Oba Kayode Adenekan Afolabi, the Alapomu of Apomu in the Isokan Local Government Area of Osun State, has confessed to backing electoral violence in the 2023 election.

Afolabi spoke to a gathering that graced the flag-off of some road projects facilitated by Olanrewaju Oladebo, the legislator representing the Ayedaade, Irewole, Isokan Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, on Sunday.

As custodians of culture and traditional leadership, traditional rulers are expected to be non-partisan in their conduct. But in his speech, Afolabi publicly identified with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), referencing what he told some people behind closed doors in the heat of the election won by Oladebo in 2023.

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“Peoples Democratic Party members, I will tell you a secret. Go and put your house in order because we don’t know which candidate the other party will present,” the traditional ruler said.

Oba Kayode Adenekan Afolabi speaking with a mic in his right hand. Source: Facebook.

“If the other party presents an influential candidate, when there is no unity within the PDP, it might negatively affect us. I do tell people that we tend to under-appreciate what we have until we lose it.

“I am seizing this moment to appeal to you to support him. A day to the election that produced him, Akogun [Olalere Oyewumi, Senator of Osun West District] came to me to say, ‘Kabiyesi, they have defeated you.’

“I asked, ‘Who defeated me?’ He said it was Olufi [Oba Adetoyese Oyeniyi, the Olufi of Gbongan]. I said, ‘Olufi ke? He is like a son to me. Gbongan was founded in 1793. He is too young to me; he must be referring to me as his father. How will he defeat me?’

“He [Akogun] said he held a meeting. I then said this election was no longer between Lanre [Olanrewaju Oladebo of the PDP] and Oluga [Taiwo Oluga, then representing the constituency in the House of Representatives under the All Progressives Congress (APC)] but between Olufi and I. And I will let him realise I am his father.

“I had a meeting with Mao [Alhaji Azeez Adeniran Mao]. He does not want to say what I said. He’s at my back. I said, ‘Mao, if it turns violent, so be it. If turns to a fight, so be it.’ Nobody can question a king except God. That is why I didn’t want to tell you that secret.

“I told him that whatever it takes, I am behind him. Go and scatter everything. This man [Oladebo] must win. That was why it turned tata ta tata,” Oba Afolabi narrated, mimicking gunshot sounds.

The audience occasionally cheered the king up in the clip with reverence as he regaled them with his role in ensuring the federal legislator’s victory in the previous election.

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Although what the king said was about the 2023 general election, he denied inciting violence ahead of the 2027 election.

Tolu Adetunji, his media aide, said his boss never mentioned anywhere in the video that PDP supporters could attack APC supporters in 2027.

“The allegation is false and fabricated. I am a man of peace. I do not encourage or support violence in any form or manner,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

FIJ recently documented how violence marred electioneering in the state during the election, with injuries and deaths recorded across party lines in the Ayedaade, Irewole, Isokan Federal Constituency.
The post VIDEO: Alapomu of Apomu Admits Role in 2023 Electoral Violence appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.