An indigenous pro-democracy group, the Kwara South Youth Development
Alliance (KWASYDA) has alleged that the lawmaker representing
Irepodun/Ekiti/Isin/Oke-Ero federal constituency at the National
Assembly, Hon. Abdulraheem Tunji Olawuyi popularly known as Ajulo-Opin
appointed his daughter and cousin as legislative aides.
KWASYDA, in pressed statement jointly signed by Adio Abegunde and
Sherifat Owolabi, chairman and secretary respectively, a copy of which
was made available to newsmen in Ilorin, weekend, further accused the
lawmaker of nepotism.
But Ajulo-Opin declined comment on the issue last night. When
contacted on the telephone last night, he sent a text message that
“Sorry, I can’t talk right now”. He however did not respond to a text
message seeking for his comment over the allegation.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker is the second Kwara
National Assembly lawmakers that would be alleged of nepotism in the
appointment of legislative aides after Senate Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe
representing Kwara Central also reportedly appointed his daughter,
Hafsat as aide.
The group accused the Ajulo-Opin of “nepotism and undue favouritism of
his home town Omu-Aran to the detriment of other towns and villages in
federal constituency.
According to the group, “Ajulo-Opin has appointed his daughter
Sherifat Olawuyi and his cousin Adebola Adekeye as legislative aides,
while he also appointed his younger brother Lanre Abdulganiyu as
Senior Legislative Aide. This is the highest level of nepotism, where
he couldn’t find any of his numerous constituents or even party
members worthy of the appointment except his blood relations.
“This is an honourable that came in on popular demand; he has however
lowered the bar of performance and has not shown understanding of the
job at hand or seriousness to learn from experienced constituents.
“He’s busy traveling from one part of the globe to the other,
abandoning the job of lawmaking which was the main reason he was sent
to Abuja by his constituents. We cannot afford to have a
representative who is perpetually globetrotting while the constituents
are suffering.
“We use this opportunity to call the attention of the whole world to
the non-representation of Irepodun/Isin/Ekiti/Oke-Ero federal
constituency of Kwara State, our representative stays more in Canada
and America than Kwara and Abuja”, they alleged.
The group called for “immediate stoppage of his globetrotting” but
rather face his legislative work and gave a 7-day ultimatum to rescind
the appointment or “we might be forced to go start his recall
process” the group threatened.
