Osun APC, Gov.Adeleke bicker over alleged assassination attempt on Party Chieftain

The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has alleged a threat to the life of one of its chieftains, Professor Rafiu Durodoye, by individuals in the Governor Ademola Adeleke’s led administration.

The party, in a statement by its Director of media and information, Kola Olabisi, alleged that Prof.Durodoye was threatened for criticising the state government during a radio interview.

Olabisi said the US-based professor who was one of the former gubernatorial aspirants of the party had received threat messages through anonymous telephone calls since he granted the interview.

The APC, in the statement, said the Osogbo-born politician, narrowly escaped assassination on the day he travelled back to the United States from Nigeria, describing the development as an act of wickedness.

“The APC governorship aspirant disclosed that since his criticism of Governor Adeleke and his government, he had received threat messages through anonymous telephone calls from no fewer than five persons from the ancient town of Ede, the hometown of the governor.”

“Prof Durodoye also disclosed that some daredevil gun-wielding political thugs who owned up to acting at the instance of the Osun State Government had tried fruitlessly to attack or kill the APC governorship aspirant without luck as they were always missing their target.”

“Durodoye stated further that he narrowly escaped his assassin’s bullets on the day he travelled back to the United States of America when the vehicle which took him to the airport in Lagos was blocked by some gun-wielding men at the last junction to his house in Osogbo, who thought he was still in the vehicle.”

According to the party, “While we are condemning the development in its entirety, we view it as an act of primitivity and sheer wickedness for the government to be clamping down on its critics for whatever reason.”

“We want to state unequivocally for the hearing of the embattled Governor Adeleke and his cohorts that any one who does not develop a thick skin to criticism has no business in seeking for public office.”

“Governor Adeleke should tame his hit squad and come to terms with the reality that the introduction of violence, thuggery and victimisation is antithetical to the known principles of any democratic government.”

“We, as a party, are warning Governor Adeleke and his co-travellers that should anything untoward happen to Prof Durodoye or any member of our party as we are approaching the governorship election later in the year, they would be held responsible.’

“We are tasking the Inspector-General of Police and the other sister statutory security services to investigate for prosecution the series of the attempts on the life of one of our chieftains, Prof Rafiu Durodoye, for criticizing the poor performance of the administration of Governor Adeleke,” the party stated.

However, the deputy spokesperson to Governor Adeleke, Mr Oladele Bamiji, dismissed the allegations, noting that Prof Durodoye was only seeking undue attention.

Bamiji in his reaction, said the APC was only trying to divert attention, adding that Governor Adeleke would not allow anyone to truncate the peace and bring violence into the state.

Bamiji said, “We don’t have any record of his election or electoral value in Osun State University to warrant anybody trying to pursue his life. As far as we are concerned, Prof. Durotoye was seeking undue attention to perhaps pave way for himself in the politics of the state under the APC.”

“Anybody saying that the government is after Prof Durodoye is just trying to divert attention from the real issues we have on ground in the state today which is the arrest of the killer squad of the APC who were masterminds of those who murdered PDP members in the state.”