•APC denies allegation

The Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has faulted the Blue Economy Minister, Adegboyega Oyetola, over his alleged threats to rig the 2026 governorship election in Osun state.

In a statement issued in Osogbo, the PDP raised the alarm over the grand plot reportedly disclosed to the APC state caucus meeting last Friday by the minister, describing the alleged utterances as “the most brazen declaration of intent to destroy democracy and a condemnable signal to abuse state power to deny Osun people the legitimate rights to choose their leader in a democracy.”

The statement reads further: “The Osun state chapter of the PDP is alarmed by several media reports of some inciting statements credited to the former Governor of Osun state and current Minister of Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola on his role in the withholding of Osun local governments allocations and the plan to thwart the will of electorates in the forthcoming 2026 governorship elections.

“We waited for more than 48 hours with the expectations that the minister will deny the reports but till now, he has remained silent. We are encouraged therefore, to belief that the minister actually made those threatening remarks.

“For records purpose, the minister was alleged to have told the members at a high level caucus meeting of the party hled behind closed doors the following:“I blocked Gov Adeleke from joining the APC. Otherwise, all your ambitions would have been in jeopardy.

“I gave a guarantee to Mr. President that APC can win in Osun without Governor Adeleke; We lost the 2022 election because Buhari refused to instruct INEC and the Police to work for APC.

“I have secured the cooperation of the Police and INEC to ensure that APC wins the Osun 2026 gubernatorial election;

“I have employed federal might to prevail upon the Attorney General of the Federation not to recognise the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which clearly recognised the election of the PDP chairmen and councilors.

“The Attorney General is working on a loophole that will allow the withheld local government funds to be released to the court- sacked APC chairmen and councilors.

“Otherwise, the Osun State withheld funds will not be released until after the gubernatorial election in 2026, in order to turn the grassroots against Governor Adeleke.”

The PDP noted that “As a party, we have no issue with the minister’s position on the recent defection politics, we, however, challenged the minister to deny and clarify other statements he allegedly made at the said state caucus meeting as they pose serious danger to democratic practice, undermine the credibility of critical state institutions and constitute gross abuse of powers and violations of the constitution.

“While we are of the considered view that President Bola Tinubu is not aware of the open threats to sack democracy in Osun by his cousin and the Minister of Blue Economy, we call on Mr President to sanction the minister for dragging the names of the federal government into disrepute.

“We also call on Mr President to counter order the Attorney General of the Federation to obey the Court of Appeal judgement which recognises the duly elected PDP chairmen and councilors and release Osun state local government allocations without further delay.

“We are also alerting men of goodwill and the diplomatic community of the open declaration of war on the people of Osun state by a minister who is still bitter about his rejection at the poll by the good people of Osun state in 2022.

“We inform the global community of an open genocidal threat to democratic practice as Osun people will defend their votes irrespective of the threats from anti-democratic elements,” the PDP stated.

The party declared that Osun people rejects threats and intimidation as a tool for politicking, vowing that Governor Adeleke will win the 2026 election because he has solid support of the people as his governance records are superlative and he has God who gives and takes power.

Meanwhile, the Osun State chapter of the APC has accused PDP of fabricating lies and subterfuge against the minister in order to score a cheap political point to fraudulently shore up the dwindling popularity of the party in the state.

According to APC, it is disheartening to observe that a ruling party in a state like Osun could go to the extent of fabricating barefaced lies against the immediate-past governor of the state in order to whip up sentiments in the court of the public.

The party said: “That the state PDP chairman could append his signature under such fabricated lies with the ulterior motive of tarnishing the hard earned image of the state leader of our party, Alhaji Oyetola, is an indication that Osun State has been unlucky to have the worst set of people managing its affairs at this particular point in time.”

“We are used to fabrication of stories which has been the hallmark of the ruling party in Osun State but what we did not recognise before now was that the leadership of the rudderless party has graduated to an imaginary level of weaving together of compositions to make them appear as true stories.”

“We are stating here categorically that at no time did the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy threatened to rig the forthcoming elections in the state with both the police and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as alleged by Mr Sunday Bisi, the state chairman of the PDP in the watery statement he pushed to the public domain few hours ago.”

“It was also not true that Alhaji Oyetola told the stakeholders of the APC at the meeting that he was working on the Attorney-General of the Federation to create a loophole for the reinstated APC local government chairmen and councillors to access the accumulated local government allocations as there could not have been any need for that as the logjam had been settled by the Court of Appeal judgment of the 10th of February, 2025.”

“The obvious and verifiable problem with Governor Ademola Adeleke, the PDP and its handlers is that they are afraid of their shadows at this critical time that their party has become the shadow of its old self as all the good hands in the party have since defected into the opposition APC.

In the first place, there was no close door meeting of the APC stakeholders which was only holding in the imagination of Governor Adeleke and the state PDP chairman.”

“Thank God that technology has deflated the balloon of lies woven together by the state PDP chairman and his cohorts where they have the latitude to support their concocted allegations with video reporting which they cannot present.”

“The brick wall met by Governor Adeleke himself in his fruitless efforts to defect into the APC has been one of the reasons the governor and his cohorts have become needlessly paranoid and suspicious of harmless shadows of the members of the opposition.

“It is a common thing among the members of the opposition PDP in Osun State today to blame the state leader of our party, Alhaji Oyetola, who can hardly hurt a fly, for any woes that befall them.

“Accusation of the PDP against Alhaji Oyetola of planning to rig the forthcoming elections in the state does not add up as when he was having the apparatus of the state at his disposal, he allowed the rules of law to prevail.

“If Governor Adeleke and his co-travellers think our leader would allow the militant wing of the state PDP to massacre our members and supporters in the forthcoming elections in a similar manner that no fewer than 30 of them were slaughtered before and during the 2022 and 2023 elections, they are making a mistake as they would meet a resistance with the instrumentality of the law.

“We are enjoining the members of the public to discountenance the lies woven together by the Osun State chapter of the PDP accusing Alhaji Oyetola of planning to rig the forthcoming elections as balderdash, misplaced and superfluous.

“The memory of the discerning members of the society is still super active to remember how the same Mr Sunday Bisi, the state chairman of the PDP, falsely accused the Inspector-General of Police of planning to assassinate him which he could not prove to date. Is it such a person that should be taken with all seriousness?

“It was the same Sunday Bisi who sometimes ago accused the state chapter of the APC of stockpiling arms and ammunition which subsequently proved him to be a pathological liar as it was found out to be a fabrication.

“If Governor Adeleke and his co-travellers think that there would be an unfettered allowance for their members and supporters to vote till 11:00pm as was the practice during the 2022 governorship election in Ede North and South local government council areas of the state, they are making a great mistake of their lives as such would be legally resisted.” (THISDAY)