Osun PDP: APC Justifying Arrests of Our Leaders Confirms Collusion with Police

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

The Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has described the rush by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the defence of the Nigeria Police over the indiscriminate arrests and harassment of its leaders as a vindication of its alarm on plot to use force to coerce the people against their will.

PDP, in a statement by its Caretaker Chairman, Dr. Akindele Adekunle, said the APC has left no one in doubt with the misguided statement credited to Tajudeen Lawal, its acting counterpart in Osun State, that it was working with the Nigeria Police to rig the upcoming Saturday election, warning that no amount of violence would break the resolve of Osun people to vote PDP for all positions.

“We are taken aback that the APC could take impunity to the point that it positions itself as the mouthpiece of the Nigeria Police in the manner it has done on the illegal and indiscriminate arrests and harassments of our leaders and members across Osun state.

“It confirms all we have been saying all this while that the APC wants to rig the Saturday election and to execute it successfully, it drafted the Police to go after our leaders and members so that it will be unchallenged in its nefarious plan to thwart the will of the people in the various House of Assembly seats up for contest next Saturday,” he said.

Adekunle, who observed that the APC was careless to expose its evil plot against the Osun people ahead of the Saturday election, noted that by indicating that the unexplained transfer of the CSO to Governor Ademola Adeleke was its doing is a clear indication that the Police were compromised and annexed by the APC.

“If Tajudeen Lawal is saying that the unusual transfer of CSO Omoyele to Abuja is the result of its influence on the Nigeria Police, then it is safe to conclude that Osun is under siege.

“The public will recall that soon after rumour of CSO Omoyele’s movement to Abuja began to spread, the Police came up with an explanation that he went there for a ‘Special Duty’. We were concerned at what could have warranted such action at a time like this especially given the fact that only Governor Adeleke’s CSO was affected, but we gave the Police the benefit of the doubt.

“With the APC statement on the issue, it is now clear that the Police are not being sincere with the Osun people and this is dangerous. Our understanding as a party is that the Police are a public institution and not beholden to any the APC as unfolding events in Osun is portraying.”