*He has right to change his mind – Adebanjo
*He expressed his constitutional right – Momoh
*Ex-President makes threatening political statement at PDP rally
*Says “whether it is a play or a real game, they will know”
Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), on Tuesday said former President Olusegun Obasanjo has demonstrated that he lacks principles by attending a rally of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State on Monday.
Sagay spoke just as mixed reactions have continued to trail the former president’s presence at PDP rally, which gladdened the members and supporters of the Ogun State chapter of the PDP as Obasanjo briskly stormed the political rally by a governorship aspirant of PDP in the state, Oladipupo Adebutu.
The former President who was handed the microphone mounted the podium and wished the party and Oladipupo Adebutu success in their aspiration.
Obasanjo who announced that he had called it quit with partisan politics in the build–up to the 2015 general elections, spoke during the brief moment at the rally that took place at an expanse ground within the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in which premises he now lives in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
In his remarks, Obasanjo who spoke very briefly in Yoruba said “whether it is a play or a real game, they will know. I saw you here and I came to play with you”, Obasanjo said.
The Obasanjo’s statement has been construed to be a political threatening that suggests that the former President is in the ongoing plot causing killings in the land.
This was reaction of a respondent, who speaking to The DEFENDER, said “Obasanjo cannot tell us that he has a mystery to deploy a worse evil against President Muhammadu Buhari than we have seen because all the disaffection and conflicts we have witnessed are so far traceable to men around this same man. TY Danjuma, National Christian Elders’ Forum, Christian Association of Nigeria, Afenifere, IPOB and the rest,” he said.
In his own reaction, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), PACAC chairman, on Tuesday said former President Olusegun Obasanjo has demonstrated that he lacks principles by attending a rally of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun state on Monday.
Speaking in a chat with Daily Independent, Sagay who wondered why Obasanjo was a present at a PDP rally having torn his membership card and said he is retiring from partisan politics said the former president has gone back to his vomit.
“It portrays him as a man without principles, as a man of just convenience. What suits him is what he is concerned about rather than what is best for the country. It is just him going back to his vomit. It shows total lack of principles for a person at that level. It is very sad” he said.
However speaking with our correspondent, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, eldersstatesman and Afenifere chieftain said Obasanjo has a right to change his mind.
“He has the constitutional right to change his mind. If he said he was leaving the party before and decided to join again, he has the right to change his mind. There is nothing wrong about that”.
In his reaction, Prince Tony Momoh, a former Minister of Information said Obasanjo only expressed his constitutional right to associate with whom he wishes to.
He said “Obasanjo has his personality, freedom of choice and he knows how to exercise that freedom. He exercised his freedom of expression. He decided to join the PDP. When he came out of prison and they approached him to contest, he said he didn’t have money. Some people did some calculations and later he didn’t say that he doesn’t have money again”.
“He said he didn’t have a platform and again, some people did some calculations and gave him Yar’Adua’s platform which Atiku Abubakar was in charge of. He now went into the race. So, someone who left miraculously and found himself in politics and later won, he became president. He wanted Third term, though he denied it , he couldn’t get it”.
“He later changed the soul of PDP by deregistering PDM members but later that arrangement was dismantled. He sponsored Goodluck Jonathan and later fought with him. At the end of the day, he tore his membership card”.
“He also said he will never be in politics again. Later he formed CNM and said it will be a pressure group and if it turns into a political party, he will quit. Later, he went to ADC which is a political party. It was in exercising his freedom of movement that he appeared surprisingly at Ogun PDP rally”.
