A chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Hon. Dipo Okeyomi, has described as mere political propaganda, an allegation that the party has encamped political thugs in some ACN-controlled Southwest states, to be unleashed on the state next Saturday.
Okeyomi, known in the party circles as 'Carry Go', said as deputy director of Independent Network, a security outfit of the ACN for the October 20 governorship election, he should know better.
"I can confirm to you that there is no trainingcamp anywhere; Ondo is not the first state outside Lagos where ACN participated in a governorship election. We were in Edo, Oyo, Ogun and Osun States. The opposition in those states did not accuse us of breeding thugs outside the state. So, there is no basis for such a thing in Ondo, whose people are overwhelmingly for us. If the people are cheated, they will fight for themselves," Okeyomi explained.
According to him, Independent Network, being the security outfit of the party, has been working closely with the Nigeria Police and other security agencies with a view to ensuring that Saturday's election holds peacefully.
On the accusation that the leader of the party,Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was behind a planned 'importation of thugs' to Ondo State, Okeyomisneered, saying, "Let them bring up their evidence; state the location of the training camp and identifying one or two persons who are undergoing training or who their trainer is."
Tinubu, he said, has always been a promoter of democracy and public decorum, and wouldnot condone a drift to anarchy.
However, Okeyomi appealed to other political parties participating in the election to also embrace peace, "as the wounds of the 1983 bloody political crises in Okeyomi Ondo State are yet to heal up."