Senator representing Osun-East Senatorial District, Francis Fadahunsi, was yesterday questioned by the Osun State Police Command for about two hours over an alleged inciting statement ahead of Saturday’s governorship election.
Governor Ademola Adeleke had called for the arrest of Fadahunsi following a viral video in which the senator was allegedly heard saying, “kill any Accord member,” during a protest at the palace of the Owa Obokun of Ijesaland.
The protest followed the alleged killing of 12 All Progressives Congress, APC, members within 24 hours in Ilesa, an incident that heightened political tension in the state.
However, Fadahunsi denied making the statement that elicited outrage in the polity, insisting that what he said was that APC supporters should “kill Accord Party in Osun with their votes,” alleging that no fewer than 40 members of the APC had been killed in his district in the last 12 months.
He was, however, invited by the Police authority on Tuesday after the video went viral.
The senator arrived at the State Police Command headquarters at about 2:25pm, yesterday, accompanied by one of his aides. He headed towards the office of the Commissioner of Police but was redirected to the Department of Criminal Investigation, CID, where he was led into an investigation room by the Commissioner of Police in charge of election duty, Samuel Etaifo, alongside other senior police officers.
Journalists were barred from the investigation room, a separate building away from the office of the Commissioner of Police where the senator spent about one hour and 57 minutes.
He was subsequently taken to the office of the Commissioner of Police, where he spent another 20 minutes before returning to the CID.
Fadahunsi was later joined by a former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Adebayo Adeleke, and a legal practitioner, Edmund Biriomoni before he was eventually released by the police around 4:45pm.
I was misinterpreted
Addressing journalists after his release, the senator said he honoured the police invitation and clarified the statement attributed to him.
He said: “I came here to honour the police invitation. We have met and I told them what I said, not the one manipulated by the mischievous interpreters of the Yoruba language.
“I am a Yoruba man. If a Hausa or Igbo person is interpreting, it may not be correct. Yoruba means a lot of things. What I said was that between now and Saturday, we will kill them with our votes.”
Fadahunsi expressed confidence that APC members would come out en masse to vote for the party’s governorship candidate, Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji, AMBO, despite what he described as intimidation by political thugs.
