Election Appeal: LP cries out over release of N250m by Agagu to import thugs to Benin

Olusegun Agagu

The Ondo State chapter of the Labour Party (LP) on Tuesday cried out to the law enforcement agencies over fresh plans by the Dr Olusegun Agagu-led government to unleash terror at the premises of the Court of Appeal, Benin on Monday, November, 10, 2008 with the release on Sunday of a whopping two hundred and fifty million naira (N250million) from government’s coffers for the mobilization of thugs to foment trouble with a view to intimidating the Appeal Court from upholding the Justice Garba Nabaruma judgement which sacked Agagu on July 25, this year.

Also, LP disclosed that plans had been made to stage numerous organized armed robbery attacks on members and supporters of the LP who dare attempt to go to Benin on that day.

In a release issued by the LP’s Director of Press, Research and Strategy, Mr. Kolawole Olabisi in Akure on Tuesday, the Party disclosed that last weekend, Agagu took delivery of over one hundred (100) thousand vests, caps, bandana and pips which were printed with the picture of Dr Olusegun Mimiko, the LP’s Flag bearer and Governor-elect as well as the logo of the Labour Party from an Akure-based Printer of note.

According to Olabisi: These vests, caps, bandana and pips with the colours and inscriptions of the LP would now be distributed to all the 18 local government chairmen who are all PDP members and coordinators who in turn had been instructed to hire twenty buses each to convey the thugs who would be dressed like LP members and storm the venue of the Appeal court in Benin, unleashing terror on the Judges and Lawyers of the LP.

 “Following the nullification of Dr Agagu’s pyrrhic victory on July 25, this year, Agagu and his people have been up and doing all in their bid to get favourable verdict at the Appeal Court to which they had gone to contest the Nabaruma’s judgement. At a point, they boasted that they had the Judiciary in their pockets having ‘taken’ care of those that matters’ in the sector. Now, in their desperation to subvert the wishes of the people of Ondo State as upheld by the Tribunal’s judgement, Agagu wants to intimidate the Judiciary with paid thugs and surreptitiously pin it on the LP in case it backfires.”

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LP, while disclosing that the arrow head and Treasurer of this insidious project was the Governor’s younger brother, Femi Agagu, who also doubles as his Chief of Staff in company of the Secretary to the State Government, Isaac Kekemeke; Segun Adegoke, Special Adviser on Political Matters to Agagu; Femi Johnson Jila, Special Assistant, South to Agagu; Tony Ala, Special Assistant, Central to Agagu and Muyiwa Asagunla, SA (North) to Agagu, among others, LP noted that the group met at the Government House on Sunday evening where money were shared out for onward transmission to all the 18 local government.

LP further alleged that paid thugs would by Thursday arrive in the State having been mobilized by agents of the State government and lodged in different locations preparatory to the D-Day. “The plan,” according to LP,”is that two days to the the hearing of the Appeal on December 10, these thugs, most of whom where imported from Ibadan in Oyo State, Ife and Modakeke in Osun State, Okene in Kogi State and from Edo and Delta State would be taken to Benin and those of them from that area would take their fellows on familiarization tours of Benin under the supervision of the 3 Special Assistants to Dr Agagu. ”

LP while calling on the security agencies both in Ondo and Edo States to be aware of this sinister move by Agagu with a view to thwarting it noted that anybody seen wearing LP mementoes is not an LP member and should be arrested and dealt with. It equally enjoined Mr. President, Alhaji, Umar Musa Yar’Adua, a man noted for his respect for the rule of law and due process to call Agagu to order in the overall interest of peace and rule of law.

 To the LP, the germane issue at hand currently in Ondo State was that Agagu did not win the mandate he is tenaciously holding unto in the last 19 months despite the fact that his election had been voided by a competent court of law.

Says Olabisi: “The truth is that the Ondo State people after four years of careless handling of public funds, of penchant to lie with impunity and an unprecedented air of arrogance decided to vote out Agagu as Governor in 2007. It was in an effort to undo what the voters of Ondo State did that the man secured the services of every imaginable personality including the founder of Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), Pastor Ayo Babalola, a man who died fifty years ago, to wake up from the grave and vote for him. This was what Justice Nabaruma and his four other fellow judges found out after 14 months of painstaking job when they nullified Agagu purported victory and declared Mimiko of the LP as the duly elected governor.  It thus became obvious to every perceptive Nigerian the type of mandate Agagu carries. This is the issues which he now wants to sweep under the carpet with all manners of underhand tactics.

“But as we again await the judgment of history therefore, we can only wish Agagu well in his latest phase of propaganda and Mimiko-bashing. On July 25, Agagu – voted for by both the living and the dead - came clearly face-to-face with the truth to the effect that on parade in Nigeria of today is a new Judiciary that does not easily lend itself to intimidation and propaganda. He will again be scorched by the same Judiciary which he had vilified and lampooned with impunity.”