The PDP warned on Friday that Governor Akeredolu should not assign any role to the Amotekun security outfit in the state’s forthcoming governorship election.
The PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, who issued the caution in Abuja on Friday, said “intelligence” reports available to the party indicated that Akeredolu had hurriedly inaugurated the Ondo chapter of the Amotekun Corps with a view to using the security outfit to intimidate and harass voters during the election.
Secondus spoke during the inauguration of the PDP National Campaign Council for the Ondo election.
The PDP chair said: “We want to warn that state security outfits are at experimental stages, and any abuse will mean the end of it. The people of the Southwest desired Amotekun to secure them. Anything done otherwise would be undermining the will of the people.”
But the Ondo State Government, in a swift reaction, dismissed claims by the PDP chairman and urged the PDP to be properly informed about the reasons for setting up the Amotekun.
Ondo State Commissioner for Information, Mr Donald Ojogo, mocked the PDP, asking if there was Amotekun when the APC defeated the PDP in the 2016 Ondo governorship election.
Ojogo, who spoke with reporters on the telephone, said: “Was there Amotekun when they were humiliated in 2016? PDP as a sinking party deserves to be properly educated about the reasons for Amotekun.
“If the party feels otherwise, it’s rather unfortunate and goes to show how much they love the people.”
Prince Secondus also reiterated calls to President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) not to deploy the military for the Edo and Ondo states elections.
He reminded the President and the APC of a subsisting ruling of the Supreme Court restricting security operatives, particularly the military, from meddling in the electoral process beyond providing security for the exercise.
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