APC directs chairmen to stay off council areas
Ogundokun urges peace
The police in Osun State have confirmed that six persons, including an ex-council chairman, died in the political crisis that engulfed the State over control of local government areas.
Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Osun State, Yemisi Opalola, who confirmed the deaths, said many people were hospitalised after the clash, assuring that the Inspector General of Police has deployed mobile policemen to the state to stabilize the situation.
She expressed sympathy to the families of the victims who lost their lives and or property, warning that the police would resist reoccurrence of any violence in the state.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has directed the chairmen and their councillors to stay off their respective council secretariat as a sign of respect for the death of Hon. Remi Abass, the Chairman of Irewole Local Government Council Area of the state, who was killed during the crisis.
The state chairman of the APC, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, in a statement issued by the party’s Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, on Tuesday, stated that the untimely and sudden killing of the peace-loving and consummate politician was inhuman, wicked and callous.
He commended all the council chairmen for acting in accordance with the Court of Appeal judgment that secured victory for them and enjoined the police to extend their dragnet with a view to arresting, investigating and prosecution of the killers of the serving local government council chairmen and their sponsors who could not have come from the moon.
Lawal also sympathised with the immediate family members, political associates and all the progressive-loving people of Ikire over the gruesome murder of Abass, promising that the leadership of the party would do all necessary things to ensure that the chairman of Irewole Local Government Area did not die in vain.
Meanwhile, former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN), High Chief Abiola Ogundokun, has condemned the violence that erupted between the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State over struggle for control of local government areas after the judgment of appeal court.
The elder statesman in a statement on Tuesday, appealed to the parties to embrace peace and shun violence in the interest of the people of Osun state.
He described the violence as needless, saying that the killings and destruction of properties is not worth it.
He warned the gladiators to stop demonstrating bitterness against one another but to show genuine commitment to peace and progress of the state.
“This is not the time for anybody or group to start apportioning blame and passing buck. Everyone should allow peace to reign, enough of violent statements and attacks against one another. It is dangerous for the state to be turned into a theatre of war,” he appealed.
