OPC, Vigilance Group Pledge to Protect Oni, SDP against Attacks in Ekiti
Chief Segun Oni, a former governor of Ekiti State
Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti
Following alleged plans by some political thugs to attack his convoy and derailed his campaign, a coalition of militia groups in Ekiti State has promised to defend and protect the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the June 18 governorship poll, Segun Oni.
The group, drawn from the Oodua People’s Congress, Agbekoya, Vigilance Group of Nigeria, warned those planning to attack Oni to have a rethink, warning that no individual or party enjoys monopoly of violence.
The Coalition, led by the former Ekiti State Chairman of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Chief Femi Bade-Gboyega, who condemned what he called” assassination attempt” on Oni’s life, said this in Ado Ekiti, yesterday.
Bade-Gboyega, who spoke in a statement said the thugs should not boast of having the monopoly of violence.
The former OPC Chief added that the coalition had resolved to provide protection for Oni and SDP members throughout the campaign, to complement what the State’s security actors would provide.
According to him, the coalition, with membership drawn from OPC, VGN, Agbekoya, and many other organisations, was deeply sad about the attack on the campaign convoy of Oni last Wednesday by some thugs led in Efon Local Government.
“Ekiti people are behind Oni and it is he they want as their governor. Oni is God sent to free Ekiti people from the dungeon of slavery, abject poverty and backwardness, which the present and immediate past administrations had put them into.
“We condemn the attack in totality. It was uncalled for, it was one of Nigeria’s bad political cultures which every reasonable Nigerian is agitating for its abrogation. It is a political set back to still witness such thing in this modern age.
” It is an act capable of causing a breach of the peace in Ekiti . I am liking it to drawing a battle line of war in a democratic setting. The culprits should understand that no one is having the monopoly of violence, also no man is an Island.
“The parties and everybody should realise
that there is no army larger than the people’s army, and when they resolve to change a bad government, nobody or military equipment can stand on their way”.
