Nigeria: 11 ACN members matcheted as thugs disrupt Adefarati’s lecture

Former Labour Party (LP) chairman in Ondo State, Chief Olaiya Oni and  another politician, Chief Wunmi Adegbomire, now both Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) chieftains, were high profile victims of attack by suspected political thugs who attempted to disrupt the 5th Memorial Lecture for Chief Adabayo Adefarati, former governor of Ondo State.
Billed to start at 12 noon, the BTO Hall venue of the lecture became a war zone, as the thugs, with the Police at the scene doing nothing, attacked guests and visitors.
As gun shots rent the air, many guests and politicians bolted and ran helter-skelter to escape. Many guests spilled into the streets, with some scaling the fence.
Over 11 people were matcheted, most of who were believed to be Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) members.
The event, planned to honour the former governor, was also anticipated to be one of the biggest political gatherings of ACN in the build-up to the October gubernatorial election, as all ACN governors were invited, with Governor Fayemi as guest speaker.  But even the governor’s convoy had to make a detour when informed of the volatile situation.
Matchetes were freely used by suspected political thugs who kept screaming they had instructions to decimate some top ACN big wigs.
Chief Adegbonmire, billed to be chairman of the event, was attacked by matchet-wielding thugs.  Though he escapeed unharmed, his car was destroyed.
“Adefarati does not deserve this.  I don’t know why the government should resort to violence to settle political matters.  Attacking and matcheting people, especially political opponents, is not acceptable,” Adegbomire complained.  “The police here are defective and ineffective.  They are not doing their duty.  They acted as though they were part of a private army.”
Chief Oni was not that lucky.  The rear windscreen of his white Toyota Camry 2009 model was smashed, as the assailants rained stones on him.  He ran into the ambush as he drove into the venue.
Chief Oni described the experience as “hell”. Said he: “Stones, cutlasses and gun shots! This is thuggery not democracy.  I was meant to be picked!” he alleged.
The thugs chanted they were under instruction to attack visiting and home based ACN leaders.
Chief Bisi Akande, the ACN national chairman, barely escaped with his life. His team was also attacked.
“It was a very dangerous development.  My effort to seek a resolution was aborted because the situation simply degenerated,” he said of his ordeal.

ACN govs defend Aregbesola, accuse PDP of distabilisation plot

Governors of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN- controlled states in the South-West, yesterday, rose in defence of Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State over the allegation of planning to islamise the state and secede from Nigeria.
They declared  that Gov. Aregbesola breached no portion of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The ACN governors argued that Aregbesola should not be crucified for his peculiar administrative style of conducting the affairs of the state.
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the South-West has been at the forefront against Gov. Aregbesola over the alleged islamisation and secession agenda.
Speaking through Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, ACN governors claimed PDP had chosen to demonise Aregbesola to cripple his government and foment crisis in Osun State in particular and the South- West Zone in general.
Fayemi, in the statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Olayinka Oyebode, said ACN governors  had observed with concern the highly-orchestrated campaign of calumny by the opposition against Aregbesola.
According to the statement, “The crudity of the various allegations against the Osun State governor has become quite worrisome, especially with the tendency for unsuspecting members of the public to believe the falsehood that is being peddled by PDP in the bid to foment crisis in Osun State, in particular and the South-West geo-political zone in general.
“Thus, we can no longer keep quiet and watch as these court jesters destroy the peace and progress that is fast taking root in the region. It is important to state with every sense of responsibility that the allegations against Gov. Aregbesola are not only spurious, they smack of a poorly scripted plot aimed at painting him in a scurrilous light and then cripple his government.
”At best, those allegations are unwarranted and constitute an avoidable distraction to the governor’s efforts at taking the state out of the doldrums which they plunged the state in the first place.
“It is rather unfortunate that at this critical stage of our democratic development when all hands should be on  deck for the social-economic, industrial and infrastructural development of the country, all that interest these charlatans is childish witch-hunting of Gov. Aregbesola, a development that has consistently heated up the polity in the past few weeks.
‘Stop persecuting Aregbesola’
“Gov. Aregbesola, no doubt, is entitled to his own style of relating to nemesis of the opposition in the state and the South West. He does not have to be friendly with those he regards as destroyers of the culture of decency and honour to which Yorubaland has long been associated.
”We say no to this pull him down syndrome and the idea of battling with bull shit, those we could not dazzle with brilliance, or those whose brilliance we cannot match. This must stop.
”We are guided by the constitution of the country and Gov. Aregebsola has not breached any provision of this constitution. We will not take kindly to unwarranted and unjust persecution of the governor or any citizen of the country for that matter, including the traducers who cannot lay claim to any positive development in the states they illegally administered in comparison to the positive development Osun State is currently witnessing.”