Ekiti APC to police: Shooting at Fayemi’s rally not accidental

Ekiti state chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) on Saturday dismissed the claims by the police that the Friday shooting of five of its members at the rally organised for its governorship candidate, Kayode Fayemi, in Ado Ekiti, was accidental discharge. While blaming the police for the security lapses, the party said it had suspended electioneering campaigns until the police are able to guarantee adequate security during the campaigns. A former member of the House of Representatives and governorship aspirant, Opeyemi Bamidele, and four others were allegedly shot at the rally by a policeman, whose intentions were yet to be fully established. Fayemi, who was standing by Bamidele, narrowly escaped being hit by the bullet. However, all the injured persons are said to be in stable condition. The police earlier on Saturday told journalists that the officer was not fake, but was attached to Mopol 20 in Lagos, and was on illegal duty at the rally. The police spokesman, Caleb Ikechukwu, said a politician who hired the policeman and brought him to the rally in Ekiti had also been arrested. He refused to name the politician. But speaking to journalists in Ado Ekiti, the state capital, the chairman of the party in the state, Jide Awe, alleged that the police were to be blamed for allowing a policeman from another state provide security at the campaign rally. Awe also blamed the police for granting the Ekiti state Governor, Ayodele Fayose, the permission to hold a separate rally with commercial motorcyclists after permitting the party to hold its rally the same day. He said the action by the police was capable of igniting crisis in the state. Awe insisted that the attack was a well contrived assassination attempt on its candidate and the hierarchy of the party. “We raise serious doubt over police investigation claiming that it was a case of accidental discharge,” he said. “The police must convince us that the policeman, who fi red the shot, is not fake. They claimed that he came from MOPOL 20 in Lagos. What was a policeman from Lagos doing in our rally? What was his mission and who was his principal?,” he asked.