The Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has denied involvement in the reported violent attacks against Adebayo Adelabu, gubernatorial candidate of Accord Party, urging the state Police Command to immediately investigate the veracity of the claims with a view to establishing whether or not the attack actually happened and possibly unmasking the culprits.
Adelabu was reported to have taken to his personal social media platform at the wee hours of Thursday to announce that his convoy was attacked at Tede town in Oke-Ogun part of the state where he had gone to campaign for votes ahead of the forthcoming elections, while he also pointed accusing fingers at his former party, APC, which offered him the platform to contest the same gubernatorial election in 2019.
But in a swift reaction, which was contained in a statement issued on Friday and made available to journalists in Ibadan by Olawale Sadare, publicity secretary, Oyo APC, the party argued that the accusation from Adelabu was not only ridiculous but also reckless and regrettable as it has exposed the Accord candidate as the most celebrated clown in the current political dispensation as far as Oyo State is concerned.
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“We have a good reason to doubt the claims of attacks by the former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in view of his ceaseless exhibition of desperation to become governor after he had wasted the princely opportunity, which came his way in 2019. Also, the place where he claimed to have been attacked is not known for harbouring agents of political violence while the ruling party notorious for sponsoring such attacks might not even need to strike in Oke-Ogun for obvious reasons.
“Adelabu claimed three of his attackers who were arrested confessed to be working for us (Oyo APC) but we find this statement reckless, irresponsible and defamatory. It is on this note that we are calling on the authorities of the Nigeria Police, Department of State Security and other relevant security agencies to immediately launch a thorough investigation into the matter and make public their findings.
“For the avoidance of doubt, neither Oyo APC nor any of our candidates or leaders (including our gubernatorial candidate, Sen. Teslim Folarin) harbour miscreants who could be sponsored to attack anybody and we would not watch Mr. Adelabu or anyone drag our reputation in the mud.
“It is on record that while the internal process aimed at producing the candidates of party for 2023 poll lasted and Adelabu was with us, there was never a time anyone raised a finger against him regardless of his penchant for direct provocation and cheap blackmail of perceived opponents. This tells a lot about our enviable credentials as democrats and peace-loving political players while our major concern now is how to mobilize electorate in the state to vote all the candidates of the APC (including Senator Bola Tinubu as the next president of Nigeria, Senator Teslim Folarin as the next governor of Oyo State and so on,” Sadare stated.
