The Ogun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Friday, said the most honourable thing for the candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the March 18th governorship election, Hon. Oladipupo Adebutu, to do was to submit himself to security agencies over allegations of electoral fraud levelled against him.
The party also advised Adebutu to stop dishing out false hope to his followers, insisting that his alleged atrocities during the last poll would be pursued to a logical conclusion in the competent court of justice to serve as a deterrent to others.
Ogun APC was reacting to a statement in the media credited to Adebutu, where he raised issues concerning the last gubernatorial election in the state, including the involvement of a former governor of the state, Gbenga Daniel, among others.
In a statement signed by the Assistant Publicity Secretary of the party in the State, Olusola Ogunsanya Blessed, and made available to newsmen in Abeokuta, the State capital, the party said the statement issued by Adebutu was laced with intent to cover up certain atrocities and change the real narrative.
The party claimed that going by the tone of Adebutu’s statement, the PDP chieftain and Daniel must have been embarrassed by the exposition of their alleged shenanigans and conspiracy during the last elections.
The statement reads in part: “While Adebutu, in his cognitively impoverished piece dripping with vile abuse, failed woefully to defend the fact that Gbenga Daniel, against good conscience, worked for him and his party, the PDP, and betrayed the party that gave him a ticket and even sponsored him to emerge as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he tried to be clever by half by denying the allegation of bribery levelled against the former Ogun Governor with overwhelming evidence.
“For every discerning political watcher, it is crystal clear that Adebutu and Daniel were seriously embarrassed by the exposition of their atrocities in the public glare, and so the bribery, criminal conspiracy and money laundering suspect currently hibernating in a foreign country resorted to defending the indefensible and further exposing the astounding degree of moral decadence and perfidy that defines their relationship.
“Adebutu’s pattern of defence in which he described Daniel as “a very rich man in his own right” obviously depicts how shallow he is despite his age. His line of thought regrettably defies critical reasoning and is a reflection of his highfalutin and bogus persona.
“It is even more childish for the PDP guber candidate to ignorantly mention his father and Gbenga Daniel as benefactors of Governor Dapo Abiodun, astutely elevating beer parlour gossip and clueless innuendos as tools of public engagement.
“On the issue of performance and reelection of Governor Dapo Abiodun, it is surprising that a man like Oladipupo Adebutu, who is known to be irredeemably indolent and mortally afflicted with mental laziness could accuse any government of non-performance and corruption, when he lacks the intellectual stamina to do a thorough assessment of government policies and activities.”
The statement further accused Adebutu of stooping so low to be involved in alleged electoral malpractices and money laundering and brazenly compromised the electoral process.
It added that Governor Dapo Abiodun had the people solidly behind him and had since settled down for governance, urging Adebutu to summon courage and come back home to face justice.
“The most pertinent among issues raised by Adebutu in his treatise is that of acceptability and popularity of Governor Dapo Abiodun. The salient question to ask Adebutu is this: If as he claimed Governor Dapo Abiodun was not popular and couldn’t have won the March 18th poll, why did Adebutu and his accomplices resort to broad-day rigging by conniving with Zenith Bank to issue 200,000 ATM verve credit cards, preloaded with N10,000 each to bribe the electorate in the State?
“A popular candidate would only have carefully monitored his votes like Governor Dapo Abiodun did, and not stooped so low as to go the way of criminality, audaciously breaching the sanctity of the electoral process like Adebutu and the PDP did.
“Finally, if Adebutu is the man he claims to be, he should summon the courage to come back home and submit himself to security agencies for prosecution. This is not the time for him to give false hope to his gullible followers.
“And to be sure, the people of Ogun State are solidly behind their Governor, and are very optimistic that their stolen votes by Adebutu and the PDP through massive rigging will be retrieved by the Tribunal soonest,” the statement added.