With Osun State’s August 15 governorship election drawing closer, the APC campaign council and Governor Ademola Adeleke’s Imole Campaign Council traded sharp accusations Wednesday over claims that convicted and accused criminals had been quietly released from custody, a dispute that quickly expanded into broader allegations of police bias and planned political violence.
The APC’s opening salvo came from Adebayo Adeleke, Director-General of the party’s Osun Central campaign council, who alleged that the governor had used his prerogative of mercy power to release several notorious criminals over the past two months, with the specific intent, he claimed, of deploying them to sow chaos around the election. “Within the last eight weeks, some hardened criminals in prison have been released and the Governor reportedly released them on a prerogative of mercy,” he said, naming individuals including Sahid Sabo, Taoreed Ademola (known as Small Rugged), a man identified as Esubiyi who had been jailed for murder, and Amos Ayomide Aderibigbe, who he said had been convicted of defiling a five-year-old child.
Adebayo Adeleke went further, alleging that some of those released, particularly Small Rugged, have since been linked to a string of attacks and killings. He demanded the governor and the state’s Chief Judge publicly explain the timing and reasoning behind the releases, coming so close to the election. “The governor should explain to the whole world the rationale behind the release of these criminals. The whole world should ask the Governor and the Chief Judge the reasons these criminals were released few days to the election,” he said.
The APC council didn’t stop at prisoner releases. Adebayo Adeleke claimed the party has intelligence suggesting Accord Party leadership had discussed plans to target APC figures for attack in the final week before the election, allegedly using Amotekun operatives to carry out the violence. “There was meeting of Accord and government leadership that a week to the election, they will strike by trailing leaders of APC and kill them. The plan is to use Amotekun for these criminal activities,” he alleged.
The Adeleke camp rejected the prisoner-release claims outright. Kolapo Alimi, Deputy Director-General of the Imole Campaign Council, said the governor simply hasn’t exercised his mercy powers in the timeframe alleged. “Since the last two years, the Governor has not exercised his power of mercy. I don’t know where they are getting their facts from,” he said.
Beyond denying the specific allegations, the Imole Campaign Council turned its attention to what it described as a far more pressing concern: the conduct of the Osun police command. In a statement from spokesperson Pelumi Olajengbesi, the council called directly on the Inspector General of Police to publicly commit to a violence-free election, accusing the command under CP Ibrahim Gotan of harassment, human rights abuses, and arbitrary detention of Accord Party members and leaders. The council pointed specifically to Gotan’s brief transfer to Force Headquarters last Thursday, which they say followed public outrage over the politically charged detention of Secretary to the State Government Teslim Igbalaye, before Gotan was swiftly reinstated. “CP Gotan was transferred to Force Headquarters last Thursday following the outrage that followed his shameful outing with the irrational and politically-motivated detention of the Secretary to the Osun State Government, Teslim Igbalaye, and others at his residence,” the statement said, noting that Igbalaye was released shortly afterward with his property returned.
According to the council, a replacement commissioner, CP Samuel Etaifo, had been sent to Osun but was removed from the post within 72 hours after Inspector-General Tunji Disu reinstated Gotan under what the council described as pressure from the APC, with Etaifo limited instead to supervising election-day duties.
The council framed the episode as a direct threat to the credibility of the upcoming vote. “As a campaign council, we affirm that security agencies must remain neutral and professional to achieve credibility and fairness in any election. The Inspector-General of Police must not allow CP Gotan and his APC friends plunge Nigeria’s democracy into the abyss through intimidation, arbitrary arrest, witch hunt and harassment of opponents,” the statement read, calling on the IGP to publicly guarantee both the neutrality of his officers and a peaceful election on August 15.
