2023: Amosun leads ADC governoship campaign flag off in Ogun

…speaks on why he will never support Abiodun’s government

Amosun doomed to fail again with his serial lies-Group

Bankole Taiwo, Abeokuta

The former governor of Ogun State and Senator representing Ogun Central senatorial district, Sen Ibikunle Amosun on Wednesday, at Ake palace ground, Abeokuta led the flag off of the governorship candidate of African Democratic Congress (ADC) Barr Biyi Otegbeye and his running mate, Tunde Elias Awonuga.

Sen Amosun while speaking at the campaign attended by hundreds of ADC party members disclosed that, though, he remains a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) but he is pitching tent with the ADC because Ogun West senatorial district where the party’s governorship candidate came from has never produced the governor of the state since 47 years ago when the state was created.

Amosun said “they have always said that the Yewa people don’t have someone competent to be governor, that they are poor, that they can never be the governor of the state but I have always said that this is sheer hypocrisy because this Ogun West is home to the Anisulowos, the Odebiyis, Dadas, Oyagbolas and many eminent Nigerians, so for the sake of equity and fairness, I have decided to go with Barr Biyi Otegbeye, a very successful lawyer and guru in insurance who has all it takes to continue to develop the state on the path of greatness”

The former governor also used the medium to revisit his bickering with his successor, Gov Dapo Abiodun saying that he has decided not to support him because the governor has failed to run his government according to 35 years economic blueprint left behind by his administration.

He disclosed further that Lagos is said to be working because those coming behind have always worked on the already designed template for governance in the state.

Amosun said for instance where it had been designed to have ten lanes the present administration had reduced to two lanes and that the governor had also allegedly refused to touch some projects because they were initiated by his administration.

The Senator equally alleged the present administration of accusing him of spending N27bn on the underutilized 15 models school saying that his government actually spent N6.9bn on the project.

He said each of the project had cost N750M while those with two hostels were built for N850m. The former governor said, he was however surprised to learn that the governor allegedly spent N3bn to renovate one of the Model schools at Kobape which the present administration had just turned Tech Hub.

He explained further that he was also suprised to hear that the governor had allegedly spent N4bn on the Model school at Ikenne Remo which was commissioned by the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo with all the facilities wandering whatever would have warranted spending such huge amount of money on a project built with N750m.

Amosun said that he was always sad and unhappy whenever he takes stock of the performance of government of Gov Abiodun insisting that, all of these made him to throw his weight behind the gubernatorial ambition of Barr Biyi Otegbeye because he would continue on the abandoned designed template of good governance for the state.

The former governor said Barr Otegbeye is therefore his anointed governoship candidate for the state urging the people to troop out enmass to vote in the lawyer as the next governor of the state.

He however declared that in as much as he believed that it is the turn of the South to take a shot at the presidency, he and his supporters will vote for the presidential candidate of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the coming February 25 presidential election.

Barr Biyi Otegbeye, the ADC governorship candidate in his short remarks vowed to pursue programmes and policies that would make the state continue on the path of greatness and economic prosperity.

However, a group, Ogun Political Watch, has fired back Senator Ibikunle Amosun urging him desist from spinning falsehood about Gov Dapo Abiodun’s administration saying that such a strategy was doomed to failure.

The group made this declaration in a statement released by its secretary, Alhaji Wahab Adeyemi, in Abeokuta on Wednesday.

Reacting to the sundry allegations levelled against Governor Abiodun by the senator during the governorship campaign of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the state, the group described Amosun as a disgruntled and desperate politician who could not get over his failure to install a stooge at Oke Mosan as governor in 2019 and secure a return ticket to the Senate during the All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries last year.

It noted that having failed woefully to achieve his inordinate ambition, the senator pitched his tent with a moribund political party and an extremely weak candidate, adding that they will both fail woefully in the coming election.

It said: “Curiously, the same Biyi Otegbeye that Amosun is supporting now was the APC house of Reps candidate in his constituency in 2019 and Amosun fought tooth and nail to defeat his ambition.

“Now, because the guy has decided to share the patrimony of Ogun State with him, he has decided to support him, but they will both fail woefully.”

Describing Senator Amosun’s allegation that Governor Abiodun had spent N3bn on rehabilitating the model schools he (Amosun) built with N830 million as patently laughable, the group urged the Ogun Central senator to get over his bitterness and anger, saying that officials of the Abiodun government had already shown that the figures expended on the said schools was less than 5 percent of the figure he (Amosun) quoted.

It said: “Amosun is bandying about unrealistic figures out of his desperate ambition to rubbish Governor Abiodun, who has clearly surpassed his eight-year achievements in just four years..

“Was Amosun really talking about the so-called model schools that failed structural integrity test and could not house a single student?

“The Abiodun administration had to convert those of them that were fairly habitable to isolation centres during the COVID-19 crisis.

” It is unconscionable for an APC senator to be repeating the anti-party activities he carried out to his utter shame in 2019, circulating bogus figures out of pure mischief, and with the intention to install the candidate of another political party in office while remaining in APC as a senator.

“We invite the APC leadership to sanction Amosun while he and his ADC stooge go into political oblivion,” the statement read.