…Calls comment tactless, undiplomatic
By Ismail Azeez, Osogbo
The All Progressives Congress (APC), in Osun has condemned Yemi Shodimu, a broadcaster and actor from Ogun State, for his derogatory remarks about opposition parties in Osun State.
The party stated that Shodimu allegedly said that Governor Ademola Adeleke uses dance to distract his political opponents at the 80th birthday celebration of Chief Olayiwola Amoje in Lagos.
This was contained in a statement on Thursday, signed by the APC Director of Media and Information, Chief Kolapo Olabisi, said that Governor Adeleke outward appearance of the governor being ubiquitously flaunted outside the state is not the true representation real life.
According to Osun APC, “It was reported by Mr Olawale Rasheed, the spokesman of the Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, that Shodimu while introducing the governor at the 80th birthday celebration anniversary of Chief Olayiwola Amoje in Lagos on Tuesday, noted that Adeleke has been using “dance to distract his political opponents in Osun State.”
“The Yoruba dramatist and television presenter who anchored the event was quoted to have remarked among other things that: “I am not flattering you, Your Excellency, your opponents think you can only dance but while they are busy shouting and calling you ‘Dancing Governor’, you are busy fulfilling your electoral promises to the people”.
“We state unequivocally that the type of Shodimu is known to discerning members of the public who are capable of thinking without being prodded that it was bizarre, tactless and undiplomatic that such a birthday of a highly revered Lagos veteran socialite could be turned into a rendezvous where the broadcaster could be spewing balderdash for any reason that could only be ulterior.
“The broadcaster could secure political patronage just like his colleagues under the administration of the visibly embattled, wobbled and focusless Governor Adeleke where political appointments of Special Advisers, Senior Special Assistants have become ten for one kobo without necessarily dabbling into the dangerous arena of politics of running down the opposition parties in Osun State.
“It was strange that someone who hails from Ogun State and does not know much about the nooks and crannies of Osun State could turn himself into a biased assessor of political endeavours in the state which only succeeded in portraying him as self-serving.
“There is a free entry and free exit in partisan politics. Shodimu should be bold enough to identify with any of the registered political parties as a Nigerian who has all inalienable fundamental rights to vote and be voted for instead of hiding under the microphone at events to talk down on political parties.
“Shodimu should find out from his emissaries who are in tune with the authentic political events in Osun State for him to know that the state chapter of the APC is not only solid and intact, no one born by any human being is capable of distracting the party.
“Shodimu and his ilks should know that there is nothing that would impede the collective aspiration of the APC members and supporters in Osun State during the 2026 Governorship and 2027 national elections in the state no matter the campaign of calumny embarked upon by the broadcaster.
“It is the way Governor Adeleke danced to the respectable Bola Ige House at Abere, Osun State, in 2022 that he would dance back to his cocoon in Ede home town in 2026 from where he has been governing the state by proxy because of lack of know-how.
“Governor Adeleke knows where the shoe pinches him and the outward appearance of the governor being ubiquitously flaunted outside the state is not the true representation of who the Ede-born governor is in real life.
“Our prayer in the Osun State chapter of the APC is that may God give Ogun State where Shodimu hails from a governor like Senator Ademola Adeleke in the next dispensation,” the statement added.