Amid the controversy surrounding the assault of the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development in Ondo state, Mrs. Bunmi Osadahun, the Arigidi ward Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akoko North West Ward 1, Olumide Awolumate, has given reasons for his altercation with the government official.
Speaking with newsmen, Awolumate who has been suspended by the APC yesterday, explained that the Commissioner invaded his home with her son, a police officer and another young man to arrest him while he never resisited arrest, but the Commissioner’s son confronted him and pounced on him.
Awolumate however, said the confrontation resulted in a fracas which lasted for some minutes with the woman commissioner and her son who accompanied her beating him and had to defend himself.
Narrating the incident, the APC ward Chairman said: “what happened is that we had a meeting at the local government level, at the house of a leader, Pa Akeju, we talked about the party, in which the commissioner for woman affairs talked about the palliatives that was distributed sometimes ago.
The commissioner disclosed that the palliatives had been given to different sectors, and at that junction I raised my hand as the ward chairman of the party that the ten bags that suppose to be in my custody did not get to me. I noted that some groups had been given, which include, PDP, artisans and groups and said ours should be sent to me .
“I raised this in the presence of all the leaders of the party, and the Commissioner objected to to this, saying she was the head of that commitee at the state level, but I objected my non inclusion in the sharing of the pallaitive, as I was not invited.
This led to an argument and i was prevail upon to leave the meeting but I was home with my family playing ludo when I saw the commissioner in company of her son and the police office.
He said further, “her son pounced on me from behind and started hitting me, but I cannot sit and fold my arms to allow him hitting me in the presence of my own wife, children and friends. I stood up and fight him back, as I was fighting him, the commissioner joined her son and fight me also.
She started beating and tearing my cloth in the process, she carried a chair and threw it at me and in retaliation I took the chair and threw it back at her.
“To my surprise I started seeing a video circulating, anybody that study the video would see it has been doctored and edited, it was so short, it was a planned work, they knew what they are coming to do in my house, they have arranged for somebody to video the scene, I never expected something of such”
He however, attributed the friction between him and the involvemnet of the Commissioner in anti party activities, saying “the woman was involvee in anti party activities, the last state Assembly election. His son was the coordinator of a particular candidate in PDP, the woman actively involved in their campaign, they used the woman official vehicle to go round the town and campaign for PDP and this did not go down well with party faithful from the ward.
“When the issue of pallaitive came about, she chooses to call this PDP she worked for then, against our candidate in the election, they were the ones she put in charge of the pallaitive and this did not go down well with the party members.
Osadahun was severely beaten after a dispute over the distribution of fuel subsidy removal palliatives allocated to the state by the Federal Government.
The APC chieftain was seen in a viral social media video striking the Ondo commissioner with a plastic chair and even attempting to hit her with a blue table before onlookers intervened at the scene.
