The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed as unnecessary the advice given by Oyo State Governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde, regarding the lingering crisis over local government administration in the state. The party also rebuked Makinde for portraying the APC as the aggressor in the ongoing political standoff.

Governor Makinde, who was in Osogbo on Sunday to witness the swearing-in of local government chairmen by his Osun State counterpart, Governor Ademola Adeleke, had urged the opposition party to seek legal redress instead of resorting to self-help in the dispute. However, in a strongly worded reaction issued by its spokesperson, Kola Olabisi, the Osun APC accused Makinde of attempting to please Governor Adeleke rather than addressing the fundamental issues at play.

“That piece of advice by Governor Makinde was unnecessary as every available development pointed to the fact that the Oyo State Governor was internalising metaphorical blood and spitting white spittle in order to please his fellow governor of the same party extraction,” Olabisi stated.

The APC insisted that the crisis had already led to significant violence, alleging that at least ten individuals had lost their lives in attacks orchestrated by members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun. The party questioned Makinde’s silence in the face of violent incidents allegedly carried out by PDP loyalists.

“If we may ask, where was Governor Makinde when his political soulmate in the hitherto State of the Virtuous used the sanctity of the Osun State Government House to incite the members of his party to go all out and attack our members and chieftains?” Olabisi queried.

The party also pointed to the killing of the reinstated chairman of Ikire Local Government, Hon. Remi Abass, and the death of another individual in Irojo, Ilesa, during what it termed an “illegal shambolic local government council election” conducted by the Adeleke-led administration. Furthermore, the APC accused PDP-aligned thugs of attempting to assassinate its chieftain, Engr. Remi Omowaiye, an Executive Director at the Federal Housing Authority, alongside Mr Tobi Famurewa, in Ilesa.

“We want to make it clear to Governor Makinde that he is not in a better position to teach the leadership of the APC how to prosecute the ongoing efforts of our duly elected chairmen and councillors in reaping the benefit of the Court of Appeal judgment,” the party asserted.