Encomium
Osun governorship election has come and gone, and the winner and the vanquished have emerged.
However, aftermath of the Saturday, August 9, 2014 guber polls which the controversial politician, Iyiola Omisore of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost to the incumbent governor and All Progressives Congress (APC) flag bearer, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the former has started counting his losses.
An impeccable source informed ENCOMIUM Weekly that the Ife born engineer turned politician’s desperation to win the just concluded gubernatorial election in the state cannot be unconnected with the fact that he had, allegedly, in conjunction, with the Federal Government, invested about N50b in the election.
According to the source, each ward in the state was given a whooping N14.5m and many bags of rice to woo voters in support of Omisore. This largesse, we were told, was coordinated by the state PDP elders, including former lawmaker representing Iwo, Ola Oluwa and Ayedire Federal constituency, Hon. George Oyewole Jolaoye, Chief Francis Ade Fadahunsi, Sogo Agboola amongst others.
Part of the money, the source said, was also dolled out to top monarchs, religious and community leaders in the state.
“Omisore is not happy at all at the moment over the outcome of the election. I learnt he is in debt now. Apart from the huge amount pumped into his governorship bid by President Goodluck Jonathan with the hope that PDP will win Osun as it happened in Ekiti, I learnt that Omisore also financed the election with all he had laboured for but everything ended in vain. That is why he was that desperate to win but the reverse was the case.
“I learnt some religious leaders, including Chairman, Council of Imam of Ola Oluwa Local Government Area, Alhaji Musa turned down Omisore’s offer few days to the election. It was the beginning of a bad signal for PDP. Although, some actually benefited from the largesse, they didn’t vote for Omisore. He was made to believe he would win on account of the money and rice he distributed all over the state, that is why he said the election was rigged in favour of Aregbesola.
“I learnt that Omisore has been pointing accusing fingers at the coordinators of the money and other resources pumped into the election, which was about N50b.I also learnt about 392 wards benefited, with at least N14.5m per ward.”
ENCOMIUM Weekly’s efforts to get Omisore’s reaction, via his Director of Publicity, Mr. Diran Odeyemi couldn’t yield the desired result as his mobile line was switched off. We also sent him a text which was also not replied till we went to press.
However, one of PDP chieftains from the state who spoke to ENCOMIUM Weekly under the condition of anonymity said, “It is all a way of scoring some political points against PDP. Where did they get their figures? What gave them the impression that Omisore shared money to woo voters? He was sure of victory ahead of the election on account of the overwhelming acceptance he enjoyed from the people of the state. It is APC that bought up the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and State Security Service (SSS) officials to rig out Omisore. That is the reason Omisore petitioned INEC. We will definitely seek redress at the tribunal and reclaim our mandate.”
Also, former South west national vice chairman of the party, Engineer Adedeji Doherty corroborated the earlier submission that APC rigged the Saturday, August 2014 election, adding that the PDP will challenge the result in court.
“It was obvious that the election was not credible. We will surely go to court to challenge the outcome”
We also sought Aregbesola’s reaction to the allegation leveled against him by PDP, via his Director, Bureau De Publicity, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon on Friday, August 15, 2014, to no avail. All the calls put through his mobile phone were ignored. Our text was equally not replied.
However, on Monday, August 17, 2014, an APC chieftain, Wole Adegbenjo said “Omisore and the entire PDP can’t deny wooing voters with money and rice, even up till a day to the election. The money and rice went round almost all the wards in the state. With a ward receiving about N15m, and we have close to 400 wards, you can imagine the billions wasted on the election.
If Omisore had won, the state would have suffered immensely for that. He wanted to win at all costs but we thank God he lost out. If not all the intimidation and all that he shared, he wouldn’t have secured 20 percent of the total votes in the state.”
On Saturday, August 9, 2014, the people of The State Osun chose the incumbent governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to rule them for the next four years, in an election which was keenly contested between himself and PDP’s Omisore. Aregbesola defeated Omisore with 394,694 to 294,747 votes.
– TADE ASIFAT
