By Dayo Johnson
THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State yesterday cried out over the attack on its members and the reintroduction of ‘violence in the state’.

A statement by the State Publicity Secretary, Chief Adeyemi Adedipe said the regime of violence which was halted by Dr Olusegun Agagu’s administration when it came on board in 2003 has now become the norm in the polity.

But the Labour Party has described the cry as blackmail and the allegation as false and an attempt to be relevant after the party was sent packing by the Appeal Court.

Particularly, the party said the attack on former Commissioner for Finance, Chief Tayo Alasoadura by people suspected to be agents of the rival Labour Party (LP) members showed that the people of the state were in for a tough time in the hands of the LP-led state government.

In a swift reaction, the Acting Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party in the state, Mr Akin Akinbobola denied the allegation, saying that the PDP is the aggressor and that it was the former commissioner, Chief Alasoadura who led some members of his party to destroy the palace in Iju, following which the people of the town resisted them.

He added that the LP was known for peace and would not be involved in any activity that would lead to breakdown of law and order in the state.

Alasoadura had alleged last week that his attack had to do with a press conference he addressed on the finances of the state in which he said the last administration of Dr Agagu left N38b in the coffers of the state government as at February 23, this year.

The PDP said the “state has now been seized in the jugular by a band of violent and desperate politicians who were bent on destroying the aspirations of the people of the state.

Adedipe said “since the assumption of LP government in our state through a pronouncement of the judiciary, we have witnessed a sharp rise in the incidents of violence in the state.

“Barely 24 hours after their February 24 inauguration violence erupted in Ugbo Nla where several persons and millions of Naira worth of property were destroyed. We have seen also the brigandage that had come to the operators of National Union of Road Transport Workers, and the Okada operators in awe, as the peace by Agagu administration is being destroyed.

“To say the least, our dear state is gradually moving towards what the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, called the state of nature, where life is nasty, brutish and short.”

The party however asked the people of the state to” exercise patience until they would have the opportunity to change the government that has inflicted much pain in about four months of its administration.