The Ogun State Government has condemned a Nigerian singer, Habeeb Okikiola, popularly known as Portable, over his behaviour towards officials of the State Planning and Development Permit Authority.
The government said its officials were attacked at Portable’s bar cum hotel located around Iyana Ilogbo, in the Sango Ota area of the state.
A statement signed by the Special Adviser to Governor Dapo Abiodun on Information and Strategy, Kayode Akinmade, on Friday described Portable “as serial dissident and unrepentant rascal who have been in the habit of assaulting government officials without provocation”.
Akinmade said the latest attack orchestrated by portable and his cohorts against government officials who were on their lawful assignment in the area “was unacceptable and barbaric”, saying such indecent act would be addressed in line with the extant law of the land.
He averred that the behaviour of the Hip-hop artiste is becoming disgraceful and unbearable to the people of the area and the government, considering the degree of pandemonium and panic he causes any time he carried out such unpleasant acts in the area.
Akinmade therefore, reiterated the stance of the Abiodun-led administration to sanitise the state against every unlawful act and entrench decency in all strata, saying the government is serious about the distinct values of Omoluabi ethos at all times.
He said, “We are profoundly taken aback by the unpleasant and uncivil act of the Hip-hop artiste, Habeeb Okikiola, popularly known as Portable on Wednesday, in Iyana- Ilogbo area of the state where is bar is located.
“The way in which Portable and some set of miscreants he employed in the dastardly act attacked the officials of the OGPDPA is not only bizarre but a confirmation of erosion of Omoluabi ethos in those individuals and indeed a great disgrace to the state.
“Governor Dapo Abiodun totally condemned this primitive and indecent act and reiterated his avowed commitment to just and egalitarian society as he is ready to make any individual flouting the extant law of the land to face the full wrath of the law irrespective of social status and influence.”
Recall that the state police command had on Thursday arraigned nine proteges of Portable before a Magistrates’ Court sitting in Isabo, Abeokuta, for allegedly assaulting officers of the Ota Zonal Planning office of the Ministry of physical Planning and Urban Development.
Those arraigned were Nurudeen Warris, 21; Adetola Alashe, 25; Samuel Adeleke, 28; Oluwaseun Ayenuwa, 19; Oluwapelumi Adeosun, 20; Gospel Kanu, 20; Precious Ohiegebo, 19; Ifeoluwa Babatunde, 27; and Fatimo Muhammed,26.
The defendants were arraigned on a five-count charge bordering on felony, assault and restriction, armed with cutlasses and guns, conduct likely to cause breach of peace and intending to kill.
They, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against them.
