The Iyiola
Omisore Political Organisation has described as embarrassing and irresponsible
the unprovoked assault on the Police Affairs Minister, Alhaji Abdul Jelil
Oyewale Adesiyan and Senator Iyiola Omisore by a former governor of the state,
Senator Isiaka Adeleke, calling the incident “a criminal conduct deserving of
further actions.”
In a
strongly worded statement issued by the Omisore Political Organisation on
Thursday and signed by Diran Odeyemi, Director of Media, the group expressed
shock and consternation that the former governor after his condemnable attack
on a serving federal minister and fellow aspirant, still had the effontery and
temerity to make wild allegations not supported by reality.
“Let us
put some facts straight. First, security reports confirmed that the ex-governor
stormed the hotel with thugs armed to the teeth. Two, he confessed that he
freed political thugs arrested by operatives of the Department of State
Security on the grounds that they are his men. Three, he confessed that he went
to where the minister and Senator Omisore were sitting to confront the minister
over the arrest of political thugs.
“These
initial admissions by the former governor confirmed three realities. First, he
breached the law by intervening and disrupting the functions of law enforcement
operatives.Two, he forcefully and illegally freed arrested suspects with the
security operatives. Three, he personally moved to where a minister of the
Federal Republic was sitting with his colleagues to confront him and the other
aspirant, a former deputy governor of the state.
“On these
three counts alone, Adeleke is clearly the aggressor. On his charging at the
minister, security operatives around the minister created a barrier. Another
colleague of the minister, who is also a retired Assistant Comptroller General
of Customs attempted to pull Adeleke back, but he elbowed him.We affirm that
throughout the incident, Senator Omisore maintained his calm even when Adeleke
was pouring invectives on him.
“It was at
this point that security operatives stepped in to restore peace.
“We hold
that Adeleke overstepped his bounds and breached the law. By freeing political
thugs, the former governor confirmed he sponsored them to attack the hotel
where national officers of the party were staying. By charging at the minister,
the former governor indeed threatened the life of a serving federal minister.
“We want
to report to Nigerians that but for the maturity displayed by the minister and
his team alongside Senator Omisore, a major disaster would have occurred. The
DSS operatives freed the thugs when Adeleke confronted them. No force was
applied when such a figure freed arrested suspects.The minister’s security
details also kept their cool even when it was obvious their boss was under
assault, all to avoid blackmail which is clearly the intention of Adeleke,” the
statement noted.
“We affirm
that the former governor acted the way he did as part of a script designed to
disrupt the state congress of the party. Mr Adeleke had probably calculated that
the Omisore group would respond to his massive deployment of political thugs
across the state by following the same path. We refused to abandon our rule of
peaceful engagement in the face of provocation.
“Three of
our key supporters have been killed so far but we refused to be drawn into
their trap. That is why throughout the ward congress, our men and women acted
peacefully and eventually defeated other aspirants with about 87 percent.
Adeleke had attacked the minister to provoke ugly incident for the cancellation
of the state congress. That plot has failed and our organisation is set
to clinch the governorship ticket and win the governorship election come August
9.
“The
attack on the minister and the entire incident is under investigation by
security agencies and we will not want to comment further on the matter,” the
statement noted.
It will be
recalled that Senator Adeleke, on Wednesday, in Ede, accused his co-aspirant,
Senator Omisore and Alhaji Adesiyan, of allegedly assaulting him on Tuesday
night at the premises of a hotel in Osogbo.