The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed displeasure over the arrest and remand of one of its members, Saheed Akinloye over a Facebook Post on the coronavirus cases in the state.
Akinloye was alleged to have posted an allegation on his Facebook page that Osun government imported into the state COVID-19 patients to claim grant from the Federal Government.
To this end, the Facebook user, Akinloye, was arrested and on Tuesday arraigned before a Magistrate’s Court in Osogbo for allegedly inciting members of the public against the Osun state government.
Reacting to this development in a statement issued on Wednesday, Prince Diran Odeyemi, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the PDP labelled the administration of Governor Oyetola as intolerant and insensitive insisting that the governor ensured that Akinloye was remanded despite being entitled to bail.
Odeyemi added that the insistence of State Ministry of Justice represented by its acting Permanent Secretary, Director of Public Prosecution and three other counsels in court, on take over of the case was an indication that the administration of Oyetola had already commenced clampdown on the opposition.
He wondered why a government that could not provide food for 20% of its citizens, imported adulterated rice for them and still ordered they should stay at home to prevent spread of coronavirus, would only be jeered back to life when an opposition was to be dealt with.
He recalled all sort of ‘satanic’ Facebook posts, reckless utterances by state government officials and members of All Progressive Congress targeted at PDP and its members in the past which never attracted any serious reaction from the party.
Odeyemi then urged Oyetola to speed up investigation into the supply of adulterated rice by members of his cabinet and prominent members of APC, saying those involved were the real enemies of Osun.
According to him, Akinloye is just a passionate indigene, who expressed candid opinion on the mystery around ghostly coronavirus patients in Ejigbo isolation centre and nothing should not happen to him.
The statement read, “Oyetola and APC in Osun are setting precedence. They won’t be in power for ever and whatever they are doing now will shape future of political engagement in the state.
“Imagine an administration that brought into the state adulterated rice for its people, although owned up to it that it brought the rice and had already commenced investigation. But rather than completing the investigation and bringing those that actually attempted genocide here to book, the administration is busy, hounding an enthusiastic, curious Osun indigene that expressed a mere opinion on Facebook.
“But one is not totally surprised, considering the manner of emergence and baggage of alleged corrupt act that the administration had laboriously struggled with in the past few months. Is it not tantamount to engaging fire spitting Sango to search for a lost needle, when the entire Ministry of Justice had to mount pressure and insisted on taking over a matter that should have been left to police to prosecute?
“When will Oyetola complete investigation into the supply of adulterated rice and prosecute those that perpetrated the act? Those exposed on Facebook page of one ‘Osun Media Guru’, as the suppliers are all APC members and officials in the cabinet of Oyetola. We also have the list and we look forward to the day these men will appear before court.
“We advise Governor Oyetola to check less social media and give governance serious attention it deserves before some members of his administration will sell Abere Government Secretariat, while their leader is busy surfing Facebook to see those who abuse him and his family members.”
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