*Decries worsening security situation in Ogun State
By Miracle Ogunde
The 2023 Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate in Ogun State, Oladipupo Adebutu, has revealed reasons for being away from the country for over six months, expressing confidence that he will get justice at the Supreme Court.
Speaking during an exclusive interview with the Punch, Starnews Nigeria reports that Adebutu said he decided to take a break after having a difficult electioneering season in order to go for a routine medical checkup.
“We have had a difficult season with the electioneering. We decided to take a break, so I chose to go for my routine medicals. Society by and large recognised our efforts. They recognised that we won the election.”
He debunked rumours of absconding from the country, saying such a report is false and misleading.
” I was not surprised when various fabricated stories emerged that I had absconded from the law. This naturally followed after I had rebuffed their pleas. Subsequently, innuendos started coming that if we dared pursue our case at the tribunal, all manners of mayhem would be let loose.”
Commenting on the gubernatorial election in the state, the PDP governorship candidate said that he felt more encouraged by the election, noting that he would not stop pursuing his mandate at the apex Court.
“When it came to that I even felt more encouraged because they knew that I knew all their shenanigans. I sent the message back that I was not going to stop pursuing this mandate at the court and God willing, whatever storm came, I would count it as part of the sacrifices to serve the people of Ogun State.”
He also expressed discontent with the mayhem unleashed on some communities during the election, saying it prevented many people from performing their franchise in the election.
“The most annoying part was the mayhem unleashed on some communities which prevented elections from taking place in 99 polling units. At least these were legitimately documented. The mayhem unleashed throughout the state made it impossible for over 40,000 people to vote. We are all aware of what happened on the election day. One won’t believe it was an election. One would rather think it was a war.
“There were so many guns in circulation, and people were snatching ballot boxes in the full glare of the security operatives. The level of mayhem and anarchy was unbelievable. There were many guns in circulation. Guns found their way into the hands of these young people and after the elections were never retrieved. The killings have continued particularly in Sagamu. One can see the correlation, the availability of guns is proportional to disenfranchised voters, namely 46 polling units in Sagamu.
“Rationally, it became obvious that these guns were flowing all over the place. These misdirected young people were misbehaving killing one another, threatening market women, and harassing people everywhere. So, it did not need too much common sense for me to say to myself that I had to allow these winds to blow by because what would happen if these marauding people were to gun one down? There will certainly be a lot of crying and shouting and that will be the end of this mandate that they are trying to desperately abort.”
According to Adebutu, “Rather than be murdered and allow the mandate to die a natural death, I will keep away until such a time when the matter is disposed of by the court. I decided to take a break because we are not dealing with people with conscience. We are not dealing with people that operate within the law.”
He also expressed disappointment at the failure of INEC to take necessary action in prosecution electoral offenders, stressing that the body failed in its responsibilities.
“The Electoral Acts states clearly that the authority to prosecute any criminal issue whatsoever during an election is the Independent National Electoral Commission so that it will hopefully be the impartial arbiter that will adjudge or even indict or feel that there is a need to pursue any form of litigation. Till now, INEC has not instituted any matter against me, and for that matter, the tribunal has disposed of allegations of vote-buying against me, and that decision was never appealed.”
Describing the judgements delivered by both the tribunal and appeal court on the matter, Adebutu said, “I have said that I am determined to do all that is within my capacity with the help of God to retrieve this mandate freely given to me by the good people of Ogun State. I need to actualise this mandate because there is a lot to be done to return smiles to the faces of the people. It is the least I can do to justify the confidence reposed in my leadership which made them defy everything to vote for us.
“Ogun State must get out of its present uninspiring government. The disaster is enormous. A lot of strange things are happening in the state.”
Highlighting his agenda for the state, the PDP governorship aspirant said “We have antecedents; people should always ask what fruits this tree bears. We have the antecedents of having compassion and doing things transparently. My service to the people of Ogun State has been without blemish. I have been to the National Assembly twice, and been a Commissioner at the Local Government Service Commission among others and we have transparently served the people. I am an agricultural entrepreneur in the state and I have always argued that the government has no business in business rather it will only create an enabling environment for businesses to flourish.
“We have our 7-point agenda tagged ITURA DE being acronym for Improved Security, Law & Order; True Local Government Autonomy, Public Service Reforms and Workers Welfare; Urban Regional Development, Physical Planning & Transportation; Rural & Border Communities Development; Agricultural and Economic Development; Development of Women, Youth and Sports and Enhancement of Education, Healthcare & other Social Services. For all these, we have our master plan for the implementation of the agenda”.
Speaking further, he said “For instance, aside from the harmonisation of taxes and levies, we shall leverage the liberalisation policy of the Federal Government on power generation. We shall bring partners and investors to help with this because once this challenge is dealt with it will open more job opportunities for our people because it will aid investment.”
“The current story of a poor network of roads across the state will be seriously addressed truthfully in such a way that the private sector will completely invest in major infrastructure like roads to bring about a marked difference to the acrobatics currently ongoing in the state. We shall then use available government funds to massively develop our health and education sectors. The other time I saw a video of some pupils in a ramshackle classroom being beaten by rain, I felt so sad; we won’t tolerate that under our administration. Our women and children as a matter of necessity under our government will have relief from the trauma we are all going through now because this is going to be a government driven by compassion and willingness to serve with all sincerity. Our local government will equally have the autonomy to contribute meaningfully to the development of the state unlike what currently operates in the state. We shall rejig our finance management because as we speak Ogun State is probably the most indebted state, and we are not going to allow that to continue,” he added.
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