APC asks Buhari to send soldiers to Ogun for election

The Ogun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress on Wednesday appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to send soldiers to the state during the March 9 governorship election.

This, it said, was to avert the alleged plot to attack its governorship candidate, Dapo Abiodun.

It claimed that there were intelligence reports that Abiodun might be attacked on or before the day of the election.

The Publicity Secretary of the caretaker committee of the APC in the state, Tunde Oladunjoye, stated this while speaking with newsmen in Abeokuta, the state capital.

Oladunjoye said despite the deployment of three Commissioners of Police in the state for last week’s presidential and National Assembly elections, there were cases of violence which led to the killing of a policeman.


He predicted that there might be more cases of violence during the governorship election, if soldiers were not deployed in the state.

He said, “We are asking President Muhammadu Buhari, who has said in his acceptance speech that he is going to strengthen the presence of security men, to make sure that soldiers are sent to Ogun state.

“We are not saying they should be at the polling booths, but they should be at strategic places to prevent violence because the intelligence report we have is that attacks would be carried out in the presence of policemen who will not do anything.

“Of course, our governorship candidate is also a prime target, from the report we got this morning.

“When we said the last time, he was going to be attacked, they said it was a lie. We got this report this morning that he is going to be attacked.”

Meanwhile, Oladunjoye has called on the acting Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to investigate the political violence in the state since the APC’s direct primaries were conducted in October, 2018.

He accused Governor Ibikunle Amosun of being desperate in his bid to install the governorship candidate of the Allied People’s Movement, Adekunle Akinlade.

He said the result of the presidential election in the state had indicated that the APM would fail.

He said, “We are worried by the desperation of the governor in his bid to install his preferred candidate as governor of Ogun State despite the clear signals from Saturday’s elections that, that project is a failed project.

“I also wish to remind you that in the past, our leaders, including governorship aspirants raised the alarm at various times on security situation in Ogun State.”