Loyalists Cry Foul As Ogun ACN Chairmanship Candidate And Aides Die In Road Mishap
After being unanimously adopted as the candidate of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the forthcoming Local Government elections for Ogun Water side Local Government, Otunba Yomi Ismail along side two others lost their lives on Tuesday evening in an accident that has generated lots of controversy in the State. The car which belongs to Ismail had Tayo Sabitu, the brother of the Hon. Commissioner for Forestry in the State, a candidate for the post of Councillors and three other people that were not hurt but have fled.
Before the accident occurred along J4-Igele road, Ismail was on his way to Water side after he had gone for his screening at the party secretariat on Abiola way, Abeokuta. This incident has added to the growing number of deaths involving politicians in the State.
A loyalist of former Governor, Olusegun Osoba, Ismail’s death has been condemned by the party faithfuls in his home town, many of them alleging that such accident would only be a disguised assassination from his political foes within the ACN.
There has been no love lost in the Ogun State chapter of ACN. The party is sharply divided into two factions, one is loyal to Governor Ibikunle Amosun while the other is led by the former Governor, Aremo Olusegun Osoba. Yomi Bamgbose, one of the leading members of Osoba’s group was shot dead in his house in Abeokuta in October last year. Another chairmanship aspirant in Odogbolu local government was also killed on a broad day light in December.
One of the supporters of Ismail in Ibiade who doesn’t want his names to be mentioned spoke with NigerianEcho on the phone. “Do you know that this man just left the party secretariat where he went for screening having been adopted as the party’s candidate in Ogun Waterside LG? Otunba Yomi is the people’s man he is a core ACN member and the members of SIACO (Governor Amosun) group are really fighting his emergence, the report we got says the tyre was shot leading to a break failure and eventually the car gutted by fire”
Findings by NigerianEcho further revealed that the remaining occupants of the car who escaped unhurt have disappeared into thin air fuelling the speculation that there are more to the “accident” than meet the eye. Calls put across to the phones of these “survivors” have not been answered. Their phones have not been reachable since the incident occurred.
