TheCable

A group, identified as The Osun Masterminds, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to warn Rauf Aregbesola, minister of interior, against “undermining” the government of Gboyega Oyetola, governor of Osun.

On Monday, while speaking at Oriade LGA of Osun, Aregbesola had blamed Bola Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos, for the division in the APC in Osun.

The minister had also said he would work to ensure that Oyetola doesn’t get a second term in office.

The APC in Osun is currently split into two factions — one loyal to Aregbesola and the other to the current governor.

The minister has also endorsed Moshood Adeoti, a former secretary to the state government, for the next governorship election scheduled for July 2022.

According to Aregbesola, the current Osun governor needs to be removed from office for failing to make Osun prosperous.

But speaking at a media briefing on Thursday, Wasiu Alli, the group’s executive director, said within the past week, Aregbesola, immediate past governor of Osun, has engaged “in public shows of rascality”.

“Mr. Rauf Aregbesola in the past one week has engaged in public shows of rascality, encouragement of followers to behave in manners that undermine the superintendence of the present administration in the state, denigration of elder statesmen, among many others,” he said.

“We reckon that a public officer, expected to act in manners that promote public security, but who is seen making utterances that encourage violence, insubordination and disrespect to constituted authority, is acting in a script that can only promote disunity, acrimony and unrest.

“We state unequivocally that recent utterances of the minister of interior, are today heating the polity in Osun state to a point where residents now fear for their lives.”

The director asked President Muhammadu Buhari to call the minister to order to stop him from causing civil unrest in the state.

“Where he cannot be cautioned, we demand his outright sack or redeployment if he cannot act responsibly in line with the dictates of the office he presently holds,” he said.

Reacting to the group’s comments, Sola Fasure, media aide to the minister, said the group is only trying to cause crisis in Osun that would prevent the APC’s governorship primary election from holding.

“It is on record that on Monday, whilst returning from a well-attended political sensitisation rally in Ilesa, known hoodlums attacked the convoy of the minister as he approached the popular old garage junction in Osogbo,” Fasure said.

“His convoy, composed of well-trained officers of the Department of State Services, the Nigeria Police Force (charged with protecting the minister) and other security personnel drawn from the paramilitary services, professionally responded to the daring attackers who were armed with diverse sophisticated weapons.

“Having failed to achieve their mission of killing the minister on Monday, the sponsors of the evil plot have now resorted to smearing his name, hoping to achieve through the back door, what they can’t get fairly on the field.”

The aide asked the public to disregard the group.