August 07, (THEWILL) – The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun state, has solicited prayer for the immediate past Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, for suffering from what it described as “political amnesia and out-of-office loneliness.”
The remarks came amidst accusation by Senator Amosun, that his successor, Dapo Abiodun, won the Ogun State 2019 governorship election through rigging.
While the former governor had thrown his weight behind Adekunle Akinlade, who contested on the platform of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) against Abiodun, who was the candidate of the APC, Akinlade was defeated by Abiodun with a margin of 19,517 votes in the 2019 guber poll.
Abiodun polled 241,670 votes to defeat Akinlade who had 222,153 votes.
But speaking after receiving an award from the Abeokuta Club to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the association on Friday, Amosun said the 2019 governorship election in the state was rigged to favour the incumbent governor.
“During the last election, thank God, Chief Osoba is here, I have said it, we won convincingly. They rigged, rigged, and ended up with 19,000.
“Some of them came to apologise to me. I can’t be mentioning names. We won that election. But I have moved on. We did our work. We will continue to do what we have to do. God will be with all of us”, Amosun said.
But reacting to the allegation, Ogun state Chapter of the APC, in a statement issued by its Publicity Secretary, Tunde Oladunjoye, faulted Amosun’s claim that Governor Abiodun rigged his way into power in 2019.
The party described the Ogun Central Senator’s claim as “an after-lunch belching of a man suffering from political amnesia and loneliness.”
The statement reads: “The attention of our party has been drawn to a statement reportedly credited to the immediate past governor of Ogun State and the Chief Promoter of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), His Excellency, Senator Ibikunle Amosun.
“The quoted statement was not only an insult to the psyche of the people of Ogun State, but also a sad indication that the former governor is yet to purge himself of extreme arrogance and intolerance that were his trademarks, which earned him suspension from our party, even as a sitting governor.
“The APC, therefore, calls on the general public, and particularly our esteemed members, to pity and pray for the former governor, as he obviously suffers from political amnesia, loneliness and absolute lack of touch with reality.
“There is absolute no truth in the specious utterance of the former governor, who is obviously still sulking from the electoral defeat of his surrogate party in 2019. Our party and candidate not only won fair and square, the victory of Prince Dapo Abiodun was also attested to by his co-contestants, many of whom later joined APC and are still in APC.”
