Ekiti APC petitions police over alleged threats to members

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, has petitioned the Commissioner of Police, James Etop, over alleged threats to the lives of its members by suspected aides of Governor Ayo Fayose.

A statement by the State Secretary, Omotoso Paul Ayodele, drew the commissioner’s attention to an earlier petition to the police on  June 26, 2016 alleging planned attacks against party’s members.

In the petition also copied to the State Director of DSS, Omotoso explained that “On Monday, June 27, 2016 under the guise of holding a rally against President Muhammadu Buhari and in support of Governor Ayodele Fayose, some hoodlums suspected to be PDP members stormed a restaurant/bar operated by an APC member, Mrs Ayoola Adetola, at Okeyinmi area of Ado-Ekiti, smashing many cartons of beer worth about N40, 000 for no reason other than for being member of APC.”

He added that in the latest plot, top APC members, including the party’s spokesman, Taiwo Olatunbosun, and members of APC’s media team were being marked for attacks to keep them out of circulation.

“Similarly, as we mentioned in our earlier letter about the threats of attacks, another member of our party, Mrs Omotunde Fajuyi, whose organisation, Be The Change Organisation (BCO) led the anti-corruption rally in support of President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, June 24, 2016, has come under both verbal attacks and threats of assassination from persons suspected to be working for Governor Ayodele Fayose.

“Some aides of the governor led by his Special Assistant on New Media, Lere Olayinka using a facebook pseudo account of Irinkerindo; a member of the House of Assembly representing Ijero constituency, Mr. Dayo Maxima; a Special Assistant to Governor Fayose, Mr. Sunshine Anifowose;- and one Igbalajobi David Ayodele on June 25, 2016 on their Facebook pages, launched a very damaging smear campaign against Mrs. Fajuyi by maligning her person calling her many unprintable names.

“Not done, these aides sent hoodlums suspected to be hired assassins to the residence of Mrs Fajuyi to pose as part of the people who participated in the rally with her and had come to collect their own share of the purported money in her custody with the plan that Mrs Fajuyi should be hacked to death under the excuse that she refused to pay them.

“To perfect their plan linking the attack on Mrs. Fajuyi to purported short-changing of the protesters, the above named aides wrote on their Facebook pages that some people were at Mrs. Fajuyi’s house to demand for their share of the money for participating at the rally. They lied that Mrs Fajuyi collected N1.7million for the rally and refused to pay those who participated.

“The hoodlums, who were armed with axes and cutlasses actually came to Mrs Fajuyi’s residence but luckily for her, she was with her neighbour where she could see  them at a distance at her gate making noise and threatening she should come out. They left with a promise to come back. Mrs Fajuyi has since left town for fear of her life,” Omotoso explained.

He denied that Fajuyi collected money to hold the rally but was sponsored by her organisation and the people who participated at the rally were members of her organisation who she knew very well, while those who came to her house were hoodlums on a mission to attack.

He also explained that the governor’s aides only wanted to create an alibi to eliminate Fajuyi for holding the rally where speakers representing various interest groups encouraged  the EFCC to recover the money allegedly found in the governor’s accounts, which Omotoso said did not go well with the aides.

He added: “We also learnt that the State PRO, Honourable Taiwo Olatunbosun, and members of the party’s media team have also been marked for attack.

“We wish to state clearly that the aides working for Governor Fayose shall be held responsible if anything bad happens to Mrs. Fajuyi, Hon. Taiwo Olatunbosun or any member of our party.”

Also at the weekend, in what looked like a smear campaign against the APC’s spokesman, the social media was awash with a purported letter by Olatunbosun castigating the wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, for her alleged complicity in Halliburton scandal.

Olatunbosun had since denied the charge, saying it was the handiwork of the governor’s men to distract attention from sundry fraud charges against the governor.

He added that the latest threats by the governor’s aides was a confirmation of earlier fears of orchestrated attacks to shut APC out of political space.He urged the police to investigate the allegations with a view to bringing the named culprits to book.

“We are particularly concerned because of the violent antecedents of the governor and his intolerant record for opposing views. Please save our members from attacks and possible assassination,” Omotoso concluded.