A group, ‘Osun Shall Rise Again,’ on Wednesday alleged that the Interior Minister, Rauf Aregbesola, planned to use 3,000 personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, to disrupt the process of Saturday’s governorship congress of the All Progressives Congress in the state.
In a statement signed by the Chairman and Secretary of the group, Saheed Bakare and Lanre Akeju, respectively, OSRA also said sponsors of ‘The Osun Progressives’ were bent on causing violence in Osun.
The group then advised the Inspector General of Police and the Osun State Commissioner of Police to stop those planning to destabilise the state.
The statement read in parts, “intelligence report had it that the Interior minister and former Osun Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, had assembled 3,000 personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, obviously to use them to cause trouble with a view to discrediting the election process.
“We are calling on the Inspector-General of Police to be on the lookout and charge the Osun CP to take proactive measures to avert violence in Osun on Saturday.
“Our former governor and Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has been trying to create the impression that we are in a state of war in Osun so as to ensure that the APC governorship election does not hold or gets discredited if it holds against their wish.”
But when contacted, Sola Fasure, who is the Media Adviser to Aregbesola, dismissed the allegations and called on those behind it to come up with proof.
Fasure said, “The allegation is preposterous to say the least. He who alleges must prove. They should bring proof. Where will the 3,000 men come from? Do they have enough personnel?
“All NSCDC personnel in Osun, I am not sure they are up to 3,000. The minister was not involved in the deployment of tactical operation of NSCDC. People should not just be coming up with allegations. They should be able to provide proof.”
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