Imposition not APC problem at Osun election but PDP’s vote-buying, Nigerians make U-turn

Some Nigerians, who have blamed imposition by leadership of the Party in the state in connivance with Lagos since the poor outing of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Saturday’s governorship election in Osun State, have started making a U-turn from such disposition.

Our investigations showed that leadership of APC in Osun and Lagos have been under intensive attacks for what their attackers described as their ineptitude in the picking of candidate for the election.

But they are now speaking out that the defeat so far suffered by party in the inconclusive election, rather than what they had blamed on lack of internal democracy, actually was due to huge vote-buying by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

One of our respondents, who forwarded her words to The DEFENDER Monday afternoon, vehemently rejected the blame being cast on Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Raid Aregbesola for what appeared to be that the Osun peoole so much loved the PDP as alternative to APC.

“No. It is not true. Imposition is not the problem. It (the process) was direct primary. On Lagos, he has no say. Imposition ended with ACN,” she said.

Speaking further, the woman who spoke authoritatively claiming that Osun is home of her husband, said, “Money was the issue here. My hubby is from osun. PDP penetrated everywhere with money, including APC agents and leaders. How did that huge figure from Ede come about? Is Ede the biggest voting catchment area in Osun State?

“Saraki and the rest are after Osun because they want to use the state’s money to do coming elections. They could therefore spend their last to achieve Adeleke win.

“Imagine an APC agent was beaten up in Esa-Oke and N80,000 was found in where he kept it. He confessed who gave it to him: PDP. APC agents! Taking money from PDP? All those corners working for INEC in Ede were compromised and so we gathered they tumbprinted freely.

She continued: “If you watched the Ayedade collation, APC agent said nothing. That was the figure that changed all. A figure was transmitted already only to change.”

To those who were saying Osun was pointer to Lagos over Governor Akinwumi Ambode, she disagreed saying the problem of Ambode was not Tinubu but the people of Lagos and party leaders.

“Ambode is a bad news. If you look deeper you will know. He is faithful to Tinubu. It’s Lagosians and APC that dont want him. Leave Tinubu out of this. A free primary took place in Osun. Adeoti is a bad loser and Akinbade. At the end they are finished politically,” she stood her ground.

Earlier she had ventilated her frustration over the Saturday outing:

“For me, Senator Adeleke Ademola has won the Osun State governorship election. Even when those 3,000 votes are cast and contend, I expect him to emerge victorious.

“To be honest, the fact that the election was so close in itself has made the APC’s position untenable. They have been so fatally wounded that the only dignified course of action is to concede defeat. In saner climes, when an incumbent party is so fatally hurt by the electorate, they take the honourable course of action, which is to bow out. As we all know, such things simply do not happen in Nigeria.

“However, I live in hope. Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, the APC candidate in Osun may surprise us all to a Goodluck by bowing out gracefully. I am sure he must consider it a snub for a dancer and entertainer to get more votes than him in a state-wide election.

“In a society where values, policies and programmes are the basis of electing public officials, Ademola Adeleke would not have been able to get more than 5% of the vote at best. His election just tells you everything that is wrong with us as a people.

“Senator Adeleke should not even have been able to get more than 10% of the vote in the PDP primary, let alone clinch the ticket. Yet he won, beating candidates with five times his intellectual capacity, personal integrity, visionary outlook and managerial capability.

“To make matters worse, Senator Adeleke showed utter contempt for the people of Osun State by not showing up for any of the public debates. In a sane society, such irresponsible and callous disregard for the process would render him totally unelectable.

“However, we have to live in the world as it is and now how we wish it would be. Senator Adeleke is a reflection of who we are as a people at this moment in time. We are not yet ready for the battle of ideas to take us forward as a people. For now, we are content to be a consumerist society, enjoy our owambe parties every weekend, have state governments dependent on federal handouts and elect governors that borrow money to pay salaries.

“Osun State is not economically viable as she spends about three times more than she earns from federal handouts and the paltry sums generated internally. I would have thought that this election would have been about how to address this matter but alas, economics was not even mentioned once during the course of the campaign.

“Over the next four years, Osun needs something like 30% annual economic growth, the large scale diversification of its economy, a massive transformation of the ancient city of Ile-Ife into a global tourist attraction like Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Ibiza, etc and the wooing of large scale manufacturers. None of this was debated and as far as I am concerned, Senator Adeleke is not under any obligation to deliver. It is not a crime to deliver what you did not promise!

“Please, nobody from Osun should come here and moan over the next four years. As things stand, civil servants and pensioners are owed about four month salary arrears, with there being no sign whatsoever that these will be cleared. When you have a budget of N173bn and only generate N55bn, it is clear that arrears and debt will only continue to grow. For me, this election has been a real eye opener. It has held a mirror to our collective faces showing us who we are and I for one do not like what I see!” She said.

In the meantime, a leading pro-Buhari social media activist, Liberty Badmus, has expressed disappointment that of all options, Osun peoole disappointed him to have picked the PDP as worthy of their votes.

Badmus said this in a post on his Facebook wall on Monday.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed Thursday September 27, 2018 for the re-run election to determine who succeeds Aregbesola as governor of Osun State.