How APC, Police Persecuted Adeleke Before Osun Poll — Commissioner

The Osun State Commissioner for Information, Kolapo Alimi, has accused leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the police of persecuting Governor Ademola Adeleke and members of the Accord Party ahead of last Saturday’s governorship election.

Alimi alleged that the police connived with APC leaders to frustrate Adeleke’s re-election bid through intimidation, arrests and detention of Accord Party chieftains.

The commissioner made the allegations on Sunday while speaking on Agbami Oselu, a Yoruba public affairs programme broadcast by a local radio station in Osogbo, the state capital.

Speaking in Yoruba, Alimi also alleged that several Accord Party members were killed by political thugs allegedly sponsored by a rival party, while security agencies failed to intervene.

He said Accord members were often unable to defend themselves when attacked for fear that the police would arrest them on allegations of violence.

“We dared not respond if their thugs attacked us because they would turn around and say we were the ones that attacked them and before you know it, the police would arrest our members and detain them,” Alimi said.

The commissioner also alleged that the party was repeatedly prevented from holding campaign events.
According to him, Accord was forced to cancel its mega rally scheduled for Thursday, August 13, after the police allegedly refused to grant permission on the grounds that the APC had scheduled its own rally for the same day.

“We then decided to shift our rally back to Wednesday, August 12, but the police again said the APC also had another public event slated for the day,” he said.

Alimi said the party was also denied access to Freedom Park in Osogbo after officials of the Nigerian Railway Corporation allegedly claimed ownership of the facility.

“They even denied us the use of the Freedom Park by bringing in officials of the Nigerian Railway Corporation who claimed ownership of the park and insisted that the facility would not be available for our use.

“But we know that the Freedom Park, which was built during the Rauf Aregbesola administration, is owned by the state government but we had to let go to avoid trouble,” he said.

The commissioner further alleged that Accord cancelled a political event planned at the open field of Fakunle Comprehensive High School, Osogbo, following a security report that political thugs had been mobilised to attack its members.

“At a point during the campaign, we slated a political event in the open field at Fakunle Comprehensive High School, Osogbo. A few days before the date, we received a security report that political thugs had been sponsored to attack our members during the event.

“We had to cancel the event owing to security concerns. But the police turned around to say that we should have gone ahead with the event, even when we knew they would not respond to our call if the thugs attacked us,” Alimi said.

Beyond the campaign period, Alimi listed the withholding of the state’s local government allocations and the freezing of the state government’s accounts by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as part of what he described as the persecution suffered by the Adeleke administration.

He said the state government had been paying a monthly wage bill of about N6.5 billion for primary school teachers and council workers from its own resources.

According to Alimi, Adeleke was at a point forced to publicly ask President Bola Tinubu what more he wanted from him after the governor had pledged his support for the President’s 2027 re-election bid.

“The governor told us that President Tinubu called him after he made that public statement and assured him of the federal government’s support but that nothing changed afterwards,” he said.

The commissioner assured that Adeleke would continue to implement people-oriented development projects during his second term. Adeleke was declared winner of Saturday’s governorship election, defeating his closest challenger, Bola Oyebamiji of the APC, and 12 other candidates.

Alimi attributed Governor Adeleke’s victory at the poll to the resilience of the Osun people and the grace of God.