Adeleke vows to sue APC spokesperson for N5 billion damages

Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State has threatened to sue the Director of Media and Information of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Kola Olabisi, for N5 billion damages over an allegation purportedly levelled against Mr the governor.

The threat is contained in a statement issued on Wednesday by the governor’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, a copy of which was made available to PREMIUM TIMES.

Earlier on Wednesday, the APC spokesperson had accused Mr Adeleke of possibly being complicit in a threat by an acclaimed member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state to bomb the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should the party lose the state’s 2026 off-cycle governorship election.

Viral recording

The recording, which PREMIUM TIMES obtained, had reportedly been shared via WhatsApp a day after the declaration of the 21 September governorship election in Edo State, where an anonymous voice lamented PDP’s loss in the election and blamed the development on the failure of the party leaders to organise the bombing of INEC office in Edo and killing 200 people including the resident electoral commissioner, senior police officials, among others.

The voice, in Yoruba Language, said what happened in Edo State is an example of what APC would do in Osun State in 2026, threatening that: “Whoever wants to die, let him die.”

The voice continued: “There ought to have been a clandestine arrangement whereby one or two chartered bomb-laced helicopters would have been stationed in the neighbouring Delta State from where they would have successfully bombed the INEC office where not less than 200 people including the resident electoral commissioner, AIGs, returning officer, and presiding officers would have been killed.”

The voice noted that a similar strategy had been suggested in Osun in 2018 but that the family of the then PDP candidate and now governor, Ademola Adeleke, rejected it.

It added that should PDP allow APC to win the 2026 election the party would find it hard to return to power in the state, and therefore, warned PDP leaders against complacency.

The anonymous voice further said: “We must be prepared towards the next election and be ready to kill close to 200 innocent people including the REC, the AIG, the Returning Officer and the Presiding Officers through bombing of the INEC office so that they won’t be able to either collate or count the ballot papers let alone announce any result.

“We should work towards it as no one would know who might have carried (it) out. Go and kill the people in order to implicate INEC. They won’t be able to declare the results. It would attract the attention of the United Nations.”

APC accuses Adeleke of being complicit

In its statement on Wednesday, the opposition party alleged that if Governor Adeleke was not behind the move, as the chief security officer of the state, he would have condemned it and called for a thorough investigation.

The statement described as bizarre, how the threat by the anonymous politician had continued to go viral for more than a week without a response from the government, saying “…neither Governor Adeleke nor the leadership of the ruling party has deemed it fit to condemn the issue which is a good ground to suspect the complicity of the governor and his cohorts in the unsavoury development.”

The party urged the police to immediately investigate the matter “with a view to bringing to book whoever might be behind the devilish plan to spill the blood of the innocent people because of elections, hinting that it requires an accelerated approach in order to serve as a deterrent to similar enemies of peace who don’t believe that in a democratic election, a winner and a loser must emerge.”

Mr Olabisi further wrote: “It is worthwhile to remind the statutory security agencies in the state that they are too placid with the issue of the plans of the anonymous PDP chieftain to cause maximum cataclysm in the state.

“If the PDP promoters of violence should be allowed to act according to their threat, it would be on record that a clarion call was earlier made to the security agencies in this regard. Prevention is far, far better than cure”.

Governor threatens lawsuit

Reacting to the APC’s statement, Mr Adeleke described as irresponsible “the defamatory allegations by the APC director.”

The governor urged Mr Olabisi to retract “the baseless and unfounded allegations or face legal action.”

Mr Rasheed wrote: “The allegation is reprehensible, baseless and defamatory. Mr Governor has ordered his lawyers to review the situation and demand retraction as the Governor did not and has not in any way planned or plotted any attack on either INEC or any electoral official.

“Upon failure to retract the offensive publication, the state director faces a potential libel suit with a demand for five billion naira damages. This deliberate falsehood will have consequences”.

The governor also alleged that since its victory in the Edo State governorship election, members of the APC in the state had been boasting “across media platforms to violently rig 2026 governorship elections.”

“We have all the clips of threats and vows to snatch 2026 ballots at all costs,” the statement said.

He noted that Governor Adeleke is popular enough not to be bothered “by those depressive rantings as the Osun PDP possesses electoral deterrence alongside being solidly on ground with the enhanced backing of the people of Osun State.”