The governor of Osun State, Ademola Adeleke, has come under fire from the All Progressives Congress (APC) for his silence in the face of reports of fatalities that occurred during the Osun-Osogbo celebration this year.
The State administration allegedly did not think it appropriate to make an official declaration about the positive outcome, according to the Osun APC.
On Saturday in Osogbo, the party announced this in a statement that was penned by Tajudeen Lawal, its chairman.
According to DAILY POST, a violent altercation that broke out during the festival’s grand finale in Osogbo on Friday resulted in three fatalities and a number of injuries.
The party also denounced the festival’s militarization by non-state forces, which led to the deaths.
“A fact-check on the situation that led to the killing of the three persons who were suspected cultists loyal to the State Governor Ademola Adeleke-led administration indicated that it was a battle for supremacy between two rival cultist groups on the entourage of the governor that brewed the ghastly violent attack,” the statement reads.
Two more people drowned yesterday while taking part in the annual Osun Osogbo festival’s big finale at the Osun River, according to a reliable source close to the scene of the incident.
However, it seemed odd that the Governor Adeleke-led administration had not thought it necessary to take action 24 hours after the alleged cultists’ deaths and the drowning of two other followers in the Osun River.
“I am not shocked that the Adeleke administration is violent and sanguinary because the governor enjoys traveling the State in the company of armed thugs who are mostly wanted by the police.
Adeleke was unable to denounce the violent behavior of the thugs because they were responsible for manipulating the previous round of elections for him and the other PDP candidates, in which no fewer than 30 members of the APC were killed by the political thugs of the PDP.
The Osun APC chairman insisted that the Adeleke administration owed the people of the State an explanation for why the government had refrained from making any statements on the development while requesting that the police and other security agencies in the State look into the killings.
In response, Bankole Ojo, the state’s commissioner for culture and tourism, asked the APC to avoid petty politics while attempting to rouse itself from inactivity.
Ojo further cautioned that playing politics with human life is the cruelest act someone could commit, regardless of their motivation.
He called the APC’s attempt to link pockets of conflict between various cultural groups at the festival to the Governor Ademola Adeleke-led PDP government a classless one and urged them to get their facts straight and quit playing politics with human life.
“While His Excellency, Governor Ademola Adeleke did everything to make the annual festival exceptionally memorable, as acknowledged by many stakeholders in the country’s culture and tourism sector and beyond, the tumultuous crowd that thronged this year’s event ensured a difficult time for security agencies to curtail the age-long rivalry between some traditional groups, leading to some open confrontations.
The Oodua Peoples Congress and some groups of hunters, the majority of whom are not state residents, are said to have let their old rivalry get out of hand shortly after the successful completion of cultural rites at the festival groove, according to preliminary reports made available to the ministry, which will then be forwarded to His Excellency, the State Governor. At the yearly event, both groups often attract a sizable number of followers.
“The blood-spreading opposition groups are already in town with absurd numbers of casualties, while the State government and security authorities are casting adequate nets of investigation into the problem. All perceptive minds should find this informative as to what their aims are and what they may have done to sabotage the
Due to the frantic effort made by the PDP government in 2005, the commissioner guaranteed that the State government will continue to promote and protect the UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site.
The current administration is determined to preserving this tradition, he said, not only as a cultural legacy for the wonderful people of Osogbo as a historic city, but also as an enviable tourist destination among its peers in Nigeria and around the world.
