News / politics

Osun 2022: How I ‘poisoned’ Aregbesola’s loyalists, associates — Adeleke

The Osun State Governor-Elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke, has revealed how he “poisoned” some of the loyalists and associates of a former Governor of the State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who is now Minister of Interior, to win the June 16, 2022 poll in the state.

The Peoples Democratic Party candidate for the election revealed this as part of his strategy in a Channels Television interview.

Adeleke was on Sunday declared winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission after polling 403,371 votes to that of the incumbent and candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Gboyega Oyetola, who polled 375,027 votes.

Aregbesola, a member of the APC, was in Germany while the election held. Adeleke told Channels Television: “I did not work with Aregbesola.

“I didn’t even talk to him, but all I know is his associates.

“For example, Kolapo Alimi, one of the lawyers that represented Oyetola at the tribunal.

“Then, anytime I saw him (Alimi) in court, because I’m a civilised person, I will go to them and greet them and say: ‘How are you doing?’

“It was later he apologised and said he was thinking: ‘Why is senator Adeleke greeting me? We are trying to mess him up and he is still greeting me.’

“But he later told me that while I was greeting him, I didn’t know that I was giving them poison.

“They knew that I won the election and they rigged me out and I was still greeting them.

“I believe that Aregbesola and Oyetola fell out.

“He (Alimi) came to me and said he has watched me and that he wants to join our party and we accepted.

“But Aregbesola directly?

No.

“But we know a lot of top APC that joined.

“Assuming that I had been talking to Aregbesola one way or the other, then I would say that maybe he gave them go-ahead to support me.

“These people have grown.

“They have their own minds to decide if they want to join me or not.

“They believed that I was the …

News / politics

Osun Primary: Jagaban ‘house of commotion’

The gloves have been worn and the fight for who controls the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State promises to be bloody, literally.

The mud fight may have already been brought to the doorstep of National Leader of the party and presidential hopeful, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

If something is not urgently done to pull the combatants back from the brink, the center might hold no longer, both for Tinubu’s political family and his presidential ambition.

Sources close to the first layer of Tinubu’s political lieutenants told The Guardian that the maverick politician might face stiffer opposition to his presidential ambition from his supposed loyalists more than people outside his political caucus. Specifically, it was learnt that some of his core loyalists do not see him as “politically fit to govern the country apart from his rumored health challenges.”

And the seeming crack in the “Bourdillon school of politics” is said to be the chief reason many beneficiaries of his magnanimity are also gunning for the presidency or supporting another aspirant against their supposed leader.

It was gathered that while some governors in the country are planning to “retire” Tinubu from active politics by 2023, some other ‘enemies within’ are working round the clock to whittle down his political influence and stop his bid for the presidency.

But sources close to the former Lagos State governor said the gang-up against him is not new and expressed confidence that Tinubu will clinch the party’s presidential ticket and become Nigeria’s president by 2023.

One of them said: “Go and check the records, many politicians that worked against him in the past later came back to be his friend, and he was magnanimous enough to welcome them back with open arms. Those working against him now will soon know that they are political featherweights.”

Sources said the open vituperation by Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, against Tinubu in a video that has gone viral is mere child’s play compared to what would be coming out from his “loyalists” in the …