THE Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has charged the state Commissioner of Police, 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) for allegedly attacking the members of the party in the state.
The state acting chairman of the APC, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, in a statement issued by Chief Kola Olabisi, the party’s State Director of Media and Information, on Sunday, appealed to the Commissioner of Police and other security agencies in the state to urgently come to the aid of the APC members and leaders who are being attacked and killed by political thugs in the state.
Lawal stated that one attribute of the Osun State PDP members “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 PDP leaders had openly boasted and threatened to deal with the APC members in which were captured in audio and visual recordings in the social media without the police taking any known action to bring the suspects to book.
This, he noted, appears to have emboldened such individuals to carry out the attack.
Lawal explained further that an APC member in Ikire, Mr Saheed Oyegunju, who was abducted by some political thugs on the directive of the PDP candidate for Osun West Senatorial District, Mr Lere Oyewumi, 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 recalled that the APC members were attacked in Ile-Ife, Ede, Ila-Orangun, Osogbo and some other towns and villages in the state by thugs.
Lawal added that of particular reference is the Atakumosa-East Local Government Council Area of the state where almost all the APC members in the constituency have been run out of the local government by thugs who were said to be working for the PDP House of Representatives’ candidate, Sanya Omirin.
He recalled that the immediate-past state commissioner for works and transport who doubles as the Osun State spokesman for Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Engr Remi Omowaiye, had been attacked with his supporters by the 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 Speaker of the Osun 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.
He added: “Why has it been difficult for the police to arrest Sanya Omirin, Lere Oyewumi, Clement Akanni Olorunwa, Adesina Rabiu Atanda(ARA), Sarafa Awotunde a.k.a. ‘Spain’, all PDP chieftains in Osun State who have been inciting their members and hoodlums to attack, maim and kill the APC members and their supporters?
“The leadership of the police in Osun State is giving a room for us, the APC members and leaders, to suspect and conclude that the police has been doing the bidding of the PDP and Adeleke in the state.
“Let me state here that immediately the current commissioner of police was transferred to Osun State to replace the one who was yet to spend two months, the members and leaders of the PDP went into a wild jubilation, saying that: ‘Yes, we are happy that our man has resumed as the state CP’, which was a loaded statement.
“The long and short of my political sermon is that the leadership of the Osun State Police Command should maintain visible and verifiable neutrality in the discharge of the statutory duties of policing at all times especially during this critical period in the history of the state.
“The allegations of violence levelled against the APC members by the leadership of the PDP in the state should be discountenanced as lacking in substance and fact but frivolous borne out of desperation merely orchestrated by the PDP leadership to cage the opposition in the state, thereby creating non-level play ground for genuine politics and politicking to thrive,” the Osun State APC chairman stated.