The Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has claimed that a special security team from Abuja is planning to arrest and take away 25 state officials.
The Osun PDP chairman, Sunday Bisi, stated in a release obtained in Osogbo on Saturday that the security team planning the arrest intends to start in the coming week without a warrant.
The party also mentioned that those to be arrested include four special advisers, five party leaders, and 15 other state officials, and they will be taken to Abuja upon arrest.
Bisi added that the plan to arrest PDP and Osun government officials was revealed on Thursday night by some members of the All Progressives Congress in the state, who boasted about using federal power to target Osun government officials and PDP leaders.
The PDP chairman called on the police and the Department of State Services to avoid political bias.
He urged President Bola Tinubu to warn members of his party in Osun and stated that they will not allow their members to be harassed or victimized in the state, seeking Mr. President’s urgent intervention.
“We are making this appeal on the premise that any hidden security operation against Osun State and party officials will amount to a direct breach of the constitution and the fundamental human rights of those officials. We will not yield to such threats and intimidation.
Our members and government will use all legal and constitutional measures to halt the planned violation of their rights. We will legally oppose any plot to destabilize Osun state under Governor Ademola Adeleke.”
But in response, Osun APC chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, dismissed the PDP’s allegations as unfounded and a fabrication to avoid addressing vital questions about the contract procurement process overseen by the Adeleke government.
Lawal stated that the apprehension expressed by the Osun PDP was part of the strategy to complicate the issue surrounding the recent awarding of over N50bn road contracts by the state government to unqualified companies and party cronies lacking technical and professional competence for road projects.
The APC chairman further said, “The handlers of Senator Ademola Adeleke are just trying to be deceitful. They are confused and unwilling to effectively respond to our party’s disclosure on how friends, family members, and cronies of the governor, without experience in road construction, were given multi-billion road contracts.
“Was it the state APC that instructed Governor Adeleke, who also serves as the state Commissioner for Works, to award a kilometer of road for an extravagant cost of N2.5 billion, which is even higher than the amount found in the riverine areas?
“The state leadership of the PDP should not involve the APC in the problems it may have brought upon itself due to political desperation. If some criminals among them, those involved in attacking, killing, and kidnapping innocent members of our party, are being pursued by law enforcement agencies, it is the responsibility of a law-abiding chairman to direct the implicated members to respond to the lawful summons of the security agencies, rather than advising them to act as fugitives like the PDP chairman is currently doing.
The Osun PDP and its companions are struggling because of the confusion caused by their greed.
The conflicts between Osun PDP and APC intensified when the opposition party claimed that Adeleke has been giving contracts to unqualified companies owned by his friends and family.
Even though the PDP rejected the accusations and supported Adeleke's ongoing projects, the government announced a committee that would prosecute those responsible for the contracts awarded by the previous administration of Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola.
