Senator Buruji Kashamu has said he joined the Ogun State governorship race due to calls from several quarters urging him to help take the state to “greater heights”.
He said he was called upon not only by Ogun people of Ijebu extraction, whose turn, he said, was to produce the next governor, but also “our friends from Remo, Ogun Central and Ogun West” as well as several “traditional rulers, artisans, youth groups, women and the masses.”
The lawmaker said he was grateful for the confidence reposed in him and his running mate, Dr Reuben Abati.
Kashamu, according to a statement on Tuesday, said this when he was visited by the leadership of the Adebayo Dayo faction of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State.
He said, “I have to accept this offer because I have received the representatives of various people and groups calling on me to run for the post of governor.
“I have been called upon by many traditional rulers and the good people of Ijebuland, our friends from Remo, Ogun Central and Ogun West to join the race.
“It is in the light of the above that I accepted the offer to run for the post of Governor of Ogun State and I promise to do my best to justify the confidence reposed in me and my running mate, Dr Reuben Abati.”
Dayo thanked Kashamu for agreeing to represent the party in next year’s governorship poll, after Adeleke Shittu withdrew from the race.
But the Sikirulai Ogundele faction of the PDP in the state described the submission of Kashamu’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission as “a joke taken too far”.
The faction, while rejecting Kashamu, described him as a man who lacked integrity.
The faction said this in a statement by its media consultant, Afolabi Orekoya.
The statement said, “The new scheme of Kashamu is a joke taken too far by a man whose character is completely questionable.
“This is just wishful thinking by Kashamu and it should be disregarded by party members and the good people of Ogun State.
“It is a fact that Kashamu is not a member of the PDP because he has since been expelled from the party.
“This is in addition to the fact that he did not participate in the party’s primary process as provided by the electoral law.”
