By Akinwale Kasali
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Governorship Aspirant, Oladipupo Adebutu, son of prominent businessman, Sir Kensington Adebutu, has engaged in verbal political war with the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ogun State.
Adebutu had made the declaration of his Gubernatorial aspiration last week in a carnival-like event held at the Ake Palace ground, in Abeokuta, Ogun State Capital.
Adebutu who ran for the 2019 Governorship Election in the State but lost the ticket to the Late Burundi Kashamu assured the people of the state of the readiness of PDP to wrestle power from the ruling APC come 2023.
However, Adebutu’s statement has not gone well with the APC. Its Publicity Secretary in the state, Tunde Oladunjoye, described Adebutu’s ambition as dead on arrival.
Oladunjoye reaction has led to both parties trading words.
Speaking through the Media Director, Ladi Adebutu Campaign Organization, Afolabi Orekoya, he described Oladunjoye as a tragic character who has exposed the failures of Dapo Abiodun’s Government.
It noted that Oladunjoye’s attack on his declaration speech was an indication the ruling APC is jittery.
He emphasized that rather than attacking his personality or PDP, Oladunjoye should have converted the same energy to advise Governor Dapo Abiodun-led APC government on how to address the growing insecurity leading to wanton killings across the state.
“However, for the sake of unsuspecting members of the public, it is important to set the records straight and remind the rudderless mouthpiece of his battered personality and equally put him where he belongs as this perhaps might be the last time he would be lucky to have a response from us.
“This is because we are more focused and determined to judiciously spend our time on how to deliver the people of Ogun State from the shackles of the clueless government that Oladunjoye represents, that he had also acknowledged as a “weak government” in not less than two different occasions; we will not continue to trade words with him so that our case will not be like that of someone who had his clothes taken away from the bathroom by a mad man and started running after him, and both of them would be taken to be mad.
“In his litany of falsehood, Oladunjoye who has a reputation of always blowing cold and hot at the same time; always talking from both sides of his mouth, should not have had any cause to react to the declaration speech of Hon. Adebutu if he was correct with his judgment on the declaration. For him to have reacted, it means something meaningful came out of the gubernatorial declaration of which he and his paymaster would still see much more when the campaign proper starts.
“It is so disheartening that Oladunjoye could not cover his face in shame and convert the energy he used to react on Monday to advise his boss, Mr. Governor, on how to make Ogun State peaceful and address the growing insecurity leading to wanton killings across the state.
“For us, we would have thought that Oladunjoye would have deployed the same energy with which he went on a verbal onslaught to charge the state government on its criminal silence on the menace of cultism and avoidable violence which has become a daily routine in Ogun state.
“Apart from failing to check violence, Oladunjoye should be reminded that the ruling APC government has refused to remit workers’ deductions since 2019. All appeals from different quarters to make the Dapo Abiodun government see reasons for immediate remittance of the worker’s entitlement have been largely rejected.”
Adebutu, therefore, reminded Oladunjoye that the APC Government has failed to provide potable water for the residents in the last 11years at the helms in the state.
“Moreover, we wonder why Oladunjoye chose to pretend as if he doesn’t know that the Abiodun-led government cannot provide potable water for members of the public. As a fact, members of the public in Ogun State, particularly in Abeokuta metropolis (the seat of Government) can bear honest witness to private individual’s intervention in this regard.
“Without mincing words, Oladunjoye is a classical enabler of an irresponsible government. Otherwise, he shouldn’t have forgotten that Ogun workers’ well-being deserves priority attention. It is public knowledge that Pensioners in the state embarked on peaceful protests twice between September and November 2021 to press home their legitimate entitlement having served the state meritoriously in different capacities. Till now, what has the present Government done to put smiles on the faces of these great patriots of our State?
“We should ask Oladunjoye to tell us what significant achievement the APC government has made in sports? The Teachers’ recruitment scheme “OGUN Teach” that the outgoing government made so much noise about has not yielded anything. Some applicants that were given appointments letter over two years have not been allowed to resume work.
“These are just a few of the inadequacies of this government that one would expect Oladunjoye and his party to look into to make things better; they ask themselves if what we have in Ogun State today is what they promised, anyway, what will one expect from an opportunist in position?”
