By Adesina Soyooye
The Governor of Ogun State, Dapo Abiodun, has threatened to sue Media Houses which carried the story that he admitted to committing crime while he lived in the United States of America.
The Governor has been in the eyes of the storm after an online medium published, with documents, his alleged involvement in forgery and credit card fraud while in the US.
A concerned APC member/group had, based on the allegations, written a petition to the National Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Adamu, against allowing the Governor to fly the Party’s Governorship flag in 2023, arguing that with Abiodun’s alleged criminal background, he would be disqualified even after victory. The petition alleged that the Governor is a convict.
In response to the letter, the Governor had, through the legal firm of Afe Babalola, denied being a convinct. He said he was never convicted for such crimes in the USA. He, however, did not deny being involved in such incidents, and asked that he be not disqualified for that.
In any case he argued that even if, without conceding, he was convicted, it has gone beyond 10 years.
In a statement signed on his behalf by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Alhaji Waheed Odusile, the Governor said it was Babalola’s letter that was being twisted to suit a purpose by, especially, online publications, and threatened to take legal actions against such publications.
The statement reads:
“Our attention has been drawn to a story with a misleading caption in some online newspapers.
“To say this story is fallacious is to say the least. It is an admission to the fact that the journalism profession, which we still hold as noble has been thrown to the dogs.
“Journalists are expected to fact check their information before going to the press.
This particular story was purportedly from a letter written by Afe Babalola & Co, to the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a response to a petition written by a political mercenary.
“Nowhere in the letter written by the Afe Babalola & Co. was there any admission by Prince Dapo Abiodun to have admitted to committing any crime.
The letter written by the governor’s lawyers was twisted and presented to suit a particular purpose best known to those that authored / sponsored it .
“It should, however, be noted that their obvious game plan is to discredit the governor and get through the backdoor, what they could not get through the ballot.
Prince Dapo Abiodun is unperturbed by this machination. Just like they failed in 2019, they will also fail this time around.
“For the avoidance of doubt, let it be noted that Prince Dapo Abiodun did not admit ever being convicted of any crime.
“While we enjoined journalists to comply strictly to the ethics of their profession, we shall however not hesitate to take appropriate legal step against the purveyors of this blatant falsehood.”
Abiodun has since, according to him, been gifted with the sum of N50m by his supporters to purchase the 2023 Governorship forms.
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