Posts
Abeokuta – The Allied People’s Movement (APM), candidate in Abeokuta North/Obafemi-Owode/Odeda Federal Constituency in Ogun State, Mikail Kassim, Saturday, said he will not carry out a reprisal attack on the governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State, Dapo Abiodun.
Kassim, who is currently representing the same constituency in the House of Representatives, while allaying fears of possible reprisal attack on APC, said the only reprisal attack will be his electoral victory in a week’s time.
The federal lawmaker, who was elected on the platform of APC before defecting to APM, expressed this assurance while hosting journalists at his constituency office in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
Kassim was the victim when, a week ago, loyalists of APC and APM clashed during campaign rallies of the two parties in Abeokuta North Local Government Area of the state as several of his campaign vehicles were vandalised right in front of his office.
While clearing the air on the incident, the lawmaker who was alleged to have attacked the convoy of Abiodun, challenged the governorship candidate to release pictures of where he attacked him.
He said he was on a visit to all the wards in Abeokuta North when he sighted a campaign entourage from afar and attempted taking another route for fear of confrontation when hold up built up at Elega Junction because of ongoing construction project.
Kassim said he alighted from his car to clear the road for easy movement of vehicles when thugs allegedly in the convoy of Abiodun started throwing stones at him.
At that point, according to him, he returned to his office and had to leave on the advice of police officers only to be called back about 30 minutes late to see the volume of damage on his campaign office and vehicles.
He said, “I am a member of APM, it is a new party and we are doing a lot of sensitisation, on that day, I wasn’t campaigning I was only visiting my wards.
“We were coming from Ago-Oko in ward III and we proceeded to ward 4 in Elega, we drove past Mokola, there’s a construction going on, from a mile away, I saw a campaign team and I jumped out of my car to act as a traffic warden or Road Traffic Marshall in order to clear the road.
“We turned around because we didn’t want to confront them but we got to Elega and people started throwing stone, we left our buses and we left for the office.
“The damages didn’t start from Elega, the vehicles were not vandalised in Elega, they were axed and macheted in front of my office.
“I had left my office on the advice of police officers who had envisaged what’s likely to happen, I received calls that my office has been vandalised, I saw the magnitude of the damage about 30 minutes later and I was shocked.
“If I was with guns as being alleged, in the era of technology, why has it not being circulated in the media or all over the world?
“I will never do a reprisal attack on those who attacked me, because I have a better name than them, I am more popular than Dapo Abiodun, my performance has undermine his authority and I am popular than him, let him point out what he has been doing in Ogun State.
“Someone who gave out transformers in Ogun Waterside and went back to take back the transformers given to the constituents after losing the election, is that not petty?
“Amosun has performed and we won’t pit sand in the grain of performance, they won’t be any reprisal attack because our people are smatter, our reprisal will be our electoral victory,” he said.
No comments