Bola Bamigbola
16 August 2021
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SUPPORTERS of the Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola and those of the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, on Sunday traded accusations over the violence which occurred at the state secretariat of the All Progressives Congress.
Suspected thugs on Saturday invaded the APC Secretariat and disrupted the sitting of the Appeal Committee while it was reviewing petitions from the party’s last Ward Congress.
The state APC caretaker chairman, Gboyega Famoodun, in a statement signed by his media consultant, Kola Olabisi, accused Lowo Adebiyi, the chairman, “The Osun Progressives,’’ a faction of the party backed by Aregbesola, of leading the hoodlums in the attack.
Famoodun said, “the invasion of the party’s office which was led by a self-styled chairman of TOP and the former chairman of the party, Elder Lowo Adebiyi; the current state Secretary of the party, Alhaji Rasaq Salinsile and a former Special Adviser under the administration of ex-Governor Aregbesola, Gbenga Akano, with some of his cabinet members, was crude, unacceptable, wicked, unwarranted, self-serving, undemocratic and brutish.
“During the invasion of the state party secretariat, the political thugs who accompanied the TOP chieftains into the place grew wild and started to forcefully remove and beat any sighted member of the APC who was putting on Governor Oyetola’s inscribed fez cap.
“During the melee, an APC member, Mr Nurudeen Ajetunmobi a.k.a Abalawa from Ward Six in Osogbo Local Government Council Area, who was putting on an Oyetola-inscribed fez cap was assaulted and macheted on the head to the extent that his blood littered the ground floor of the secretariat.”
However, at a news conference in Osogbo, the Caretaker Secretary of the party, Razaq Salinsile, said, “Hoodlums with Oyetola 4+4 face caps were drafted to the secretariat to dislodge the party members who had been calmly going before the Appeal Committee to present their cases.
“The resolute members resisted the invasion and walked the thugs out. The thugs yielded to an awesome number and left in shame. The sitting was going on smoothly and everybody thought reason had prevailed and the worst was over.
“Not quite long after, the thugs who had returned in multiple numbers, forced their way into the premises of the party Secretariat and started massive attacks on the people. The thugs with orange colour face cap with inscriptions of ‘Oyetola 4+4’, were so entrenched in impunity. Some of them had their faces covered with hoods