The Ondo State chapter of the Labour Party (LP) weekend called on the State Command of the Nigerian Police Force to hold the Dr Olusegun Agagu-led government responsible for the murder of the former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the governor, Mr. Tunde Awanebi saying by Awanebi’s murder, it (LP) had been robbed of a key witness in the electoral fraud hanging on the neck of the ruling PDP at the Electoral Petition Tribunal. In its reaction to interviews granted to the press by the Chief of Staff (COS) to the governor, Femi Agagu last Friday in which he accused LP of complicity in the murder, the party insisted that since the younger Agagu had taken it upon himself to act as the prosecutor as well as the spokesman for the police by asking them to arrest members of the party whom he alleged had a hand in the killing of Awanebi, he should be invited by the police to substantiate his sweeping claim.

Indeed, LP’s Director of Press, Mr. Kolawole Olabisi, whom Femi Agagu asked the police to quiz, in a in an interview with journalist on Sunday dared the COS to come out with fact to deny that the late Awanebi was killed barely 7 hours after he was replaced by the government with the Principal Security Officer (PSO) to Agagu as was judiciously reported by most of the dailies the following day the CSO was killed.

His words: “As we had said in our initial reaction to the attempt by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
government in Ondo State to pin the murder of the former CSO on the Labour Party that the killing was done by agents of the State government who used the late Awanebi along with others to foist itself on the people during the April polls by stealing the mandate of the people in broad day light at gun point. Now that he had done his masters’ bidding to the best of his ability, he had to go because they felt he knew too much most especially since he had been list by our party as one of the witnesses to testify at the Electoral Petition Tribunal later this month.

“First was his unceremonious removal last Wednesday, and according to The late CSO’s wife, Edith, the late Awanebi was at home by 7pm that evening having his supper before his former masters at the Government House gave him a call on his handset summoning him. It was after leaving the Government House that the assassins trailed him to the supermarket where he was eventually killed.

“And whose GSM’s line was the last one he reportedly dialed before his death other than that of the driver of Femi Agagu? It was this same line that sympathizers later called to identify the slain CSO and reports his assassination. This is a clear case of cover up, it is a despicable act, an heinous crime and it is unacceptable for a government that pride itself as above board to kill in order to cover up its tracks.

“From the foregoing, the answer to who killed Awanebi is not far fetched. It is obvious that those who
wanted him out were afraid that having been eased out, he might spill the beans thus jeopardizing the case of his master who had already been dragged to the Election Petition Tribunal for the reversal of his phantom electoral victory which was given to the PDP in the April 14 election in the State. His killers
reside in the Ondo State Government House. “Therefore, since the Governor, Dr Olusegun Agagu is covered by immunity; his younger brother who is also the COS should be quizzed by the police in order to unravel the mystery behind the killing of the late Awanebi rather than for him to be pontificating and ditching order to the police on how to carry out their investigations.”

Also reacting to allegations that LP was behind series of violence in the State, Olabisi stated that the
people of the State are aware of the true position of things in the State and they know who the aggressors are and those who are being persecuted. “Our people know who imported arms and ammunition into the State for election purpose, indeed, the law enforcement agents in the State are also aware too.

They know that since they have been making arrests of people with possession of arms and ammunition, no member of the LP in this State has ever been caught. Aside this, looking at our immediate environment, the South-west, the PDP has come to be synonymous with violence; in Lagos, it is PDP versus Action Congress (AC), in Ogun, its PDP versus other parties, and ditto in Oyo. In Osun and Ekiti States, it is PDP versus AC and in Ondo State; it is the ubiquitous PDP versus LP, so which is the violent party? The answer again is clear because there is a common thread running through all these State where there is violence and that is the PDP.”