For Amosun, Abiodun, the Gloves are Off

Former Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun’s move to oppose the re-election of his successor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, in 2023 has pitted him against other stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress in the Gateway State. James Sowole reports

The political enemity between the immediate past Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun and his successor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, which started ahead of the 2019

election, has refused to abate, despite being members of the same party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The rivalry has become confrontational, as the duo, engaged each other in war of words, that is gradually heating up the polity in the Gateway State.

Though, Amosun and Abiodun, had been at daggers drawn since the commencement early this year of the process for the Congresses of the APC, when delegates, that determined the fate of all aspirants of the party for the 2023 Election were elected, the matter, was not too direct, until last Friday when the Senator emphati-cally, declared that he is not in support of the current administration in the state stating that all efforts must be made to vote the government out of power.

The former governor while speaking after receiving an award from Abeokuta Club to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the club said the 2019 governorship election in the state was rigged to favour the incumbent, called on his supporters to be on the look out for the next line of action.

He said, “I am elated to have heard people saying that when we were there, we have done the works of four, five, past governors combined, we are happy that people appreciated the little we have done, You know clearly my stand on this matter, just wait very soon, you will hear from us, my stand is where I stand, I am not in support of this administration, he must be removed”.

The former governor while speaking on the 2019 governorship election for the first time after leaving office, stated that he supported candidate of Allied Peoples Movement, Hon AbdulKabir Akinlade, who won the election but was rigged in favour of Abiodun.

According to him: “They rigged, rigged, and ended up with 19,000. Some of them came to apologise to me. I can’t be mentioning names. We won that election. But I have moved on. We did our work. We will continue to do what we have to do. God will be with all of us.”

Like a wildfire during harmattan, the comments of Amosun, drew out leaders and members of the APC both within and outside the state, for verbal war against the former governor.

The first salvo, was fired by the State APC, via a statement by the Publicity Secretary, Tunde Oladunjoye, who said the outburst, was an indication that the former governor is “suf-fering from political amnesia and out-of-office loneliness.”

The party, in a release issued in Abeokuta, described, Amosun’s claim as “an after lunch belching of a man suffering from political amnesia and loneliness.”

The statement reads: “The attention of our party has been drawn to a statement reportedly credited to the immediate past governor of Ogun State and the Chief Promoter of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Senator Ibikunle Amosun. “The quoted statement was not only an insult to the psyche of the people of Ogun State but also a sad indication that the former governor is yet to purge himself of extreme arrogance and intolerance that were his trademarks, which earned him suspension from our party, even as a sitting governor. The APC, there- fore, calls on the general public, and particularly our esteemed members, to pity and pray for the former gov- ernor as he obviously suffers from political amnesia, loneliness and absolute lack of touch with reality.

“There is absolute no truth in the specious utterance of the former governor, who is obviously still sulking from the electoral defeat of his surrogate party in 2019. Our party and candidate not only won fair and square, the victory of Prince Dapo Abiodun was also attested to by his co-contestants, many of whom later joined APC and are still in APC.

“Never in the history of gover- norship elections in Ogun State have candidates of other parties so instantaneously congratulated and visited the Governor-elect, as it happened in the case of Governor Dapo Abiodun, whose Iperu country home hosted candidates and lead- ers of other parties, including late Prince Buruji Kashamu, Otunba Rotimi Paseda, Mr. Gboyega Nasiru Isiaka (GNI), and Otunba Gbenga Daniel, among others.

“It is on record that many of the then opposition figures like former Deputy Governor of Ogun State, Alhaja Salmat Badru; the deputy governorship candidate of the Peoples Demo- cratic Party (PDP), Mr. Rueben Abati, GNI and others served in the Economic Transition Com- mittee chaired by Mr. Tunde Lemo, which was set up by Prince Dapo Abiodun immediately after the elections. “As provided for in a democracy, the candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement challenged the results of the election at the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Abeokuta and lost. His ramshackle petition was dismissed.

While confirming the victory of Abiodun at the Saturday, March 9, 2019 election, the tribunal led by Justice Yusuf Halilu, in its judgment, stated that: “This petition does not only fail, it is destined to fail, it fails and hereby dismissed.” “Not satisfied, the APM and its candidate went on appeal at the Court of Appeal, Ibadan and later at the Supreme Court where they also lost. It is remarkable that in all the petition and court cases, the judgements were unanimously passed without any dissenting voice from the Tribunal members and the judges at the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

“If the APM was as popular as the former Governor wants us to believe, he would have contested his senatorial election on the platform of the APM and not on the platform of the APC. “We recollect vividly that it took the support of Prince Dapo Abiodun and the open appeal of our father and leader, Chief Olusegun Osoba, who pleaded during his visits to all the wards in Ogun Central Senatorial District that our members should consider the interest of the party by voting for Amosun.” Confronting Amosun on the comments, Abiodun, who said he would not be distracted by self-delusional person, noted that “Ogun State is not anybody’s father’s inheritance”.

The incumbent governor, said he would rather focus on his mandate and not join issues with anyone who wants to play God but enjoined the people of the state to ignore Amosun.

Abiodun said, “I will not be distracted by any person or persons who have a problem with self delusion. I will not be distracted by any person who does not appreciate that Ogun State is not anybody’s father’s inheritance. We are all stakeholders in this commonwealth called Ogun State. I am not going to join issues with anyone that wants to play God; I will leave them to God. God can deal with whoever is challenging His authority and wanted to play God.

“All I can say is that what we stand for in Ogun State is administration that is committed to providing purposeful leadership and purposeful infrastructural development across the length and breadth of the state” Sharing the position of Abiodun, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Solomon Adeola, said Amosun, cannot play God in the state’s politics. Adeola, a ranking Senator from Lagos West who is a native of Ogun state, made the remark in a statement, made available to journalists.

The Senator, popularly called Yayi said: ”My attention has been drawn to reports credited to a statement made at the 50th anniversary of Abeokuta Club by Senator Ibikunle Amosun, erstwhile governor of Ogun State and APC senator representing Ogun Central, that the 2019 General Election that saw the emergence of Prince Dapo Abiodun as the Ogun State Governor was rigged and he is going to work against Prince Abiodun’s re-election in 2023 ”These invidious utterances would have been left unanswered as yet another ranting from a personality imbued with a sense of over bloated ego of messianic proportion in Ogun State politics.

However, with 2023 general election around the corner, it is appropriate to join issues with a supposed APC member with a record of serial anti-party and anti-people tendencies aping to play God in the affairs of Ogun State ”As a stakeholder in APC, Ogun State and the administration of Prince Abiodun, I state with all emphasis that Senator Amosun shame- fully dropped the ball in his assertion that the 2019 electoral victory of Prince Abiodun was rigged, even after the said election was judicially validated right up to the highest court of the land

”The revolt of the people of Ogun State against this attempt to play God by a mere mortal was what saw to the surprise emergence of Prince Abiodun as the arrow head of a democratic struggle fully supported by genuine democrats in Ogun State. Our party, the APC, saw through the anti-democratic tendencies of their then governor and rightly threw their weight behind the people of Ogun State with Prince Abiodun emerging as the governor with majority votes against Senator Amosun’s acolyte, Adekunle Akinlade, foisted on misguided APC members in the race under another party, the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).

”To the glory of God, Prince Abiodun has discharged and is discharging his role as governor creditably to all sections of the state, in contrast to the sectional administration of Amosun in Ogun State. He is completing projects abandoned by Senator Amosun, while starting new ones across the three senatorial districts of the state.