PDP chieftain property demolished for role in Adeleke certificate saga

A property belonging to a member of the Peoples Democratic Party in Osun State, Mr. Akin Adeyi, was in the early hours of Saturday pulled down by people said to wearing police uniform and aided by suspected touts.

Also, three shops near Adeyi’s building were demolished, while many of those people found in the premises were allegedly assaulted.

A resident of Osogbo West bypass, where the buildings were located, said the team that carried out the demolition, had men carrying dangerous weapons, and arrived the area around 4:30am.

It was also learnt that the team brought a caterpillar and prevented people that slept in the building and others that had shops close to the buildings from moving out their personal belongings before the structures were pulled down.

Speaking to journalists at the scene of the incident, a shop owner, Olutope, whose shop was also demolished, said he was attacked by one of those that carried out the demolition when he attempted to salvage some furniture materials he found around the scene.

“They said I should not have come around when they were pulling down the buildings. They alleged that I had come to spy on them. All my machines, materials and tools were destroyed during the demolition,” he concluded.

Speaking on the development, Adeyi, said his property was demolished because he wrote a petition to the PDP screening committee before the last governorship primaries, asking it to investigate inadequacies he had observed in Adeleke’s credentials.

He further said, “Sometimes last year, I wrote a petition and appealed to the Screening Committee of the PDP where I said they should screen Adeleke properly because he had some deficiencies in his credentials which may cause problems for the party. That they should not allow our effort to be wasted and that the party should settle for another candidate.

“That was the genesis of the problem that I had with them that made them pull down my business place. Nobody can do that in a state without the consent of the governor. Before you can pull down somebody’s structure, you must go to the court. It is only the court that can pull down a structure, even if the structure is illegal. You can’t on your own pull down somebody else structure.

“You must pass through the court and that person must be served 2 to 3 times before such will be carried out and if the government is to pull down a structure, it is not going to be in the dead of the night.

“I am so lucky and I thank God, the people sent did not meet me there because, if such people had met me there, I don’t know what would have happened. There was a time last year when I cried out that my life was under threat from the Adeleke’s. People would now believe what I have been saying.

“I want to beg the security agencies to look into this and bring those who perpetrated the act to book. No government is bigger than the state. What is it that I have said now that is not true? I said they should look at his credentials and that there were deficiencies there and this is it now. I am vindicated by what is going on at the tribunal.”

He urged security agencies to investigate and ensure that the perpetrators were brought to book.