Osun APC, PDP clash over plans to woo transport unions

The Osun State All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, have once again disagreed on alleged plans of the latter to woo transport unions in the state.

This is as the APC accused the state governor, Ademola Adeleke of engaging in desperate measures in order to secure a second term in office.

The party in a statement by its chairman, Tajudeen Lawal alleged that Governor Adeleke was forcing commercial motorcyclists to swear by the Ogun deity, the god of iron, to continue to support the ruling party.

The statement said, “It was learnt that Adeleke has now resorted to forcing commercial motorcycle and tricycle riders in the state to swear to the oath of continuous support for the PDP in all the future elections in the state with the god of iron called ‘Ogun’ in Yoruba parlance.

“It was also gathered that words have been passed round from the state capital level of the transportation unions that the secret oath-taking of the compulsory allegiance should be held in all the units of the unions across the nooks and crannies of the state.

“Governor Adeleke and his co-travellers have also been going round the state to woo back the real owners of the PDP in the state that they chased away with cudgels, cutlasses, abuses and lack of political patronage immediately Adeleke was announced the winner of the governorship election by the Supreme Court.”

But the Osun PDP chairman, Sunday Bisi, responding, described the allegations as a false campaign aimed at Governor Adeleke and the PDP.

Bisi in a personally signed statement maintained that there was no need for Adeleke to force anyone to take an oath because his performance, both in terms of welfare and infrastructural development had earned him the support of the people, the transportation and other sectors in the state.

The statement said, “Contrary to the false impression that Sooko Tajudeen Lawal tried to create, we authoritatively gathered that the Osun APC advances to transporters in Osun did not yield and the only thing Kola Olabisi could come up with was to lie to the public.

“To any reasonable mind in Osun, it would not be so hard to understand why transporters in Osun turned down the APC advances. Its time at the helm in Osun State brought nothing but pains and anguish, and it is, therefore, nothing but nonsense on the part of Sooko Tajudeen Lawal to try and cover for his party’s failure and the consequent rejection by cooking up cheap lies.

“Only parasitic elements like the APC will ever contemplate that Governor Adeleke will need to force support, especially when the only alternative are those who almost drove the state into a ditch through reckless financial mismanagement and poor welfare attitude.”