From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Peoples Democratic Party-led (PDP) administration of clamping down on opposition parties, with a view to silencing them, and probably make Oyo a one-party state.
The alarm was raised by the state Secretary of APC, Tajudeen Olanite, in a statement, in Ibadan, yesterday.
The APC, according to him, spoke against the backdrop of alleged threat to kill the party’s 2023 governorship candidate in the state, Teslim Folarin, chairman, Senate Committee on Local Content, allegedly by former factional chairman of National Union of Road Transports Workers (NURTW), Mukaila Lamidi, fondly called ‘Auxiliary’, who was appointed in February 2020 by Governor Seyi Makinde as chairman of the disciplinary committee for the Park Management System (PMS).
Olanite said the state would be in a total mess if Governor Makinde is re-elected in 2023 based on the purported unapologetic manners he has been using the instrumentalities of the state to empower thugs, that have allegedly been fingered in the killing of some people as well as threats to lives of innocent Nigerians that are not members of the PDP that formed the current government in the state.
According to the statement, the threat to Folarin’s life by Auxiliary has become a matter of public knowledge via video clips that have gone viral on the social media space in the past few days.
“Auxiliary has been leading heavily armed thugs to destroy APC billboards and posters in different parts of Ibadan and the state.
“The billboard destruction by Auxiliary and his thugs, engaged by the PDP government in Oyo State is tagged: ‘Operation Destroy APC Billboard and Posters’. They have also started destruction of shops at Dugbe Alawo and Ogunpa, being operated by people they believed are not favourably disposed to second-term bid of Governor Makinde.
“It is an attempt to silence opposition and turn Oyo to a one-party state. The PDP-led administration is very intolerant of opposition in the state because they know that they have failed woefully and they don’t have any good thing to offer the people of the state.
“But we have a mandate to rescue the state from the hands of these clueless, distracted, promise breaking, rookies in governance, and promoters of thuggery fellows. We shall not be deterred by their antics. We shall ensure the liberation of the people of this state from the claws of these political hawks that have been reported to be in government to steal, kill and destroy,” APC said in the statement.
But the PDP Publicity Secretary, Akeem Olatunji, in a telephone chat with Daily Sun, described the allegeations as mere political blackmail against the person of Governor Makinde, for APC to score cheap points for political popularity.
On the threats to Folarin’s life, Olatunji said it was not a threat but a statement of defence.
On the allegation of destruction of billboards and poster of APC, Olatunji said the APC should look inward as “PDP and the government are not responsible for that. They should check themselves because they must be the ones destroying their own billboards and posters by themselves. They should not bring PDP into their own self-inflicted calamities.”