Osun State Commissioner for Special Duties and Regional Integration, Mr. Bashiru Ajibola, in this interview with TUNJI OMOFOYE spoke on the Osun election threat by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and efforts by Governor Rauf Aregbesola to ensure victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Saturday’s election.
THE political campaign and tension in the state by leading parties tend to suggest that the polity is being overheated. What do you think is responsible for this?
The PDP is using the instrumentality of the Federal Government to seek to criminalise and suppress the opposition. It’s sad because the security agencies and the apparatus are funded by the collective wealth of the Nigerian people, so it’s sad that the Federal Government now has criminalised opposition parties in Nigeria, particularly the APC.
As we have seen, even ahead of the election, the candidate of the PDP on tape boasting in Ife South that he would dealt with one of our members, Yinusa Adebisi, from Ife South and that he would ensure that everybody that does not support the PDP would be picked up before the election.
Apparently, the Federal Government is backing this sinister agenda because since that time, we have written to the National Security Adviser, to the Director General, the State Security Service (SSS) and to the Commissioner of Police to report certain untoward activities of the candidate of the PDP, who has been going about with masked security men or group of terrorists under the auspices of campaigning.
What is your take on involvement of military to monitor democratic process?
It’s very important to alert the people to the fact that the essence of democracy is for people to have the freedom of choice, to be able to express their choice without fear or favour, but in a situation whereby you bring out some people, armed security operatives and soldiers, to come and intimidate and harass opposition, it is unhealthy for democracy.
We are not saying security should not be provided but when security is clearly with an instruction to do show of force and use of force against opposition members, this should be rejected by all right thinking members of the public.
The other area that we want to look at is that we are in a state whereby politicians without credibility are parading themselves seeking to lead the state. The DG of the campaign of Iyiola Omisore, claimed that no project at all was done in his local government, meanwhile he comes from Obokun local government. That is where this government established Mechatronic Institute, the road from Ibokun to Ere has been tarred by this government as well as numerous other roads and yet publicly, he claimed that no project has been done in his local government.
Is the APC going to meet force with force if the need be during the election?
As you can see, we are fully prepared for this election but unlike the PDP or the Federal Government, we are not using violence. We have told and sensitised our people to remain calm, to remain resilient and not to be afraid of any security deployment.
We believe and we hope that the security operatives will act according to the dictates of the law and the constitution and they will not allow themselves to be used against the people by politicians. But we are fully prepared for the election and as you can see from our campaigns, which are from the grassroots and from our door-to-door activities, we are fully prepared for this election and we have confidence that we are going to win the election in a landslide.
Have you reported this issue of masked men that were said to be in Omisore’s campaign train to the security agencies and if so what is their response?
I must tell you, we have reported this thing more than two weeks ago. We also reported to the National Security Adviser (NSA), we copied the Director General of the SSS in Abuja, we copied the Inspector General of Police, and we also copied the Commissioner of Police here and the Director of the SSS in the state. The nostrum of our petition is not only the masked so-called security guards or terrorists, because as far as I am concerned, if you are a security operative, I don’t see why you should wear mask. We also added that we have a tape recorder of his message when he went to Ife South, where he openly threatened to deal with a former member of the House of Assembly representing Ife South, Mr. Yinusa Adebisi.
Secondly, this man has been driving against traffic in the state since he started his campaign and obstructing other road users. We also included it in the petition and even when he has up to 10 or 15 crowd, it has become habitual to block Gbbongan-Ibadan Expressway and even when he came to Osogbo to campaign, at Orita CMS, which is a public highway, he went there publicly barricaded the place, so that he would create an impression that he has the support of the people. This is act of nuisance. The fact that you are campaigning should not mean that you should be acting in a very nonsensical manner as he has been parading himself.
What is your reaction on the alleged ‘capital flight’ being operated by your government?
Let us get the facts right; for seven and half years when PDP was in control of this state, did you see any of the infrastructures that we have built here?
If money from Osun is being taken elsewhere as they have claimed, are we going to see the massive road construction? Are we going to see the investment of the school feeding programme? N3.4 billion is being used to feed the school children yearly, are we going to see the investment in the school infrastructure? As I am speaking, about 50 schools have been constructed. Last week alone, we commissioned only about 10 of those schools. Lagos State government came to Igbokiti, acquired farmland and they were farming in that place, you put it that Lagos is taking over Osun. When Zimbabwean farmers came to Kwara State to farm, their investment from one place to the other has become an abomination; in fact, I just pray that God should allow this people to touch the position of councillorship because they will destroy Osun State.
When the President of Nigeria goes around the world attracting investors, we cannot even attract local investors within the state, these are charlatans, permit me to use that word. They don’t have any business talking governance at all.
Under our quick intervention programme, we have spent more than N2 billion for farmers in terms of input. So, their campaign as I have said is based on falsehood. Unfortunately, the falsehood is cacophonous, it’s not even symphonious, and it doesn’t make sense.
How do you see the conduct and preparation of the electoral umpire, the INEC for the election?
I don’t work for the INEC, so I will not be able to comment on whether they have prepared for the election or not. But one may want to sound a note of warning to all those that will be deployed for the election, not engage in anything that would attract the wrath of the Osun people. They should not try to manipulate the electoral process, particularly corps members that they have deployed because we have been hearing information about attempts to supplant the election by using the youth corps members.
I am appealing to members of youth corps that will be deployed and other Federal Government or state government officials that they should create a level playing ground. They should not allow any politician to induce them in manipulating the electoral process because what you have seen in the streets, the people of the state of Osun are committed to return Rauf Aregbesola to government and anybody making any attempt to manipulate the process would be resisted by the people.
Then for the INEC, I don’t know what they are doing, I cannot speak for their preparedness or lack of preparedness for the election but I appeal to them, I appeal to their conscience to work in the best interest of the country and ensure that we sustain this democracy.
In a situation where Ekiti State has slipped into the hands of the PDP, how will this development affect the regional integration plan of the Southwest by the APC?
I don’t think the regional integration being championed by the APC in the South West, is under any threat. The outcome of the Ekiti governorship election does not pose ant threat to the programme.
By the time the Governor-Elect of Ekiti is sworn in, we will approach him. It will be premature to know what his attitude will be as to whether he wants to participate in the programme or not, but by design, we did not conceive regional integration to be a partisan agenda. It now depends on Mr. Ayodele Fayose to decide whether to participate or not.
The assassination attempt of former Head of State Maj.-Gen. Mohammadu Buhari has raised concern, would this has happened if the northern leadership had taken urgent steps to stem the violent activities of the Boko Haram group?
It’s quite unfortunate that somebody who has served Nigeria meritoriously in different capacities is now being hounded with attempted assassination, we are now in a perilous time in Nigeria and if care is not taken, we are sliding towards fascism.
The situation whereby you criminalise the opposition; as I am speaking now, we learnt that they have started compiling the names of our leaders to be arrested ahead of the Saturday election; is that democracy?
If you want to assassinate a leading opposition figure, what kind of democracy are we breeding? And when you look at the security situation of the country, when we talk of the deployment of military, if they can’t deploy the military to Sambisa, you cannot deploy military to curb insurgency in the Northeast and they are deploying military for the purpose of the election, what kind of leadership do we have in the country. By section 14 of the 1999 Constitution, security and welfare of the people should be the paramount purpose of the government.
It appears that security has gone to the backyard in the policy of the present Federal Government.
Does the candidacy of Omisore pose any threat to the re-election of Aregbesola?
Omisore is a fake politician in Osun. In fact, it’s a mistake for the PDP to have thrown him up as their candidate. Go around and see what he calls a campaign, he has turned himself to nuisance to Osun people. He is trying to force himself on them. He came to Osogbo, he went to Oja-Oba and started tearing posters of the APC, market women and students stood against them.
They went to Sabo in Osogbo and people brought out brooms and said he has no place in Osogbo. This man lost election in his ward in 2011; he will lose again in his ward in 2014. Nothing has changed about his political fortune and that is why when you saw his lamentation in the advertorial he placed that some people are spoiling his name, he has no reputation to deliver on anything in Osun.
His campaign is predicated on falsehood and lies. How can somebody come and say that no project is being done in Osun? It is either that the person is blind or that the person is suffering from mental disorder. We will not allow anybody to truncate our democratic aspiration in Osun State. What has Omisore offered as an alternative to the people? The only thing he will say is that “I will demolish schools, I will do this, and I will do that.” So, for us, he is not a threat at all, he is just trying to ride offshoot in the political landscape.
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