Makinde’s Appointments Not Lopsided – Oyo Govt. Replies MURIC

The Oyo State Government has rejected accusations by the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) that Governor Seyi Makinde made lopsided appointments into the governing councils of state-owned tertiary institutions on Tuesday.
In a statement by Taiwo Adisa, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, he said there is “no truth whatsoever in the claims credited to a Muslim leader and Director of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), Prof. Ishaq Akintola, that the appointments came with religious bias against the Muslims.”
He said out of the total of 41 appointees, 22 are Muslims while 19 are Christians.
“It was illogical for anyone to imagine that in a state like Oyo, a government would play up religious differences and make nominations into critical institutions without sound judgment.
“There is no truth whatsoever in the allegation that appointments into Oyo State tertiary institutions were lopsided against the Muslims.
“A peep through the list of appointees would show that for Ibarapa Polytechnic, out of the six appointees, there were three Muslims and three Christians.
“The same is also true of Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo, which had three Muslims and Christians apiece.
“The same is also true of Oke-Ogun Polytechnic which had three Muslims and Christians apiece.
“For the College of Education, Lanlate, there were three Christians and two Muslims.
“There were three Christians as against seven Muslims on the board of the College of Agriculture, Igbo-Ora, while the Polytechnic Ibadan had four Muslims and four Christians on its board.”
“We need to state it clearly that religious leaders must get their facts correct before coming into the open to make statements.
“However, no amount of spirited efforts by vested interests would succeed in dividing our people along religious lines. Our people are far too advanced to be deceived by such mundane sentiments.
“We can only advise purveyors of such unhelpful fiction to focus on other agenda that can assist the developmental agenda of the state.”
MURIC had in a statement pointed out that the Governor had a Christian agenda in the state.