The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Osun State has demanded the immediate transfer of Patrick Kehinde Longe, the Commissioner of Police.
The party made this known during a press conference on Wednesday in Osogbo.
It accused the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of sponsoring hoodlums in the State.
Tajudeen Lawal, the Acting Osun APC chairman, who was represented by Kola Olabisi, the party’s Director of Media and Information, stated that their members have not known peace since the Osun Gubernatorial election petition tribunal judgment which did not favour the Osun PDP and Governor Ademola Adeleke.
“If the Adeleke-sponsored thugs were not killing, maiming or attacking our members in the various towns and villages in the State, the handlers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would be organizing sponsored protests within the State and outside, as far as Abuja in order to whip up a false sentiment that their sacked governor whom the tribunal had affirmed forgery of school documents against, is a saint.
“It has become the duty and past time of the young and the old ones in the Osun State PDP faction, loyal to the Ede Political Dynasty to be denigrating the judiciary by calling the members of the governorship tribunal unprintable names with unsubstantiated allegations and claims against them. That is not where we are going as the schism is between the PDP and the judiciary,” he said.
Lawal noted that most of their members in Atakunmosa East local government area of the State have been run out of the town and their properties have been wilfully destroyed by suspected PDP thugs as a ploy to prevent them from taking part in the forthcoming general elections.
“Some of our members are now hibernating and squatting in Ilesa, Ile-Ife, Osogbo and other towns to evade political attacks,” he claimed.
Lawal cited the February 2, 2023, attack in Irewole Local Government Council Area where Saheed Oyegunju was murdered.
The party disclosed that it was armed with information revealing arrangements between the PDP in the State and the police to arrest some of its leaders.
Reacting, Akindele Adekunle, the Osun PDP caretaker chairman stated that CP Longe had not been biased in favour of the PDP as claimed by the APC.
Debunking the insinuation that APC members were attacked by PDP members, he added that APC members were the ones attacking PDP members in the State.
Meanwhile, CP Longe on his part had explained that he was carrying out his duties professionally and that the cases of attacks by political parties were under investigation.
Speaking through the command’s spokesman, Yemisi Opalola, Longe assured that all cases would be investigated and the culprits brought to book.