Abiodun: Amosun suffering from political amnesia, says APC

The All Progressives Congress in Ogun State has carpeted the former governor of the state, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, over his comment credited to him in the media that the incumbent governor, Dapo Abiodun, did not win the 2019 governorship election.

The APC said Amosun, a chieftain of the APC, was obviously suffering from “political amnesia and out-of-office loneliness.”

The APC, in a statement issued in Abeokuta on Saturday by its Publicity Secretary, Tunde Oladunjoye, said Amosun needed prayer.

Oladunjoye called on the general public to pray for Amosun who is a serving Senator representing Ogun Central Senatorial District over the comment that the governor won through rigging.

Amosun had on Friday shortly after he received an award from Abeokuta Club during it’s 50th anniversary held in Abeokuta, said Abiodun won through rigging in 2019 and that those who rigged the election for the governor had apologised to him.

Reacting to the claim, the APC described the ex-governor’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, His Excellency, 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, therefore, calls on the general public, and particularly our esteemed members, to pity and pray for the former governor 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 governorship 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 leaders of other parties, including late Prince Buruji Kashamu, Otunba Rotimi Paseda, Mr. Gboyega Nasiru Isiaka, 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 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.

“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 Governor 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.’”