Ondo APC Congress Violence: Tinubu Calls Aiyedatiwa For Explanation

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has reportedly intervened in the ongoing deadly crisis within All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State which has resulted in four people feared killed.

The urgent journey of the gov­ernor to Abuja on Thursday was linked to the summon by the Pres­ident who was said to have been furious about the killing of four persons in Idanre on Wednesday during the Ward Congress of the party in Idanre.

Mr. President was said to have relied on the security re­ports received from the state on the violent attacks that erupted in the state on Tuesday when the state Chairman of the party, Engr. Ade Adetimehin was beat­en and dragged on the ground besides several members of the party who were attacked with dangerous weapons and later hospitalized.

The Wednesday attacks in Idanre, during which the young­er brother of the state chairman of the party, Raphael Adetime­hin, was hacked with machetes, axes and stabbed many times till passed out, were fierce.

His brother, Adetimehin, had disclosed that his younger broth­er was attacked by people who were looking for him because they mistook his brother for him.

His car was also razed and four persons also feared dead in the attacks in the home town of the state chairman of the party.

Adetimehin said: “My brother was attacked; those who attacked him thought I was the one be­cause we resemble each other very well.

“After shooting and stabbing him, they left him when they thought he was dead. I don’t know why we are taking politics to this extent.”

Although the governor had called on the police to investigate the incident, a source close to the Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa-led administration disclosed that de­spite the activities line up to cele­brate the governor’s first year in office jetted to Abuja on Thursday evening to meet the President on Friday

But the source could not ascer­tain if the governor was able to meet the President before return­ing to the state on Friday.

The source said: “We were al­ready mobilizing for our Isaiah line up activities on Wednesday evening when we suddenly got the information that Mr Gover­nor will not be available the fol­lowing day which was Thursday.

“We learnt Mr President is very angry over the killings and wanted to know from the gover­nor what went wrong despite the fact that the state has no clear op­position against the APC.

“We knew it would get to this because the attack on the stake­holders in the first place was un­called for; and some of us can only advise we cannot enforce our opin­ions so we keep our calm. We knew this would come and we don’t need such a drag back at all in the state.“

Reacting to the development, the state Commissioner for Infor­mation and Orientation, Idowu Ajanaku, has denied that the gov­ernor was not summoned by Mr. President.

He said there was nothing like that, saying the governor travelled to Abuja for a different official matter.

It would be recalled that the APC ward congress in Ondo State turned bloody on Wednesday, and the younger brother of the state chairman of the party is still in coma.

The state Secretariat of the party in Akure, was stormed by thugs believed to be mem­bers of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) on Tuesday to disrupt the party’s stakeholders’ meeting.

Some chieftains of the party including Success Torukerijoh, a former member of the state House of Assembly, Dayo Akinsuroju, the immediate past chairman of Ile-oluji/Okeigbo/Odigbo local government, among others, are currently in critical conditions.

Spokesman to the state Police Command, Abayomi Jimoh, a Dep­uty Superintendent of Police (DSP), had confirmed two persons dead.