Estimated reading time: 14 minute(s)
Sodiq Ojuroungbe
A member of House of Representatives from Abeokuta North , Obafemi -Owode, and Odeda Federal Constituency in Ogun state, Mikhail Kazzem has assured the people of Ogun state that he would not either carry out or sponsor a reprisal attack on the ruling party for allegedly destroying his campaign vehicles.
The attack also affected some of his supporters who sustained various degrees of injury during the violence.
Kazzem maintained that his reprisal would be the winning of his re-election bid in the forthcoming general election.
The lawmaker who spoke with newsmen in his office on Sunday explained that he is not ready to tarnish his image because of politics.
It would be recalled that members of the All progressives Congress and Allied Peoples Movement were reported to have engaged in a battle which led to the destruction of some vehicles belonging to Kazeem campaign team.
While reacting to the incident, the lawmaker stressed that he is not embarking on a reprisal attack because he has a name to protect.
Kazeem further claimed the people causing chaos are those that cannot win the elections.
He said, “I will never do a reprisal attack on those people who attacked me. My reprisal is winning the forthcoming election.
“Do you know why I will not attack them back? because I have a more popular name than Dapo Abiodun and that’s one of his problems.
“It is my performance that made me popular and whatever bad things he is doing, my own performance would always undermine his authority wherever he is.
“If he wants to be as popular as I am, if he wants to be loved by everybody, he should go and perform.
“Let Dapo Abiodun point out what he has done for the people before he came to politics.
“All I have done is to better the life of my people irrespective of the party they belong to.
“My lovers and followers are not riffraff, they understand politics, they know this game. All these people causing this problem are DOA (Dead on arrive).
“They know they can’t win an election, if you know you are on the winning party you won’t be causing trouble.
“I have name, I have to protect my name and I don’t want to tarnish the name of my political leader, Senator Ibikunle Amosun.
“This administration has done wonders and we wouldn’t want to pour sand in a good grain of the state. So, that’s why I am telling you that they will never do any reprisal attack because my people are too smart for that.
“I am representing constituency that has great people like former Olusegun Obasanjo, MKO Abiola, Amosun, and other notable people.
“With all those names I am surrounded with, I will now descend so low to attack them back because they attack me. As I am now, I am following the verse of the Bible that if they slap your right ear, give them the left ear”.
While speaking on what happened during the clash, Kazeem debunked the widely circulated report he and his supporters attacked the APC campaign train first.
The lawmaker insisted that the ruling party attacked them in his office, alleging the Dapo Abiodun campaign team of destroying his properties.
Kazeem however claimed the properties destroyed during the clash worth millions of naira.
He explained, “I am a member of Allied Peoples Movement. APM happens to be a new party and we are doing a lot of sensitization to our structure. On that day, all I was doing was to do a ward-to-ward meeting with my people not even a campaign.
“My campaign has finished a week before the incident happened. We were doing a ward visit, we were coming from Ago-Oko ward 3, the ward was done successfully, and we proceeded to ward 4.
“Before getting to Elega, when we drove pass Mokola and got to a particular side where construction is ongoing. About a mile, I saw a campaign train coming and immediately I jump down on my vehicle and I became a self proclaimed traffic marshal on d-day and told people not just my convoy alone to turn back and take the other way round.
“I have two option which include we just passing them since we are not many, but, I believe that could be more dangerous and they may term that as confrontation.
“So, we decided to turn round and immediately we turn round, and nothing happened at that moment. But, by the time we get to under bridge in Mokola, people were throwing stone at us which we ignore.
“I told my people to let us go back to the office. When we got to the office, we left all our buses and left the office. It is not like the damages started when we were in Elega, people saw it and they know what really happened.
“The vehicles were vandalized outside my office here, the vehicles were not destroy at Elega, the vehicles were axed in front of my office.
“When we came back from Elega, a police man came to me and begged me to leave the office just to make sure there is no confrontation because the other group are still coming here.
“You can imagine, they are telling me to leave my office when am not owing any rent, and because am a peace loving citizen, I left everything and leave the office.
“I was shocked after an hour when I started getting phone calls that all the vehicles in my office have been vandalized.
“About 30 minutes later I can back and I was shocked with the magnitude of the damage.
“What can I do, I have a name to protect and I cannot do anything that would tarnish my image because of politics.
“The damages worth million, but, I won’t be able to tell you the cost of implication of the damages because they are not fixed”.
Estimated reading time: 1 minute(s)
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