The controversies surrounding the alleged dual citizenship status of Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State appear to be far from over as the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that the governor was trying to cover up "his sin bordering on legality".
The Oyo State PDP secretary, Alhaji Bashiru Akanbi, who made this known while speaking with the Nigerian Tribune last week, said that the recent visit of Senator Ajimobi to the embassy of the United States of America (USA) in Lagos was suspicious and should thus be looked into.
The party also called on the Federal Government and the US Embassy in Nigeria to put the controversy surrounding the alleged dual citizenship of the governor at rest by making known to the public his real status, without a prejudice to the ongoing judicial probe into the issue.
The state PDP scribe said that the party had decided, in the interest of peace, not to challenge the outcome of the April gubernatorial election in the state in which its candidate, former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala, lost to the newly-sworn in governor.
The PDP had said that the governor, who won the election on the ticket of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), was not constitutionally qualified to contest the election, having allegedly breached Section 182, Subsection 1 (A) of the Nigerian Constitution which forbade persons with the citizenship of any other country apart from the country of his birth (Nigeria) from contesting for the office of the governor.
Meanwhile, the state governor has denied the insinuations from the PDP, describing the party as "wicked and apparently uninformed."
Reacting through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications, Dr Festus Adedayo, the governor said the meeting between him and US officials discussed a way of partnering on issues bordering on the development of the state.
"The truth of the matter is that Governor Abiola Ajimobi met with the United States of America's Consul General, Joseph D. Stafford and the Vice Consul, Stacy M. Session, on Tuesday, May 24, 2011, in Lagos to discuss the prospect of Oyo State partnering the United States, so as to make the state the pacesetter that the PDP government denied it for years.
"Indeed, the meeting had been scheduled between the governor and the US Consul General long before the PDP went to town with its unfounded rumour about alleged dual citizenship of the governor.
"At the meeting with the Consul General, the governor requested for ways through which his state could benefit from the American government and partner with it. Specifically, the governor communicated his earlier meeting with the IITA Director to the Consul General and said that the government would network the institute towards uplifting the agricultural base of the state. He specifically stated that Oyo, with its vast land mass, could conveniently feed the whole of nation.
"Among other discussions, Governor Ajimobi requested the American government to help the state in the areas of education, agriculture, infrastructure, health services, commerce, infrastructural development, among others," Dr Adedayo said.
The statement stated further that the Consul General promised assistance in the sectors, specifically promising to facilitate contact between the state and foreign agricultural services agencies for assistance and that he would forward the request to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
"There was no mention of dual citizenship at all during this open discussion and indeed, there was no basis for the governor to discuss this since he has never been an American citizen. The issue of dual citizenship remains in the fertile imagination of the PDP which has not come to terms with the fact of its grand loss at the polls in April.
"If the opposition PDP is in doubt of the veracity of the above, it could ascertain same from the American government through its embassy which, we are sure, would not join the PDP in its journey on a lie alley," the release said.
Source: Tribune