his cap.

Did they find the cap?

Of course, they found the cap immediately. He got his cap before he left. Uncle Bola was even thanking me after and we took photographs with the Ooni before he left.

Don’t you think that the governor as an engineer would have his reasons for the ongoing constructions in the state?

He’s an engineer of his own level; he’s not my kind of engineer.

Are you different from him?

Yes, of course. I’m very, very different from him in engineering practice.

In what ways?

He’s a technician. He knows he’s a technician.

Are you saying someone who studied engineering and graduated from a Nigerian tertiary institution is not worthy to be called an engineer?

OND or HND, which one does he have from The Polytechnic, Ibadan? Ok, he has HND. HND graduates, like BSc graduates, go through a process before they can become engineers; they have COREN exams to pass. He attempted a few times, he failed. If he’s an engineer let him tell the world his COREN number.

Do you have a COREN number?

Of course, I do. I’m a chartered engineer, I’m a senior engineer. I’m even a council member of COREN.

Did you fail him in COREN exam as a council member?

Maybe the examination department of COREN failed him when he didn’t measure up to standard.

So, he doesn’t have the right to call himself an engineer?

No, he cannot. It’s illegal. It’s impersonation. When you have HND or BSc in Accountancy, you have to write ICAN exam. The same thing applies to engineering.

People say you don’t prostrate before the Ooni because you’re higher than him in the occult realm. Is this true?

All these are things that make one laugh because as a Yoruba son, you prostrate yourself before elders not only the Ooni. Elders prostrate before the Ooni, so your own prostration should be double. All these are fabrications against my person. I prostrate myself before anybody that’s older than me as a sign of respect. It is unthinkable. It’s unbelievable. Prostrating before the Ooni doesn’t take anything away from me. Even when I was a deputy governor, I used to prostrate myself before Chief Akande, ask him, he will tell you, I prostrated myself before Pa Adesanya and all the elders in the AD.