Ahead of the July 16 Osun State Governorship election, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state has accused Governor Gboyega Oyetola of using coercion and threat of dethronement against traditional rulers in a bid to force endorsement for his re-election bid.
The main opposition party made the allegations in a statement issued on Thursday and signed by the Osun PDP Care Taker Committee (CTC) chairman, Akindele Adekunle.
The party bemoaned the violent attacks at the palace of the paramount ruler of Osogbo, describing as reprehensible such display of thuggery and violence unleashed in a bid to stop the PDP candidate from visiting the traditional ruler.
The statement partly reads, “The governor and his agents have been attacking PDP members and bill boards. We did not retaliate because of our commitment to peaceful election. We have alerted security agencies on this ugly trend as we seek that the police should remain neutral and supportive of law and order during this election.
“The APC has moved from attacking PDP members and bill boards to these unwarranted attacks on the palace of the revered monarch which is a sacrilegious intrusion by Oyetola’s men, an insult on the entire people of Osogbo and a gross disrespect for traditional institutions and values of Yorubaland.
“Instead of apologising to the traditional ruler for his orchestrated assault on Osogbo traditional institution, the governor’s henchmen have been threatening fire and brimstone with some of them calling for the dethronement of the traditional ruler. This is simply an abuse of power and further testimony of the low status Oyetola accords traditional rulers in his government.
“As we warn against any move to punish any traditional ruler who decided to stay as father of all irrespective of political affiliation, we commend our courageous traditional rulers across the state for standing for the truth and wellbeing of their people.
“Whilst we mock the desperation of Oyetola for another term in office, we must remind him that traditional institution is too important to be dragged into the shameful push for power. Traditional rulers have a duty to all subjects, and it is desperation taken too far to threaten them with deposition for maintaining neutrality in a political contest. Being in power is no licence to make reckless and outrageous demands, most especially on traditional rulers who have a role to be father of all, irrespective of partisan leaning or status.
“Governor Oyetola and his agents should know that power is transient, and as such, they should stop arm-twisting traditional rulers to adopt Oyetola in an election that the governor is destined to lose.
“If Oyetola believe his performance justifies another term in office, we urge him to face the electorate and not pressure traditional rulers as we are seeing lately. We want to warn that this undemocratic move is not acceptable to Osun people, and we hope Oyetola will realise that the cost of rubbishing age-long traditional institution for a temporary office will be too weighty and worse, hard to repair.
“Therefore, we will not tolerate any form of witch-hunt of the Ataoja or any monarch in Osun State for that matter, for simply canvassing against violence in the election. Just as we have always promoted, the decision on who leads rest solely on electorate, and whoever seeks office should go to them, not threatening traditional rulers.”
