It was a tragic scene in Oyo town on Wednesday morning after a member of the Peoples Democratic Party in Oyo State, Mudashiru Baraka, was reportedly assassinated by rival political thugs.
Baraka, a PDP grassroot mobiliser in the town, was macheted to death by his assailants at his father’s house.
According to reports, the late Baraka who was from ward 4 Tengba, Oyo East Local Government, had gone to his family house in the spirit of the Yuletide to celebrate with his parents.
In the meantime, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State has accused the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC of sponsoring a ‘killer-squad’ to assassinate Mudashiru Baraka, a member of the PDP and grassroots mobiliser in Oyo town.
Lamenting the sustained attacks allegedly backed by some individuals in the opposition party, the ruling PDP said others who escaped from the scene sustained various degrees of injuries.
A statement by the State Publicity Secretary of PDP, Akeem Olatunju on Wednesday December 28 indicated that the deceased was murdered in cold blood at his family house in Oyo town at the early hours of Wednesday and the matter has already been reported at Durbar Police Station in Oyo.
The ruling party added that PDP members who witnessed the incident told the party that the deceased was waylaid and threatened by notorious thugs who are APC supporters led by their gang leader popularly known as ‘Ade Ilaka’ after which the deceased reported the threats to Operation Burst in the area.
The security personnel of Operation Burst were said to have accompanied the deceased back to his family house to effect necessary security action but the assailants have absconded.
The ruling PDP explained that after the personnel of Operation Burst had departed the area, the assailants however, returned more viciously and aggressively to the family house of the deceased, where he was murdered in cold blood.
The Oyo State PDP stated that the do or die approach by APC and some of its candidates in Oyo State may plunge the state into an avoidable theatre of political war if not urgently arrested, stressing that the party’s calmness and peaceful disposition to the already heightened political campaign was in the spirit of peace, freedom of the people to elect whoever they want as their leaders and particularly the peace accord that have restrained its members from resorting to self help in the face of eminent threats.
According to a statement released by the Oyo PDP, “It is very unfortunate that despite the peace accord APC jointly entered into alongside other political parties in the state ahead of the 2023 general elections, the opposition party has continued in its sustained and coordinated attacks against our members in its usual manner.
“We are aware that these attacks are fully sanctioned and backed by certain individuals including some of APC candidates who are not only desperate to win the 2023 election by either ‘hook or crook’ but also do so at whatever cost.
“Apart from being a very peaceful party, we also feel obligated and duty bound to the peace and tranquility in the state and more especially, the peace accord signed at the state police headquarters. We also know that actions and inactions of political players are inimical to the success or failure of the 2023 general elections.
“It is in this knowledge that we have deliberately restrained ourselves from reacting to needless provocations and threats by the APC in Oyo State. The opposition party has shown nothing but unrestrained desperation, utter recklessness, sheer political brigandage which is daily heightening the political campaign ahead of 2023.
“The gruesome killing of our members, Mudashiru Baraka, a PDP member from wars 4 Tengba, Oyo East Local Government is one that will not be allowed to be swept under the carpet. This is so because we have consistently raised a series of alarms to forestall such ugly occurrence with no definite outcome.
“These have further emboldened APC in Oyo State and some of its candidates perhaps in the consciousness that it controls government at the centre to recklessly engage in such dastardly acts all in the spirit of winning elections at all cost. We need to once again remind APC in Oyo State that it is not the only opposition party in the 2023 race and must not turn Oyo State into a theatre of political war with the needless attacks and killings of perceived superior opponents.
“We call on the State Commissioner of Police who has done creditably well to bring about the relative peace in the state, to immediately step in and expedite action that will guarantee culprits of Baraka’s gruesome murder are brought to justice,” the ruling PDP stated.
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