The All Progressives Congress and the People’s Democratic Party in Ogun State are still fighting each other over the governorship election results in the state, as the PDP governorship candidate, Ladi Adebutu, raised the alarm on Tuesday that he might be killed for taken his case to the election petition tribunal.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared that Dapo Abiodun of the APC won the March 18 gubernatorial election after scoring 276,298 votes.
Adebutu, who polled 262,383 votes, came second in the election, losing to Abiodun with 13,915 vote margins.
But, the PDP said the electoral body made the declaration in error as it failed to take into account the number of cancelled votes, which it said are more than 40,000.
To show his dissatisfaction, Adebutu had a few days after the election, led his supporters in a peaceful protest to the INEC office in Abeokuta, asking the commission to review the process.
Speaking at a conference of political parties in Abeokuta on Monday, Adebutu said he had been warned to mind himself wherever he goes.
The candidate said he had an intelligence report that he should, henceforth, avoid crowded areas, because he might be killed one day.
While saying he does not pray to die, the Iperu-born politician said he is confident that the mandate belongs to the PDP and the people, saying it would be reclaimed even if he dies.
“I’ve been warned that I should mind myself wherever I go, that I should not go to crowded areas because, maybe one day I will be killed.
“The truth of the matter is that it is a PDP mandate. I don’t pray to die, but it is a PDP mandate and it is the people’s mandate. I am sure it will be easy to reclaim even if they kill me.
“We are determined; if they want to kill us, it’s okay. They brought killers from Lagos to attack our candidate in Sagamu. Luckily, the man escaped through the balcony,” Adebutu claimed.
While condemning “the attacks on PDP members in Ogun,” especially in Remo axis of the state, charging security agencies to stop turning blind eyes to the attacks on his supporters, he called on the people of the state not to allow anybody to make them prisoners in their own towns and villages, stating that “we are all Nigerians.”
“If you continue to allow them to abuse your rights unabridged, you will become their prisoner. You must resist the abuses. I will not become a prisoner in Nigeria.
“They want to compel you to start hiding at home. I am not going to do that. I’m going to go everywhere,” he said.
Adebutu said the party has approached the tribunal to seek redress, expressing confidence that he would win at the tribunal.
In a counter move, the Ogun State chapter of the APC advised Adebutu not to kill himself over his forlorn governorship ambition.
The APC, in a statement issued in Abeokuta on Tuesday by its Publicity Secretary, Tunde Oladunjoye, said, “We read with shock the alarm raised by Mr. Adebutu that he might be killed over the outcome of the governorship election and his quest to challenge same at the tribunal.
“As a progressive party and government, we pride ourselves as people who are irrevocably committed to the plurality of opinions, the freedom of choice and association which our constitution and democracy provide.
“That choice has been freely and democratically exercised on the 18th of March, 2023 governorship and House of Assembly elections. It is very ridiculous that Candidate Adebutu threw a lavish party to celebrate the nine seats won by his party in the House of Assembly elections which was lost to it by the APC, while he had problems with the House of Assembly seats and governorship won by the APC. This kind of petty and unsportsmanlike politics will not help our state; a state of many firsts in Nigeria.
“All the resort to red herrings, cheap blackmail and futile propaganda will not help him achieve what he could not achieve through the ballot even with documented inducements and several breaches of the Electoral Act.
“We know how it feels to have expended so much family resources in the past 20 years or thereabout pursuing a forlorn ambition, especially when you have already been called ‘His Excellency’ with some paraphernalia of office. It is a very bitter pill to swallow now that reality is setting in. How long will you continue to delude yourself in answering to ‘His Excellency’ without actually having a taste of the position, power and perks of the office? We can feel Mr. Adebutu’s pains and vacuity.
“However, we urge him not to kill himself over his failed governorship ambition. He should take heart and accept his defeat at the polls in good faith, knowing full well that the next election circle will soon be here in four years.
“It is our prayer that the Almighty God will keep him till then to witness that truly ‘Igbega Ipinle Ogun has continued’ (i.e. the development of Ogun State has continued.)”
