The dust generated by the Ogun State governorship election has yet to settle as allegations and counter-allegations by both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have been flying in the air. Honourable Tunde Oladunjoye, the APC Publicity Secretary in the state, sheds light on some of the issues in this interview conducted by Sulaimon Olanrewaju.
Since the governorship election result was announced, Ogun State has not been at peace. What exactly is the matter?
It is not correct to say, Ogun has not been at peace. Ogun has been at peace and citizens are going about their lawful duties. It is losers that have not been at peace, particularly Honourable Ladi Adebutu, who led hundreds of people including hoodlums to march to the INEC headquarters in Abeokuta claiming he wanted to submit a letter! Aside that, everyone is at peace and government is running smoothly.
Would you say that the governorship election was free and fair?
Very free and fair, not only as we observed, but also as certified by observers.
But some observers have called for the cancellation of the election because of violence and vote buying. How then can you say that the election was free and fair?
The observers and groups calling for the cancellation of the election are sponsored. There is nothing like Coalition of Registered Political Parties in Ogun State. What we have is Inter-Party Advisory Council and many political parties and their governorship candidates have commended the INEC and congratulated Prince Dapo Abiodun on his reelection.
Even those making noise knew that we won fair and square, they are in severe pain because we won despite the humongous amount of money they deployed, buying votes at N10,000 per vote. Many of the PDP agents were arrested with hundreds of PVCs, cash and preloaded credit cards. So, we are asking the NDLEA, EFCC, the Police and others who arrested these electoral offenders to prosecute them under relevant laws. The vote buying issue must not be swept under the carpet.
But, there are allegations of manipulation of the election result in favour of Governor Dapo Abiodun. What do you have to say to that?
Some of our people are bad losers. We should play politics of maturity. When you lose an election you should be humble to accept defeat and not making noise. APC had 26 House of Assembly seats going into that election. In the election we lost eight to PDP. To them, the election was free and fair where they won, but was not free or fair where we won. They are sore losers.
The PDP candidate, Honourable Ladi Adebutu, claimed that over 14,000 of his votes were allegedly counted in favour of the APC governorship candidate. What is your response to that?
My response is only to laugh. Where and how was that possible? His party only had two agents per polling booth. The man should realize that this is a new era. The days of adding thousands of votes to any result are gone forever. This is BVAS era, your only way to win is to mobilize people to go out and vote. Even the police at the polling booth cannot help you, INEC staff cannot help you.
The margin between Governor Abiodun and Honourable Adebutu at the last election was narrow. Is that not a reflection of the governor’s performance?
Not at all! The achievements of the governor speak for him. From housing to health, education, agriculture and infrastructure. The only reason PDP got some bites was that they purchased votes. We thank the good people of Ogun State who stood firm and cast their votes for the governor, for the APC, even when they were faced with cash-and-carry, pay-as-you-go candidate.
You keep alleging that PDP induced voters with money, but there are also allegations of vote buying by the APC.
You are talking about allegations without proof. They are only making the allegations when their illegal activities have been thoroughly exposed. Who bears “Caroline Oladuni Adebutu”? That’s the name of the late mother of the PDP’s governorship candidate who was buried in Iperu not long ago. Who are those behind the “Caroline Oladuni Adebutu Memorial Endowment Scheme”? Why will they not allow the good woman to rest in peace? The card in the deceased name was preloaded with N10k each with which they induced the voters.
We have other documentary evidences that I don’t want to reveal for now. They were so sure they could not have lost having deployed those cards roughly amounting to about N3 billion. But we thank God that the good people of Ogun State did not offer themselves for sale.
The APC issued a statement asking INEC to protect its staff and election materials. Are there threats to INEC staff and election materials?
Of course there are threats. There was an attack on INEC office at Abeokuta South November 9, last year. The protest at the INEC office, which was led by Honourable Adebutu with hundreds of people shouting and cursing, was unbridled intimidation, psychological oppression of the staff of INEC and blatant threat to lives and property. We don’t want a repeat of what happened last November when INEC office was burnt. Such must not happen. That is why we called on INEC to live up to expectations and to contact or network with security agencies to provide maximum security at INEC offices, especially the headquarters.
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