You will not return for the second term, rigging won’t for you again – Amosun tells Abiodun

Newsflash Nigeria StaffAugust 7, 2022

2 minutes read

A former governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun, has vowed that the incumbent, Governor Dapo Abiodun, popularly Governor Eleyi, will not return for a second term.

Amosun said the 2019 election was rigged in favour of the governor, adding that those who rigged the election had apologised to him. He did not mention names.

The immediate past governor spoke on Friday evening, during an interview with journalists after receiving an award from the Abeokuta Club to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the association.

Mr Amosun said he was not in support of Mr Abiodun’s administration, saying the governor must vacate his seat at the expiration of his first four-year term.

He also assured his supporters that his next line of action would soon be made public.

“Well, I am happy. When you are in a place and they are telling you that you have done the work of four or five governors altogether. I feel elated. I am happy that they appreciated our little efforts,” said Mr Amosun.

“Just wait, very soon, you will hear where we are going next. Clearly, you know my stand, and my stand is my stand. I am not supporting this administration that is there now. He must be removed.”

In 2019, although a member of the APC, Mr Amosun had backed Adekunle Akinlade, the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) governorship candidate, against Mr Abiodun.

Mr Abiodun eventually won the 2019 election with a margin of 19,517 votes.

Mr Abiodun polled 241,670 votes to defeat Mr Akinlade who had 222,153 votes.

Mr Amosun had instructed his supporters not to engage in a war of words with the government until after three years.

In a swift reaction, the publicity secretary of the APC in Ogun State, Tunde Oladunjoye, dismissed Mr Amosun’s claim.

Mr Oladunjoye said the former governor is “obviously suffering from political amnesia and out-of-office loneliness enjoining the Ogun people to pray for him.”

Mr Oladunjoye described Mr Amosun’s claim as an insult to the psyche of the people.

He said, “it is a sad indication that the former governor is yet to purge himself of extreme arrogance and intolerance that were his trademarks, which earned him a suspension from our party, even as a sitting governor.”

“There is absolutely 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,” he said.

“Our party and candidate not only won fair and square but 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.

“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 Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Rueben Abati, GNI and others served in the Economic Transition Committee chaired by Mr Tunde Lemo, which was set up by Prince Dapo Abiodun immediately after the elections.”

Mr Oladunjoye accused the former governor of littering the state with unfinished projects despite paying for them “100 per cent upfront.”

“Despite the handover without a handover note, despite the wanton destruction of public facilities including pipe-borne water taps in Abeokuta, and notwithstanding the untoward provocations and shenanigans; Governor Abiodun remained focused and determined to leave Ogun State much better than he met it.”