Reporters who interviewed me on the subject of our aborted Congress told you several times that I never accused you of being responsible for the shootings which took place on that day. As one reporter put it," But he (Pearse) said he didn't accuse you of shooting or ordering it, but said the sequence of events should be looked into" Despite this , you have been persistent in alleging that I have held you responsible.
Your obsession with this issue of the shootings of that day is suspicious to say the least. The fact that you can't get your mind off the subject gives the impression that you know more about the matter than you care to confess.!
The more one thinks back on that day of infamy, and the more one reads your interviews on that day of horror, the more one feels compelled to suspect your culpability .
Here is what I mean : We can identify three events which culminated in the cancellation of the Congress, and your footprint appears in all three.
The first event; the remote cause was the circulation of your so called ' Unity List'
The second event, the intermediate cause was when you approached the Congress Officials to cancel the Congress. And the third event ; the immediate cause for the abrupt end to the Congress was the gun shots which scared everybody away from the venue.
On the remote cause ; The distribution of that bogus' Unity List' created the initial problem. Everybody who was not on the list became jittery. One Candidate, Mr Niyi Adams suspecting that the list could influence delegates to vote against him went and produced his own List with himself as the State Chairman.
Although I did not produce a list of my own, I was no less perturbed. People came to me asking if I was sure that my name was on the ballot. The pressure on me became so intense that I was compelled to approach Senator Olujimi , the Congress Secretary to ask her if I was in the race, since my name was not on any list being circulated on the Congress floor. Senator Olujimi assured me that as long as I had been screened successfully, my name would be on the ballot. I was not fully convinced, but went back to my Local Government tent to await the commencement of voting. Everybody was on edge because of that divisive and mischievous ' Unity List' of yours.
The second problem started when word got around that you had approached the Congress Chairman and Secretary to abort the Congress. This happened within 30 minutes of your arrival. Some experienced Party people read the situation and told me that the Congress was over. Dismayed and frustrated, some Ikorodu delegates told me they were leaving and going back home as they had a long way to go.
As for the last and most dastardly act ; the release of gunshots at the Congress, I can testify that I heard a total of 4 shots. The first 3 came from up across the gallery to the East end, if one is seated facing the podium. My canopy, the Mainland LGA canopy, was on the opposite side. The first 3 shots came from across the field from us, and they were from a heavy weapon. They sounded as if they were from the military, professional, parade type gun salute. The 4th and last shot sounded light, like a homemade device compared to the first three.
Strangely, in your version of things to DAILY INDEPENDENT of 18th November 2021, and earlier to TRIBUNE NEWSPAPER of 6th November 2021, you only refer to the 4th, weakest, and last shot. As you put it, and I quote, "As I was going to my car, I heard a gunshot. The sound was like a homemade pistol. I asked ' where did that come from?".
Why did you not ask where the louder, heavier ,earlier gunshots came from? And why was it that the ' Lagos State Commissioner of Police ,all the area commanders and the DC Operations, according to you , and I quote" asked whether it was my security aides that fired it" Why did these security officers not query you about the previous gunshots which were not from a homemade device?
Why did they feel compelled to ask you about the activities of your security aides, and dear Chief, where were your security aides when all of this shooting was going on? Why could the security Chiefs not locate them, and why were they not within your vicinity ? Something is terribly wrong with this picture !
When the Police Commissioner asked you if your men were responsible for the gunshots, you said, and again, I quote you, " if it was from my security men , the whole area here would have dispersed"
Well sir, I put it to you that it was not the feeble sound of a 'homemade pistol' which drove us from the venue that day , but the heavy sound of a big weapon. All 3,000 of us; delegates , officials, and general Party members dispersed from the venue precisely because of the threatening sound ,such as would come from what you proudly describe as "the superior weapon " of your boys.
You may notice that I have not accused you of being responsible for ordering the shooting on that fateful day. All I have done here is express my concern that you have not been adequately concerned about the welfare of those of us present at Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) that day. You left the venue while we were under siege from unknown gun men. You seemed satisfied with the arrest of the minor shooter,(the fellow with the homemade pistol), while the main terrorists are yet to be identified.
If you truly care for Lagos State PDP, and its members, you should join me and all other Stakeholders in demanding an investigation into the nefarious activities of that day. The Lagos State Police Commissioner , and the Lagos State Department of State Security(DSS), should look into the matter, and in addition, the National PDP should set up a panel of enquiry into the day's events.
Thousands of Party faithful invested time, energy and money to come to TBS on October 16th 2021, only to face a real and present danger to life and limb. The guilty must be punished in order to stop a recurrence of the dangerous drama of October 16th. Our Party will achieve its potential when we let members know that they will be protected at Party events , and that nobody is too big to be held accountable for bad behavior.
Yours Sincerely.
Adetokunbo Pearse, PhD. Public Affairs Analyst, PDP Stakeholder
Convener , RESET LAGOS PDP.
Naaawaaa oooooo abeg egbon we need u don't have any confrontation with this person life is nothing to them good evening sir 🙏
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