The gubernatorial campaign organisation of Ajibola Basiru, the National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has berated the Osun State House of Assembly, especially its Speaker, Adewale Egbedun, for proposing jail term and fine for those who skate publicly in the state.
Advising the lawmakers to halt the bill, the organisation, in a statement posted on Basiru’s Facebook page on Wednesday, said there are more pressing issues that demand their attention.
The lawmakers had on Tuesday resolved to impose a fine of six months imprisonment or N20,000 fine for skating on public roads or sidewalks in the state.
The lawmakers made the resolution while deliberating on the “Osun State Skating Restriction Bill 2025” during a sitting of the committee of the whole in Abeokuta.
Reporting on the details and changes made to the bill by the committee of the whole, Egbedun, Chairman of the Committee and Speaker of the Assembly, during plenary, said that roller skating/skating were indoor activities and therefore should be restricted indoors.
He said that the law, when passed, would empower citizens to arrest any person skating on public roads and handed to the police.
The speaker said that the law would provide concurrent jurisdiction to magistrates’ court and high courts in the state to sit on cases of such offences.
Condemning the proposed bill, Basiru’s campaigners urged that the speaker who is a youth should have corrected anyone who brought the bill before the House on the demerit of the bill, adding that the state in conjunction with relevant agencies should have called stakeholders in the sector to a dialogue on how to stake safely.
“We are disturbed by the news of the proposal of punishment for open skating in Osun State. For us, it is coming when skating tars are being discovered in Nigeria. In Lagos State and neighboring Oyo, people are investing in the sporting activities and if Osun cannot tap in, it shouldn’t have come up with the punishment.
“The Osun Assembly led by Speaker Adewale Egbedun shouldn’t have allowed such bill to see the light of the day because we believe that as a youth, he should have been exposed to skating and other sports alike.
“While we believe it is not too late for the bill to be struck out, we urge the lawmakers to engage experts as advisers before slating any bill or motion for deliberation.
“Allowing such to sail through is not only backwardness for Osun but laughable. Osun cannot even afford that kind of a legislative mistake at this point in our existence. We should encourage discovery of talents.
“We assure that our principal, who is currently the national secretary of the APC, has in his manifesto talent discovery through sports and will not stop at nothing to achieve it.
“The Governor Ademola Adeleke should rein in the leadership of the OSHA against pushing Osun backward,” the statement added.