Osun State PDP alleges plot to arrest 25 government, party officials

Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has alleged that 25 state officials have been listed for arrest and abduction by special security teams from Abuja.

A statement signed by the Osun PDP chairman, Sunday Bisi, obtained in Osogbo on Saturday, stated that the security team that would carry out the arrest planned to commence in the new week, without a warrant of arrest.

The party also said those to be arrested include four special advisers, five party leaders and 15 other state officials, who upon their arrest would be moved to Abuja.

Bisi further said the plan to arrest PDP and Osun government officials was exposed on Thursday night by some members of the All Progressives Congress in the state, who bragged that they were going to use federal might to victimise Osun government officials and some leaders of the ruling PDP.

The PDP chairman, however, called on the police and the Department of State Services to avoid political partisanship.

He said, “I want to call on President Bola Tinubu to caution members of his party in Osun because we will not allow our members to be harassed or victimised in the state. We seek Mr President’s immediate intervention.

“We are making this appeal on the premise that any hooded security operation against Osun State and party officials will amount to a direct violation of the constitution and the fundamental human rights of those officials. We will not succumb to such threats and intimidation.

“Our members and government will deploy all legal and constitutional measures to stop the planned violation of their rights. We will legally resist any plot to destabilise Osun state now under the well-loved and performing Governor Ademola Adeleke.”

But responding in another statement, Osun APC chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, described the PDP’s allegations as baseless and a mere fabrication to avoid answering pertinent questions regarding the contract procurement process supervised by the Adeleke government.

Lawal stated that apprehension being exercised by the Osun PDP was part of the ploy to mystify the issue surrounding how the state government recently awarded over N50bn road contracts to unqualified companies and cronies of the party with no technical and professional competence to execute road projects.

The APC chairman further said, “The handlers of Senator Ademola Adeleke are just being clever by half. They are perplexed and afraid to intelligently respond to our party’s revelation on how friends, family members and cronies, of the governor, with no experience in road construction, were gifted multi-billion road contracts.

“Was it the state APC that directed Governor Adeleke who doubles as the state Commissioner for Works, to award a kilometre of road for a whooping cost of N2.5 billion which is even higher than what is obtainable even in the riverine areas?

“The state leadership of the PDP should leave the APC out of the problems it might have created for itself because of political desperation. If some criminals among them, those who were involved in the maiming, killing and kidnapping of innocent members of our party, are being wanted by law enforcement agencies, the right thing for a law-abiding chairman to do is to direct the indicted members to answer the lawful summons of the security agencies, not teaching them to act fugitives as the chairman of the PDP is currently doing.

“Osun PDP and its co-travellers are groping in the daylight because of the confusion their greed has imposed on the people of Osun.”

The hostilities involving Osun PDP and APC became stronger earlier in the week when the opposition party came up with allegations that Adeleke has been awarding contracts to unqualified companies of his cronies and family members.

Though the PDP denied the allegations and defended Adeleke over the ongoing projects across the state, the government few hours after, unveiled a committee that would prosecute those found culpable in the probe of contracts awarded by the immediate past administration of the Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola.