Oluwadamilare Ajiboye and Bolaji Alade.
Source: Starmediaren
It all started when the video of a man identified as Babayomi Kayode (Apostle Kay) surfaced online suggesting that the #EndSARS movement has been compromised after some #EndSARS protest frontliners in Ibadan, Oyo state received one million naira from the Oyo state government. According to him, he insisted that the money be returned, but that some people brought hoodlums to harass him and a few others. Obviously, he made the video to raise awareness.
Not long after this, two sheets of paper containing the names of those at the meeting was also posted in an online #EndSARS group by a man identified as Adedeji Adekunle (Scholes). The names of those who collected their share of the money were ticked.
These two revelations attracted heavy criticism from different quarters. On the part of the participants, they did not end the day without trading words alleging betrayal and misinformation.
After a few days of mudslinging by twenty-five student leaders, Social media influencers, Community Organisers and youths in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on who collected the sum of one million naira from the Oyo state government and why the money was collected, and following public criticism from different quarters for selling out the #ENDSARS Movement, the Union of Campus Journalists, University of Ibadan, properly guided by the aphorism, truth searches for no one. It waits to be found, dug deep into the details of the Oyo state government meeting with representatives of different groups in the State, particularly the #ENDSARS Frontliners at the House of Chiefs within the Oyo State House of Assembly Complex on the 27th of October, 2020; exactly a week after the Lekki Massacre.
The Genesis
Following the Oyo State #EndSARS protest on Tuesday, 13th of October, 2020, the State governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde, promised to explore ways to maintain peace and harmony within the state by engaging all stakeholders and Frontliners in the #EndSARS protest.
The backdrop of this promise was the series of meeting with the governor, some executive members and the members of the Oyo State legislative arm.
One of those meetings was the one which held between the hours of 12 noon and 3 pm at the House of Chiefs within the Oyo State House of Assembly Complex on the 27th of October, 2020.
This meeting has far garnered controversies, not because of the discussion, but because of what exchanged hands after the discussion.
After the meeting, the #EndSARS representatives accepted the sum of one million naira and shared it among themselves. Many have said this was a buy-out by the Oyo state government in a bid to suppress the #EndSARS movement.
We would come to the truth of this claim later. First, what were the agenda of the meeting and who were those at the meeting?
The Meeting At The House Of Chiefs
The meeting on the 27th of October, 2020, started at about 12 noon. It had in attendance different groups representing their interests to the state government.
The groups present were;
The Progressive Trade Men and Artisans Group, National Youth Council of Nigeria Society, #EndSARS Group, Taxi and Micra Drivers Group and
Acomoran Group (Okada Riders).
On the part of the government, there was
Governor of Oyo State, Engineer Seyi Makinde;
Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Mr Rauf Olaniyan;
Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Hon. Debo Ogundoyin;
Deputy Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Abiodun Mohammed Fadeyi;
Honourable Members of the Oyo State House of Assembly;
Secretary to the State Government, Mrs Olubamiwo Adeosun;
Chief of Staff, Chief Oyebisi Ilaka;
Deputy Chief of Staff, Mr Olawale Mogbonjubola;
Chairman of the State Advisory Council, Sen. Hosea Agboola Ayoola;
Head of Service, Mrs Ololade Agboola;
Commissioner For Information, Culture and Tourism, Dr. Wasiu Olatunbosun;
Commissioner For Youth and Sports, Honourable Seun Fakorede;
Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Honourable Bayo Lawal;
Commissioner For Trade, Investment, Industry and Corporatives, Honourable Adebisi Olabode;
Special Adviser on Securities, Mr Fatai Owoseni and many other dignitaries.
Although many attendants, especially those in the #EndSARS Group category, following public criticism of the logicality of selecting themselves to represent an acephalous movement in a meeting with the government, have attempted to dispel the claim that they were #EndSARS representatives, investigation, however, showed that all the attendants knew or, at least, should have known that they were engaging the government as representatives of the #EndSARS Movement.
First, each group present at the meeting had its reserved space branded according to whom or what it represented. In this light, there was a reserved seat branded #EndSARS, and this was where the twenty-five representatives, some of whom are now denying representing the #EndSARS movement sat at.
Second, from the start of the meeting till the end, the compere had referred to this group as #EndSARS without objection from any of the attendants. The Minister for Youth and Sports, Mr Seun Fakorede, equally referred to the group as #EndSARS frontliners during his opening speech. In his words, “…the members of the #EndSARS group who are the frontliners in the protest, I greet you. Thank you for doing this (discussing with the government) with us peacefully, and in the most intelligent way…”
Lastly, out of all the groups present, it was only the #EndSARS group that had their demands totally tailored to the suspended #EndSARS protest and the 5 for 5 demands of #EndSARS protesters nationwide.
Represented by Mr. Akeju Olusegun, President of the University of Ibadan Students’ Union, as the spokesperson, the group demanded a thirty-second silence in honour of lost souls during the nationwide protest, and particularly the Lekki Massacre.
Mr. Akeju further spoke on the Oyo State’s Panel of Enquiry, need for State Policing, release of arrested protesters in the state, palliatives for the Youth and finished with the unanswered question of ‘Who Ordered the Lekki Massacre?’
Without a doubt, all these strengthen the point that the twenty-five attendants knew or ought to have known that the government of Oyo state saw them as representatives of the larger #EndSARS protesters in Oyo State.
After each group had presented their demands, the governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde, took time to attend to each group’s demand and made promises on their fulfilment. For the #EndSARS group, he promised to continue to seek means to maintain peace and engage with the youth. On the panel of enquiry, the #EndSARS group was asked to send in representatives to be on the panel. On the arrested protesters in the state, the government emphasized that all arrested protesters have been released, but if the youths knew of any one still in detention, such should be brought to notice. On state policing, the governor reiterated that it was a constitutional matter and beyond his authority to achieve, but would continue to seek means to maintain peace and order in the state.
The meeting came to a close at about 3 pm and the dignitaries left one after the other.
Not long after the dignitaries left, the compere announced that all groups in attendance should wait behind for a token from the Oyo State government.
The One Million Naira Saga
The token that came from the government was a sum of one million naira each to all the groups present at the meeting.
For the #EndSARS group, the spokesperson, Mr. Akeju Olusegun, took delivery of the bag containing the money. While some participants like Victoria Ajiboye and Paul Alasiri claimed that the money was brought to Akeju in separate quarters away from the others, and that he only brought the money to the group after he had duly accepted the money, thereby suggesting that there was no way they could have rejected the money since Akeju had accepted it.
On his part, Akeju insisted that the money was brought to him as the spokesperson in the midst of the other participants, and that there was no way he could outrightly reject the money without seeking the opinion of others. UCJ’s investigation leans towards the narration of Akeju that the money was brought to him in their midst. Also, Ayodele Rereoluwa and Temitope Ishola (Temmy Gista) both confirmed the narration that Akeju received the funds in the presence of others.
Being the group’s spokesperson, Akeju asked what the #EndSARS group wanted to do with the money; basically providing two options of returning or keeping and sharing the money.
Seventeen people were in support of sharing the money and the remaining eight people were against the idea of sharing it. As expected, the majority had their way.
The one million naira was then divided equally among the twenty-five participants, leaving each participant entitled to a sum of forty thousand naira.
When asked while he was against sharing the money, Akintomide Lanre (Asiwaju Lerry), one of the representatives who doubles as a social media influencer, stated that although the money was not a bribe, but a meeting allowance, he was, however, against sharing it because many of their demands were not met and that asking that the money be returned was to show his discomfort with the government’s response to the group’s demands.
On the other hand, Temitope Ishola (Temmy Gista), one of representatives who received the money, gave his reasons for receiving the money as being personal to him alone. He maintained that his conscience is clear because he knew the money was not a bribe, and by collecting the money he merely exercised his discretionary right to accept or reject a gift from the state government.
Ayodele Rereoluwa, another representative and a social media influencer, maintained that the money was not a bribe but sitting allowance for the meeting. He stated thus; ‘if you come for a meeting, the government or the person you have the meeting with understands that you came with your own transport and other things. So it is a normal thing; you can ask around. It is what they call sitting allowance. I really don’t explain to people again. If you don’t understand, you don’t understand… If you have gone for meetings very well, you will understand that this thing is a normal thing. How much is ‘40k’?’’
On the part of another #EndSARS representative who first released the list containing the names of the attendants at the meeting, Adedeji Adekunle (Scholes), he stated that the money was not meant to be a bribe. Hear him; “A unison agreement across the nation is (that) as #EndSARS representatives, don’t receive money from any political body. So, I and the other seven stood by it. It’s not a bribe, but we shouldn’t collect sitting or transport allowance from any government.”
Speaking further, he disagreed that the list containing the names of the participants was leaked by him, but stated that the decision to make public the list was reached by all the representatives which shows that it was not a bribe, because if it was indeed a bribe, nobody would agree to write down their names let alone agree to make the list public. Hear him again; “The names were not leaked. In fact, everyone wrote their names and we agreed in unison that anyone that collected the money will be ticked and their names submitted to all #EndSARS WhatsApp group. I only posted on the group I belonged.”
Paul Alasiri also confirmed that he collected the forty thousand naira when it was shared, but maintained that it was never a bribe. In his words, he maintained; “When I collected the money, the money was for logistic, refreshment and others… Every group that came for that meeting was given one million naira, not just the #EndSARS group was given money. So, tell me how people would think that the money was for you to keep quiet knowing fully well that the governor has even supported this same movement from the onset. He didn’t stop anybody from protesting, he never said you should not do anything regarding the protest… there is no demand that we actually made to the governor that he did not say he was going to do… I mean ‘40k’ is too small for someone to say you want to shut someone up or buy someone over if you look at it very well.’’
On her part, Victoria Ajiboye, another representative at the #EndSARS meeting with the government explained that she collected the money because it was a normal thing when you go for political meetings. Hear her; “After the meeting, Akeju came to us with the one million naira that he was given to share with us for attending the meeting. Asiwaju Lerry, Rereoluwa and I asked him why they gave us money that we are not collecting any money because we didn’t know what it was for. Akeju explained that all the stakeholders that were present were given. That it’s just to appreciate us for our time. “
She explained further, “Ninety percent agreed we share the money. My boss said I should take it. And that it was a normal thing when you attend a political meeting, they reward you for your time and logistics.”
Lastly, Babayomi Kayode (Apostle Kay), another #EndSARS representative who made the video that went viral on the night of the meeting insinuating that the representatives were bought out also gave a comment on the controversies. When contacted, he told UCJ, UI that the money was never a bribe, but refused to answer further questions put to him regarding what he intended to achieve with the video since he knew it was not a bribe.
In the end, the group agreed that all participants should put down their names and those who were interested in the money should be right-ticked. Seventeen participants each collected forty thousand naira totaling six hundred and eighty thousand naira (N680, 000).
The group was left with three hundred and twenty thousand naira (N320, 000), out of which twenty thousand naira (N20, 000) was used to ‘settle’ the area boys who accosted the group for money and another ten thousand naira (N10,000) was given to the orderlies responsible for maintaining peace during and after the meeting. The group was left with two hundred and ninety thousand naira (N290, 000) , and Akeju Olusegun being the spokesperson who received the money had the responsibility of returning the balance to the government.
UCJ, UI’s investigation shows that the balance was returned to the office of the Commissioner for Youth and Sport, Mr Seun Fakorede by Akeju Olusegun, Temitope Ishola (Temmy Gista) and Adeoye Oluwagbemiga (OyoMind) at some minutes before 5 pm on 27th of October, 2020.
Following heavy public criticism, findings by UCJ, UI revealed that Alasiri Paul and Victoria Ajiboye have since returned their share of the money.
Ayodele Rereoluwa and Temitope Ishola (Temmy Gista), however, both maintained that regardless of the public criticism, they were keeping their share of the money, particularly since their conscience were clear that it was not meant to keep them shut or derail the #EndSARS movement.
All attempts by UCJ, UI to get across to Fadare Blessing and Ilesanmi Oluwatosin to give their part of the story proved abortive as the former, upon identifying our caller as a journalist said he was having an examination and would not be able to respond to comments, while the latter denied being the owner of the phone. Both have since blocked UCJ, UI’s contact and have not been responding to calls put to them by UCJ, UI from different contacts.
Two of the names that appeared on the list of those who collected forty thousand naira (N40, 000), Opakunle Kayode and Friday Adesegun, when contacted by UCJ,UI denied ever being at the meeting. Both claimed that their names must have been written by a mischievous party.
UCJ, UI, however, gathered that each participant put down their names themselves and were called and identified as the representative bearing the name on the list before being handed their share of the money.
Flowing from the narratives above, it appears that the money was not a bribe to silence the #EndSARS representatives.
But if the money was not a bribe by the Oyo State government, what then was it?
Is it a Nigerian political norm? UCJ, UI looked into this. In the second part of this investigation, we looked at what the money was meant for and why it was given. UCJ, UI also looked at why the issue generated so much controversies, and further beamed its searchlight on the correlation between the forty thousand naira collected by the #EndSARS frontliners, the sudden appearance of military men at the candle night’s location and why the candle night event slated for the evening of the meeting was cancelled.
