From Wole Balogun, Ado-Ekiti
THE ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the opposition All Progressive Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, yesterday exchanged invectives over an attack on the PDP Publicity Secretary (PDP), in the state, Mr Jackson Adebayo.
Narrating his experience after receiving treatment at a private hospital, Adebayo said he was accosted by three armed men on a motorbike at Federal Housing Estate area of Ado-Ekiti about 9pm on Friday, and that his assailants hit his head with their guns severally. “I was going for a vigil in the church when three armed men on a motorbike accosted me. Two of them came down with their guns and started shooting sporadically. They seized me and hit my head against the asphalt on the road, and the man on the bike ordered them to shoot me, but the men said they should leave me,” he said.
According to him, the attack was politically motivated, having received several threats to his life earlier from suspected hugs believed to be working for a rival party in the state: “I wouldn’t describe it as a robbery case because apart from my phone and tablet that they took, the money they found when they ransacked my pockets was returned,” he explained.
Commenting on the development, the state Chairman of the PDP, Mr. Gboyega Oguntuase, accused the APC of fomenting violence in the state.
His words: “Since they have started to go for members of my executive and party members, we are calling on the people of the state and God to save us from their hands. They have failed to alleviate the economic woes in Nigeria. As far as we are concerned, we are commit- ted to our goal of making Ekiti a better place to live in, and we are for peace.”
In his own reaction, APC Publicity Secretary in the state, Taiwo Olatunbosun, said: “I don’t want to join issues with Adebayo. He is taking politics to a ridiculous and embarrassing level. Let him stop night crawling. We, as a party are not identified with violence and we’ll not be violent with the opposition.”
“He’s just trying to attract attention to himself. If necessary, we may ask that Governor Fayose should apply the security vote he collects every onthe to assist security agencies to manage the security situation of the state. I’ll advise Adebayo to report the incident to security agencies to investigate. He should not drag us into what we know nothing about,” Olatunbosun stated.
Ekiti State Police Public Relations Officer, (PPRO), Mr. Alberto Adeyemi, confirming the report of the attack said: “Mr. Jackson Adebayo has reported the alleged attack to the police, but we are still investigating the incident.”
APC, PDP bicker over Edo guber poll
By Razaq Bamidele
AS the governorship election in Edo State inches in, the two leading political parties in the contest, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have expressed optimism that their respective candidates will win.
In an interview with Sunday Sun in Lagos, a founding member of the PDP, Chief Ishola Filani, said the party would sweep the poll on Saturday, September 10.
In his own case, the South- West Zonal Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Ayo Afolabi, hinged his confidence on the “outstanding performance
of the outgoing governor, Adams Oshiomhole as well as the effective machinery of the 32-man campaign committee led by Amode”
While Filani argued that “Governor Oshiomhole had not done anything wonderful to give the state back to the APC,” Afolabi said “no Nigerian today would not want the magic in Lagos State and other APC-controlled states replicated in his domain, adding that “formidable campaign strategy of the Ambode-led committee would make the contest a walkover in favour of the APC governorship candidate, Godwin Obaseki.