• Urges Ajimobi to Step Down 

FORMER Commissioner for Health in Oyo State and governorship aspirant under the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019, Dr. Azeez Adeduntan has attributed the monumental loss of the party to Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) in the state to  Chief Adebayo Adelabu’s arrogance .

Dr Adeduntan, also noted that the party’s governorship nominee, Chief Adelabu supposed to seek involvements of other aspirants before and after the primary but his arrogance made him felt he could win the election with the only assistance of former Governor Abiola Ajimobi.

The Otun Bashorun of Ibadanland, who stated this during a press conference with journalists on Saturday at his office in Alakia, Ibadan, the state capital also disclosed,  “you can ask Ajimobi, we are very close. I told him that Seyi Makinde is my brother, we have been in this game since 2011, I may be older than Seyi Makinde but Seyi Makinde is older than me in politics, he has been in this game since 2003.

“He was first with Ladoja, he ran away when in 2007 he went to Ajimobi, he wanted to run for ANNP, he lost. He went to Baba Adedibu at Molete, he wanted to run for PDP, he was not allowed, Kamorudeen was given. He ran again in 2015, we did  G7 together – Ibadan people that wanted to become governor. So, Seyi Makinde has been in this game for the past sixteen years. How can you bring somebody from Central Bank in July to come and fight somebody who has been in the bunker? It’s a fact. I told Ajimobi this and it’s on MTN, why I like technology is that it can be printed, you can quote me that I said it.

“This man is already holding down the bunker, is ready for war.  I was Labour party candidate in  2011, I knew what they gave me, I was aspirant in 2015 you didn’t use us and you now have somebody that brought 100 Serena cars into town. He went further to hire Aderupoko and others who are making jest on the streets, while Seyi Makinde was going to Oyo North begging people, connecting people who can help him , you are making noise in Ibadan here. Ibadan is not the only place where they vote.

The ex-Commissioner continued, “We paid N25 million to obtain the form, how many Nigerians can burn N25 million?  They brought you from the Central Bank instead of coming to some of us who have been in the game, you believe that you and Ajimobi can win, after injuring eight other people?

“What Tinubu does in Lagos is that oh Dr Adeduntan, don’t worry,  you will  go to the Senate, Akintola,  we are going to make you an ambassador, he will satisfy everybody.

“We called him, come this gentleman, politics is not a game of accounting money in the Central Bank. You can quote me that Adeduntan said he’s an arrogant person, Adelabu is baselessly arrogant because that’s why I said no-holds-barred, I am the Otun Bashorun of Ibadanland by now. If he wants to succeed he has to go and wear the cloth of humility, if he’s going to be arrogant, not to people like us, not to Akintola, not even to Tegbe. Tegbe have first class at the University of Ife, I have MBBS with distinction, so if you did Accounting and you say you have first-class in Accounting, you’re insulting people like us.

“Accounting is just one possible subject, there are no subjects that I cannot do. Instead of coming down with humility. This man was on a high horse with Ajimobi on the streets of Ibadan and the Oyo state people were just making jest of them. So it was a monumental disaster”

Reacting to the insinuation that he has joined the PDP, a reason he congratulated Governor Seyi Makinde, Adeduntan said he is still in APC saying Makinde is his brother from the same compound in Oja-Oba, thus congratulating him has nothing to do with currying favour from him or joining PDP.

“I am saying this to you, Adeduntan is still a member of APC in Oyo State, Ajimobi is my brother, so is Seyi Makinde, we are from Ojo Oba, politics should not divide us. So, if anybody says we saw Adeduntan with Seyi Makinde, and so what? If I had won, Seyi Makinde will congratulate me. What is wrong in congratulating somebody who has won an election, does that mean Adeduntan is looking for a job from Seyi Makinde?”, he questioned.

The revered  surgeon maintained that he is still in cordial relationship with former Governor Ajimobi, adding that the ex-governor has learnt his mistakes in the last election. He  noted that disunity in APC enabled PDP to take power.

According to him, “APC didn’t lose the last election, PDP got governorship a la carte , we give governorship to PDP. Look at what happened in Osun state, with all the money that Adeleke had, APC still crushed him using all necessary means. It is very difficult to defeat an incumbent government, but once you become disunited, the game is over.

“For those that forgot that I contested alongside some aspirants during the 2019 governorship election on the platform of APC should recall that I did not lose in the primary election but was illegally and unconstitutionally denied the right to contest even when it was all over that my good people of Oyo State will cast their votes for me as their preferred governorship candidate, but some leaders of the party did the bidding of their paymaster.

“Oyo state is not Lagos, what Tinubu was able to escape, you cannot escape it in Oyo state, this is not a no man’s land. So what I am saying, in essence, is that you cannot come to Oyo state and say you are the leader of APC and you want to impose on the people.

“There was also no APC primary in Oyo State on September 30, 2018, but an imposition of a wrong candidate. The consequences of that failure of leadership led to the monumental failure of APC at the governorship, senatorial and state assembly and even presidential elections showing that he who sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind and that God Almighty is God of justice and will always vindicate the just.

“I  have nothing personal against Ajimobi, he’s my brother and we are very brotherly. But he himself knew he made mistake, he has asked for an apology from Nigerians including me, and he’s forgiven, APC needs to move forward”, he added.

He called for comprehensive and genuine reconciliation of active APC members ahead of 2023 and urged the former governor Abiola Ajimobi to step aside and allow younger elements to take over the party in order to move it forward, just as he condemned the imposition of candidates against the wishes of other aspirants.

In his words, “APC cannot move forward if all those people that caused the trouble are still there and they are not ready to reconcile. Reconciliation comes from the mind, it comes from the heart. If APC wants to reconcile against 2023, the party must realize that it has to be one man, one vote. At least, if some of us like me would be there, it has to be a direct vote and it can not be indirect. Indirect vote killed APC in the last election.

“What I am saying, in essence, is that imposition of candidate needs to go, new leadership must emerge in APC, it cannot be the old leadership. Like I said earlier on, what is going to happen to Adeduntan between 2019 and 2023?  I believe in Almighty Allah and if you’re a Christian I believe in Jesus Christ because you can’t be a Muslim without accepting Jesus Christ using the Quran. Nobody will cage  Adeduntan in 2023,  I don’t need APC or PDP, God Almighty will direct where Adeduntan is going to go but I am in APC right now. APC will not cage anybody.

“But,  if anybody is now saying that the APC that we have today is Adelabu ‘s APC, they are deceiving themselves, because Akintola is dredging in, Tegbe  and others are waiting, even Teslim and others are waiting, it must be a free party, that’s the only way APC can survive and succeed. APC will be compelled to do what it needs to do if we want to succeed as a party. APC  cannot remain the way it is and succeed, if there is going to be a primary in 2023,  it has to be a direct primary without anybody influencing and saying this is the person I want to impose on you.

“And let me also close that Governor Ajimobi as I said is my brother, he trained  in the US, when things like this happen after this kind of disaster what I believe he should do is not even a question of calling anybody, or he himself wanted to remain, leader, I think just like Douglas said old soldiers never die; they just fade away. I think Governor  Ajimobi should try to step aside a little bit, allow younger elements to take over that party, if he does not, if what he wants to do is the same thing, what happened in 2019 will be a child’s play in 2023, but I can  tell you  Adeduntan will not be there by the grace of God”, the ex- Commissioner concluded.

Dr Adeduntan, however  thanked Olubadan of Ibadanland, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Saliu Adetunji for the honour done to him with the conferment and promise to continue to assist the people of Ibadan and by extension Oyo state.