Osogbo – President Goodluck Jonathan Saturday, restated the determination of his administration to deploy massive security personnel to Osun for the August 9, governorship election, to ensure properly policing, although some fear that it may be a repeat of the security clamp down in Ekiti recently.

President Goodluck Jonathan (m) at the PDP rally with VP Namadi Sambo (l) and Iyiola Omisore (r) in Osogbo, Osun State on Saturday August 2, 2014.

The president stated this at the campaign grand finale of the ruling PDP governorship candidate Iyiola Omisore, in Osogbo, the Osun state capital.

Jonathan, endorsing Omisore, presented him with the party’s flag saying steps are being taken to ensure a free and fair election.

“We will ensure that the election is violence-free. There must be one man one vote, one woman one vote and one youth one vote. You should all say no to violence and ensure that the votes count,” he said.

The president explained that the Federal Government would deploy enough security personnel to ensure the safety of lives and property, as well as a credible, transparent, free and fair election.

The president, therefore, urged the people to vote the PDP candidate to further facilitate Federal Government’s presence in the state.

In attendance at the rally were Vice President Namadi Sambo, PDP National Chairman Adamu Mu’azu, PDP Board of Trustee Chairman Tony Anenih and Governor-elect of Ekiti State, Mr Ayodele Fayose.

Earlier, the president had visited the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade at his palace in Ile-Ife to pay homage.

There is however fear and anxiety among the people of Osun on what the outcome of the election may hold for the APC-controlled state, due to claims that the ruling PDP party is determined to use all security agencies to swing the election process in favour of its candidate, Omisore.

The main opposition party APC on Friday, accused the ruling PDP government of terrorizing and intimidating the people of Osun State ahead of the Aug. 9th governorship election, saying it would not accept the “hear-no-evil, see-no-evil disposition” of President Jonathan.

In a statement issued in Lagos by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party wondered why the FG will send agents of the Department of State Services (DSS), some of them masked and clad in black, to the state to harass innocent citizens in an unprovoked and primitive show of power that can only be described as sheer gangsterism.

The statement said: “As widely reported, DSS agents, armed to the teeth and riding in over 50 trucks, drove around Osogbo and other parts of Osun State on Wednesday blaring siren and shooting sporadically in the air, thus disrupting the normally peaceful life in the state.

“Residents who were visibly traumatized by the shameful display of state power ran helter-skelter and wondered why their government has sent masked men, or ninjas, to terrorize them. They now understand that the masked thugs who have been following the PDP candidate around on his campaign trail were actually government sanctioned. This is a
power show taken too far, even with the well-known impunity tendencies of the Jonathan Administration,” it said.

APC said information at its disposal shows that 5,000 more DSS men are being dispatched to the state before the election, on the basis of an orchestrated petition alleging that certain APC leaders are planning to foment trouble during the election.

“The real purpose of this fake petition and the consequent deployment of thousands of secret police to Osun is to harass, intimidate and arrest the leaders of the APC in the state, in a repeat of what transpired in Ekiti.

“Flooding Osun with irresponsible DSS officials to terrorize the residents is another low for a government that is notorious for abuse of power and federal institutions. It is no longer news that the military, the police and other security agencies are working for the Jonathan Administration, rather than for all of Nigeria. What is new is that the security agencies have now been unleashed on the citizenry.

“What rankles even more is the constant assurances by President Jonathan that the election will be free and fair. How can we have a credible election in an atmosphere of state-led gangsterism? How can we have a credible election when the FG that is supposed to protect the people and ensure violence-free polls is the same one that purveys
violence? Where else in the world do secret police announce themselves by firing to scare away harmless citizens? When did masks become part of the uniform of the State Security Service agents?” the party queried.

It reminded the DSS officials that the guns they were using to terrorize the people of Osun were given to them by taxpayers, and that they were indeed trained at the expense of taxpayers, hence it is totally irresponsible and unacceptable for them to turn their guns on the taxpayers.

APC called on local and international election observers to take note of the pre-election intimidation tactics of the PDP/Jonathan Administration, which are designed solely to scare people away from the polling booths and provide the necessary atmosphere for electoral malfeasance, which the PDP candidate believes is the only way he can
win on August 9.