Had Ladi Adebutu, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 governorship election in Ogun State, emerged as the winner, it would have been a sad and devastating period for the state, his running-mate, Adekunle Akinlade, said on Saturday.
Adebutu and Akinlade ran on a joint ticket in the March 18, 2023 election, but lost to the incumbent, Governor Dapo Abiodun, who was candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Not satisfied with the result declared by the electoral body, the PDP candidate dragged Abiodun to the tribunal, but lost the legal battle up to the Supreme Court.
Daily Trust reports that shortly after the apex court laid the 2023 election’s legal battle to rest, Adebutu and his running mate fell apart.
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Speaking to newsmen in Abeokuta, Akinlade described Adebutu’s defeat in the controversial election as a “calamity averted” on the people of the state.
In his address tagged “Divine Power of Prayers That Averts Calamity,” Akinlade narrated how an imam had prayed for the PDP campaign team that God should not grant the opposition party a victory in 2023 if it would bring sorrow and backwardness to the state.
“We all said ‘Aameena'”, Akinlade, who was the candidate of the Allied People’s Movement (APM) in 2019 governorship, said in the scathing address.
He said, “In hindsight, I say, Alhamdulillahi that Allah averted that calamity from befalling Ogun State. Had Ladi emerged as the winner, it would have been a sad and devastating time for us as a people.
“In His glory and majesty, Allah grants a woman the grace to conceive keeps her in good health all through the nine months, sets His face upon her to deliver the child, then takes the infant’s life a minute after.
“As mortals, we will cry with anguish and ask what sin did the child commit to deserve such? We forget that He that gives, takes for a purpose.”
Akinlade, popularly called Triple A, accused Adebutu, his colleague in the 8th Assembly of the House of Representatives, of lacking in mental capacity and temperament
to run the office of a governor.
“In fact, Ladi is a 2-year-old child in a 62 year-old man’s body. I guess this explains why he acts on impulse like a child without caring about the consequences of his actions. In his delusion of self-grandeur, he lies effortlessly, sheds tears at will and induces self-pity.
“Come to think of it, why does his almost 90-year-old father still give him weekly feeding allowance? At first, I thought that it was the old man’s way of expressing his affection, but as I observed them closely, it became clear that even the old man knows that his 62-year old man- child lacks the capacity and ability to manage a monthly or annual handout,” he alleged.
Akinlade told newsmen that Adebutu announced his intention to re-contest for governorship come 2027 the same day Supreme Court quashed his case against Abiodun.
He insisted that Adebutu, who hails from the same hometown with Abiodun in Iperu-Remo should not vie for the seat which his kinsman will be vacating in 2027 after eight years.
“I sincerely draw these conclusions on his state of mind, because no rational thinking adult at age 62 will contemplate to aspire for the same office that his kinsman and brother, H.E Prince Dapo Abiodun, who is from the same compound, town, ward, local government and senatorial district, serving his second term of 4 years in office which ends in 2027. A man that lacks character, lacks honour,” he said.
In a swift reaction, Adebutu’s Media Aide, Afolabi Orekoya, described Akinlade as a “petty and terrible ingrate.”
He likened the former PDP deputy governorship candidate to a “drowning man” who will clutch at a straw.
“We will not engage in his pettiness. But one thing I can assure you is, anything that he feels he can use to blackmail us, he should please go ahead. At the appropriate time, we will give him proper attention and respond.
“Akinlade is the most unfortunate thing that happened to PDP. And we were warned but we didn’t listen,” Orekoya said.
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