Kashamu: How I escaped assassination plot by Fayose , Mimiko and Omisore
The senator representing Ogun East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Senator Buruji Kashamu has revealed how he escaped an assassination plot allegedly hatched by Governors Ayo Fayose and Segun Mimiko as well as former Deputy Governor of Osun State, Otunba Iyiola Omisore.
Senator Kashamu, who made the revelation today while speaking with some of his close associates in Abuja, said the incident that happened at the Alagbaka Government House in Akure, Ondo State where members of the Makanjuola Ogundipe-led South West Zonal Exco and the delegates from Ogun State were beaten up was targeted at him.
The leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South West had called a meeting for Akure, the Ondo State capital, to deliberate on the national offices zoned to the region ahead of the proposed August 17th National Convention.
The Senator said the game-plan, which was hatched by the trio of Fayose, Mimiko and Omisore, “was for their thugs to beat up my people and prevent them from entering the venue of the meeting. They had thought that once they do that, I would be provoked and would want to forcibly lead my people into the hall. Of course, there would be resistance and then a free-for-all would break out. Their evil agenda was to catch in on the situation and shoot me dead.”
According to him, “the trio then got a willing tool in a member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ladi Adebutu, whom they told to man the gate, with some thugs that he had armed with machetes and cudgels, and prevent the authentic delegates people from entering the venue of the meeting.
“Of course, Ladi carried out the assignment given to him by personally supervising the blockage and beating up of the authentic delegates from the South West Zonal Exco and Ogun State.
“But unknown to him, they meant to implicate him because Fayose and Omisore had mixed 10 bad and arms-bearing boys from Ekiti and Osun states with the crowd who were to shoot me at the slightest provocation.
“The meeting was scheduled to begin 12 noon on that fateful day. So, the plan was that if I got there and tried to force my way in, Ladi and his people should resist. There would be a bedlam. Then, I could be shot in the ensuing commotion.”
The lawmaker revealed that if he had been shot and killed as planned by Fayose, Mimiko and Omisore, the story would be that they had yet to get to the venue of the meeting when the incident occurred and that it was an extension of the internal wrangling within the Ogun State chapter of the PDP.
He noted that, “While Fayose was still in Ekiti monitoring events from there, Omisore was waiting in one of the border communities between Osun and Ondo states. He was waiting for the deed to have been done before he would turn back and return home. Mimiko tucked himself somewhere in the inner recesses of the Government House.”
Senator Kashamu said about 48 hours to the meeting, Fayose was talking to him as if all was well while at the same stoking the embers of discord in Ladi Adebutu and encouraging him to fight him and his people at the Akure meeting, with a promise to subtly back him (Ladi Adebutu) up.
The lawmaker added that when he got to the Government House in Akure, party leaders and their supporters who had been beaten and shut out of the meeting became charged and urged him to forcibly lead them into the hall of meeting.
“But I resisted the pressure to do so. I knew that if I did, there could be a clash between my people and the aggressors. So, when I thought of the likely consequences, I persuaded them to leave the Government House in peace. I led them out. That was how what could have been a bloodbath was averted. It was God that saved me and other innocent party leaders and members from being killed over nothing,” he said.
