Barely days after the demise of the first Executive Governor of Osun State, Senator Isiaka Adeleke, another prominent son of ‘the soil’ in the state and the Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Lasun Sulaimon Yussuff on Saturday raised the alarm over threat to his life.
Addressing a press conference on behalf of Yussuff at the Constituency Relations Office of the Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Osogbo Office, his Special Adviser on Constituency Matters, Dr. Remi Ajala alleged that the deputy speaker had received a number of threats that have put his life in danger since he has shown intention to run for the governorship of Osun State in 2018.
He noted that while all these threats are public information, he was, however surprised at the statement credited to some members of Osun caucus in the House of Representatives namely; Hons. Jibola Famurewa, Mojeed Alabi, Gaffar Amere, Ayo Omidiran and Olufemi Fakeye shortly after the tribute on late Adeleke at the plenary on the floor of the House that his expression of fear was built on emotion.
He argued that the public utterances and actions associated with the chairman of All Progressives Party (APC) in the state, Prince Gboyega Famoodun and others in the Government of Osun State serve as evidences of endangering his life and prove that his concern is outside the context of emotion.
Yussuff then recalled a statement credited to Famoodun sternly warning him and Senator Isiaka Adeleke to suspend their governorship ambition using the coverage of APC to express his (Famoodun) personal hatred against him and Adeleke.
His words: “On Monday 31, October 2016, Prince Gboyega Famoodun, under the pretext that he was acting on behalf of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State sternly warned by way of threat on Page 11 of The Punch Newspaper of October 31, 2016 that Late Senator Isiaka Adeleke and Hon. Lasun Yussuff should suspend their governorship ambition. He further stated in that paper using the coverage of APC to express his personal hatred against both Lasun Yussuff and Isiaka Adeleke that the party will discipline both late Isiaka Adeleke and Lasun Yussuff if they refused to stop their ambition. While there was and still no record to date of APC party meeting to decide such, we clearly knew that the threat was a personal purport of Prince Gboyega Famoodun and not of the APC party.
“In furtherance to his threat, on 20th February 2017, Gboyega Famoodun again said on a radio programme that “Lasun Yussuff is on his own”.
“In another edition of the programme held about four weeks later featuring Mr. Azeez Adesiji, an acclaimed Vice Chairman of our party APC in Osun State, Azeez Adeniji said that “Lasun is a prodigal son”. This was to further the personal threat of danger which Prince Famoodun had earlier set against Lasun Yussuff.”
Yussuff further alleged that his mission to attend the birthday of a progressive leader at Ikirun on 27th of January 2017 was aborted by a text message of threat to his life investigated by the Directorate of State Service and linked to one Mr. Abimbowo aka Ijanja who confessed that he was directed to send the message by the then Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Osun.
The threat message reported to the DSS according to him read :”Sir, it’s very unfair for you to want to attend Baba Owoseni’s birthday ceremony tomorrow. If you insist to come and anything comes against you, you have to bear it. My advice is that you should not come.”
Yussuff also recalled when a former Commissioners in Osun State mobilized thugs in the first week of April this year to stop him from the construction of Eid’s perimeter fence along Ibokun road in Osogbo.
While pledging his commitment to the success of APC in Osun State, the Deputy Speaker contended that he would not want any death to occur to anyone in “such a mysterious way it had happened in the case of Senator Isiaka Adeleke”
Packaged by Bunmi Oladejo
