Osun: No Going Back On Deployment Of Troops Jonathan

President Jonathan yesterday insisted that the federal government would ensure massive deployment of security operatives to Osun State for the August 9 governorship election despite agitation for demilitarization of democracy in the country.

Addressing a mammoth crowd that thronged the grand finale campaign of the PDP for the governorship poll in Osun, the president said the clamour for security not to be deployed for the election was not justifiable considering the incident that occurred during an election in which 10 youth corps members were killed.

He warned hoodlums to stay away from the state before, during and after the election or face the full wrath of the law if they attempted to foment trouble in the Osun election, saying that it is his responsibility not only to ensure a hitch-free election but to protect the lives and properties of Nigerians.

Addressing the crowd, the president asked, Do you agree that we should not deploy security for the election? In response, the crowd chorused No, no, no!

The president vowed that security operatives would deal with whoever tried to cause problem during the election.

Jonathan charged Osun people to vote for the PDP candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, to enable him join hands together with him to develop the state.

We will develop Osun State with Omisore. We need your cooperation to be able to do this. Vote for Omisore and leave the rest for us.

Other chieftains of the party at the rally charged the people of the state to come back to the mainstream of Nigeria politics, noting that the reception they received everywhere they went during the course of the visit demonstrated that the people have made up their mind to vote PDP in Osun State.

Also speaking, the national chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, charged the people of Osun State to replicate what happened in Ekiti State by voting for the candidate of the PDP, saying that Omisore is a respecter of traditional institution.

He noted that what he saw in terms of reception showed him that the party has worked assiduously to win the election, asking party members to further consolidate on the work done by mobilizing people to vote for PDP.

Prominent among chieftains of the party at the campaign were the vice president, Nnamadi Sambo; deputy speaker, House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha; PDP national chairman Ahmed Adamu Muazu; chairman of BoT Chief Tony Anenih; chairman, PDP Governors Forum Chief Godwin Akpabio, and a number of his colleagues; Chief Bode George; governor-elect, Ekiti State, Mr Ayo Fayose; Otunba Alao-Akala, Chief Buruji Kazamu, and Erelu Olusola Obada.

Reacting to the statements of speakers at the rally, the Bureau of Communications and Strategy in the Office of the Governor of Osun said the campaign rally has further established the fact that the party has no plan at all for the development and progress of the state except to return the state to the Stone Age.

In a statement, the director of the bureau, Mr Semiu Okanlawon, said that the PDP rally was so empty that it left the few who paid attention to what the PDP leaders wanted to say bewildered.

Okanlawon said all the PDP bigwigs including President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice Preisdent Nnamadi Sambo could not tell the people in one statement what their party has in stock and what they intend to do differently.

According to Okanlawon, what the PDP did with its so-called mega rally was to at best just register its presence in the state, having discovered that their candidate has no chance in the electoral contest of August 9.

Campaign is basically and primarily meant to intimate the electorate with a political partys manifesto and what the party intends to do differently by seeking to take power.

What we saw of the PDP mega rally yesterday was an open demonstration of emptiness, indeed a very empty gathering meant to insult the sensibilities of the people of Osun.

It is by this degree saddening that President Goodluck Jonathan did not tell Osun people what federal government has in stock for the state. More saddening was even the emptiness demonstrated by the partys standard bearer, Iyiola Omisore, who did not list one programme he plans to implement in the state.

There is no issue-based campaign. PDP or Omisore did not highlight what was wrong in the education, health, agriculture, welfare, security, youth and infrastructure development programmes and policies of Governor Rauf Aregbesola.

Does it not confound reasoning and send a very dangerous signal to our people that PDP is merely out to hijack power and corner the resources of the state to better the lot of members of the cabal?

He advised the people to make wise choice by casting their votes for the continuity of Aregbesolas government so as to guarantee unbroken growth, progress and development that started three and half years ago.

The former governor of the state, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, was conspicuously absent at the campaign where former minister of aviation Femi Fani-Kayode formally announced his return to the party.