PRESS RELEASE
Fresh Plot By Governor Oyetola’s Camp To Eliminate TOP Leaders
The Osun Progressives (TOP), a caucus of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State of Osun, wishes to inform the general public, President Muhammadu Buhari and heads of all security agencies in Nigeria that there is a fresh plan by leaders of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola’s group, IleriOluwa, to eliminate notable members of TOP.
You will all recall that TOP had in July this year raised the alarm that some government officials and APC chieftains were planning to assassinate and attack leaders of TOP in the state.
Few weeks after the report, one of the leaders of TOP, Com. Biyi Odunlade, a former Commissioner for Youths, Sports and Special Needs, escaped assassination when assailants attacked his house in Ile-Ife on August 14. There were other attempts on the lives of some other TOP members who were attacked at their various meetings across the state.
Information at our disposal now makes it clear that the level of desperation of Governor Oyetola led IleriOluwa group has reached the throats of its leaders and therefore concluded that elimination of TOP leaders will put a stop to our opposition to them.
It is noteworthy to mention that some of the TOP leaders have been receiving strange calls which started at the weekend. The callers were threatening TOP leaders with assassination as the solution to TOP activities in the state.
We learnt on inquiry that the Governor’s group IleriOluwa is jittery of what is likely going to be the outcome of the case instituted by members of the APC who belong to TOP caucus and would not mind if some leaders are killed in order to put a stop to TOP activities.
We further gathered that the IleriOluwa group got incensed by the entry of Hon Lasun Yusuf’s into the governorship race and concluded that it was TOP activities that gave him the liver to be challenging the second term ambition of Governor Oyetola.
We were additionally told that an urgent meeting of the IleriOluwa top hierarchy was held somewhere in Boripe local government about a week ago where the decision to assassinate some leaders of TOP was finalised as the last joker to check our group’s contest for power with them.
We note that TOP had made reports of assassination and attack plots on its leaders in the past to the security agents, but unfortunately, the reports have not been treated till date.
It is on record that we had officially reported many attacks that were unleashed on many of our members, including direct shooting of two of them on October 16, at our parallel congress in Ogo-Oluwa area of Osogbo. Nothing is yet to be done on that report, too.
It is with grave concerns that we note the levity with which majority of the security agencies have been handling reports of attacks on our members and we dare say it portends bias and negligence of duty on their part.
We are forced to conclude that majority of the security agencies are working closely with Governor Oyetola’s group IleriOluwa in its determined desire to annihilate us simply because we embark on campaign for the repositioning of Osun APC.
By the actions of the security agencies, it looks like they have given another meaning to their terms of existence as contained in the constitution of Nigeria; as they seem to work in the interests of only those in government as against the generality of the people of Nigeria.
We wish to state that the security agencies will be held responsible and accountable for whosoever is killed by the blood-thirsty people in Governor Oyetola’s group, because they seem more interested in the filthy lucre they are fed with by the Governor’s men.
We state that any attack on, not to talk of killing any TOP member, may lead to unimaginable unrest in the state and the errant security agencies should be held responsible.
We put on record that nobody has the monopoly of violence and it is the beginning of a strife that is often known, not many often have the grace to know its end.
We conclusively call on President Muhammadu Buhari to take interest in the case of Osun APC and avoid the killing of innocent lives for the actualization of somebody’s ambition.
We also call on the biased security agencies to take steps in line with their constitutional duty of protecting all Nigerians and not just those in government.
Adelowo Adebiyi
Chairman
The Osun Progressives (TOP)
15-11-2021
