The tension in Osun State over local government leadership intensified on Monday, as the state chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Mr Tajudeen Lawal, dragged the state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Sunday Bisi, and three others before the state police command and the Department of State Services.
In the petition, Lawal alleged that the PDP was recruiting armed thugs to attack the political functionaries in the local government secretariats across the state.
Lawal, in a letter dated Monday, June 16, 2025, signed on his behalf by the APC State Legal Adviser, Adegoke Ogunsola, also listed the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, Chairman of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission, Hassim Abioye, and the spokesperson to the governor, Olawale Rasheed, as others involved in the plot.
But the Osun PDP spokesperson, Oladele Bamiji, when contacted, dismissed the allegation, noting that it was APC leaders in the state who were planning violence to pave the way for the declaration of emergency rule.
Bamiji, who said Adeleke had already instructed chairmen elected on the platform of PDP in the February 22, 2025, election to avoid council secretariats, assured that the party in government would never encourage violence.
“They are the ones trying to orchestrate violence, perhaps to work to the answer of emergency rule they always crave.
“We have heard one of their governorship aspirants call for emergency rule openly on national television. APC had issued releases several times calling for emergency rule in the state.
“That is what they are perhaps expecting to convince Mr President to declare emergency rule in Osun.
“But beyond that, whoever is lost to such violence can’t be brought back. Our governor will never toe such a line or encourage loss of lives and properties.
“Nobody is mobilising any thug. The governor has made it clear that the local government chairmen elected on February 22 are still within their time and should wait,” Bamiji said.
The PDP spokesperson said Governor Ademola Adeleke resorted to legal options to prevent bloodshed.
“APC members are always jittery about nothing. Perhaps they are afraid of their own shadow. They know that perhaps that was what they did when they were in government. But for us, we don’t have anything to do with violence.
“The people of the state can attest to that. The governor, instead of matching them with our might of the support of the people in the state, took the path of peace and instructed that nobody must confront them at the local government,” Bamiji added.
The APC chairman, in the petition, however, insisted that information at his disposal had revealed that those involved perfected their plans on behalf of the state government.
He recalled the violence that erupted on February 17, 2025, when sponsored hoodlums allegedly attacked the reinstated local government functionaries in LG secretariats in the state.
He added that during the attack, a former chairman of Irewole Local Government Area, Mr Remi Abass, was gruesomely murdered by armed thugs suspected to have been sponsored.
Urging the security agencies to launch an investigation into the various incitement and acts capable of breach of peace by the individuals mentioned in the petition, the party chairman called for the deployment of security tactics and strategies to ensure the safety of the political functionaries and their property.
He also called for the safety of members of the APC in Osun State and the forestalling of breaches of public peace and breakdown of law and order in all the local government councils and area offices in the state.
Moreover, there was unusually heavy security deployment to local government secretariats in the state on Monday.
Since the Justice Peter Obiorah-led panel delivered its verdict on Friday, tension has been on the rise between Osun APC and PDP members.
Some members of the ruling party had expressed readiness to resume at the council secretariats currently under the control of chairmen elected on the platform of the APC.
The PUNCH observed during a visit to the Osogbo Local Government secretariat at Oke Baale and the Olorunda LG secretariat in Igbona, both within the Osogbo metropolis, there was a presence of police operatives at the entrance to the premises.
