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 defend the Nigeria Police over the unjustified 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.
The PDP in a statement signed by its state Caretaker Chairman, Dr. Akindele Adekunle, said the APC has left no one in doubt with the misguided statement credited to Tajudeen Lawal, its state acting chairman, that it is working with the Nigeria Police to rig the next Saturday election, warning that no amount of violence will break the resolve of the Osun people to vote in PDP in all positions.
He said: “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 in Osun State.
“It confirms all we have been saying all these 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.”
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 the state Governor, Ademola Adeleke, was its doing, is a clear indication that the Nigeria Police are 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 rumours 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 the APC, as unfolding events in Osun is portraying.
“If the police are truly interested in fighting crimes, it should still have the APC candidate for Osun East District, Ajibola Famurewa, in custody given the dangerous weapons that were found in his possession in the build-up to the February 25 election. The police should have also by now had the House of Assembly candidate for Irewole/Isokan state constituency, Bisi Oyegbade, in custody for the gruesome killing of two PDP members in Ikire, Irewole Local Government Areas in January this year,” he stated.
