Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State said on Wednesday that he did not interfere in the appointment of judges in the state as being insinuated in some quarters.
He stressed that due process was vital to his government.
The governor spoke while hosting the Muslim Ummah in the state at his residence in Ibadan, the state capital.
According to him, the state is fair and just to all religions just as merit and excellence were considered in appointments and recruitments.
Governor Makinde said though some elements were trying to cause confusion along religious lines in the state, they did not succeed because the government has been transparent and fair.
Rather than dissipate energy on religious differences, he urges the residents of the state to unite and fight poverty and hunger which know no religion.
He said, “The message for us is to rededicate ourselves and focus on our state and not tolerate those who want to use religion to destabilise our state. Let us be fair to everybody. Let us use this period to assist the have-nots and underprivileged.
“We thank God for Oyo State and for allowing the efforts of those who are trying to cause confusion and chaos in this government to always prove abortive.
“Though they come out, talk about all sorts of things, God has always revealed the truth on time to shame the detractors. The latest one is the issue of the judges. I didn’t interfere in the matters of judges but I always like to know those who will be appointed, because of the approval I need to make – to know if due process was followed and that has been my approach.
“If they say I want to block a particular person, am I God? I was alleged to have written a letter indicating that the appointments of one Muslim and three Christians should be balanced out. We just finished fasting and I am saying before you that when they came to meet me, I insisted that the person that came first in the interview must be included. I didn’t even know if the person was a Christian or a Muslim.
“As a matter of fact, those who know me know I don’t consider religion in my appointments. My focus is always on merit, performance and delivery. I challenge anyone that saw such a letter anywhere in the system either from me or the Attorney-General to bring the letter out. I want to see it.
“When we went for the PDP, South-West Congress, the two powerful positions, which they gave to us – the Zonal Chairmanship and Women Leader slot, were occupied by Muslims and that was the recent thing we have done. In building our state, the greatest challenges we have to fight are poverty and hunger because other things are directly under the two. And the two things don’t know religion.”
