Threat to remove Abiodun from office: You can’t play God in Ogun affairs, group tells Amosun
A group, Ogun Professionals Watch (OPW), has slammed the former governor of the state, Ibikunle Amosun over his comment to ensure the removal of Prince Dapo Abiodun from office in 2023.
The group said Amosun made a big mistake by arrogating the attributes of God to himself.
The former governor and senator representing Ogun Central in the National Assembly had, shortly after receiving an award in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, on Friday, claimed that Governor Abiodun was rigged into office in 2019 and that those who rigged him in had already apologised to him (Amosun).
He also vowed to thwart the governor’s second term bid, promising to make his preferred candidate for the 2023 governorship known shortly.
But, OPW in a statement by its Organising Secretary, Comrade Razak Omojola in Abeokuta on Saturday, said contrary to Amosun’s empty boast, only the good people of Ogun State who installed Governor Abiodun in office in 2018 will determine who governs them in 2023.
The group also called on the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to the former governor for questioning since, by his own admission, he knows those who rigged the 2019 governorship election in the state.
The group stated that Amosun’s sustained efforts to ensure that Abiodun did not emerge governor in 2019 were thwarted by God.
OPW recalled that Governor Abiodun resoundingly defeated the candidate backed by Amosun during the 2019 governorship poll because the Ogun people were tired of the then governor’s antics, adding that that victory was affirmed by the country’s apex court.
The group said: “The Ogun people remember too well, how the vainglorious Amosun committed anti-party activities by sponsoring a governorship candidate on the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) platform even while enjoying the perks of office as an All Progressives Congress (APC) governor and running for Senate on the same platform.
“But for the pardon granted him by the APC leadership, he would have been confined into political oblivion. Yet this fellow still has the effrontery to move around in the state, lambasting the sitting governor, claiming that his election was rigged, and promising to repeat the mischief that led him nowhere in 2019.
“The people of Ogun are aware of the Omoluabi practice that Governor Abiodun brought into office as against Amosun’s warlord behaviour and outlook which kept his predecessors away from the state, lest they be harmed.
“It is on record that despite the atrocities that Amosun committed against Governor Abiodun and the people of Ogun State, the governor has never attacked him verbally, or sent thugs against him like he (Amosun) was accustomed to doing against his perceived opponents while in office. He has not also sponsored thugs to tear down posters and billboards of his opponents like Amosun did to him (Abiodun) while he ran for governor against all odds.”
The statement said that quite unlike Amosun, Governor Abiodun had ensured even distribution of projects across the state.
It added that if Amosun truly ruled Ogun politics as he claimed, there should not have been such a massive difference between his senatorial votes and President Muhammadu Buhari’s votes in 2019, since the presidential and National Assembly elections were held simultaneously.
According to the statement, since Amosun struggled to win the senatorial election, just as he had barely managed to win re-election as a sitting governor, triumphing in only 11 out of 20 local governments, he is not in any position to claim political emperorship in Ogun State, or dictate where the pendulum will swing in 2019.
The statement added that going by his economic crimes in the state, Amosun should be a guest of the anti-graft agencies.
“This is a person who committed serial economic and financial infractions against the state, inflating contract costs and awarding contracts to unknown entities.
“Amosun demolished people’s houses but never executed the road projects he promised. The government should take a bold step and forward his book of atrocities to the anti-graft agencies,” it said.
