Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, on Saturday replied his predecessor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, over allegations that he was rigged into office during the 2019 election.
Amosun had backed Adekunle Akinlade who contested on the platform of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) against Abiodun who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In the end, Amosun’s anointed candidate was defeated by Abiodun with a margin of 19,517 votes.
Abiodun polled 241,670 votes to defeat Akinlade who had 222,153 votes.
More than three years after the election, Amosun who represents Ogun Central at the Senate, declared that Abiodun did not win the election.
He spoke on Friday in Abeokuta while speaking after receiving an award from the Abeokuta Club to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the association.
Amosun stated that the 2019 governorship election in the state was rigged to favour of the incumbent governor.
He added that he had moved on because of those orchestrated the rigging had apologised to him.
The senator also declared that Abiodun must be removed from power during next year’s election.
“During the last election, thank God, Chief Osoba is here, I have said it, we won convincingly. They rigged, rigged, and ended up with 19,000.
“Some of them came to apologise to me. I can be mentioning names. We won that election. But I have moved on,” Amosun said.
Reacting on Saturday, Abiodun declared that he would not be distracted by any person who has a problem with self delusion, noting “Ogun State is not anybody’s father’s inheritance”.
But speaking with newsmen shortly after the grand finale of the 50th anniversary of the Abeokuta Club, he called on the people of the state to ignore his predecessor, insisting that he would not join issues with him.
“I will not be distracted by any person or persons who have a problem with self delusion. I will not be distracted by any person who does not appreciate that Ogun State is not anybody’s father’s inheritance. We are all stakeholders in these commonwealth called Ogun State.
“I am not going to join issues with anyone that wants to play God; I will leave them to God, God can deal with whoever is challenging His authority and wanted to play God. All I can say is that what we stand for in Ogun State is administration that is committed to providing purposeful leadership and purposeful infrastructural development across the length and breadth of the state,” he said.
Abiodun added that his administration remained committed to the development of all sectors of the state economy.
He expressed disappointment that a former governor and a sitting governor in 2019 would cry that he was rigged out during the election.
“How can we that were on the outside take on an incumbent and then be accused of rigging out an incumbent in the same party? Anyone can explain their failure whichever way they like, anyone can also begin to pant and threaten that they will do whatever,” he added.
Abiodun, who also noted that his administration would as prioritise the development of the President Muhammadu Buhari Estate, added that before the end of the year, a minimum of 250 structures would be built in the estate.
“The President Muhammadu Buhari Estate which is one of the projects I inherited from my predecessor, in another one or two months, you will see that buildings will begin to be visible in that estate.
“I do not have a doubt that before the end of the year, there will be a minimum of about 250 medium upper beautiful befitting structures in PMB Estate,” Abiodun noted.
