STOP PLAYING TO THE GALLERY, AKALA BLASTS AJIMOBI TRANSITION PANEL

Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo State has accused the transition committee of the incoming government of Senator Abiola Ajimobi of grandstanding and playing to the gallery by asking for information beyond its purview.

A statement by the governor's spokesman, Prince Dotun Oyelade, declared that the only committee that ws relevant until May 29 was the ceremonial committee for the inauguration of the governor-elect.

'The incoming administration must restrain itself till Sunday when all doors will be ajar for it to do what it likes with the state, but to ask for unguided information on sensitive government function is having a parallel administration, which is strange to our laws,' the statement said in reaction to allegation by the Ajimobi raised transition panel that the outgoing regime was frustrating its efforts and not being forthcoming on handing over notes.

The statement said there had been no precendence of what the committee was demanding, recalling that former governor Lam Adesina refused similar request in April 2003 when Senator Rashidi Ladoja, having just won the election, requested that his transition committee be furnished with vital government information.

It added that if Akala did not want to cooperate with the incoming administration, 'he would not have approved N25 million for the swearing-in ceremony when Lam Adesina approved only N5 million for Ladoja's swearing-in out of the N17 million recommended while Ladoja himself approved only N2 million for Akala's inauguration in 2007 of the N22 million recommended by his transition team.'