Osun State chapters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) are at each other’s throats over renewed violence in the state.
Osun PDP caretaker chairman, Dr Akindele Adekunle, had, in a statement, accused Governor Gboyega Oyetola of instigating violent attacks in the state and admonished him to get over his defeat at the July 16 election in the state.
However, the state chairman of the APC, Prince Gboyega Famodun, in another statement, said the PDP should be held responsible for the undolding violence, warning that the main opposition party would not be allowed to destabilise the state.
The PDP accused the APC administration, under Governor Oyetola, of being the mastermind of violent attacks in the state, especially in Ede, the hometown of the governor-elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke.
The PDP caretaker committee chairman described the attacks as “highly unfortunate, wicked and embarrassing of a rejected government, trying to vent its frustration on innocent citizens.
“Pockets of violent attacks were, on Friday, reported in Ede North Local Government Area, where hoodlums, apparently working for the defeated APC, descended on members of the PDP who had converged for a routine ward meeting in the town.
“The ward meeting involved the minority leader of the Osun State House of Assembly, Akogun Babajide Kofoworola.
“Preliminary reports reaching the state chapter of the PDP confirmed that several people were killed in the attack, including a one-year-old baby, who was forcefully removed from the back of her mother and slaughtered by the hoodlums.
“Houses belonging to the Minority Leader, Hon Kofoworola were also razed, with the whereabouts of his father, who was inside one of the house as at the time of the attack, remains unknown.
“The PDP wishes to call on the Mr Gboyega Oyetola-led APC government not to allow frustration of the defeat suffered at the recently-concluded governorship election to eat deep into fabrics of governance in the state, or at least, resign immediately if the defeated governor has so much lost his bearing as chief security officer of the state.
“The PDP enjoins the good people of Osun State to remain calm and be vigilant as the party will work with relevant security agencies to bring perpetrators of the heinous crime to justice.
“Security agencies are also enjoined to, as a matter of duty and professional proactivity, set machineries in motion to arrest the rising wave of violence in the state, in which citizens are being assassinated in broad daylight with brazen audacity.”
The governor-elect had also, in another statement by his spokesperson, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, accused Governor Oyetola of planning to destabilise the state ahead of his exit from office in November.
He made the accusation in reaction to an alleged attack on the father of the Osun State House of Assembly Minority Leader, Akogun Babajide Kofoworola and the burning of his family house at Ede.
Senator Adeleke further alleged that the agenda was to ignite conflict and reprisal attacks from Ede and to eventually engulf the whole state in violence ahead of transition exercise.
“I urge security agencies to swing into action and bring to book perpetrators of that dastardly attack on an innocent senior citizen whose only sin maybe that his son is the PDP’s minority leader in Osun State House of Assembly. Act of violence must stop as election is not war,” Adeleke said.
He commiserated with the lawmaker and cautioned against transforming election and its outcome into warfare as democracy is simply about the people making their choice about who governs.
Senator Adeleke particularly called on Governor Oyetola not to plunge the state into chaos as a consequence of his loss at the poll, reminding him that Osun people have suffered enough in the last few years.
Reacting however, the state APC chairman, Prince Gboyega Famodun, condemned what he said was the killing of two APC members during PDP crisis in Ede.
Famodun, in a separate statement by his media adviser, Kola Olabisi, described the killings as senseless, wicked and primitive and laid the blame squarely at the doorsteps of the main opposition party in the state.
He also said the state government, under the control of Governor Gboyega Oyetola, “would not entertain any actions and inactions of the reactionary party that are capable of disturbing the peace of the state.”
He attributed the alleged killing of the two APC members to some people who he said were suspected thugs during a fracas over disagreement on the sharing formula of the leftover of money used by the PDP to fund the governorship election.
Famodun said: “The shameful and wicked act of killings of fellow human beings over electoral loots by the suspected PDP thugs was an indication that the Osun PDP is fundamentally challenged.
“It is not uncommon for thieves to fight over their loots but what we shall frown against is the deliberate twisting of the cause and actors in the obnoxious violent attack.
“The PDP and their handlers should be reminded that the state is a product of the law and no individual, no matter his status in the society, would be allowed to turn our peaceful state into a theatre of war under the administration of the peace-loving and easy-going Governor Oyetola.
“The state Commissioner of Police should thoroughly investigate the unsavoury incident, especially in the area that concerns an alleged compromised police chief who is said to be eyeing the position of the Chief Security Officer (CSO) in the dreamt Adeleke’s government who was said to be on an illegal duty where the innocent members of our party were slaughtered like rams by the suspected PDP thugs, with a view to getting to the root of the incident.
“The said police officer should tell the whole world his mission in Ede when where he took permission from the Commissioner of Police to go was another area of crime in Osogbo.”
Confirming the incident, the Osun State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Adeola Opatola, said the law enforcement agency waded into the incident with a few to establish what really happened.
Speaking, today, on the telephone with Newscoven.ng, she said a police special squad that was deployed to investigate the incident has been disbanded by the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Olawale Olokode.
She further said the Commissioner of Police had directed the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) to take over the investigation into the violence occurrence.
SP Opatola however said the investigation is still ongoing and assured that the state Police Command will eventually get to the root of the matter and bring the perpetrators to face the law.
