PDP flays Aiyedatiwa over insecurity in Ondo

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Ondo State chapter, has expressed dismay over the alleged lack of concern displayed by Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa towards the insecurity situation recorded in various parts of the state.

The opposition party lamented that with the rising insecurity in the state, Aiyedatiwa has turned a blind eye to the situation, with no strategic measures to tackle the issue.

In a statement made available to The Guardian by the Publicity Secretary of the party in the state, Kennedy Peretei, the stance of the governor, who claimed that the people of the state are “lucky” with his emergence, was at variance with the reality residents of the state are facing.

Peretei said: “Governors who are proactive provide vehicles for security agencies and other logistics to combat security challenges of this nature. After lamentations, we all wait for the criminals to strike again and again.

“In these modern times, is it difficult to deploy technology to arrest this ugly trend, considering the humongous amounts accruing to the state as allocation from the federal government? When next you want to say Ondo State is lucky because Aiyedatiwa is governor, remember the families that are victims of the government’s insensitivity in the area of securing lives and property in our state.

“I have no doubt in my mind that Ondo State has been very ‘unlucky’ with Aiyedatiwa because he has no idea of what can be done to secure all of us. In the month of July this year, some members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in a commuter bus travelling through Ifon, Ose Local Government Area, were kidnapped for several days. Two of the corps members were killed; the others were released after a heavy ransom was paid.

“One month later, in August, one Sunday Ayeni was brutally murdered by suspected herdsmen around Oka-Akoko in Akoko South West Local Government Area. The women who had abandoned their farms due to fear stormed the palace of the Olubaka of Oka-land, His Royal Majesty, Oba Adebori Adeleye, half-naked, in an unprecedented protest. The women told the monarch of the abduction, rape, and kidnapping of members of their families in their farms, which have become regular occurrences.

“On Thursday, 5th September 2024, Sunday Oladele, a commercial motorcycle rider, popularly called Okada, and his passenger, Lucia Ayelabola, were attacked at Obatedo Familugba in Akure North Local Government Area by suspected herdsmen. Their attackers, numbering about ten, clad in black upon black attire, wielded pump-action guns and machetes. Mrs. Lucia was repeatedly shot, and all her valuable items were removed as she was left to die helplessly, soaked in her own blood.”

The party further stressed that “these are the kinds of devastating stories that assault our sensibilities in Ondo State every day. Yet, there is a helmsman in the state whose preoccupation is to tell us about how ‘lucky’ Ondo State is because he assumed office as governor.

“What is the usefulness of a government whose citizens are being traumatised and murdered in this manner? Can such people be said to be truly ‘lucky’ with Aiyedatiwa?

“Obatedo-Familugba is particularly notorious for the activities of herdsmen that have made life unbearable for farmers around the area. The inability of the state’s security architecture to rise to this embarrassing occasion calls into question what exactly Governor Aiyedatiwa’s plan is to secure the people beyond dancing around the state as a ‘lucky’ governor.”