BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Factional members of the All Progressives Congress in Osun State loyal to the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, on Monday, accused the leadership of the party in the state of attempted assassination on their lives on several occasions over their insistence on restructuring the party.
Specifically, the APC members, under a caucus, The Osun Progressives (TOP), in a statement signed by their chairman, Lowo Adebiyi, accused Gboyega Famodun, the chairman of the mainstream camp of the party loyal to the incumbent Governor Gboyega Oyetola, of sending gun-wielding hoodlums to them for no fewer than fifteen times.
Adebiyi lamented that all the complainants and petitions submitted to leadership of security agencies in the state were ignored.
While reacting to claim by Famodun that TOP members had connived with the major opposition Peoples Democratic Party in the state to stock guns and petrol with the aim of plunging Osun into large scale mayhem over the governorship election tribunal case and the forthcoming local government elections, Adebiyi denied the allegation and rather said that, “Famodun and his ilk are afraid of their own shadows.”
He said the security alert issued by Famodun “contains assumptions and imagination of a troubled mind, especially somebody who is struggling to continue to be relevant after he led the party to ruins within a space of three years.
“May we note that Famodun and his cohorts are just afraid of their own shadows and trying to blackmail genuine APC members who are in The Osun Progressives, in an attempt to divert attention from the continuous questioning of his competence as a party chairman.
“It makes us to be afraid of what could have been happening to our state if Famodun has suddenly become the one to issue security alerts to the citizens of Osun, or he is only foretelling what himself and his gang are out to do and rope some other people into it when their heinous crime is eventually committed.
“If there is any information or probable security disorder, the best, Famodun could do is to report to security agencies for investigation, but Famodun has decided to overtake investigation and assumed Chief Security Officer role.
“In real terms, we bring to the fore, Famodun’s rigorous efforts to rope The Osun Progressives (TOP) in all of the fake and irresponsible security alerts he has vainly issued so far.
“Is the Osun APC sleeping chairman and his gang of thugs and hoodlums afraid of impending repercussions of their heinous crimes against us or ultimate manifestation of karma that he is looking for all means to criminalise TOP, so that their awful deadly attacks in the past will not be visited with deserving punishment?
“The Osun Progressives believes that no evil carried out by a man against another man shall go unpunished, and we know of a fact that God says he will avenge such situation through generations. The case with Famodun and his cohorts can never be different.
“We note with sense of responsibilities that Famodun and his ilk sent gun and other dangerous weapons wielding hoodlums after us 15 times across the nook and crannies of the state at the apogee of struggles to making our party re-energised and restructured. We didn’t plan to burn down the state.
“We also want to note the partiality and culpability of the security agencies in Osun, as it was easy for them not to touch a single case of several inhuman treatments and acts to cause us harms reported to them with compelling evidences, but found it most easy to act on any of Governor Oyetola’s aides or associates’ frivolous allegation against us,” the statement read.
