Politics

Osun guber: How Obasanjo convinced me to dump PDP – Akinbade

Published

5 years ago

September 3, 2018

The flag bearer of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the September 22 governorship poll in Osun State, Alhaji Fatai Akinbade, has revealed how former President Olusegun Obasanjo and ex-governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, convinced him to pick the party’s ticket.
Akinbade, who said he would not blame anybody for his resolve to defect from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), made this disclosure while answering questions during an interactive session, held inside the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Osun State Council in Osogbo.

“We were in the Labour Party (LP) sometimes last year. There were having issues with a caretaker committee of the PDP in Osun. Both two factions came to beg me. I consulted with my people and we all decided to go back to PDP. You knew what happened during the primaries in July. Some of them said it to my face that Akinbade is a good candidate, but he has no money.”
According to Akinbade, “On July 1, 2018, I had a call from Obasanjo who told me that are you aware that you will not be picked after the conclusion of the PDP primaries. He said I should go and resign my membership of PDP and pick the ticket of ADC. I said it would not be possible. Then, he said I was heady, saying ADC would not pick a defeated gubernatorial aspirant.
“A month to the PDP primaries, Oyinlola called me asking how many people are in my camp. I said I am not camping anybody. He said he knew how many delegates each governorship aspirants in the PDP had camped. He said he called me because the party had relaxed its stand of not picking defeated aspirants.”