The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Oyo State, has bemoaned the continued rise in terror in the state, which it said was being aided by Governor Seyi Makinde who, according to the party, has been overwhelmed by the demand of leadership.
Olawale Sadare, the party’s publicity secretary, who was reacting to the reported killing of a 10-year old in Igboora, headquarters of the Ibarapa Central local government, by an agent of the Mukaila Lamidi led Park Management System, PMS.
This was just as the party cautioned some section of the media to always exercise restraint in publishing stories, adding that the alleged killer, one Jamiu Sego, was not lynched and burnt to death by angry mob, because of the demolition of billboards by the PMS thugs
It would be recalled that the PMS thugs, jolted by the popularity of the APC and its candidates in the 2023 election, had penultimate Sunday visited mayhem on Ido and the three Ibarapa local government areas, destroying billboards and injuring our members and supporters.
“We commiserate with the family as well as the people of Igboora over the unfortunate incident. It is so unfortunate because Ibarapaland and other parts of the state shouldn’t be witnessing these avoidable death again. We know what Ibarapaland has been made to witness in the last two years. Normalcy was just returning when men of the PMS, put together by Governor Seyi Makinde, who you massively voted in the last election, visited you last week. They not only caused many hours of unrest in your land, business activities were paralyzed for most part of the day. Many of your sons and daughters were injured. Why? Because posters of APC candidates were pasted on your walls. We know some of you are yet to overcome the fear till now.
“The events of the last few days are not palatable. While we are not party to lawlessness, Jamiu Sego, who was said to have fired the shot that killed the innocent boy, shouldn’t have been killed if Governor Seyi Makinde has been alive to his responsibility of maintaining laws and order. But rather, he prefers to junket around, forgetting the purposes he was elected. We had waited, hoping to do something but no, he is busy with politics. The PDP that is fond of rushing to the media to defend Mukaila Lamidi and his lawlessness has been dumb ever since the sad event occurred, pretending as if all is well.
“To set the record straight, especially for the unsuspecting members of the public, Jamiu Sego wasn’t killed for destroying our billboards. For us, politics is not worth the blood of anybody. Not even our destroyed billboards would provoke us to such. Our party is peopled by law-abiding people. The judiciary has already waded in and we are confident that we will be vindicated at last.
“Our team of investigators who were deployed to the area that it was after a stray bullet from Sego’s gun killed a yet-to-be-identified boy and injured two other victims in the area that the mob descended on it
“Sego’s death should not be linked to billboard destruction in the area. He was said to have been attempting to collect money from motorcyclists in the area when an argument ensued between him and the man, before it degenerated.
“Sego was said to have brought out a gun and threatened to shoot the motorcyclist. As they were dragging the gun with one another, a stray bullet hit a small boy that was moving around and the boy died. So the death of the boy was what provoked anger from residents who ran after him.
“While we sympathize with the people of Ibarapaland for their lands that have been turned to killing fields and the obvious underdevelopment, we are assuring that the incoming APC administration will rectify all anomalies that might have occurred as a result of the promise and fail administration of Governor Seyi Makinde. We didn’t blame them for voting the PDP in the last administration despite our warnings, we blame the governor and the PDP administration for neglecting the people.”
