Ismaeel Uthman
THE Organising Secretary of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State of Osun, Alhaji Rasidi Adeniji, has said that he does not know anything about the killing of a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ila, during last Saturday’s House of Assembly election.
Adeniji said he was rescued by the police from armed thugs of the PDP who waylaid him when he was running from being attacked at his polling unit.
A video showing Adeniji being taken away by the police with a van had dominated the social media space with caption that the APC chieftain allegedly led hoodlums to kill a PDP member in Ila.
But Adeniji, in an interview with OSUN DEFENDER on Wednesday, said: “On the election day, I was at my polling unit 3, ward 5. I did not leave the unit since morning. I was waiting to get the result of the votes before leaving the polling unit.
“While waiting, a PDP man, Mufu Jope, rushed to my unit and shouted that some people have killed a PDP member known as Gani Gele and that they were going to kill six APC members in retaliation. He pointed at me where I sat and said I would suffer for the killing of the PDP member. Meanwhile, the deceased was killed in Unit 5, Ward 4.
“I stood up immediately and rushed down to my car. Before getting to my car, about 30 thugs of the PDP had arrived, but I managed to drive out of the place.
“The thugs were chasing me as I was driving. I drove through the College of Education trying to link a road to Osogbo, but before I got to the secretarial road, the PDP thugs had connected themselves and the waylaid me. They vandalized my car and starting beating me.
“I was lucky that some police officers who were on election duty came on time; they rescued me and took me to police station in Ila. The police wanted to keep me safe in a room but before we knew it, there was already a crowd of thugs outside the station. The police had to disperse them with tear gas to rescue me out of the place.
“The senator-elect for Osun Central, Olubiyi Fadeyi known as Ajagunla was inside the police station and he was video-recording me. He was the one who recorded and posted the video laying a false claim that I killed someone.
“I was taken to the State Police Command in Osogbo; the police asked for my offence and complainant, they insisted they could not detain me if there was no complainant.
“When I was about to be released, someone called the police and they later detained me; I slept in the cell till the following morning.
“On Sunday, the police went to the scene of the incidence in Ila and asked for the APC and PDP party agents; they brought the two agents to Osogbo.
“During interrogation, both APC and PDP agents said it was the PDP Ward 4 Party Chairman that brought the thug known as Ojo who killed the deceased. They explained that the thug had wanted to shoot an APC member before a misdirection happened and resulted to the killing of the PDP member.
“It was after that interrogation and upon conviction that I was innocent that the police released me.
“I didn’t know anything about the killing at all.”
Meanwhile the All Progressives Congress (APC) has called on the state police command to investigate the allegation against Adeniji.
Acting Chairman of the party, Tajudeen Lawal, in a statement said there is need for the police to get to the root of the killing.
He also enjoined the police to investigate the pockets of crises that characterised the elections in some towns like Ile-Ife, Osogbo, Iragbiji, Olorunda among others where some alleged PDP thugs had a field day unhindered.
