1st January, 2024
By Adejoke Adeleye Ogun
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun 2023 election, Oladipupo Adebutu has explained why he ran away from Nigeria after the election held on 18 March.
Adebutu, who came second in the election won by Dapo Abiodun of All Progressives Congress, APC had left Nigeria following his invitation by the police over vote buying allegations.
But speaking to members of his party at the end of the year party held in Abeokuta, Adebutu claimed that he ran away from Nigeria because the APC want to kill him after he instituted action at the Tribunal to challenge the victory of Governor Abiodun.
“When it’s time to talk we will talk, but I spend my money on my people. They pleaded with us not to go to the tribunal but because we refused they turned it into conflict, chased us with guns and we excused ourselves because I didn’t want them to destroy our case.
“But now that the case is in Supreme Court we are not running again. I am back to restore my mandate at the Supreme Court. No one will chase me and I will run again.
“We are not fighting nobody, but we will not allow anyone who steals our properties to get away with it.”
Adebutu however Advised Gov Abiodun to stop harassing him or his party members “because they are all political children of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and no one is capable of chasing anyone out of the state.
He added that he reported himself at the police headquarters immediately after he returned from the United Kingdom to Nigeria to clear himself of the money laundering allegation that APC had accused him of.
“No one should scare anyone we are all Tinubu political children. I am happy that I called you all within 24 hours to let us celebrate and you all responded. Those of us at the political class are not up to per cent. It’s electorates the owe votes.
I have come to congratulate the party for remaining intact, for believing in the institution that we have and for journey having hope that finally by New Year 2024 their mandate will be installed.”
Also speaking at the event, a chieftain of PDP, Otunba Segun Sowunmi told journalists that the APC is confused about the country’s situation because the party has applied its ideas and it’s not working as expected.
“We have entered a situation where one is not just sad. Our heads are bowed in thinking because it is clear to everybody that the people in charge of the country now are very confused.
“They have applied the little they know and it is not working. Life is now really unbearable, the cost of living is too high, inflation is too high, and people are just generally feeling unhappy. They can’t manage the exchange rate, they can’t manage the naira, what can they manage?
“Every day, we hear stories of people getting killed and they have not been able to do anything, they have converted themselves into a party of poverty, a party going for condolences and mourning and a party that is rudderless and directionless.
“The major way out is that Nigerians must know that the only reason why we are in democracy is so that they can have an opportunity to pick leaders, they cannot be playing with election, there is no reason under the earth for any Nigerian to allow somebody with just eight million votes to be leading the country when the total amount of available voters are 93 million. The more they come out to vote, the more their views will be respected even though we know that this one that they won, they came in through manipulation and an unfortunate deniability for the judiciary to rescue the Nigerian citizens, we are all living witnesses of what is going on.
On his bid to become the national chairman of PDP, Sowumi said, “A political party that is 25 years old must review itself in such a way that it can reform, it can recalibrate, it can rewrite its laws and rules, it can bring together a set of new opinions that will make it different from all parties and it can be run in an equitable, fair, just and all-inclusive manner.
“Most of our PDP members are not saying that they want just a chairman, they are saying that they want Otunba Segun Sowunmi as their chairman. I will try my best and if it is the wish of the leaders and the collegiate, certainly they can get ready for a remarkable and quite eventful tenure, a paradigm shift and a new mayor.
“Every other zone has done chairman apart from us, but it is even beyond that now, it is about who has passion, who has courage, who has tenacity, who has competent, who has capability, who has knowledge and how to administer party and by the grace of God we will do what we can if we get there.”