Publicity Secretary of the All Progress Congress in Ogun State, Tunde Oladunjoye, speaks with OLUFEMI ADEDIRAN on the allegation of violence in the last Saturday’s LG election in the state
What is your party’s reaction to the allegations of harassment and intimidation of voters by the PDP?
We need to develop our democracy so that we will not have a party praising the electoral body only when the party wins, and blaming the electoral body when it fails to win. This is becoming the stock in trade of the PDP. For instance, the PDP participated in an election in Edo State where it won, but in the last election in that state, the party lost and it started blaming everybody for their loss. Last Saturday, we had another election in Ondo State, and the PDP lost by a wide margin; almost immediately after losing, the party started condemning the election, abusing INEC, and making wild allegations. In Ogun State, after the 2023 election, PDP condemned INEC and went to the tribunal. They lost at the tribunal, Appeal Court, and Supreme Court, only for the chairman of PDP in Ogun State, Sikirulliah Ogundele, to come out several months after to say that they actually lost that election and that Ogun State people should thank God that Ladi Adebutu and PDP did not win. So, our democracy needs to go beyond that level.
The PDP accused your party of rigging and manipulating the results of the election. Is that true?
Before the local government election, the PDP faction led by Ogundele went to court to challenge the Adebutu faction that fielded candidates. The Ladi Adebutu faction started maligning the image of the judge handling the case; they accused the judge of being a card-carrying member of APC, but when the judge delivered a judgment that favoured them, they started commending him. Things are normal and right when it favours them, but when it doesn’t favour them, they complain, that is politics of desperation. When the two factions were united, we defeated them in Ogun State as confessed by Ogundele. They went into the local government election divided; they must have been daydreaming to believe that they were going to win the election. The APC went to all 236 wards and 5,050 polling units of the state to campaign. So, what magic will a divided, scattered, disentangled party like the PDP use to win the election? All other so-called political parties are only mushrooming; all of them did not even field candidates for up to 30 per cent of the positions contested. This is because they are not popular but they are making a lot of noise. What is shocking in the Saturday election was the kind of violence that was perpetrated by the PDP. There are videos where Adebutu was trying to justify the atrocities committed by his thugs and uniformed policemen. He said on live TV that his policemen opened fire on people because they were the first to open fire on his policemen. He said his policeman was injured; he must bring out the picture of the policeman for the whole world to see because we have pictures of our people who were injured. Our chairmanship candidate in the Ikenne Local Government Area was shot at in front of his house.
The governor went to vote and returned to his house; he did not have many people around him, he did not have a uniformed policeman with him because it is against the electoral law. If the governor of the state only voted in his booth and went back home without police escorts, what was Ladi Adebutu doing moving around on an election day with police escorts? When his policemen fired at our chairmanship candidate, it angered the people and they chased and caught one of them. We were able to confirm that the policemen were not even from Ogun State; they were from Mopol 49 in Lagos. The other policemen ran and took refuge in Adebutu’s house and the DSS operatives went there to arrest them. His policemen opened fire on them (DSS operatives) and damaged their vehicles; this was why Adebutu was invited by the DSS.
How true is the PDP allegation that the governor used thugs and security operatives to oppress its members?
Serving people is not by desperation, Ladi Adebutu is becoming desperate and he has done a lot of things that were not challenged, but we are happy now that the DSS and the police are investigating him. We have pictures of his thugs arrested from different parts of the state with charms and dangerous weapons. What kind of desperation is this?
Their allegations are all tissues of lies. These people confronted a military patrol vehicle on an election day; if they didn’t have something to hide why would they say the military patrol vehicle could not move around? The military was not invited by the Ogun State Government, they were not part of our election, and even the police were expected to keep their distance from the polling booths. But it is the responsibility of those who are in charge of intelligence to make sure that things do not go bad. They waylaid a military patrol van and threatened to beat up soldiers. What if the soldiers were not mature and professional and they were shot and killed? They will still say it’s APC that killed them. Nobody is silencing anybody, but we have to live responsibly. We have to be civil, and if you have anything that you dislike, you have to use the instrumentality of the law to seek justice.
Nobody is silencing opposition. In fact, they are the ones who should behave according to the law. They should behave in a way that they are not above the law. Ogun State was peaceful before this election.
How will you react to the allegation that the governor was diverting local government funds?
Two years ago, Governor Dapo Abiodun made a presentation before the National Assembly committee in Lagos, asking for more allocation to the state and local governments. The governor has always been an advocate of local government autonomy. When people shout about autonomy for local governments, our local government chairmen must know that autonomy does not take away their responsibilities. The traditional rulers, pensioners, local government workers, and primary school teachers will still have to be paid as first-line charge. Don’t forget that was the system before. It was when some local government chairmen messed it up that this issue of JAAC was rearranged. So, if we are now going back to the era whereby there won’t be JAAC, the local government chairmen must be up and doing and face the challenges. The issue of autonomy is not a disturbing trend for us as APC in the state and for the governor.