Demolition: Ajimobi, Ayefele To Settle Rift

An end might have come to the crisis created by the demolition of Music House, which houses Fresh FM, Ibadan, allegedly by the Oyo State Government.

A closed-door meeting reportedly held between the Oyo State governor, Abiola Ajimobi, and owner of the building, Yinka Ayefele over the matter on Thursday.

A committee comprising government officials at the meeting, was set up to look into the situation and come up with an amicable solution

The meeting was said to have been facilitated by a leading governorship aspirant on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Mr. Joseph Tegbe.

Reports have it that the meeting was attended by David Ajiboye, a director with Yinka Ayefele Limited, popular broadcaster, Isaac Brown, and other officials.

Ayefele’s visit to Ajimobi’s office coincided with that of the traditional rulers from Oyo town and Oke Ogun who came to pay the governor a Sallah visit.

The traditional rulers were led by the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi.

Ajimobi was accompanied into the private meeting with Ayefele by Oba Adeyemi, the Eleruwa of Eruwa Oba Samuel Adegbola; Aseyin of Iseyin, Oba Abdulganiy Adekunle; Iba of Kishiland, Oba Moshood Aweda; Onpetu of Ijeruland, Oba Sunday Oyediran among others.

The meeting was also attended by Commissioner of Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr Toye Arulogun; the Director General, Bureau of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Waheed Gbadamosi, who also doubles as the Special Adviser to Governor Ajimobi on Physical Planning and Development Control; the Special Adviser to the Governor on Communication and Strategy, Mr Bolaji Tunji; Tegbe and a few other aides.

A source revealed that Governor Ajimobi made it clear at the meeting that it was not a personal issue between him or his government and Ayefele as a person or Fresh FM.

Ajimobi, who reportedly expressed willingness to lay the matter to rest, was said to have insisted that the problem was with the building which was partly demolished on Sunday.

According to him, the issue is a battle for the supremacy of rule or law and respect for the laws of the land.

Sources stated that the governor urged Ayefele and his team to mind their utterances and statements made in public on their behalf, and pointed out that careless statements escalated the issue but would not deter the government from respecting the rule of law.

“The Alaafin who spoke earlier, appealed to the governor to temper justice with mercy on the issue and allow for peaceful and amicable resolution of the matter.

“The first class monarch harped on the need for all parties to forget who was wrong and focus on a peaceful resolution of the crisis,” a source said.

Ayefele reportedly explained that all his moves to see the Governor before the demolition was unfruitful and that he regretted not coming personally while communicating in writing and by proxy.

He was said to have also expressed readiness for peaceful and amicable resolution of the matter.

It was gathered that the meeting lasted about 30 minutes before Ajimobi and the royal fathers left, allowing the government officials to continue with the rest of the discussions.

We were informed that the state Government saw the aftermath of the demolition as a bad publicity and has resolved to pacify the gospel artiste so that the APC would not have a bad outing in the state in the forthcoming 2019 General Elections.