Olusegun Osoba, a former Governor
of Ogun State, has narrated how former President, Olusegun Obasanjo “rigged”
him and four other governors of the South West out of power in 2003.
Osoba claimed that the former
President used the police to rig him and the four governors out of power in
2003.
Speaking at a colloquium held in
honour of journalist and writer, Kunle Ajibade in Lagos, yesterday, Osoba, who
governed Ogun State between 1999 and 2003 under the platform of the Alliance
for Democracy (AD), explained that the governors disagreed with the then
federal government on the nation’s governance structure and other issues of
power and resource control, hence their removal from office.
According to Osoba, “We were
going to court to tackle issues of fiscal responsibilities on police. In my own
case, I had Israel Ajao as my commissioner. On the eve of 2003 elections, Obasanjo
knew he was going to write figures and Ajao was cooperative with me; letting me
know where ‘Area boys’ can disrupt and other things… giving me security report.
“What Obasanjo did was that two
days before the election, he transferred him to Abuja, by road! He was sent to
Abuja. I had to go and fight until he was brought back a day after the
election. That’s to show you how a president can misuse (the police).
“I can recall the day he decided
to sacked Musiliu Smith. He (Mr Obasanjo) called a council of state meeting… he
got there, told Smith to give us report and said he should excuse. The next
thing was, Bola Tinubu said, ‘I hope you are not scape-goating, I hope you are
not going to look for a scape-goat!’ Bola had a hint that he was going to do something
about Smith and he was hollering in the council of state meeting.
“At the end of the day, he got
what he wanted and put his own man, Tafa Balogun, who helped to rig the
election for him.
“That is the story of the democracy that we
are having and that’s why you must not relent. So we were rigged out and the
cases that we were running could not continue because his own men came to the
council of state.”
If a president can do all these,the system still remains and that's why am calling on the IG of police to quickly remove the commissioner in Ekiti state to allow peaceful conduct of coming election in Ekiti so that Fayose will not give figure to him to write out and give to INEC.And in same vein the INEC commissioner in Ekiti be removed he has been biased by the Governor Fayose.We have seen them in a closed door meeting.Let Asiwaju,Oyegun,Lai Mohammed paid attention to this and the Defense minister.Fayose is a trained election manipulator.But if all thed-se area is catered for his hands is up. Let Ekiti people enjoy the fruits of democracy this time around.Clemo
ReplyDeleteThis fool does not have brains at all. What the guy was saying is that the IGP is directly under the president and he does as he is commanded. Is Fayose now the IGP or President? Why do some people reason like this for God sake? Honestly, this is the evidence people need to show that education being given is very poor in the country
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