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.
via@Tribune