Monumental fraud, abuse of power reason for my persecution, says Adebutu

The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general elections, Oladipupo Adebutu, has alleged that the reason there were desperate attempts to rig last Saturday’s council election by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was because of the monumental fraud going on at the council level.

He said that this, among other things, was the reason the state government wanted to shut him up.

Adebutu, who spoke, yesterday, after he voluntarily welcomed the invitations of both the Directorate of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Police, Ogun State Command, on the violence that erupted during the poll in the state.

Adebutu said: “Over 400 polling units were disenfranchised due to the absence of sensitive materials in each polling unit and in some cases, the state electoral officials were also absent.

“We knew they were going to rig the election and that was exactly what happened. If you don’t scream out, our democracy will die.”

He said that the policemen they were talking about had been with him since 2022.

Adebutu also said that the moment the right to conduct council elections was taken over by the state independent electoral commission, the progress started deteriorating and the state electoral umpire has now become an appendage of the state government.

He accused the state governor, Dapo Abiodun, of bringing in the military from Ibadan to attack the opposition members while thugs were brought from Ikorodu to unleash terror on his aides.

Adebutu urged President Bola Tinubu to call the governor to order, accusing him of not only becoming a threat to the country’s democracy but also destroying the goodwill of the ruling APC in the South-west.