Timi Frank Accuses Oyetola, APC of Fueling Crisis in Osun, Calls for Tinubu’s Intervention
ABUJA/Nigeria: Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, has urged President Bola Tinubu to call the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, ex-Governor Gboyega Oyetola, and his APC supporters to order, following violent clashes in Osun State over local government control.
Frank, in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, said the escalating crisis between APC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had led to loss of lives, warning that Osun risked descending into anarchy if urgent action was not taken.
Violence erupted on Monday as APC and PDP members clashed over the control of local government secretariats, with both parties interpreting a Court of Appeal judgment in conflicting ways. While Governor Ademola Adeleke insisted that sacked council chairmen could not return to office due to security concerns, Oyetola maintained that the court ruling must be enforced.
Frank accused Oyetola of instigating unrest to render the state ungovernable, allegedly as part of a broader plan to force the Federal Government into declaring a state of emergency. He cited statements by APC National Secretary, Dr. Ajibola Basiru, who had suggested such a move during a live television interview on Monday.
“Their major target is to declare a state of emergency because they know that if elections are held today, Governor Adeleke will still win,” Frank asserted. “So, they want to abort his second term through crisis and violence.”
He called on President Tinubu to intervene, stressing that despite Osun being his home state, the governor was the people’s choice and must be allowed to govern without undue interference.
“Oyetola is using federal might to engineer anarchy in Osun State, and this nonsense must stop with all urgency,” he said.
Frank, who also serves as the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) Ambassador to East Africa and the Middle East, urged well-meaning Nigerians to resist what he described as APC’s attempt to capture power through “impunity and criminality.”
He encouraged Osun residents to stand firm in support of Governor Adeleke and resist intimidation, arguing that Adeleke’s administration had achieved more in two years than Oyetola’s four-year tenure.
“The people of Osun must rise against any plot to destabilize Adeleke’s administration through a state of emergency. Oyetola and the APC know they cannot win an election in the state, which is why they are desperate to take power by force,” Frank added.
He called for vigilance among the electorate, urging them to reject any attempt to use violence as a tool to subvert democracy in Osun.
