The Osun State Chapter of the People’s Democratic Party has described as callous the refusal of Governor Gboyega Oyetola to name those who made attempt on his life during the Saturday’s EndSARS protest in Osogbo.
The opposition party in a statement by its acting Chairman, Sunday Bisi on Monday said it “finds it callous and fallacious, claims of the State governor, Mr Gboyega Oyetola, suggesting that some unnamed persons made attempts at his life on Saturday 17th October, 2020, while trying to address the End SARS procession in Osogbo.”
Osun PDP called on the governor to apologize to the family of the deceased for the havoc wrecked by the hoodlums who invaded the protest.
“Mr Oyetola, instead of the self indicting buck passing, should look at himself in the mirror and reflect with some regret of shame, having fathered the thugs personally and collectively in APC and with odious effrontery of christening them as “State Boys”.
“That the governor as the chief security officer of the state, lacked the nerve or security intelligence support to name those behind the purported attack on his life more than almost 48hours after the incident shows the dept of evil and small-mindedness in open thuggery Mr Oyetola and his henchmen in APC have inflicted on this noble State.
“It is pertinent to remind Governor Oyetola of similar attack carried out by thugs belonging to other faction of his party during the 2020 New year Eve celebration at Freedom Park Osogbo, where his security guards and thugs loyal to him had to expend several rounds of live bullets to get him spirited out of the scene.
“The state will also not forget in a hurry, how APC flooded Osun State with arrays of thugs when it became apparent that going to lose the 2018 governorship election in the Osun. The conducts of these thugs after the election till date is testament to the fact Governor Oyetola as beneficiary of the 2018 carnage visited on the state has failed woefully to disarm the armed thugs in his party which they are now turning against him.
“In the light of this, we in Osun PDP wish to advise Mr Governor to bury unnecessary ego in his veins and apologize to the helpless parents whose families have been thrown into perpetual mourning with the felling of their children by the bullets of his aides while again trying to ferry him to safety from the hands of his APC nurtured State Boys, whose factional fight for supremacy generated the heated atmosphere for the bloody mayhem during the hitherto peaceful protests.
“The Osun PDP also by this medium express our deepest sympathy to the parents whose children were killed on Saturday in Osogbo by the governor body guards. It is most unfortunate to say the least, that such promising lads were cut down during legitimate agitation for an end to mindless killings of Nigerian youths by security operatives in the country, most especially officers and men of the Nigerian Police Force.
“It is also heart wrenching that the sad development occurred in the course of saving the governor from the bloody clash of the factional groups of the militant arm of Apc in the state, who literally stormed the protest venue on a show of force to impress the governor, their benefactor, on one hand, with the other group loyal to other forces in Osun APC obviously poised to make telling statements against their pampered counterparts.
“While commiserating with the governor over the unwarranted assault, we call on the state governor to set all necessary machineries in motion to track down the ‘State Boys’ who instigated the assault on his person that degenerated into killing of the two Nigerians in Osogbo on Saturday. We also demand the immediate arrest and prosecution of the trigger happy guards involved in the killing of the innocent youths. This latest episode in the spate of killings must not be allowed to go the way of several others that have occurred in the 10year brutal reign of APC in the state, all of which have been previously swept under the carpet by coercive force of State.
“Mr Oyetola is also admonished to live within his abysmal rating and stop water-testing his non-existent popularity in the state to prevent further jeopardy to security of lives and properties in the state. The governor must not fail to put his mandate stealing status in the right perspective any time he is required to handle delicate matters like dousing aggravated tension in the state as witnessed in the unfortunate handling of the state chapter of the ongoing nationwide protests.
“Handlers of Mr Governor must also fasten their thinking bracelets and up their ante in assisting him whenever he fell short of proper ideas, to guage and guard his public conduct and utterances when faced with pressures of his office as the state cannot afford to continue to lose her human assets to careless handling of state matters by a man being paid to oversee her affairs. Enough is enough!” Bisi concluded.
