The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has called on the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, to urgently redeploy the Ondo State Commissioner of Police to forestall a looming chaos in the state.
According to a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the call was made by the ACN Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, and the party’s governorship candidate for the state, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, at a rally held in Ore.
According to them, the Police Commissioner has shown his bias in favour of the Labour Party in the state, instead of being neutral as demanded by the sensitivity of his high office.
They said unless the highly partisan police boss is removed urgently, the clamour for a free, fair and credible governorship election in Ondo State on October 20 will be a mirage.
Justifying the call, they said the Commissioner of Police has failed to respond govdecisively and fairly to attacks on ACN supporters in the past two days, during the party’s campaign rallies in Ikare and Ondo.
“It has become a recurring experience in the past two days for suspected Labour Party thugs to unleash terror on ACN supporters at the end of their campaign rallies.
“After the rally in Ondo on Wednesday in particular, some chieftains of ACN, including notable artists like Ojo Arowosafe a.k.a Fadeyi Oloro, and a popular Ewi exponent, Femi Elaloro, were among scores of ACN supporters who were attacked by suspected LP hoodlums, inflicting on them varying degrees of injuries and damaging vehicles belonging to ACN supporters.
“The State Commissioner of Police, who was promptly contacted about Wednesday’s incident by the ACN candidate, merely dismissed his (Akeredolu) report, claiming instead that the ACN instigated the violence. Such action by the Police Commissioner is not conducive to the conduct of free and fair election, hence he must be redeployed without delay,’’ the party said.
Meanwhile, Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola, yesterday described Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State as a traitor who abandoned those who helped him when he was in the trenches.
Aregbesola, who stated this at Ore during the continuation of the state-wide rally of the ACN, solicited for the support of the people of the state to flush out the Mimiko-led government with their votes in the October 20 election.
He revealed that the leadership of the ACN did all it could to woo Mimiko into the party’s fold but said he (Mimiko) chose to be an orphan among the South-West states.
He said: “Ondo should join the mainstream politics of the South-West, October 20 should be for the Yoruba race, whoever believes in the progress of the race should support ACN and put the opposition to shame.”
The Osun State governor recalled that the Nigerian civil war was won by the federal troops in 1970 at Ore and urged the people of the town to replicate the victory with the demolition of Mimiko’s government.
“Go out and vote for the ACN, protect your votes and don’t let them take your votes away. Do not fight them, don’t give room for rigging and am confident we will win,” Aregbesola said.
Other leaders of the party who spoke at the rally, showered praises on the national leader of the ACN, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, describing him as one who is interested in the development of the Yoruba race and not in personal gains as being alleged by Mimiko’s supporters.
