Two persons said to be members of the Accord Party were reportedly abducted in Ilesa, Osun State, by suspected hoodlums, leading to tension in the community.
Videos of one of the abductions went viral on Friday, showing a man pleading with his abductors, who intermittently fired gunshots into the air, before he was forcefully bundled into a vehicle bearing the inscription “AMBO,” the acronym of the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Oyebamiji.
In another video, an elderly woman, a resident of Ilesa, stormed the palace of the Owa Obokun of Ijesaland, Oba Adesuyi Haastrup, to protest the abduction of her son by suspected hoodlums late on Thursday.
In the video, the woman, who listed the names of the hoodlums allegedly involved, said the victim was eating when they forcefully took him away.
Speaking in Yoruba, the woman, whose identity could not be immediately ascertained, said, “I am a poor woman. They took my son away yesterday evening. We were eating when the thugs came. We pleaded with them but they refused. I am a poor woman; they should release my son alive.”
Also in a video, members of the Accord Party in Ilesa staged a peaceful protest against the abductions, demanding the immediate release of the victims.
They claimed the two abducted persons were members of their party.
The protesters, who marched from the Otapete area of Ilesa to the Owa’s Palace, alleged that the abductions were carried out by hoodlums working for the APC.
Led by its House of Representatives candidate for the Ijesa South Federal Constituency, Ibraheem Popoola, the protesters also called on security agencies to prevent a recurrence of such incidents in the community.
Armed with placards bearing inscriptions such as “APC thugs are abducting us,” “Save us from APC hoodlums,” and “We are now living in fear,” among others, the protesters also sang to demand immediate action from security agencies before the situation got out of control.
When contacted for confirmation, the spokesperson for the Osun State Police Command, Abiodun Ojelabi, confirmed the two incidents, adding that the victims were in police custody.
“We are aware of the abductions that took place in Ilesa. It happened on Thursday. The two victims were abducted in Ilesa. At first, the incidents were cases of abduction, but investigations have revealed that they were not just cases of abduction; there are other ingredients of criminality in these cases.
“Nevertheless, the two abductees are in police custody and they are helping with investigations. Those who abducted them have not been arrested,” Ojelabi said.
But in a statement also obtained in Osogbo on Friday, the Osun APC Governorship Campaign Council accused the Accord Party, led by Governor Ademola Adeleke, of branding vehicles with APC symbols to cause violence in the state.
The statement, made available by the Head of the Media and Publicity Committee of the campaign organisation, Remi Omowaiye, said the group described the “recently circulated video of the abduction and harassment of an Osun citizen by suspected PDP/Accord supporters in an APC-branded vehicle as an event that had been foretold.”
It further read, “The video was a planned attempt to tarnish the image of the party and that of its gubernatorial candidate, Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji (AMBO).”
As of the time of filing this report at about 8:20 p.m., the reaction of the Accord Party to the allegations by the APC could not be obtained, as calls to the mobile phone of the party’s spokesperson, Oladele Bamiji, were not answered, while a WhatsApp message sent to him had not been responded to.
