The Osun State Chapter of the PDP has appealed to the Osun State Police Command to do a thorough investigation on the unfortunate death of a young man in Iwo yesterday.
The party in a statement by Areola Ayodeji, its spokesman in Osun State, dissociated self from the death of a man identified as Toyyib Mutallib in Iwo, stating that his death has nothing to do with PDP Congress.
The statement reads, “We wish to sternly state that the death of the young man had nothing to do with the adhoc delegate congress conducted by our great party across the 332 electoral wards yesterday.
“While we sympathize with the family of the deceased, our preliminary findings confirmed that the young man was killed by a rival gang with whom he had been having running battle over a financial transaction which culminated into his death on Wednesday.
“We want to place it on record that the deceased lived in Agoro quarters, a compound within precinct of Gidigbo ward where he should have participated in the ward congress if he was a member of PDP as being insinuated in some quarters.
“Findings also showed that the deceased mother is a staunch member of APC in Iwo and that as a matter of fact, participated in the recently held governorship primary election of APC alongside her son, the deceased. Therefore, he could not and was not a member of our party, the PDP.”
Speaking on the crisis in Ipetumodu, the PDP publicity secretary said the attackers were not its party members but resisted by people of the area.
“Again, the said fracas leading to untimely death of the young man had occured way before commencement of our party congress in Iwo and so, the desperation of some detractors to link such to our party congress was a mischievous and mindless machinations of enemies of our party in the State, who are clearly jolted by the conduct of the congress and the attendant outcome.
“The Osun State Police Command is advised not to allow itself to be dragged into political frivolities and carry out a professional investigation to unravel the immediate and remote cause of death of the young man.
“We make this appeal not just as a concerned party but to stem the brewing reprisals as friends of the deceased are reportedly regrouping against the other gang which is capable of causing further bloodshed. Good enough, the police reportedly have one of the suspects in the fracas in their custody and with that we believe, should assist them in their investigation.
“Similarly, the violent attack on our party facility in Ipetumodu, headquarters of Ife North local government was never an attack carried out by our party members. The assistants had actually invaded the party secretariat in the locality for the purpose of harming our party members, an action that was resisted by the good people of the ancient town.
“The resistance army of our members and the good people of the town were about overwhelming the attackers prompting them to pull out a gun and shot at one of our members in the town before taking to their heels. One of the buses conveying the attackers was later set ablaze by the angry residents of the town.
“On this too, we urge the state police command to swing into action and carry out diligent investigation with a view to bringing the perpetrators of the evil act to justice. We are deeply concerned about such ugly development as it is completely alien to the workings of our party I’m Osun State.
“Osun PDP appeals to members of the public to disregard wicked rumours of violence in the peacefully concluded congress. Our noble party remains resolute to do everything at our disposal to restore Osun State to her glory days.”
