Emergency Rule: Osun Gov’t Slams APC Nat’l Scribe

Osun State Government has criticised the National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ajibola Basiru, for urging President Bola Tinubu to declare a State of emergency in the State over the ongoing crisis regarding the Local Government Administration.

Basiru who had earlier warned Governor Ademola Adeleke to learn from the crisis in Rivers called for the replication of what happened in the Rivers State to Osun, citing alleged resistance against the reinstatement of council chairmen.

However, Osun Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, dismissed Basiru’s remarks as “callous, self-centred, and unlawful.”

He argued that the political situations in Rivers and Osun were not comparable, warning Basiru and the APC against destabilizing the State’s peace in a bid to reclaim power through the backdoor.

He said: “The Osun State Government is miffed and constrained to react to a statement credited to the APC National scribe, Ajibola Basiru in which he urges the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to extend the declaration of the state of emergency which was done in River State to Osun State.

“Osun State government views this call as callous, self-centred and unlawful, going by the fact that there’s a world of difference between the current political development in Rivers and Osun when placed side by side.

“I have read what the over-ambitious and loud-mouthed National Secretary of APC, Senator Ajibola Basiru said concerning the need for the declaration of State of Emergency to be extended by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as done in Rivers State last night to Osun State.

“While the call, no doubt stems from a demented mind as is the case with Senator Ajibola Basiru, it will be recalled that the same Basiru had in the not too recent past made a similar call when I engaged him on a national television station on the Yes/No local government chairmen in Osun State.

“It must, however, be emphasized that not only Basiru alone holds this senseless and obnoxious impression but the entire APC cohorts and their members/followers in Osun State, who daily, are scheming for one mischievous device or the other in order to come through the backdoor to take the reigns of governance in Osun State but by the grace of God and with the support of the people of Osun State for the administration of Ademola Adeleke, all the evil machinations against the people-oriented government of Ademola Adeleke will not see the light of the day.

“Furthermore, we call on our President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to see through the antics of people like Ajibola Basiru, a rejected and frustrated politician and his already rejected APC apologists in Osun, by rejecting the wicked and baseless call for the declaration of the State of emergency in Osun.

“For any political observers in Osun State, it’s very clear that Osun APC lacks the popularity, political acceptance and sagacity to face and defeat Ademola Adeleke in any election, hence their resort to all forms of antics to get to power through the back door. One of such antics was their failed attempt to cause mayhem in the state through enforcement of a non-existence Court of Appeal judgment to reinstate their YES/NO chairmen and Councillors. With that enforcement of non-existence judgment, they almost put Osun into a State of anarchy.

“However, Governor Adeleke, being a man of peace and of the people, saw this coming, hence the directive given to the duly elected Local Government Chairmen in the State not to go to their various LG Secretariats after the swearing-in ceremony. Had Governor Adeleke not been proactive and guided by great wisdom, only God would have known what the APC could have turned the state into while carrying out their *Awada Keri Keri* in the various LG secretariats of our dear State.

“Well, any right-thinking person will know and interpret all these political shenanigans of APC to be that of already frustrated souls looking for whatever means to make Osun ungovernable.

“On the unwarranted and unnecessary political crisis created by the APC in Osun, as a reminder, three cases are now pending before the courts of law:
– the one instituted by the duly elected local government Chairmen challenging the Yes/ No APC local govt chairmen usurping what is not theirs, thereby calling for their removal from all the Council Secretariats.

This has been slated for hearing on the 17th of April, 2025.
– the second is the case instituted by Osun NULGE, fixed for April 15, 2025, for hearing and
– the 3rd case has to do with contempt proceedings instituted by APP but is yet to be given a date for hearing.

“With all these, couldn’t Basiru be able to read between the lines that the matters at hand are all legal issues which, should also, be resolved through Court as opposed to calling for the declaration of the state of emergency?”