2 die as APC, PDP supporters clash in Osun

With barely 15 days to the August 9, governorship election in Osun State, supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Governor Rauf Aregbesola and those of the People Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Iyiola Omisore yesterday in Ilesa engaged themselves in a bloody clash, leaving two persons dead.

It was gathered that supporters of the two political gladiators clashed at Irojo area of Ilesa using various dangerous weapons.

Although the identity of the deceased could not be ascertained as at press time, it was gathered that they were beaten with charms before they finally gave up the ghost.

The Public Relations Officer of the state command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Mr. Ayo Olowo who confirmed this said normalcy had since returned to Ilesa.

Reacting to the ugly incident the APC in a statement by its spokesperson, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi alleged that the PDP thugs burnt billboards of the APC governorship candidate and shot sporadically, causing residents to flee .

“The APC condemn in the strongest term the recourse to violence by desperate politicians in the PDP who have been boasting publicly to use every means including federal might to remove the APC from power in the state,” he stated.

Also, the PDP in a statement by Omisore’s Director of Media and Strategy, Prince Diran Odeyemi blamed the APC for the violence recorded in Ilesa and other parts of the state, alleging that the APC was responsible for the clash.

Odeyemi noted that the APC governorship candidate had instigated his supporters to resolve to violence, saying that “Aregbesola had at different occasions called on his loyalists to go to campaigns and even polling centres fully armed.”

He condemned the resolve of the APC to violence, saying that “the era of do or die should have gone for good in Nigerian politics.

The Joint Task Force was later sent to the state to bring peace and order to the place although the APC frowned at the development saying the Presidency must have sent them to cow APC supporters.

 

2 die as APC, PDP supporters clash in Osun