*GBOYEGA NASIR ISIAKA CAMPAIGN ORGANIZATION (GNICO)*

*PRESS CONFERENCE*

OGUN STATE MUST NOT BECOME A THEATRE OF WAR: CALLING ON OPPOSITION PARTIES TO LET THERE BE PEACEFUL CAMPAIGNS AND ELECTIONS IN OGUN STATE

(Being Text of address delivered by the Director General of the Gboyega Nasir Isiaka Campaign Organization (GNICO), Engr Tony Ojeshina on state of the electoral process in Ogun State on Friday 28th December 2018)

Protocols:

Gentlemen of the Press, members of the Central Working Committee of our campaign organization, leaders of our party, ladies and gentlemen.

We have called this press conference this solemn morning due to emergent developments within the Ogun state polity and especially as it affects our campaign.

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the Gboyega Nasir Isiaka Campaign Organization is using this medium to call the attention of Ogun State citizens, security agencies, the media and good spirited Nigerians – to the worsening state of security and general atmosphere of uncertainty currently pervasive in Ogun state – even as we approach the general elections in February and March of 2019.

Whereas, every society has its share of antisocial elements that habour negative vices and which security agencies have to routinely deal with, we are constrained to observe – with trepidation – the deliberate and orchestrated plan to throw Ogun state into a state of security emergency before and during the elections; thereby making peaceful campaigns either unattainable or altogether make elections in Ogun state impossible.

Our campaign organization is not raising false alarm or crying wolf where there is none but we have concrete concerns – and genuinely so, to make this claim. Since the gubernatorial campaigns were officially launched on 1st December 2018, we have been yon the road campaigning and interfacing with the electorate; within the purview of what is practicable under the electoral law and INEC guidelines.

However, two issues are pertinent. First, we have unimpeachable information and tested facts to the fact that there are premeditated plans to subvert the electoral process via provocations and violence. Secondly, we have noticed and recorded sequence of events since 1st December – that serve as pointers to our assumptions.

The first indication of hostility occurred on Saturday 1st December 2018, when officials of the Ogun State Signage and Advertisement Agency attacked our advert materials (A-Boards) which were placed at strategic points in parts of Abeokuta – defacing them and carting it away where possible. It took the direct intervention and confrontation of the rampaging officials by Prince Gboyega Nasir Isiaka before temporary order was restored. We recall also that the background to this was the initial evasiveness of the agency in receiving our approval request before the incidence.

For us, this was the first signal that order and peaceful coexistence of opposing political parties may be prevented by exuberant proxies and agencies of government. However, we have – very recently opened fresh communication line with the agency with several correspondences to that effect; suffice it to say that we are now forging an understanding.

The second indication of hostility happened on 5th December 2018, when our campaign convoy was brutally attacked at Ibese in Yewa North Local Government area by suspected agents of an opposition party. In that attack, one of our supporters sustained gunshot wounds and currently struggling to recover at the hospital. Another one of us had deep glass cut wounds; while many that escaped into thorny bushes got various levels of injuries and mental tremor. The incidence was reported to the police and widely reported by the media; but we have it on good authority that the perpetrators are verified political thugs of a major political party in the state.

The third discomforting incidence occurred on 8th December, 2018 during the last day of our campaign tour to Abeokuta North local government; when some assailant stormed the venue and cut down a young and vibrant member of our party; ostensibly to embarrass us and create fear in the mind of our supporters. The lead mastermind of this dastardly act is a known agent of a splinter opposition party who recently left prison having been earlier jailed for second degree murder.

What more, a day after that, we prevented what could have been the fifth recorded violent event when we regrettably cancelled our planed tour of Odogbolu local government slated for 10th December, 2018 due to unfavourable but very reliable security reports which indicted that agents of the governorship candidate of an opposing political party had stationed deadly cultists to truncate our tour and possibly ensure a fatal incident there.

From the foregoing, we see a sustained orgy of violence that are proving fatal at each turn. We also observe, having in hindsight the reliable information at our disposal that there are certain opposition parties that are deliberately triggering this crisis towards making Ogun state a theatre of war such that peaceful campaigns will be impossible and unfit to have elections here. They also intend to precipitate a possible declaration of ‘State of Emergency’ in the process; thereby truncating the democratic process in our state.

Ladies and Gentlemen, moving away from core security concerns, we are again shocked at the display of intolerance, impunity and breach of peace by our opposition. Since two weeks ago, we installed on some parts of the state capital and other towns, our advert materials called A-Boards; usually put on road medians. This similar initiative is also implemented by the ruling APC and its splinter party APM; where they also placed their A-Boards on the road medians and all co-existed.

We noticed however that sine the 20th of December, our reflective A-Boards began to disappear one after the other from the roads. Our initial inquest showed that it was not carried out by the state signage agency; and after deploying our people for late-night monitoring, we discovered – to our charging – that it was some hoodlums that were defacing the boards and carting them away with impunity.

On two occasion last week, our surveillance group met the hoodlums in action and upon seeing some faces they didn’t know, they jumped into their car and ran away. Some of them adorned branded apparels (T-shirts and car stickers) that that gave them away as agents of the ruling APC and APM. Just four days ago, the police patrol van from the Ibara division accosted these hoodlums while throwing our boards into the gutter and defacing them. On sighting the police van parking by them, they again bolted away. Indeed, we got hints from the police to that effect.

After having spent monies to make more A-Boards and putting them back on the roads two day ago, the agents of APC and APM went berserk and carted away the boards – throwing them into a deep canal at Omida road beside the palace of the Olubara of Ibara. We have since recovered the materials from the dump site. The pictures and video of the incidence are hereby displayed.

We must state also that these nefarious and antisocial act have been reported to the police for commensurate action. Even in Lagos state the A-Boards of APC and PDP do coexist with no acrimony. We condemn these incidence in their entirety. Our party, ADC is peaceful and our governorship candidate, Prince Gboyega Nasir Isiaka (GNI) is peace loving and has a history of violence-free, issues-based campaigns since 2011. We do not know why the opposition is frightened of competitive campaigns and hell-bent on bringing down the house. We urge that they halt these negative trend because we shall henceforth resist these shameful acts with all that is lawfully feasible.

We hereby call on the Commander-in-Chief of Nigerians Armed Forces, President Muhammadu Buhari, Inspector General of Police, Director General of Department of State Security, Ogun state Commissioner of Police, Civil Society Organizations, the Media and generality of Nigerians – to the worsening but purposefully crafted security situation in Ogun state. All men of goodwill must intervene now and not allow desperate men foist the reign of terror on the good people of Ogun state – who shall willfully exercise their democratic right come March 2nd 2019.

Finally, Ogun state is a land blessed by God with unique resources and potentials. No doubt the last few years have witnessed vast decline in all facets of our socioeconomic life; hence the need for a paradigm shift from darkness into light and from self-aggrandizement to People-centered governance. In the ADC and GNI, Ogun people will smile again.