27th December, 2023
By Adejoke Adeleye/Ogun
The Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun 2023 election, Oladipupo Adebutu early Wednesday morning visited the headquarters of the State Police Command over allegations of vote buying levelled against him.
Adebutu who arrived at Eleweran, the command’s headquarters at 11.10 am was accompanied by chieftains of the party, including a former governorship aspirant, Otunba Segun Sowunmi and went straight into the Commissioner of Police, CP Mustapha Abiodun Alamutu’s office.
Adebutu had travelled to the United Kingdom on an alleged medical trip after the election.
But the ruling APC had filed a petition against Adebutu and his party PDP, accusing them of vote buying and money laundering during the Saturday, March 18 governorship election in the State.
Adebutu’s visit was in response to the police invitation on the APC’s petition.
After a meeting lasting 24 minutes with the CP, Adebutu went to the office of the deputy commissioner of police in charge of the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (CID) and spent another 30 minutes.
Speaking with journalists shortly after his visit, Adebutu explained that he was at the command’s headquarters to clear the air on the petition written by the APC.
He described the allegations as frivolous and untrue, adding that, he visited the police on his volition.
He said, “Some funny innuendos have been going around and I thought maybe we will clear the air, so I came here on my volition to clear any frivolous petition written by the APC and their irks. I have come and I’m happy that this institution has done well, they have listened, they have taken records, and I’m sure that this is the way to a better Nigeria.
“The frivolous allegations that Ladi Adebutu has been laundering his money, I don’t know how you can launder your wealth – that is the allegation against me by the APC, that I have laundered my money, that I have used my money to create empowerment for people that I feel compassionate about, Nigerians that are in need, that I have helped, that I will continue to help, especially when on this occasion, it was dictated by my late mother to be of help to women and children.
“We have done empowerment programmes and we will continue to do them and on January the 19th 2024 which marks one year of her passing away, we will be having special programmes again to continue these empowerment programmes as we have done over years, but because these people (APC) lack empathy, they lack compassion for society, they trivialize and politicise everything, they have learnt to weaponize poverty and when they see anybody moving away from such a situation, they politicise this.
“I’m back in the country and I await them. All they were doing to disrupt the normal process of electioneering, we had elections and the matter went through the courts, but that process they tried to truncate, to make sure the process will not be truncated we had to arrange our movement, the matter has arrived at the Supreme Court and we are certain that we shall get justice.”