By Bola Bamigbola
Leaders of the All Progressives Congress in Ede town, Osun State, have alleged that hoodlums working for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, burnt down the APC secretariat in the Ede-South and also destroyed the party’s secretariat in the Ede-North Local Government Council Areas after the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sacked the state governor, Ademola Adeleke.
In a statement signed Mufutau Oyewale and 26 other leaders of the APC in the two local government areas in Ede, obtained in Osogbo on Monday, the party also alleged that the PDP political hoodlums, who allegedly went on rampage shortly after the delivery of the judgement on Friday, carried out their onslaught on the two APC secretariats located in Ede township.
It also alleged that during the melee, some members of the APC sustained varying degrees of injuries inflicted on them by the hoodlums who destroyed the party office, vehicles, motorcycles and other valuables.
The APC leaders also disclosed that their sin before the PDP political thugs was their effrontery to organise prayers in the local governments’ party secretariats shortly after the judgement was given.
The statement further read, “The PDP hitmen are threatening to attack and kill some of us in the town and possibly destroy and burn down our houses. They went on rampage shortly after the delivery of the judgement on Friday. They carried out their onslaught on the two APC secretariats that were both located in Ede township.
“We enjoin the state commissioner of police and other sister security agencies in the state to come to the aid of the APC members and leaders in Ede who are being hunted by the PDP thugs like animals in the bush. We task the state CP to, without further delay, use the professional instrumentality of his office to investigate, arrest and prosecute the foot soldiers and the mastermind of the needless political attacks on our members and property.”
Reacting, however, the Osun State PDP acting chairman, Adekunle Akindele, said the party harboured no militia group, describing the allegation as false alarm by the APC.
He further said, “Osun PDP has no militia. We have no records of thuggery unlike the APC that sponsored and nurtured thugs and bandits across Ede and Osun throughout its four years rule. Osun PDP members only engage in peaceful protests all over the state. Our members did not attack anybody.
“The APC possibly deliberately staged fake attacks to raise false flag. What Osun people have done is to prove their mass support for Governor Ademola Adeleke. The PDP and its governor remain popular and everything legal will be done to retain the popular mandate.”
Source: The Punch