Osun: APC fights as PDP alleges plans to intimidate members with security

From Lateef Dada, Osogbo

The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), in Osun State, have again engaged in a war of words over a purported plan to intimidate state officials with security agencies from the presidency.

The PDP had raised alarm that it uncovers plans that security teams from Abuja would soon be arresting top officials of the state government.

The party in a statement by its chairman, Sunday Bisi, on Saturday, alleged that its security department hinted that more than 25 state officials have been listed for unofficial arrest and abduction by special security teams from Abuja.

“We gathered on good authority as early as last week that the team is billed to enter Osun in the new week. The listed officials are to be picked up without a warrant of arrest and any trace of their whereabouts.

“Our sources disclosed that the Governor’s Spokesperson, four special advisers, five party leaders, and 15 other state officials were to be abducted by the Abuja team in what would amount to gross violation of the constitution and an open threat to the peace of Osun state.

“I want to call on President Bola Tinubu to caution members of his party in Osun because we will not allow our members to be harassed or victimized in the state. We seek Mr President’s immediate intervention,” Bisi said.

Reacting to the allegations, the APC chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, in a statement issued by the party’s Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, said ‘it is untrue, baseless and a mere fabrication’ to avoid answering pertinent questions regarding the excessive contract procurement process supervised by Governor Ademola Adeleke’s government.

The APC described the fear of the ruling party as part of the ploy to mystify the issue surrounding how the government of Osun recently awarded over N50bn road contracts to fertilizer distributors, cyber cafe operators, and many cronies of the party with no technical and professional competence to execute road projects.

“The handlers of Senator Ademola Adeleke are just being clever by half. They are perplexed and afraid to intelligently respond to our party’s revelation on how friends, family members, and cronies, of the governor, with no experience in road construction, were gifted multi-billion road contracts.

“Osun PDP and its co-travelers are groping in the daylight because of the confusion their greed has imposed on the people of Osun,” Lawal said.