Civil society groups in Osun State are planning a mass rally for Tuesday, July 7 rally in support of Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s impeachment.
Over 20 civi and faith-based societies are coalesced under the umbrella body Civil Societies’ Coalition for Emancipation of Osun State for the rally.
The group at a press briefing held in Osogbo on Monday, said that it was already mobilising members towards the mass rally.
The group’s Chairman, Comrade Adeniyi Sulaiman Alimi gave the names of association ready for the rally as The Voices, KIMPACT, Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice, Grassroot Democratic Network, Christian Initiative for Nation Building, Christian Leadership Mobilisation and Better Future Initiative.
Others are Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP), Justice, Development and Peace Commission Movement (JDPCM), Positive Movement, Good Governance Support Group, Democratic Socialist Movement and Conference of National Political Parties (CNPP).
According to Alimi, over three petitions including the one sent by a state serving judge, Justice Folaranmi Oloyede, calling for Aregbesola’s probe and impeachment are presently before members of the state House of Assembly and the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC).
He said, “Our demand is nothing but the removal of Ogbeni Aregbesola. If a chieftain of his party and indeed a former National Chairman of APC and a one-time governor of Osun state, Chief Adebisi Akande can declare that 24-year old Osun is not viable under Aregbesola, then, we are of the view that the man at the helm of affairs should quit”.
The group’s Secretary, Comrade Sulaiman Adeniyi, in his remarks said, that Osun has become a failed state under the watch of Aregbesola, with all the characteristics already manifested; hunger, poverty, closed hospitals, schools, Government offices, courts, internal displacement of persons, failed and abandoned projects from roads to buildings.
According to him, “Jungle justice in the absence of the judiciary, collapse of public utility, insecurity, as burglary and petty stealing pervades the land arising from excruciating hunger and lack.
“We see the situation escalating, even beyond the control of security agents in the country as hungry men are angry men and conversely, angry men in their numbers are ominous dangers to the society.
“Wole Soyinka, regrettably an ally of the autocratic, dictatorial and unusual government of Osun state under the unusual Ogbeni, once said ‘the man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny’.
“Our docility, gullibility (“omoluabi mentality”) and cowardice as a people, coupled with the greed and selfishness of the custodians of our traditions as well as the spiritual insensitivity and nonchalance of our religious leaders certainly contributed in no small measure to get us to this deplorable state of things which we could never have thought of in our wildest imagination.
“In addition to these is the failure of the State House of Assembly to perform her duties as enshrined in sections 4, 128 and 129 of the constitution as the watchdog of the executive arm of government”, he stated.
He urged concerned Osun indigenes including workers, artisans, pensioners and students to join forces with CSCEO to ensure that both the state House of Assembly and EFCC perform their constitutional responsibilities.
The activist said there are enormous evidences of financial mismanagement by Aregbesola’s government.
