After the Osun State governorship election that took place on Saturday, some merchants on Old Galaxy Road in Osogbo are tallying their losses.
According to reports, thugs believed to be APC members attacked and wrecked their businesses because they planned to support Ademola Adeleke, a candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In the hotly contested election, Adeleke defeated Gboyega Oyetola, the incumbent governor and member of the ruling APC.
According to the Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room, there were no reports of violence in any of the areas that were being watched, making this election the most peaceful in Nigerian history.
However, InsightnaijaTV noticed some traders who had businesses in Old Galaxy, Osogbo, mourning the damage of their business establishments for supporting the PDP candidate in the election in a video that went viral on Monday.
The narrator in the video that showed the wrecked stores added, “This is where we trade, the Igbos in the old galaxy, just to survive for living. We are not partisan, but they claimed that the fact that we support the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and that we are the ones who cast the PDP’s electoral votes for victory explains why they are breaking into our shops.
“Yes, we can cast our votes and we make our choice. I don’t know the reason while they should attack and destroy our businesses because we have every right to exercise our franchise. I don’t see the reason while it would be like this, destroying Igbo shops. It is not supposed to be so. Let them tell us if we are no longer the same one Nigeria. If they don’t want us to live together, let them tell us.
“It is not supposed to be like this and I still know that even in our side – (Igbo land), we still have Yorubas, they are still in our place, we are not treating them like this. I don’t see the reason our own should be different.
“The kind of things we are receiving – this is not the first time, in the past election we saw our businesses destroyed. Now this present one, we are still seeing it. I don’t know whether we are safe here or we are not.”
