APC Urges Police to Stop PDP from Making Osun Politics Thuggery-driven

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has charged the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Patrick Kehinde Longe, to swing into action with a view to arresting, investigating and prosecuting the leaders and members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who he said have been attacking, maiming and killing the APC members and their supporters in the state.

The state acting Chairman of the APC, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, in a statement issued by the party’s state Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, in Osogbo, the state capital, yesterday appealled to the state commissioner of police and other statutory security agencies in the state to urgently come to the aid of the APC members and leaders “who are being attacked and killed by the PDP thugs on the orders of their leaders since the inauguration of Governor Ademola Adeleke as the governor of the state on November 27, 2022.”

Lawal stated that one attribute of the state PDP handlers is that “they would be the ones attacking and killing our members and at the same time be the ones complaining.”

The state APC chairman recalled several occasions that “the thuggery-driven PDP leaders had openly boasted and threatened to deal with the APC members in which were captured in audio and visual recordings on the social media without the police taking any known action to bring the suspects to book.” This, he noted, appeared to have emboldened such individuals to carry out the attack.

Lawal alleged further that an APC member in Ikire, Mr. Saheed Oyegunju, who was abducted by some political thugs on the directive of Mr. Lere Oyewumi, the PDP candidate for Osun West senatorial district, “in the broad daylight in the town about a week ago, was later found dead in the outskirt of the town while the principal suspect in the murder case, Oyewumi, is still moving freely in the state.”

He also alleged that the APC members were attacked in Ile-Ife, Ede, Ila-Orangun, Osogbo and some other principal towns and villages in the state by the PDP thugs with attendant destruction of their property. Yet, no action was taken by the police.

Lawal disclosed that of particular reference is the Atakumosa-East Local Government Area of the state where almost all the APC members in the constituency have been run out of the local government by the PDP thugs who were said to be working for the party’s House of Representatives candidate, Sanya Omirin.

He recalled that the immediate-past state Commissioner for Works and Transport who doubles as the state spokesman for Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Remi Omowaiye, had been attacked with his supporters by the PDP thugs about three times with his Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Office in Ilesa destroyed together with some vehicles.

According to Lawal, “The Chief of Staff to the serving Speaker of the state House of Assembly was seriously injured with broken bottles by some PDP thugs in Ilesa about three weeks ago for no just cause while the known suspects have been moving freely in the ancient town without being arrested by the police.

The state APC chairman disclosed that peace has taken flight from the hitherto most peaceful state in Nigeria since the ‘sacked’ Governor Adeleke’s administration was inaugurated in the state on November 27, 2022.

Meanwhile, the state chapter of the APC has described Adeleke as being unnecessarily vindictive, wicked, inconsiderate and petty in his interim office as the state governor.

It alleged that it was discovered that immediately after the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign rally which was attended by all the market women leaders (Iyalojas) and their members in the state, Adeleke ordered the forceful withdrawal of all the official vehicles from the Iyalojas in all the 30 local government council areas of the state and the Area Office in Modakeke.

APC further alleged that all the buses were forcefully withdrawn from the market women leaders “by Adeleke through some ‘hard men’ who were accompanied by some battle-ready police officers in a Gestapo-like manner.”

“It was learnt that the three official vehicles attached to the Office of the Iyaloja-General of Osun State, Alhaja Asindemade, were forcefully taken away from her Kolabalogun residence area of Osogbo last Friday with a team of government officials,” the state APC alleged.