The All Progressives Congress in
Ekiti State has berated Governor Ayodele Fayose for the arrest of
students’ leaders who participated in the campaign rally of the party’s
presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, in the state on
Saturday.
According to the opposition party, the
National Vice-President, External, National Association of Nigerian
Students, Tosin Ogunkuade, has been arrested on the order of the
governor for addressing the crowd during Buhari campaign in the state on
Saturday.
A statement by the APC state Publicity
Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, said Ogunkuade’s offence was that the
student leader highlighted the challenges facing the Nigerian students,
saying the present government was not capable of addressing the
hardships being faced by the students in accessing quality education.
“He said to the applause of hundreds of
students in attendance that Buhari presented a better hope for students
in their educational pursuits,” Olatubosun said.
But Fayose said that those arrested were
the APC thugs caught with dangerous weapons and recruited by one APC
member in the House of Representatives to terrorise supporters of the
Peoples Democratic Party in Erijiyan and Ikogosi-Ekiti.
Olatubosun said thugs trailed Ogunkuade
to Ikogosi-Ekiti just 24 hours after he spoke, “where he and other
students were seriously injured after they were attacked with machet and
other dangerous weapons.
“After these students were attacked at
Ikogosi, they ran to Efon-Alaye Police Station to report the matter. To
our surprise, the police detained them before they were transferred to
Aramoko-Ekiti Police Station.
“To our shock again, just this morning,
one of their colleagues, Damilare Bewaji, who went to visit them at the
Aramoko Police Station, was also arrested and detained by the police on
the order of the governor,” he added.
Olatunbosun described the arrest as one
in the series of other attacks on the APC sympathisers and supporters
after Saturday’s campaign.
“Just this morning, the home of a former
Commissioner for Finance under Governor Kayode Fayemi, Dapo Kolawole,
escaped being razed on the order of the governor.
“His offence was that he pasted the APC
flags and posters of the party’s candidates on his building and Fayose
does not want to see these posters on his way to Ijurin where he is
billed to install the Oba of the town. The thugs shot at Mr. Kolawole’s
compound as well as that of his father, Pa Kolawole.
“It is curious that the students, who
were the complainants, are now being turned into the accused, as the
police are being forced to slam criminal charges against the innocent
students.”
The APC spokesman urged the police to
stop being partisan in the handling of political crisis in the state
while he reminded the governor that he did not have the monopoly of
violence.
However, Fayose in a statement by his
Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka,
announced that four APC thugs had been arrested by the police.
“The thugs were arrested with guns,
axes, cutlasses and other dangerous weapons while trying to escape
through Efon-Alaaye at about 3am today.
“The thugs were Odebunmi Idowu (from
Ilupeju-Ekiti), Aliyu Yusuf (from Ibadan), Oladayo Obikoya (from
Ikogosi) and Ogunkuade Oluwatosin (a.k.a Jasper).
“They were arrested in a red-coloured
Nissan Sunny with registration number Ekiti AH 176 EFY, and were moved
to the Aramoko-Ekiti Police Station, where they were detained briefly
before they were moved to the Police Headquarters, Ado-Ekiti,” the
statement said.
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