Ekiti APC and Gov. Fayose clash over arrest of students’ leaders who participated in Buhari campaign rally

The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has berated Governor Ayodele Fayose for the arrest of students’ leaders who participated in the campaign rally of the party’s presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, in the state on Saturday.

According to the opposition party, the National Vice-President, External, National Association of Nigerian Students, Tosin Ogunkuade, has been arrested on the order of the governor for addressing the crowd during Buhari campaign in the state on Saturday.

A statement by the APC state Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, said Ogunkuade’s offence was that the student leader highlighted the challenges facing the Nigerian students, saying the present government was not capable of addressing the hardships being faced by the students in accessing quality education.

“He said to the applause of hundreds of students in attendance that Buhari presented a better hope for students in their educational pursuits,” Olatubosun said.

But Fayose said that those arrested were the APC thugs caught with dangerous weapons and recruited by one APC member in the House of Representatives to terrorise supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party in Erijiyan and Ikogosi-Ekiti.

Olatubosun said thugs trailed Ogunkuade to Ikogosi-Ekiti just 24 hours after he spoke, “where he and other students were seriously injured after they were attacked with machet and other dangerous weapons.

“After these students were attacked at Ikogosi, they ran to Efon-Alaye Police Station to report the matter. To our surprise, the police detained them before they were transferred to Aramoko-Ekiti Police Station.

“To our shock again, just this morning, one of their colleagues, Damilare Bewaji, who went to visit them at the Aramoko Police Station, was also arrested and detained by the police on the order of the governor,” he added.

Olatunbosun described the arrest as one in the series of other attacks on the APC sympathisers and supporters after Saturday’s campaign.

“Just this morning, the home of a former Commissioner for Finance under Governor Kayode Fayemi, Dapo Kolawole, escaped being razed on the order of the governor.

“His offence was that he pasted the APC flags and posters of the party’s candidates on his building and Fayose does not want to see these posters on his way to Ijurin where he is billed to install the Oba of the town. The thugs shot at Mr. Kolawole’s compound as well as that of his father, Pa Kolawole.

“It is curious that the students, who were the complainants, are now being turned into the accused, as the police are being forced to slam criminal charges against the innocent students.”

The APC spokesman urged the police to stop being partisan in the handling of political crisis in the state while he reminded the governor that he did not have the monopoly of violence.

However, Fayose in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, announced that four APC thugs had been arrested by the police.

“The thugs were arrested with guns, axes, cutlasses and other dangerous weapons while trying to escape through Efon-Alaaye at about 3am today.

“The thugs were Odebunmi Idowu (from Ilupeju-Ekiti), Aliyu Yusuf (from Ibadan), Oladayo Obikoya (from Ikogosi) and Ogunkuade Oluwatosin (a.k.a Jasper).

“They were arrested in a red-coloured Nissan Sunny with registration number Ekiti AH 176 EFY, and were moved to the Aramoko-Ekiti Police Station, where they were detained briefly before they were moved to the Police Headquarters, Ado-Ekiti,” the statement said.

Credit: Kamarudeen Ogundele/Punch