……Says Underestimating People’s Resolve To Stand By The PDP Will Backfire
The ruling Peoples Democratic Party in Osun State has asked the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) to learn playing politics by the rules and not always scheming to circumvent the will of the people, warning that such habitual laziness and opportunistic tendencies will burst out of the roof and throw the country into flames.
The warning according to a statement by the caretaker committee chairman of the PDP in Osun State, Dr Akindele Adekunle became necessary as the Apc national secretary, Iyiola Omisore has been pressurizing the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba through thoughtless petitions aimed at turning Osun into a police state, to hound, harass and arrest innocent leaders of the PDP in the state, with the warped thought of avoiding another electoral defeat.
PDP reckoned that such lazy audacity is dangerous in a determined society where people are poised to invest their electoral franchise in the PDP as the only political party walking the talks of their wellbeing as against the Apc’s mantra of force of poverty to suppress and repress the people.
We warn that the APC national secretary, Iyiola Omisore and his co-travellers in this latest voyage should exercise restraints and stop underestimating the strength and determination of the good people of Osun State.
Using the police or any security agency to harass innocent members of the public will only compound the irredeemable woes of Apc in Osun State.
This is aside the propensity of leaving the controversial former deputy governor on the wrong page of history, as a hardened political opportunist, who doesn’t care a hoot about what becomes of the larger society, when it comes to piercing through his political interest even if it requires applying Bola Ige formula of ‘removing caps’ in palace square.
The PDP understands that the IGP, Baba Usman is under intense pressure to carry out hatchet jobs of indiscriminate harassment and arrest of PDP leaders ahead of rescheduled state assembly election in Osun State. We however advise the police boss to be diligent and see through the evil plans at this hour of our national life and refuse to be pressured into dangerous politics of insatiable hounding of perceived political opponents.
We are not unaware of presence and housing of the police team sent to Osun State from Abuja to effect indiscriminate arrests of PDP stalwarts in Osun are presently being teleguided in the Ile-Ife house of Iyiola Omisore. Let it be known that Osun people will resist all attempt to intimidate or cow them into submission.
Democracy is about good governance and Apc was rejected by the people of the state because they fell short of it. The police must therefore not be a willing tool to reinforce failure in our nation and Osun State in particular.
The IGP will do well to investigate properly, all lies and unfounded accusation cramped on his table by Omisore and other serial election riggers, who are merely looking for police accomplice or partnership to subvert the inevitable electoral verdict of Osun people.
We want to emphasize that the people of Osun, in history of the nation’s political trajectory and current political mood, must not be taken for granted. Any attempt of whatever form to underestimate the people by shedding their blood with force of state aiding non-state actors, will not augur well.
Consequences of such mindless push are better folded in imagination than stretching already wired citizens to test it out.
The PDP administration in Osun State under the leadership of the people’s governor, Senator Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke will continue to provide responsible and responsive leadership for the wellbeing of Osun State and it is trite that electorate in the state will continue to support the Governor and the PDP.
Our great party uses this opportunity to call on president Mohammadu Buhari as father and chief security officer of the nation to beam his searchlight on the nefarious plans of the Apc to disrupt the peace of the state using the police ahead of the coming election. Unjust arrest or detaining leaders of our party in the impossible giuse of plotting against the people of the state will surely bear unpalable consequences.
Election should not be war for those who are in good stead in deeds and acceptability to the people, who are constitutionally empowered to choose their representatives at all levels of government. Again, no democracy will thrive under a forced or fraudulent process, which was the bane of the immediate past administration in the state.
The IGP should rather conduct proper investigation of APC political warmongers, whose only route to self survival is violence and bloodshed. It is no-brainer that all recent cases of political attacks in parts of the state were masterminded by Apc desperados, who are battling hard to escape punishment for their past sins of mismanaging the state.
Both the election and substantive commissioners of police in Osun State are also called upon to be professional in their conducts and resist all entreaties to intimidate the people of the state as doing so will be akin to stamping on the tail of a ‘gentle cobra’.
The police must therefore not provide a safe nest for such inordinate robbers, whose only interest in political power is systemic deployment of force of poverty to keep people down physically and emotionally, with a view to forcing down loyalty down their throat.
Signed
Dr Akindele Adekunle
Osun State PDP Caretaker Committee Chairman
10/03/2023
