The Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress chapters in Osun State exchanged allegations on Wednesday regarding the security alert that the state’s governor, Ademola Adeleke, had raised regarding suspected hoodlum plots to assault farms and schools in the state.
Adeleke said he had called a security council meeting to discuss the situation after intelligence reports revealed preparations to target schools, carry out kidnappings, and destroy farms.
Tajudeen Lawal, the state chairman of the APC, responded to Adeleke’s warning by accusing the governor of inciting a fake panic over the state’s security in a statement.
Lawal expressed his disappointment, saying it was depressing that a governor would become so petty as to try to distract the public from his corrupt and failed administration.
He said, “Governor Adeleke should sit up for once and give the people of the state the quality governance he promised the people during his campaign instead of engaging in the creation of another phoney agenda meant to have a diversionary motive.
“We are not politically inexperienced not to have an understanding that the Adeleke-invented security threat against the state is a ploy to shift their attention from discussing his ill-thought-out N100bn white elephant when hunger is working on four legs in all the streets in the nooks and crannies of the state.
“There is nothing wrong in a government being proactive on security issues, but it is criminal and an express admission of failure for any government to use the same as a weapon of deceit to confuse the governed.”
In his reaction, Osun APC was branded as cruel, unpatriotic, and deluded by state PDP chairman Mr. Sunday Bisi for allegedly dismissing claims of threats to the state’s peace and security.
The statement partly read, “We find it reprehensible and condemnable for the state APC to deny reports that have been confirmed by virtually all the security agencies in the state. Must the APC play politics with everything?
“A patriotic governor raised the alarm on security threats and he summoned the state security council meeting.
“The council meeting attended by top security and service commanders reviewed the situation in the light of their field reports and mapped out preemptive measures.
“The resolution of the state security meeting was made public including a list of steps the state is to take to stop the threats from materialising.
“Instead of commending the governor for his foresight, the opposition has chosen to play bad, sore loser again, levelling unfounded allegations and playing games with the lives and properties of our people.
“As a party, the PDP government is too well focused on delivering on social programmes designed to restore the state from the depth of under-development the state was plunged into for 12 years.”