 It's still plus politics, now thugs loaded in five buses reportedly attacked members of the Social Democratic Party, SDP in Itaji, Ekiti and Oyei, Ekiti in all Oyei local government areas of Ekiti state. During the incident, the political thugs were said to shoot indiscriminately at campaign rally venue, the campaign rally venue of the SDP. The director of media and publicity of Shegwoni campaign organization Jackson Adebayo made the claim in a statement made available to journalist Adebayo narrated that the thugs began to shoot when the SDP governorship candidate Shegwoni was addressing SDP members and supporters in Itaji town. He noted that three SDP members were shot and terribly wounded in Itaji but one of the thugs was arrested by the party supporter who handed them over to the police. One thug confessed that they had been sent. Adebayo alleged that the attackers shot three members of the SDP waiting for the arrival of Oyei who was due to address the party supporters in the town. Was running us to discuss this and shed more light is Lanry Ogonsuyi, he is the media director of Shegwoni campaign organization. Mr Ogonsuyi is so good to have you join us. Good evening and good evening viewers at home. It's nice to be here. Great. Thank you for joining us on this side commentary. The last time you and I had a conversation we were talking about the fact that Mr Ogonsuyi had left to join the SDP and his reasons for joining the SDP but there seems to be a lot happening around Mr Ogonsuyi and I really want to hear from you first hand. Why do you think that your principle is being targeted or his party members are being targeted? Yeah, there's no rational, good evening once again, good evening. There's no rational explanation for violence but there are human beings who believe that when they are at their wit's end they resort to wild irrational illogical actions which sometimes bothers on violence. Mr. Shegwoni is being targeted because of his acceptability by the people of the United States and don't let this surprise you. When you have a politician, whose posters are being turned in town, it is because people are noticing those posters, they are reacting to those posters positively. If they know that you have no chance in an election, anywhere you put your posters it will be safe and that is the same thing that is happening everywhere we go. We are surprised by the magnitude of supports, by the genuineness of affection shown by all and the attestation to the good works it did just in three months and three years and ten months. For example, you get a place you want to campaign and people will say don't bother to campaign. That road that you are standing on that you passed to this place was done by Mr. Shegwoni. You will see some 2018-19 people and you say come and vote for Shegwoni, they say don't bother, we were fed in primary schools with egg and tea during his regime. So he became a headache for the two other parties who were headed to APC and PDP for each other's troops on to Mr. Shegwoni shot in front and then the two of them started attacking him from the rear. I'm trying to understand, are you insiduating, I'm sorry to speak over you, are you insiduating that the PDP and the APC are responsible for the attacks against the STP and your principle? That is not the first attack. Really? Yes, in their form. The youth leader of APC, no, I think yes, of APC shot at us, several gunshots, we had to hurriedly leave that town because the offer we were in his palace and the offer said there is no reason why we will not support you because of all the good works, I don't want to mention it here, that you have done and when we were leaving the place, the campaign had already closed and they started shooting. We identified him as the youth leader of APC in that local government. The people in the local government know him and we reported to the police. The police claimed they cannot get him, so he remained unarrested. In the Kerri equity, just as Mr. Shegwoni was leaving the palace of Odu Kerri, we had to advise him that once you get out, get into your vehicle and zoom out and they started throwing stones at his vehicle. Everyone that has listened to Mr. Shegwoni, both on national debates in real life, knows that Mr. Shegwoni is a peace-loving human being. In fact, he is referred to in equity as the job, meaning somebody who is not, is unfazed. He doesn't steal money, he doesn't cut power, he doesn't, he's just an easy-going gentleman. So they say he's dead, y'all. He doesn't know how to grab higher dogs, to shoot guns. Even some of our supporters are saying, you have to protect us. Violence machines are all over the place. The cost of violence is cheap, but the effect of it is horrendous. So he will not go the way of violence. We've kept on reporting to the police and here in Nittaji, what the agreement we have is that when one party is doing a rally or a meeting, they did it in a local, yes, they did it in a local, a local is in a local government, in his own local government. The APC people went to a ward meeting, dispatched them, beat everybody up, broke all the chairs in that place. So the violence... I'm curious, as much as I was not there, I'd really like to be clear because these are allegations. When you say the APC members, where they identified? Was the identity given to them at least? Yes, yes. Because when you say APC members came and beat up your members and dispersed their meetings. Yes, it is easy to identify them because it is the net use they use. They pump them with, you know, the way you can psych an idiot. And it will just go to a place and start attacking people. It's in the afternoon. We saw them, we reported in the police station. We gave them names. So it's not like, each time it happens, we go to the police station to report. Even the people that shot at us at Nittaji, who fell off a moving bus, we still arrested him. Instead of lynching him, we still gave him to the police. Because we are people, we are even surprised at the reception it is said are giving us. So we don't want to spoil that. We have immense goodwill. We don't want to squander it. And everywhere we go, they just make it an object of target. So they came, what is an APC lorry load of talks doing in a PDP meeting, if you have an SDP meeting, why don't you, we are, we were not going to sleep in Noye. We just went there for a campaign that was to last for just about 45 minutes. We were not going to sleep there. So I can't understand. I can't, I can't situate why the story will come out the way from Adu to come and attack that meeting. I want to ask you what the security situation generally is like in a kiddie state. Because I remember there has been, you know, situations where other parties were having their events and there was shooting. So I'm asking you this because I want to try to narrow down why this is because you're telling us that these are your detractors. What is the security situation in a kiddie state? Generally, I mean, the elections are just around the corner. In the last 48 hours, the security situation drastically changed because after Itaji, where one of them fell off the vehicle and was handed over to the police, who took them to the hospital, the driver's union, who are the achievement of the APC, came out and protested against their, I don't know what they were, protested, they blocked everywhere and they started shooting. And then when the security men came, they started attacking the security men. And now the security men, you know, of course, nobody was going. Somebody even attempted to snatch the gun of a soldier. That's how much this and pumped up. In fact, we have an audio where somebody was saying that we went to reporting to police that can you report government to government? That when you go there, the coming out police said it should go away, that it has no case to answer. And that they should just wait that they are going to kill about five people. And once the kill five people, you will see that all the SDP members will run away. You have the audio. We are not talking about hearsay. We use technology, we are, we are, we are, we are engineering, is you know, you can't, you can't do anything these days without technology. So we tried our phones and we got the audio. Okay, is that legal, by the way? So they were arrested yesterday. Some people were arrested yesterday. The main actors were arrested. And they were arrested with firearms. We are not on firearms. We are talking of civilians. A special assistant to the governor of the state was arrested with firearms yesterday. And he was taken to Abuja. And as we speak, the governor is putting all strings to ensure that they are released. I want to quickly ask this question before we wrap up because we don't have too much time. With just a few days to the elections, it's June 18th. The governorship elections is happening soon. And you're painting a terrible picture of how insecure and how unsafe the state is. How do you even expect voters to turn up en masse to vote if this is the security situation in the state? Again, should this not be a matter that all the governorship aspirants across the political parties should be having a conversation on, especially with the governor of the state? Because, again, how safe will a voter feel to go out and vote if this is what the situation of things are, especially because your principal is also running to be governor of the state? That should be his priority, shouldn't it? Let me tell you this. There is a conversation going on. The way of the argument, the permanent ruler here has asked all the actors to come to his palace today for a peace meeting. And I think an agreement was reached. There are nobody. And let me say this about violent maschants. They are like mosquitoes. If you have three mosquitoes in a room and you can't kill them, it will look like the whole room is full of mosquitoes. Since yesterday, when the main actors were picked up, just about four of them, this state has been at peace. So we know those who are doing these things. And as for the governor of the state, he has advocated responsibility for safety of lives and property in pursuit of his mayoral presidential stuff. So if he comes back now and decides to ensure the safety of the state, then we will see the actions. We shouldn't be complaining to the other. We should complain to the governor. But the governor hasn't been above board. The governor has been a partisan. It is his responsibility to ensure that there is peace in the state. But even in all of this, he has not made one single speech about 10 people have been shot. Some have died. Some are dying. And the governor has said nothing. So it speaks volumes for where the problem is coming from. But the people will come out to vote. The people have seen that their method will fail. They have even gone to buy glory roads of kings. They said they will distribute these kings in each town and they will flop off the voters. But what they don't know is that the voting system has changed. You no longer can snatch ballot boxes. If you drive away voters, you cannot vote because the voting system has demonstrated by required biometrics. So if you stop the boxes, it won't count at the end of the day. And that's what they are seeing. And they are so worried because they are not prepared for this election. They had four years to be in government to impress. And we have just four months to form a party and run an election. Why are they worried? Well, Mr. Gosui, we're hoping that the security situation in Ekita State will change sometimes soon. Well, the party that is just four months old will be a party that has been there for down to eight years and has been in government for four years. At all levels, senior, senior, red, chairman of council, all of our assembly members, commissioners, they have everything. We have to go, unfortunately. But we're hoping that the security situation can be dealt with or handled before the elections because it does have a huge role to play at the end of the day. We are holding our men. Don't retaliate. Don't retaliate. Don't retaliate. You are in the majority and sure that the voting is done. Don't retaliate. That's all. We just want to vote. We just want to vote. Okay. And I hope that you're able to do that. Lanryo Gosui is the media director of the Shagwoni campaign organization in Ekita State. Thank you so much for speaking with us. Please, let me thank the good people of Ekita State for standing by Shagwoni. Let me thank them for being peaceful and let me warn the valent machine. Some of them have just returned from prison. They are going back to prison. Okay. We have to go. Thank you so much. Well, that's the show tonight. We will be back tomorrow talking for development and plus politics. If you have missed some bits of the program, go to our YouTube channel, Plus to be Africa and Plus to be Africa lifestyle and you can play catch up. I am Mary Anacol. See you tomorrow. Have a good evening.