The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, (CACOL) has condemned in strong terms the attack by assailants on the residence of the Labour Party Candidate for the July 16 governorship election in Osun State, Lasun Yusuf, located in Ilobu, Osun State.
CACOL in a statement on Monday by the Director of Administration and Programmes, Tola Oresanwo, on behalf of the Chairman, Debo Adeniran, lamented: “We received the sad news of the attack of the residence of the Labour Party Candidate for the July 16 Osun governorship poll, Lasun Yusuf, with great shock.” CACOL recalled that some yet-to-be-identified people bearing arms reportedly attacked the residence of the Labour Party candidate for the July 16 Osun governorship poll, Lasun Yusuf, located in Ilobu, Osun State. The group also recalled that when the attackers could not gain entrance into the building, they fired shots from outside the premises, aiming at the upper floor of the building where bedrooms are, and shattered the aluminum windows.
“In as much as the true intent of the assailants is not yet known, it will not be wrong to think that the attack may be politically motivated.
“The Lasun Yusuf that we know doesn’t appear to us as a violent person who can be a threat to the wellbeing of any other candidate. He has been in the National Assembly for years and we didn’t hear any report of him attacking anybody physically or even verbally. So, he is not a threat to anybody’s welfare. So, whoever carried out the attack doesn’t seem to mean well for the good people of Osun State and its politics,” CACOL stated.
CACOl declared: “We have a very strong view that politics should be a family game whereby all the contestants will see themselves as one another’s keeper. We also believe that the candidates contesting the gubernatorial elections in the state should compete under a peaceful atmosphere devoid of violent attack at one another. We believed that it should be a contest of intellect and capacity to deliver, not a capacity to foment trouble since what they are competing to do is governance not war.
“Whoever wins the forthcoming election still remains a citizen of Osun state and the same applies to whoever loses and they should cooperate in developing the state rather than engaging in any form of violent attack.
“We are still amazed at the manner of political desperation that could warrant this kind of attack on the residence of one of the gubernatorial candidates in Osun state. We hereby express optimism that the Police will rise to the occasion by investigating this case and bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to book and hope such elements would desist from their evil ways before they inevitably meet with their waterloo.”