The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has asked its members to resist illegal arrests by Governor Ayodele Fayose and his agents.
The party raised the alarm over selective invitation of its leaders by the Ekiti State Police Command over purposes that are not clear to the party, saying that such invitation confirmed earlier fear that the PDP working in cahoots with the police would start arresting its leaders from Wednesday to put them out of circulation ahead of Saturday Presidential election.
The party also said it had information that Abuja had sent a contingent of armed men to lock down the state and start arresting APC members from Wednesday, March 25, to unsettle the party ahead of March 28 presidential and National Assembly polls.
Publicity Secretary of the party, Taiwo Olatubosun, said in a statement that the party had uncovered a plot by the governor working in connivance with the Army and police to assemble fake military and police personnel in Akure on Tuesday for briefing and deployment.
According to him, names of opposition leaders to be arrested are already compiled, adding that plan had also been concluded to arrest APC candidates in the National Assembly election.
“We have it on good authority that a contingent of armed men is being dispatched from Abuja to Ekiti to lock the state down. This will prepare the ground for fake security men to start illegal arrests as was done in June 21 election.
“As we speak, Fayose has recruited 25 men in fake army and police uniforms to operate in each of the 16 local governments. When you see them, mobilise and resist them because they are criminals.
“PDP has also raised fake INEC monitors who will cancel election results at polling units at random, particularly where APC is winning. Nobody has any right to cancel results except accredited INEC officials who shall be publicly introduced at the local government,” he explained.
He said Fayose was in Lagos last weekend where he swore that he would quit politics if he lost any of the nine National Assembly seats. “This is why the candidates are not campaigning,” Olatubosun explained.
He said PDP thugs had been attacking APC candidates and members since last week to intimidate them ahead of the election.
According to him, these include the attack on the candidate for the House of Assembly for Ado Ekiti Constituency Two, Sola Fatoba, who escaped death by the whiskers while his campaign vehicles were badly damaged and bullet pellets littered the scene after the attack.
“In Aramoko-Ekiti, APC members were attacked, but curiously, it was those who were attacked that were later arrested by the police while our senatorial candidate in Ekiti Central, Gbenga Olofin, was attacked on Monday after he survived physical attack on January 23 in Igede-Ekiti during which Fayose’s masked thugs in his convoy disrupted APC ward meetings in Iyin and Igede-Ekiti.
“The thugs moved from house to house to inflict machete cuts on APC members in Igede while on Monday, the convoy of our candidate for House of Assembly, Honourable Olubunmi Oriniowo, was attacked. His vehicle was damaged while the assailants were frantically looking for the woman,” he said.
Olatubosun regretted that in all these incidents, the police were yet to arrest the suspects despite making complaints at police stations.
“We cannot place the police in the current siege on our party. We want to remind the police that their duties are for all citizens, but unfortunately, we can surmise that Ekiti police are Fayose’s police to run the opposition aground in Ekiti State.
“We only hope that the Army and the police will not make themselves available for a similar crime committed against Ekiti people in the June 21, 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State,” he said.
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