The Osun State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Mr Tajudeen Lawal, has reported the state chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, Sunday Bisi, and three others to the State Police Command and the Department of State Security Services for allegedly recruiting armed thugs to attack political functionaries in Local Government Councils.
Lawal, in a letter dated Monday, June 16, 2025, signed on his behalf by the APC State Legal Adviser, Adegoke Ogunsola, also named the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, Chairman of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission, Hassim Abioye, and the spokesperson to the governor, Olawale Rasheed, as being involved in the plot.
However, Osun PDP spokesperson Oladele Bamiji dismissed the allegation, claiming that it was APC leaders in the state who were planning violence to pave the way for the declaration of emergency rule.
Bamiji, who said Governor Adeleke had already instructed chairmen elected on the platform of the PDP in the February 22, 2025 election to avoid council secretariats, assured that the party in government would never encourage violence.
“They are the ones trying to orchestrate violence, perhaps to work towards the emergency rule they always crave. We have had one of their governorship aspirants openly call for that on national television. APC has issued several releases calling for emergency rule in the state.
“That is what they are perhaps expecting to convince Mr President to declare emergency rule in Osun. But beyond that, whoever loses to such violence cannot be brought back. Our governor will never toe such a line or encourage loss of lives and property. Nobody is mobilising any thug.
The governor has made it clear that the elected local government chairmen from February 22 are still within their time and should wait,” Bamiji said.
The APC chairman, however, insisted that information at his disposal revealed that those involved perfected their plans on behalf of the Osun State Government.
“We wish to draw the attention of security agencies, including the Nigeria Police Force, Osun State Command, men and officers of the Department of State Security, and your good office to the incitement of violence and plans hatched by some functionaries serving with the Osun State Government and the Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, namely Messrs Kolapo Alimi, Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Osun State; Hassim Abioye, the supposed Chairman of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC); Mallam Olawale Rasheed, Spokesperson to Osun State Governor; and Mr Sunday Bisi, Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, Osun State Chapter, to recruit armed thugs to attack Local Government Councils’ political functionaries in Osun State,” the letter reads.
He recalled the violence that erupted on 17 February 2025, when sponsored hoodlums allegedly attacked reinstated Local Government Councils’ functionaries in LG secretariats in the state.
He added that during the attack, Mr Remi Abass, former Chairman of Irewole Local Government, was gruesomely murdered by armed thugs suspected to have been sponsored.
Urging security agencies to investigate the incitement and acts capable of breaching peace by the individuals mentioned in the petition, the party chairman called on them “to deploy all security tactics and strategies to ensure the safety of political functionaries and their property in all Local Government Councils and Area Offices and members of the All Progressives Congress in Osun State, and to forestall breach of public peace and breakdown of law and order in all the Local Government Councils and Area Offices in Osun State.”
The PDP spokesperson, reacting further to the allegations, said Adeleke resorted to legal options to prevent bloodshed.
He added, “APC are always jittery about nothing. Perhaps they are afraid of their own shadow. They know that is what they did when they were in government. But for us, we have nothing to do with violence.
“The people of the state can attest to that. The governor, being the leader of the state, if he was violent, I believe many APC leaders would not be in this state today. When they came up with their shenanigans fomenting trouble, relying on federal might and police support, the governor, instead of matching them with our own might of the people’s support, took the path of peace and instructed that nobody must confront them at the local government.”
Meanwhile, there was unusually heavy security deployment to local government secretariats in the state on Monday, a development linked to fears of violence following the Court of Appeal decision, which refused to relist the APC’s appeal.
Since the Justice Peter Obiorah-led panel delivered its verdict last Friday, tension has been rising between Osun APC and PDP members, as some members of the ruling party expressed readiness to resume at the council secretariats currently under the control of chairmen elected on the APC platform.
In response, APC members dared them to come to the secretariats.
(Punch)