BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
The Osun Civil Societies Coalition has dissociated itself with a petition in circulation, purportedly authored by the group against the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola following the attack on his convoy by some hoodlums in Osogbo.
According to the group, the petition, which was addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari on political violence in Osun State and the recent shooting incident involving the minister, was made viral by some individuals who claimed to speak on behalf of ‘Coalition of Civil Society Organisations in Osun State.’
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, the coalition’s chairman, Comrade Waheed and Vice Chairman, Comrade Wole Folaranmi said it group was impersonated by some unknown people to smear Aregbesola.
“Osun Civil Societies Coalition (OCSC) does not know anything about the press conference and the petition sent to the President with the heading: ‘ Dangerous and Socially Irresponsible Actions Of The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.’
“We state categorically that all the people and organisations listed as signatories to the petition are not members of Osun Civil Societies Coalition. Therefore, we dissociate ourselves from the press conference and the said petition. We suspect that the action of the petitioners was politically motivated for pecuniary gains. And the said individuals were hurriedly put together by political elements who needed the service of available, curruptible civil society groups to drive their selfish interest.
“We specifically call on the Commissioner of Police to rise up to the core duty of policing. There is need to do more on the police activities as regard preventing and curtailing violence and other crimes, investigations and prosecution of the real perpetrators of crimes without fear or favour; fear and favours are corrupt enemies of law and order, which the police suppose to exemplify.”
Meanwhile, another group, Coalition of Civil Societies of Nigeria, which observed the last Saturday’s governorship primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, has described it as a mockery of democracy.
The civil society group, while addressing journalists in Osogbo said the APC primary fell short of acceptable international standard.
According to the CSOs, the poll was grossly marred by violence, issues of electoral irregularities, lack of sensitive materials like result sheet, operational and logistical challenges, and security issues, among others.
Presenting a communique on their observation of the election, the leader of the team, Patrick Usman, of Centre for Development of Democracy and Good Governance in Nigeria, said the election was biased and recommended that the national secretariat of the APC should investigate the irregularities reported in the election.