Those who think the sponsored protest in Akure on Tuesday at the Governor’s Office was a spontaneous uprising of the oppressed clearly underestimate the creative genius of mischief. It was nothing but another theatre of deceit carefully choreographed by men who have turned land grabbing into both an art and a profession. At the centre of this tragicomedy sits Hon. Akinlaja Iranola, a man whose political relevance expired with his last election but who now resurrects himself as the patron saint of deception, manipulation and Machiavellian intrigues.
For those who know Ondo politics, there is nothing new about this circus. The same Akinlaja who once weaponized labour activism has now found a new crusade in land. What he could not achieve with ideology, he now attempts to achieve through mob psychology and the deployment of rented crowds ferried to Akure in three coaster buses reportedly bankrolled by his cohorts. Over two million naira reportedly changed hands to fund this latest drama of deceit.
It is laughable that this same Akinlaja who now pretends to be the voice of the people once coveted one hundred and eighty acres of land belonging to the Ajisafe family at Asin and offered eight million naira for it. When his offer was rejected, he unleashed a torrent of police harassment, false arrests and media blackmail. The man who once called Ojo Ajisafe his adopted son became his tormentor in chief, manipulating the police to detain him and bar him from his lawyer and family. Yet Akinlaja parades himself before the gullible as a hero of justice.
Even more hypocritical is his sudden silence about the bricklayer turned victim he sought to crush. Ojo Ajisafe who now walks free has gone back to court to challenge the reckless pronouncements that labelled him a land grabber. It bears repeating that it is not the government that determines land ownership but the court of competent jurisdiction. The Governor knows this and that is why he has wisely refused to be dragged into the muck of self-appointed crusaders whose only gospel is greed.
It is instructive that this same self-styled liberator once used identical tricks against the Akinbohun family pretending to defend them while quietly dispossessing them of half their inheritance. His playbook has not changed. Soft-spoken deceit, selective activism and a flair for mobilizing gullible sympathizers are his tools of trade. His media puppets do the rest, spinning lies into poetry and painting fraudsters as freedom fighters.
Ondo people are not fools. The records are clear. Even while he was Deputy Governor, Dr Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa had formally written to the Yangede of Epe, Oba Oyebade Isaac Akinkuade, warning him to reverse all unauthorized appointments of Olus and minor chiefs in Ondo East and West Local Governments. The letter dated June 18, 2022, clearly instructed the monarch to maintain the status quo and await the decision of the State Government. It was a preventive directive intended to forestall exactly the kind of communal crisis now being fanned by those who thrive on confusion. Sadly, the monarch ignored that lawful directive and today the consequences of that defiance are on public display.
It is therefore shameful that Akinlaja and his rented agitators now distort facts to make the lawless appear as victims. The so-called kidnapped monarchs whose incarceration sparked this mob theatre are subjects of an ongoing criminal trial charged after due police investigation found them culpable in an attempted murder case. Their sponsors, in a bid to mask their sins, are weaponizing sentiments and distorting facts to mislead the public.
At the heart of this deception stands Barrister Abiodun, the man many now call Ojo’s alter ego, whose only offence seems to be his refusal to bow to falsehood. He is no stranger to defending the oppressed. Over a decade ago, while passing through Oke Igbo, he encountered an elderly woman whose son had been murdered by a rich man during a fishing expedition. The case had been buried for a year until Abiodun insisted it must be reopened. Through his persistence and the brilliance of Segun Akeredolu and Mrs Omotola Ologun of the Attorney General’s office, justice was served. That case remains the only death conviction in Ondo State in the last decade. That is who he is, a man who defends the voiceless without asking for reward. READ MORE:
So when the mob howls and their rented spokespersons scream injustice, one must ask who truly are the oppressors and who are the oppressed. Is it the bricklayer who seeks justice in court or the rich manipulator who hides behind the crowd he paid to shout? The answer is obvious. Justice does not live in the noise of the market square. It resides in the quiet chambers of the law court where truth is not swayed by numbers.
Those who sponsored this circus may take comfort in their temporary noise, but soon the curtains will fall. The court will sit. The truth will speak. And history will remember who stood with justice and who stood with deceit. Ondo people are watching and God, as always, is with the just.
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