As the general elections draw nearer, the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has passed vote of no confidence on the state Commissioner of Police, CP Patrick Kehinde Longe, accusing him of partisanship.
This is even as the party leadership called on the Inspector General of Police, Alkali Baba Usman to immediately transfer Longe as a matter of duty and public importance as part of efforts to avert the civil unrest perpetrating in connivance with the members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Addressing a Press Conference on Wednesday, 15 February, 2023 at the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Office, Osogbo, the Acting Chairman of Osun APC, Tajudeen Lawal, who decried the pockets of political atrocities allegedly perpetrated by PDP thugs since the emergence of the Ademola Adeleke led government in the state, said it was bizarre that the police had connived with members of the ruling party to make life unbearable for members of the opposition.
Lawal who reeled out some of the political attacks carried out by PDP hoodlums against members of his party in the last few months, said it is apposite to effect the removal of the Police Commissioner who had openly and clearly shown partisanship in his official conducts since his deployment to Osun.
According to him, the leaders and members of our party have not known peace for a day since the tribunal judgement that sacked the embattled Governor Ademola Adeleke from office and also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the certificate of return from him and give same to the winner of the election, Mr Adegboyega Oyetola.
Lawal questioned why Adeleke and PDP led government wouldn’t have raised any alarm as regards killing and maiming of innocent souls in the state, saying if the Adeleke-sponsored thugs were not killing, maiming or attacking their members in the various towns and villages in the state, the handlers of the PDP would be organizing sponsored protests within the state and outside as far as Abuja in order to whip up false sentiments that their sacked governor whom the tribunal had affirmed forgery of school documents against, is a saint.
“To state that this is a more trying period in the political history of our state cannot be farfetched as what our members are experiencing from the PDP goons can better be imagined than experienced.
“As I speak, almost all the members of our party, the APC, in the Atakumosa-East Local Government Council Area of the state, have been run out of the towns and villages in the local government by daredevil and notorious PDP thugs who were acting the scripts of one Sanya Omirin, the PDP House of Representatives candidate for Ijesa-South Federal Constituency.
“The property of scores of the APC members in the Atakumosa-East Local Government Council Area have been wilfully destroyed by the PDP thugs as a ploy to prevent our members and supporters from taking part in the forthcoming general elections. Some of our members are now hibernating and squatting in Ilesa, Ile-Ife, Osogbo and other towns to evade political attacks.
“The most pathetic and annoying development is that some of the PDP leaders have formed an habit of inciting PDP members and thugs against our people at different political fora, flaunting the support of the police in carrying out their anti-social, undemocratic, wicked and primitive activities against perceived or real political opponents.
“On February 2nd, 2023, the APC Ward 9 Treasurer in Ikire, Irewole Local Government Council Area of the state, Saheed Oyegunju a.k.a. ‘SP’ while engaging in his lawful commercial motorcycle riding was abducted by the political thugs led by one Segun Adegoke, the owner of Country Lodge in Ikire and Akeem Oriade in broad daylight. Adegoke and Oriade are political hoodlums and associates of Akogun Lere Oyewumi, the PDP senatorial candidate in the Osun-West Senatorial District of the state.
“Surprisingly, the lifeless body of the abducted APC member, Oyegunju, was found in the outskirt of Ikire the following day while the state caretaker committee chairman of the PDP, Dr. Akindele Adekunle, in an interview, categorically said that the killed APC treasurer was ‘a cultist’. In a saner clime, the police would have invited the sit-tight Osun PDP caretaker chairman to throw more light on what he knows about the murder of Oyegunju.
“It is on record that the video recorded and verifiable inciting statements against APC members were made in different occasions by some PDP chieftains like Adesina Rabiu Atanda, the PDP House of Assembly candidate for Iwo State Constituency; Clement Akanni Olorunwa, the PDP House of Representatives candidate for Ila Federal Constituency and Akogun Lere Oyewumi, who was fingered in the murder of Oyegunju, few days ago.
“Some of the other prominent PDP thugs who were inciting their members against the APC members are one Sarafa Awotunde a.k.a. ‘SPAIN’; Sanya Omirin and Emir Ajagungbade”, he added.
Lawal further disclosed that Adeleke and the PDP leadership in the state had concluded a coordinated arrangement to use the police to embark on the arrest of some of the leaders of his party in order to disenfranchise them and create fears in their minds and that of their followers ahead of the presidential and other remaining elections in the state.
He stated further, “it was gathered that Adeleke and the PDP had skillfully designed the indiscriminate arrest of our members to be carried out by the pliable Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) who were transferred to their different duty posts amidst criticisms by us shortly after the current state Commissioner of Police, Mr Patrick Kehinde Longe, assumed office, recently.
“Information also has it that the Osun State chapter of the PDP has a discreet committee whose duty is to compile names and addresses of the targeted APC members to be arrested and possibly attacked and killed.”
The APC acting Chairman averred that the PDP, Adeleke and Osun State Police Command, under CP Longe, should be held responsible for any breakdown of law and order as the general elections are to take place in a few days time.
“The main source of our concern about the pitiable security situation of our state since the inauguration of the sacked Governor Adeleke’s administration is that the police which is the statutory security agency in the state have not been doing enough to dispassionately maintain peace and order.
“It was observed that the police are always looking away when our members are being attacked by the PDP thugs in Osogbo, Ede, Ilesa, Ijebu-Jesa, Ila-Orangun, Ikire, Iwo, Ikirun, Okuku, Ifetedo etc which make us to suspect and conclude that the police has not been maintaining neutrality in the discharge of their official responsibility. They favour the PDP.
“The funniest aspect of the unsavoury development is that the political hoodlums who were arrested and brought down to the police command in Osogbo from Ifetedo few days ago were not even allowed to alight from the vehicle that brought them before they were surprisingly left off the hook based on directive from the top.
“It is based on the totality of the insensitive attitude of the leadership of the Nigeria Police to the plight of members of our party that we are making a clarion call for the transfer of the state commissioner of police, Mr Patrick Kehinde Longe, from our state.
“We are calling on the Inspector-General of Police to intervene in our plight by urgently effecting the transfer of the Osun State Commissioner of Police, Longe, as his best is found out not to be in the best interest of any genuine democratic setting.
“We shall not desist from our fervent belief in the rules of law which is the pedestal of our party no matter the level of provocation from any quarters.
“We are imploring the members of our party across the state to continue their lawful campaign for our presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and other candidates and subsequently vote for them in the forthcoming general elections without further delay”, he added.
Responding to some of the questions asked by journalists present at the Press conference, the Tinubu/ Shettima Campaign Council Spokesman in the State, Engr. Remi Omowaiye said the redeployment of the CP had become a matter of necessity in view of his relationship with members of the ruling party in the State.
According to Omowaiye, the CP and his officers have become readymade instrument in the hands of the PDP led government in the State hence the need for the IGP to do the needful to salvage the situation.
“One does not need to be told before he or she knows that the CP Longe has been acting the script of the members of the ruling party as seen in his official conducts since coming to the State.
“We have seen clearly that Longe has been playing politics with the security of lives and property of the citizens of the state creating impression that he is here for a political party not the constitutional responsibilities he sworn to discharge. He has shown clearly that he is partisan and we have lost confidence in him and we want him transferred out of this state”, Omowaiye added.
