Ibadan youths condemn gift of N15m Lexus Luxury SUV to party leader by Oyo Rep

… Say money can transform lives of 60 members, their families

JOSEPH OKWUOFU, Ibadan

Irked by the gift of N15million luxury Lexus RX 300 SUV car to a single individual by Hon Tolulope Sadipe , member House of Representatives, representing Oluyole Federal Constituency of Oyo State, hundreds of Ibadan youths are venting their anger on the lawmaker who they accused of neglecting the suffering masses especially youths and women in the Constituency.

The youths under the umbrella of the Oluyole Progressive Force (OPF), a political movement fighting for the rights of youths and the masses in the Oluyole Local Government Area of Oyo State accused the lawmaker of bribing leaders of the party to get third term ticket during 2027 poll .

They faulted the recent donation of a Lexus RX 300 Luxury SUV car by the member representing Oluyole Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Tolulope Sadipe to one of the leaders in the constituency, Alhaji Razak Akilapa.

The OPF in a statement issued in Ibadan on Saturday described the gift of the car estimated at N15 million to a single person in a Federal Constituency of thousands of suffering, starving and unemployed youths as absurd, misplaced, anti-progressive and against the interest of the suffering masses of the federal constituency.

The group, comprising youths from all ten wards in the federal constituency in the statement signed by Comrade Emmanuel Shodimu, (Chairman) and Esther Tolase (Secretary), stated that with the action of the honourable member, she had shown clearly that what mattered to her was how to use the leaders of the party to secure a third term and perpetuate herself in the National Assembly and not the progress and upliftment of the federal constituency.

The youths argued that the N15 million expended to just gratify one leader if used wisely on the deprived people of Oluyole at N250,000 per youth and woman for business start-ups would have been sufficient to permanently transform the lives of 60 Oluyole youths and women with their families.

”This is absurd. It is unreasonable. If they are making so much money in the House of Representatives, wisdom dictates that they should spend it wisely to better the lives of their constituents rather than wasting it on unproductive luxury cars.

We can not comprehend why a woman whom we knew had nothing before becoming a member of the House of Representatives would gift a car of about 15 million Naira to a man to mark his 85th birthday.

‘’This humongous money, if it had been used wisely, was enough to transform the lives of 60 persons in the federal constituency for life.

It would impact the families of the people and uplift the economic activities of the local government area.

But our own honourable chose to gift a N15m unproductive car to an 85-year-old man. Sad!.

“Not only that, the Oluyole Progressives Force who are mainly registered members of the All Progressives Congress lamented that the House of Representatives member chose to satisfy a single person when the people living in and trading on the street leading to Olomi Primary school being used for the weekly meeting of APC have been complaining bitterly over the poor state of the road for more than a decade.
The road has now become impassable.”

In addition, the OPF stated that while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) possesses a befitting party house and meeting place in Idi-Ayunre, the headquarters of the local government, the Oluyole House of Representatives member did not consider such a noble legacy important but the purchase of a luxury car of N15m for an individual.

The Oluyole Progressive Force therefore asked the youths and women of the federal constituency to rise against such oppressive tendencies and ensure that their elected representatives do only those things that would promote the growth and development of the party and the federal constituency.

The Progressive youths declared that it was high time that the real progressives and the entire masses of Oluyole discarded the greedy, backward and retrogressive old politicians who have been retarding the progress of the local government federal constituency for years.

It would be recalled that the member representing Oluyole Federal Constituency recently openly gifted a luxury Lexus SUV car to a leader of APC in the federal constituency, Alhaji Razak Akilapa to mark his 85th birthday.