By Charles Okogene
Adetomiwa Olorunsola
GKB
“I’m confounded by some distortions in Mr Agbeniga’s claims here:
Who made him coordinator during the crisis? Then what exactly was my role as the head of circulation; a puppet?
Ayankunbi
Agbeniga
“Mr Agbeniga wasn’t there when the Chairman approved N100,000 and directed Mr Rasaq, bless his soul, to give me as the first tranche of the crisis fund. I handed the money to Daniel Ifetola, and later Ayankunbi to manage.
“Though Mr Agbeniga worked both at Oshodi and Ibadan, and did his best, the sensations he’s attaching are unnecessary. Nobody “chose” a GOC, not even jokingly, for the crisis.
“And lest I forget, Punch got the recognition as the most widely read newspaper, with me as Circulation Manager and Mr. Gbemiga Ogunleye as Editor, Daily.
“Mr. Agbeniga didn’t head circulation department during the forced military closures that we did guerrilla sales; I was in charge between may 1994 and Feb 1997. He came between Feb 1997 & Feb 2000, which time I call the “peace period”. I had rebuilt the tattered circulation architecture occasioned by the proscription before the MD redeployed Mr, Agbeniga back to circulation, ostensibly because he was more mature, according to the MD; whatever that means. I reemerged as Circulation Manager when he was reassigned to Corporate Affairs in 2001. I reluctantly gave this little details so that nobody gives any impression I was a less competent circulation manager, who needed anyone else’s guide. It’ll be superfluous to give such impression!
All we did and achieved during the crisis was a collective glory, which I had never attempted to demean by apportioning grades to participants.
I hold both of Messrs Agbeniga and Ayankunbi in very high esteems as circulation operatives and would see this blame game between the two as a distraction, which is needless,”
Concluding his own side of the story, Mr Olorunsola said that Mr. Agbeniga did not go to Ibadan out of his own volition.
“He didn’t volunteer to go to Ibadan, but was sent there by the “war council” headed by Chief Ogunshola.”
In his own intervention into the war of words, GKB had this so say in a statement in his facebook timeline of April 16, 2020 , which he permitted Newdawn to use.
The north’s overpadding and the south’s ITK (1)
Sometimes in the early 2000s, during the infamous Punch vs Newspaper Agents face off, I was seconded to Ibadan by management to lead the battle.
It was a strategic posting because Punch is owned by the Aboderin family of Kudeti, the then Chairman is an Ibadan Chief and the MD is an Ibadan born Ijebu man.
And who was more qualified to lead the charge on the “Home front ‘ than a ‘shon’ of the ‘shoil’ from the famous Balogun Kobomoje lineage.
I met a formidable team already deep into the battle, Yusuf Alli
Bureau Chief, Kayode Ikuyelorimi Ozoya, Circulation Head and Wisdom Akinola Babalola leading a crop of dedicated staff.
After reviewing the situation, we decided to move our daily supply from Oke Padi to the Toll gate, and to employ ad hoc vendors to supplement our own vending at strategic locations, myself at Mobil, Alhaji Alli at the Secretariat, Akin Babalola at Dugbe and Kayode Ozoya all over the place.
I needed 20, with provision for a withdrawal rate of five per week, working under the premise that by the time half of them dropped out, the normal vendors and friendly agents that we were working on will join the team to break the boycott.
Getting 20 boys in Africa’s largest black city to earn commission of up to N500 per day, remember, this was 2001, would be piece of cake, right?
Wrong.
The excuses ranged from the banal to the ridiculous. My favorite was the one in which the boy told me that it would shatter his street cred if people saw him hawking newspapers. This was a guy that was living on his old father’s N50 per day allowance!
Finally, we got some boys, but not enough to serve as a fish bone that I wanted lodged in the throat of the Oke padi cabal.
On that Friday , I went to the Amunigun Mosque for Jumat prayers, after the prayers and the usual exposure by the Imam of how my Great Grandfather brought Islam to Amunigun, I told the old man of what brought me to Ibadan and the roadblocks I was facing.
He asked one of his boys to take me to the Sango Central Mosque where I met the Imam. After listening for a bit, he called one of his sons, whose Ibadan dialect was far better than mine, to do the needful.
Anyway I left the mosque with thirty boys, no questions asked.
A few years ago, I went back to the mosque for a shave, and lo and behold, it was one of my vendors!
He said he was an agent now controlling about 10 vendors, and that some of his boys had branched out as agents in some northern states.
And what happened to Mr. Street cred, you may wonder.
Well, the last I heard of him, he was the head of the street urchins in Odinjo/Muslim axis.
What has this story got to do with northern padding and southern ITK?
Wait for part 2.
My10kobo.” he said.
