“We are constrained to direct this letter to Your Excellency because of the urgent need for you to use your good office as the Chief Security Officer of the country to intervene in the unrelenting threat to the lives of our members and the threat to public peace by individuals and groups who surreptitiously identify themselves as defending Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s interest in the APC," the group said.
Members of Unity Forum, a group within the Oyo State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC), have petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari over alleged threat to their lives by Abiola Ajimobi, Governor of Oyo State.
In the petitioned, signed by the forum’s secretary, Dr. Wasiu Olatubosun, on May 17, the members of the forum, which include Minister of Communications, Barrister Adebayo Shittu; former Chief of Staff in the state, Profesor Adeolu Akande; a serving senator, Monsurat Sunmonu; House of Representatives members, Hon. Adedapo Lam Adesina, Hon. Sunbo Olugbemi, Hon. Abiodun Olasupo, Hon. Taiwo Akintola and Hon. Sunday Adepoju, among others, urged the IGP to come to their rescue.
The petition reads: “We are constrained to direct this letter to Your Excellency because of the urgent need for you to use your good office as the Chief Security Officer of the country to intervene in the unrelenting threat to the lives of our members and the threat to public peace by individuals and groups who surreptitiously identify themselves as defending Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s interest in the APC.
"As you are well aware, since the unfortunate incident at the secretariat of the APC on Saturday May 5, 2018 when hoodlums invaded the venue of a stakeholders meeting of the party and attacked law-abiding elders and members of the party, our members have daily come under threats to their lives.
"The threats to our lives have been reported to security agencies in the state. However, it continued unabated. A new dimension has been added to these threats. Many members of the group have been receiving threats of attack and death if they dare turn up at the state congress of the party on Saturday May 19.”
The petitioners said they had been forced by the tenacity of these threats to report and seek refuge in the intervention of the Inspector General of Police and the Commissioner of Police in Oyo State; Obas of Oyo State, including the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi 111; the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Saliu Adetunji and the Soun of Ogbomosho, Oba Jimoh Oyewumi Ajagungbade.
"We have also sought refuge in the intervention of our religious leaders including the Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland, Alhaji Dauda Makanjuola and the leadership of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)," they said, urging the President to use his good office to save the members from attacks.
“We are therefore calling on Your Excellency to use your good office to protect members of Unity Forum from attack by these faceless hawks."
SaharaReporters had reported that the ward congresses of the ruling party was marred by violence, which resulted into loss of property and lives in some states in the country.