A former commissioner in Osun State and All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate for Ila Federal Constituency, Dr. Simeon Obawale, has accused the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, members in Ila of attacking members of the APC in the area, insisting that the PDP members are indeed the aggressors.
Similarly, Hon. Lateef Adebisi Jayeola, a serving member of the House of Assembly and the APC candidate for Ila State Constituency, has equally dissociated himself from any alleged attack on PDP members, saying the PDP are the ones that have been attacking the APC members but only trying to play victim now that they have been exposed.
Speaking with journalists in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, on Sunday, Dr. Obawale, a former University lecturer noted that as a civilised individual, who believes in the culture of freedom to choose and associate, he would never be party to compelling anyone using extra-judicial means to either support him and or his party.
He noted that it is on record that it was his opponent in the PDP, Clement Olohunwa, that was seen in a video that went viral, instigating his supporters to attack and main APC members shortly after the January 27 judgement of the Tribunal, which went the way of APC
“It is on record that immediately after that meeting, PDP thugs in Ila went beserk, attacking our members and destroying our property. We have the photographs of all the destructions carried out, including the attack on our party secretariat in Ila.
“The recent robbery incident in Oke-Ola, Ila area which the PDP is trying to appropriate and make it look like a purported attack on their members should be properly investigated by the Police.
“We do not have history of violence either in the State or in Ila. It is PDP that is synonymous with brigandage, violence and thuggery. The people of Ila cannot forget in a hurry what they went through in the hands of the PDP during their inglorious years in Ila and our people are determined to ensure that it never happened again.
“It is this realisation that is making the PDP to resort to violence with the sole aim of intimidating our people, so as to prevent them from coming out to vote. They know that the Governorship election they claimed they won in Ila was a fluke. Even when the entire State and country was under the PDP and Ila was in the opposition, we never lost any election as progressives in Ila. This is why I believe what happened on July 16 Governorship election was a fluke and we are determined to reverse it,” Dr. Obawale said.
He however appealed to his supporters and admirers in the entire Ila Federal Constituency to remain law-abiding and not take laws into their own hands, adding that the plot of the PDP would fail.
On his part, Hon. Jayeola, who also spoke in Osogbo, “urged security operatives in the State to be alive to their duties and curtail these growing dastardly acts of the PDP in Ila and other parts of Osun.”
