Senator Ademola Adeleke, the newly elected governor of Osun State, has refuted claims that Rauf Aregbesola, the interior minister, influenced the outcome of the just-concluded governorship election.
Recall that Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, defeated the incumbent governor, Gboyega Oyetola, to win the governorship election in Osun State on Sunday.
There was a rumor that Aregbesola, who competed against Bola Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate, was responsible for Adeleke's victory.
However, speaking with Channels TV on Monday night, Adeleke said he never spoke with Aregbesola prior to the poll.
He, however, admitted that some of the minister’s allies joined forces with him to defeat the incumbent governor, who was the candidate of the ruling APC.
He said, “I did not work with Aregbesola, I did not even speak to him, but I know some APC members and his allies that joined us. I can’t tell whether Aregbesola asked his associates to support me or not because I never had a conversation with him”.
Asked to assess the election process, Adeleke said, “it is not easy to defeat an incumbent anywhere in the world.”
Then, anytime I saw him (Alimi) in court, because I’m a civilised person, I will go to them and greet them and say ‘how are you doing?’ It was later he apologised and said ‘he was thinking ‘why is senator Adeleke greeting me? We are trying to mess him up and he is still greeting me’.
“But he later told me that while I was greeting him, I didn’t know that I was giving them poison. They knew that I won the election and they rigged me out and I was still greeting them. I believe that Aregbesola and Oyetola fell out.
“He (Alimi) came to me and said he has watched me and that he wants to join our party and we accepted. But Aregbesola directly? No. But we know a lot of top APC that joined.
Assuming that I had been talking to Aregbesola one way or the other, then I would say that maybe he gave them go-ahead to support me.
“These people have grown; they have their own minds to decide if they want to join me or not. They believed that I was the one to beat and they came to me. I won’t know whether Aregbesola gave them go-ahead or not, because I have not been talking to Aregbesola.”
Asked what was his reaction when Oyetola and Aregbesola fell out, the governor-elect said he thanked God for the development, while admitting that the conflict paved way for his victory.
“I said God is good. These (Aregbesola and Oyetola) are the people that colluded that time. They were together. Kolapo Alimi told me the truth that they robbed me. Even the president said it when he came over here that they won the election through remote control,” he said.
