Following the ceaseless violent activities of political thugs of the Accord Party extraction in Owode-Ede, in the Ede-North Local Government Council Area of Osun State, which has culminated into avoidable violent attacks on innocent members of the public and the destruction of both branded and non-branded vehicles of the members of the opposition APC party in the state, this is an appeal to the police to declare the community a political flashpoint.

Past and unfolding political events in Osun State have revealed that Owode-Ede community, a town under the ancient town of Ede, the hometown of Governor Ademola Adeleke, has grown rapidly to become the rendezvous of political thugs of the Accord Party extraction who molest members and supporters of the APC each time they had a course to pass through the axis.

Owode-Ede is a fast growing settlement which serves as an outlet and inlet to the residents from the Ife Federal Constituency and Aiyedaade, Irewole, Isokan Federal Constituency to Osogbo, the state capital.

The rapidly-growing town of Owode-Ede has become embarrassingly notorious for harbouring political hoodlums who are fond of forcefully removing branded fez caps which are different from those of Governor Adeleke from the innocent supporters of the APC.

There are also cases of hitting or destruction of APC branded vehicles by these strategically-positioned Accord Party thugs at the road median or standing by the side of the road who constantly embarrassed their victims of the opposition APC extraction.

So many members and supporters of the APC have so many unfavourable tales of rough-handling and attacks by these political hoodlums who often migrate from Ede township on daily basis to cause havoc to the opposition members in Owode-Ede.

It would be a dereliction of duty for the police and the other statutory security services to leave the innocent members of the public at the mercy of these political hoodlums who operate unhindered daily under the protection of Governor Adeleke who hails from Ede.

It would also be recalled that it was also at these spot in Owode-Ede that the wife of the immediate-past governor of the state, Alhaja Kafayat Oyetola, was needlessly attacked by the said political hoodlums few days to the 2022 governorship election.

Owode-Ede also has the notoriety of being one of the towns where the voting in the 2022 governorship election ran into 11:00pm when voting had stopped in the other areas at 4:00pm which gave an undue political advantage to Governor Adeleke.

It was also the needless blockage of the right of the way of the members and supporters of the APC who were coming back to Osogbo, the state capital, by the Accord Party hoodlums at the Owode-Ede market junction which brew the crisis of last Tuesday that later radiated to the state capital.

It behooves the police and other statutory security services to discourage and frustrate the needless convergence of political thugs who often disguise as commercial motorcycle riders at the controversial and crisis-prone Owode-Ede Market.

The police should not wait to address this glaring threat to the public peace in the state that may have its offshoot from Owode-Ede Market before it is professionally handled in the overall interest of the protection of the inhabitants of the state and their property.

Prevention of the movement of any individual in any part of the state without any justifiable reason is considered a breach of the fundamental right of such a person as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 As Ammended.

We have keenly observed and concluded as a party that Governor Adeleke has never condemned the noticed anomaly at the Owode-Ede Market under discussion because he is the beneficiary of the man inhumanity against fellow human beings in the name of playing of a glaring dirty politics.

The Owode Ede market junction is reportedly said to have been turned to the Accord Party political thugs hotbed following a recent growth of the APC supporters in the main community, Owode Ede, thus a need to deploy thugs there to intimidate, torture and harass people so as to prevent imminent defeat of Governor Adeleke-led government in the area.

e-SIGNED:

*Mogaji KOLA OLABISI, Osun State APC Director of Media and Information.*