From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin
Following the political fracas in Alore area of Ilorin, Kwara state, where five persons suspected to be thugs and a decampee lost their lives, the Kwara State Chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) have continued to trade blames.
The PDP in a statement by its State Publicity Secretary, Chief Rex Olawoye, said his party members were under siege for many hours by suspected APC thugs because they decamped to PDP.
Olawoye said on Friday 13th June, 2014 over 2000 former APC members, led by Mallam Ajadi Abdulfatah, defected formally to the PDP in Kwara state at Shayi’s compound, Alore area of Ilorin West local government area of Kwara state.
“But few minutes into the completion of the ceremony, especially as the jubilant new members danced through the major streets of Alore, they were waylaid and attacked at the popular Alore junction.
“Although we could not confirm the identities of the rampaging hoodlums, we can confirm that they were threatening and shouting publicly that Ilorin West ‘belongs’ to a former Governor of Kwara state, Sen. Bukola Saraki, and that they would not allow any intrusion into his ‘territory’.
“The hoodlums also threatened the lives of the leaders of the defectors, so much so that he had to be advised to vacate his home for a safe haven until the threat fizzle out.
“Sensing the danger ahead, members of our party alerted the police and a detachment was promptly deployed to major junctions of the area. But thinking that tension had been dowsed, the police did not show up yesterday. This unfortunately led to the death of one of the decampees, whose only offence was that he resisted, on Friday, the humiliation of his colleagues by the thugs.”
The party named the deceased as Tajudeen, an ND student of the Federal Polytechnic Offa alleging that he was hacked to death by over 10 APC thugs who invaded his Popoganan house, Ilorin, Kwara state around 10pm.
The party added that presently, both the police and the soldiers have been called in to quench the fracas, with over five of the thugs already shot dead by the soldiers and several arrests made.
But APC in a statement by it Publicity Seceretary, Alhaji Sulyman Buhari, condemned the gruesome murder by PDP thugs in Kwara state.
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