The Peoples Democratic Party in Ondo state on Thursday debunked the allegations by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that the party has been stockpiling arms and mobilizing thugs to instigate violence and disrupt the forthcoming general election in Idanre Local Government Area of the state.
The PDP however said the APC candidate for the House of Representatives in the federal constituency, Hon. Tajudeen Adefisoye, embarked on a campaign of calumny to instigate violence and disrupt the peaceful conduct of the election in the council.
Speaking during a press conference, the leadership of the party in the area, said Adefisoye employed the use of negative and false alarms against the PDP candidate, Hon. Festus Akingbaso, to smear his image.
The PDP Media and Publicity in the local government, Adeyemi Fasoranti, alleged that Adefisioye had stated repeatedly in a post on social media post that the PDP candidate had been stockpiling guns and as well camping thugs ahead of the polls.
Fasoranti who refuted the allegation cautioned Adefisioye to disembark from what he described as “cheap blackmail” as well as a “campaign of calumny” saying Adefisoye embarked on the campaign of calumny because he was losing popularity.
He said “The Hon. Member House of Representatives, Idanre/Ifedore Federal Constituency, Hon. Tajudeen Adefisoye has resulted in a campaign of calumny, Character assassination and condemnation of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party as he struggles to survive in the Idanre/Ifedore Federal Constituency race.
“Over the weeks, the Peoples Democratic Party PDP and Nigerians have read different captions circulating the social media written by the APC Member House of Representatives candidate, Hon. Tajudeen Adefisoye on character assassination and putting our candidate, Hon. Festus Akingbaso in the picture of his planning to cause mayhem in Idanre/Ifedore Federal Constituency.
“This act of Hon. Adefisoye is so demeaning and calamitous to the Federal constituency as Ifedore Local Government is still nursing the wound of their lost son, especially during the last election campaign at Ibule in Ifedore local government.
“Hon. Festus Akingbaso Fessywest, the PDP candidate for Idanre/Ifedore is a peaceful man who puts the welfare of human beings as his major priority. His caring heart is demonstrated in his giant projects across the constituency,” he added.
But Adefisoye in his reaction challenged the PDP candidate to prove to the world that the allegations levelled against him are not true instead of writing a petition to security agencies and maintaining that Akingbaso was caught unaware of the allegations.
He, however, said “We will now report officially and also send the names of the suspects for proper investigation and those behind the stockpiling will be unravelled by security agencies”
However, the PDP urged “the general public to disregard this cheap blackmail and also be aware of the shenanigans and plots of Small Alhaji to import guns and other deadly weapons into the circulation considering his past deals, especially during the last election campaign.
“We also call on security agencies to swift into a proactive investigation into the matter as this uncircumcised act of the MHR could lead to violence before, during and after the election if unchecked,” the party stated.
Also, one of the leaders of the party, Taye Sunday stated that “We heard about this matter sometime last week when he posted it on his social media handles.
“We ignored it at the first instance but when it was posted the second time, we decided to report the matter to the police. So the party and the candidate reported the matter officially to the appropriate security agencies. They are yet to conclude their investigation.
“We are alerting the public because we had a similar experience when our candidate was running as MHA. Some people accused him of keeping some Indian hemp in his residence at Alade in Idanre. He was fast to report the incident to the police.
“Our candidate at that time was struggling to be a member of the House of Assembly and at that time he had no access to policemen. But he is having security men with him now as candidates and as an incumbent member of the House of Assembly.
“This is a political season, we are all politicians and we know what politicians can do. Our party is a loving and caring party. Right from the onset, our party has always been laying emphasises on issues. We don’t have to act on rhetoric.
“In Idanre, we have a lot of things we can campaign with. We have more than 600 villages in Idanre and at the moment our candidate has installed solar lights in the villages, with the least being four poles. Our candidate has a passion for development,” he said.
