The Osun State governor, Ademola Adeleke, has withdrawn all official vehicles of the Association of Market Women from all 30 local government areas of the state after they attended a rally for the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu.
It will be remembered that Osun State stood still for the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who staged a mega rally on Thursday to drum up support for his political ambition.
During the rally at the Osun Capital, a canopy was set up specifically for market women.
Following their presence, Governor Adeleke directed the retrieval of all government-owned official vehicles purchased during Rauf Aregbesola’s APC administration.
It was reported that Osun State Government officials, accompanied by the Nigerian police and PDP members, stormed the residence of the Iyaloja General, Alhaja Awawu Asindemade, in the Kolabalogun area of Ososgbo and retrieved the vehicles.
The gesture was also extended to all of the state’s market women leaders’ homes.
The Iyaloja General, Chief Asindemade, confirmed to THE Whistler that the current state administration has collected the vehicles of market women across the state because they attended Tinubu’s rally.
She chastised the government’s actions, claiming that market women have been loyal to every government since the days of the military.
According to her;
We are not a bastard, we attended the rally of Tinubu in Osun State, it is our choice and we have the right to it. We back Tinubu’s presidency, it is our turn. We have lost the chance for 60 years running now, he will emerge by God’s grace. The present government of Osun met us in the state, we worked with his elder brother(Isiaka Adeleke) who was the governor. They did not collect the official vehicles of other unions but they collected ours.
We work with the government of the day, I attended the swearing-in programme of Adeleke and several programmes of the new government. Before they get to power, they have created several factions of their market women which they are recognising now. He will not be the first to be the governor and not the last, history will always be there.
Tajudeen Lawal, the acting chairman of the Osun APC, echoed the market women’s leader’s condemnation, saying Adeleke’s actions were insensitive, inconsiderate, and vindictive.
He stated that intimidation of any kind will not prevent the APC from winning the upcoming general election.
However, the PDP’s caretaker chairman, Dr. Adekunle Akindele, warned in a statement that they should not be involved in the market women union squabble, claiming that “it is a bid for sympathy.”