2023: APC demands removal of Osun CP
…Alleges collusion with PDP govt to import political thugs into Osun
By Ismail Azeez, Osogbo
The All progressive Congress, (APC), Osun State chapter, has called on the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Alikali Baba to intervene in their plight and ensure immediate removal of the State Commissioner of Police, Mr Patrick Kehinde Longe, from the State.
Speaking, on Wednesday at a press conference, Acting Chairman of the party, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, noted that the PDP, Osun State Government and Osun State Police Command, under Longe, should be held responsible for any break-down of law and order as the general elections are approaching in a few days time.
Lawal who was represented by the party spokesperson, Chief Kola Olabisi said he was worried that the main source of the APC concern about the pitiable security situation of State since the inauguration of the Governor Adeleke’s administration, was that the Police which is the statutory security agency in the State have not been doing enough to dispassionately maintain peace and order.
He posited that information also has it that the Osun State chapter of the PDP has a discreet committee whose duty is to compile the names and addresses of the targeted APC members to be arrested and possibly attacked and killed.
According to him, “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.”
He said “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 the directive from the top.
“It was based on the totality of the insensitive attitude of the leadership of the Nigeria Police in Osun State to the plight of members of the party that we are making a clarion call for the transfer of the State Commissioner of Police, Mr Patrick Kehinde Longe, from our state.”
He alleged that Governor Adeleke and the PDP had skillfully designed the indiscriminate arrest of APC members to be carried out by the pliable Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) who were transferred to their different duty posts amidst criticisms by the party shortly after the current State Commissioner of Police, Mr Patrick Kehinde Longe, assumed office, recently.
He said,“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.”
Lawal equally stated that the party shall not desist from fervent belief in the rules of law which he said was the pedestal of the party no matter the level of provocation from any quarters.
He also implored the members of the party across the State to continue their lawful campaign for the presidential candidate of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and other candidates and subsequently vote for them in the forthcoming general elections without further delay.
