Appalled by what it called harassment and brutalization of its members by hoodlums allegedly affiliated with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Idanre Local Government Area of Ondo State have forwarded a petition to the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Adamu, calling for the investigation, arrest and prosecution of the culprits.
In the petition dated August 26, the petitioners, through their counsel, Legal Komfort Associates, detailed series of grievous assaults occasioning grievous bodily harm on their members by the said hoodlums, with gory pictures affixed as evidence.
According to them, few days before the last local government election conducted by Ondo State Independent Electoral Commission (ODIEC) on Saturday, in which PDP did not participate, the hoodlums and their cohorts laid siege to Idanre residents, particularly members of the opposition parties.
The petitioners said: “They terrorized innocent law abiding citizens both day and night even as they wielded in broad daylight dangerous weapons which include but not limited to well sharpened cutlasses, sophisticated guns, cudgels, pick-axes etc thereby disrupting the relative peace hitherto enjoyed by Idanre community.
” The above-named persons and their minions violently assaulted some members of the community particularly members of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) with intent to maim and kill them as they mercilessly inflicted deep machete wounds on them. Find attached pictures of the gory act of the above-named persons and their ilk.
“With due respect sir, all these atrocities were perpetrated under the watch of Idanre Divisional Police officers as they helplessly looked the other side while the above-named persons were unleashing violence on perceived political opponents and innocent but law abiding citizens.”
The petitioners recalled that on 4th January, 2017 the said hoodlums with their deadly strike force attacked members of PDP when they were preparing for their new year get-together-party in Idanre inspite of the fact that required permits had been obtained from authorities of the police, the DSS, the NSCDC and the Local Government.
According to them, the then party chairman was mercilessly beaten and assaulted to a state of coma and many party members sustained various degrees of injuries, all the delicacies prepared with two cows were carted away, with the estimated material loss by PDP members on that occasion being in excess of N3 million.
The petitioners added that the hoodlums in question often hid under the power of incumbency to perpetrate obnoxious and nefarious crimes with impunity.
They alleged that between August 13 and August 20 this year, the hoodlums attacked members of the PDP in Idanre Local Government which included Mr. Sunday Akinlalu, Mr. Folorunso Saliu and Mr. Akinnayajo Akinola.
They said their attackers kept boasting that they allegedly had the backing of Ondo State Government to kill and maim members of the opposition parties and innocent but law abiding citizens before, during and after the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo State as they vowed to make the community unbearable for any member of the opposing political parties, particularly PDP.
“This is more worrisome taking into account the leaked video tape of Mr. D. I. Kekemeke a stalwart of APC that is currently trending on the internet where he deliberately exposed the criminal intension of APC to rig the forthcoming gubernatorial election with horrible violence. PDP and its members in Idanre Local Government Area love peace but not at the expense of losing their dear lives without lifting a finger as life has no duplicate hence the need for this petition,” they said.
The petition, Idanre PDP said, was to serve as security alert with the singular purpose of putting the police and other security operatives concerned on alert with a view to taking proactive measures to nip in the bud any attempt by the above-named persons or whosoever to cause breach of peace without minding whose ox is gored.
