Posted by From AKEEB ALARAPE, Ibadan on
Politicians in Oyo have raised alarm over the proliferation of arms and ammunitions in the state, saying the state has already been turned to an armoury ahead of the 2007 elections.
* As PDP guber aspirants shun parley with police boss
Politicians in Oyo have raised alarm over the proliferation of arms and ammunitions in the state, saying the state has already been turned to an armoury ahead of the 2007 elections.
The politicians, while calling the state police command to swing into action to nip the impending crisis in the state in the bud, also urged the state and federal electoral bodies to be impartial and non-partisan in the discharge of their duties, so as to ensure a peaceful electioneering process towards 2007 elections.
The politicians made their feelings known, Thursday, at a parley organized by the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Jonathan Johnson, to facilitate a peaceful electioneering process in the state.
The meeting, which was attended by representatives of General Commanding Officer, GOC, 2 Division of the Nigerian Army, the state Director of the State Security Services, SSS, chairmen of the state and national electoral commissions, (OYSIEC and INEC) and members of the civil societies, also has in attendance political leaders and gubernatorial aspirants in the state, including former Governor Lamidi Adesina.
Gubernatorial aspirants and leaders of the ruling PDP in the state were, however, conspicuously absent at the parley, except the state party chairman, Mr Tijani Hafiz, who did not make any contribution while the meeting lasted.
Speaking one after the other at the meeting, the politicians expressed their fears over the activities of some politicians in the state, who have been stock-piling arms and ammunition preparatory to the 2007 elections.
'I believe police in Oyo State have a very great job to do. It is a common knowledge in several places in the state, especially in Ibadan today, that there are caches of ammunition in the state. You find people going about with pump-action guns in broad daylight and they seemed to be protected. Why do we allow that, Mr. Commissioner of Police?", the former governor, Adesina, wondered.
Chairman of the newly established Advanced Congress for Democracy, ACD, Alhaji Busari Adebisi, also said that some untouchable politicians in the state were busy stock-piling ammunitions, which they have been using to unleash terror and brutalize their opponents.