APC, PDP bicker over Makinde’s foreign trip

The Pacesetter Initiative (TPI), a group within the Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Monday, slammed the state governor, Seyi Makinde, over his reported trip to the United States.

Although there was no official confirmation on the governor’s overseas trip, impeccable sources have it that he (Makinde) left Nigeria on December 31, 2020 to unite with members of his immediate family who are permanent residents of Houston, Texas.

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The group’s coordinator, Afeez Bolaji Repete, and Director of Organization, Olawale Sadare, while speaking with journalists in Ibadan, frowned at what they called a height of insensitivity and ineptitude on the part of Makinde.

Repete said: “Gov. Makinde’s trip to the United States, this time, came at a time his government needed to arrest the surging challenges of insecurity bedevilling virtually every part of the state as residents of Ibadan, Oke-Ogun, Ibarapa, Ogbomoso and Oyo were gnashing their teeth on account of coordinated hoodlum attacks, kidnappings, killings and other organised crimes.”

Reacting, the spokesperson of the PDP in the state, Akeem Olatunji wondered when it became an offence to travel abroad during annual leave.

“Is it a crime to travel on annual vacation? There was no crisis before he left Nigeria. He has not spent up to a week because he was around late last year. It is true he travelled but there is government in place. We are now in a global village, so he can direct the affairs of the state from anywhere. If they have nothing to say, let them shut up,” he said.