Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo was in Ilorin for his House to House engagements on Thursday. Global Excellence learned that the Vice President had his visit recorded violence and crisis when he got to the Isale-Aluko area of the state capital, unknown gun men allegedly attacked his convoy and in the melee that ensued about four persons sustained serious injuries.
The two leading political parties in the state, the APC and the PDP have consequently disagreed on who caused the crisis. While the APC used strong words in condemning the attack, the ruling party in the state, the PDP, also denied involvement. In the words of Rafiu Ajakaiye who is the media aide to the APC governorship candidate, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, the attack was ‘brazen and height of recklessness. ‘We condemn the brazen attack on the convoy of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo today, in Ilorin by armed PDP thugs, culminating in life-threatening gunshot injuries to at least two of our supporters while many others got seriously injured in the process of scampering to safety.
The vice president was at Isale Aluko area of Ilorin on a door-to-door campaign when some dare-devil gunmen opened fire at his convoy which included thousands of APC members and supporters. In what is a reminiscence of the Offa robbery, this attack is the height of recklessness on the part of the street urchins who have long been empowered and armed by the discredited dynasty to terrorize our community and anyone who has contrary views to their amala politics’, he said.
Abdulrazaq who called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the political thugs that allegedly carried out the attack also demanded for investigations towards revealing those who gave the orders for the deadly attack. The state PDP, however, denied involvement of its members and supporters in the attack on the convoy of the Vice-President, the party submitted that the attack was due to the intra- party affair involving the APC members, the party submitted that the Vice-President had earlier visited Agbaji, the ancestral home of the Senate President, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki, and held his activities without any confrontation or crisis. The party submitted that trouble began when Osinbajo got to the Alanamu Ward of Isale-Aluko, which is the base of two former APC governorship aspirants; Alhaji Lukman Mustapha and Hon. Moshood Mustapha, who have for months now engaged in superiority war. ‘Our party has no time for violence as we have been busy preparing for the presidential and the national assembly elections coming up on Saturday as well as the governorship and the State Assembly elections. Once again, we emphasize that the PDP has no hand in the fracas and we reject any attempt by the APC to link our party to the crisis. We advise them to resolve the lingering crisis in their party. We also urge security agencies to thoroughly investigate this matter and not to indiscriminately arrest innocent people who have no connection with the unfortunate incident’, the party said. The state Public Relations Officer , DSP Ajayi Okasanmi confirmed the incident but he however, said the Vice President was not at the scene of the incident.