Aregbesola, PDP trade words over alleged secession plot

[MrVan]

By  Wale Akinola

The South-West chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked security agencies to question the governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, on his alleged plan to take students union leaders to Cuba for paramilitary training.

The Osun State chapter of the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), in a reply, described the allegation as the replication of the 1962 training of Chief Obafemi Awolowo by the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) government.

Zonal Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kayode Babade, said, in a statement, yesterday, that the party had  reliable information that Aregbesola was  coordinating plans by the ACN to train some student activists in Cuba.

In furtherance of this plan, the PDP said it learnt the Osun Governor was procuring international passports for those who did not have, among the selected student activists.

The student leaders being gathered for the trip, the PDP alleged are some carefully selected ones in Osun and Ekiti States.

The PDP urged security agencies not to sweep the information under the carpet given recent violent outbursts of Aregbesola against some leaders across the country.

But the Osun ACN,speaking through its director of publicity and strategy, Barrister Kunle Oyatomi, yesterday, likened the allegation to the 1962 "framing of Chief Obafemi Awolowo by the NPC govt of Tafawa Balewa in conjuction with the SL Akintola National Democratic Party notoriously called 'Demo' in the  West purposely to liquidate the Action Group (AG) and imprison Awolowo.

Oyatomi went on: "The difference between the two scenarios is that the  security forces discovered the supposed plot of Awo in 1962 while, in 2012, exactly 50 years after, some political chalatans, are the ones who have discovered a supposed plot of secession.

"It should be noted that these chalatans in Yorubaland who re-living the  perfidy of  the Akintola era are targetting a political personality in the  person of Aregbesola who is passionate about  replicating Awo's success of the 50s in our current situation."

The Osun ACN warned: "The  cynical attempt by the PDP will have the  similar catastrophy on Nigeria as the 1962 madness of  the NPC.

"We challenge those making this allegation to produce incontrovertible proof of their story.

The ACN in Osun State categorically denies  this allegation as the  figment of imagination of desperate politicians who are gradually losing their mental stability."

Vanguard Nigeria