One of the members of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) in the Olorunda Local Government Area of Osun State, Mrs Grace Oladele, said on Sunday that hoodlums
suspected to be supporters of the ruling All Progressives Congress attacked her and her eight-month-old baby, David, while she was returning from a political rally in Ilesa on Saturday.
Oladele said she had gone to the rally of the governorship candidate of the ADP, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, in Ilesa, and was returning to her base in Osogbo when armed hoodlums attacked the bus conveying her and other ADP members.
Oladele told our correspondent on the telephone that the hoodlums asked the people in the bus to stop shouting Sheu – which the ADP candidate is popularly called – because Ilesa was an APC town.
She said, “The hoodlums had earlier warned us when we were going that we should stop shouting Sheu and start shouting Ileri Oluwa (the slogan of the APC candidate). On our way back, they stopped our bus and attacked us; I have a cut in my ear while my eight month old baby was attacked on the head.”
The Director of Publicity of Moshood Adeoti Campaign Organisation, Mr Kayode Agbaje, corroborated Oladele’s claims in a statement.
He blamed the attack on suspected APC thugs, who he claimed were hired by the ruling party.
Apart from Oladele and her son, he said one Sunday Ariyibi, Banke Awoniyi, the ADP State Women Leader, Adeleke Folasade; and Iyabo Bankole, were injured during the attack.
The ADP Chairman in the state, Mr Toye Akinola, while condemning the attack, called on security agencies to ensure adequate protection of lives and property of all the people in the state.
But the Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy of the APC in Osun State, Mr Kunle Oyatomi, described the allegation against the ruling party as “spurious and baseless.”
Oyatomi said, “The ADP, which is an Association of Displaced Politicians, is just seeking cheap publicly. Why will anybody attack ADP? The party is not a threat. They are non-starters and they cannot be a threat to the APC.
“They are just looking for attention because they know that they are not known. They will be put permanently in their place after the September 22 governorship election.”
Recall that the ADP governorship candidate, Adeoti, resigned as the Secretary to the State Government from the cabinet of Governor Rauf Aregbesola because of the crisis over the primary election of the APC.
He subsequently picked the governorship ticket of the ADP.
Three members of the Osun State House of Assembly and some chieftains of the ruling party had also dumped the APC and joined the ADP.
Efforts to find out if the police have made any arrest concerning the attack were unsuccessful on Sunday as the mobile phone of the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mrs Folasade Odoro, rang out.
She had yet to reply to a text message sent to her phone on the attack as of the time of filing this report.