Ogun: Amosun, Osoba in verbal war

Expectedly, verbal war broke out on Monday in Ogun State between Governor Ibikunle Amosun and his erstwhile godfather, Aremo Olusegun Osoba.
Amosun is seeking reelection on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on February 28.
Osoba, a former governor of the Gateway State, who left the APC to form the Social Democratic Party (SDP) with people of likeminds, has vowed that Amosun, who he helped installed in 2011, will not return to the Okemosan Governor’s Office, Abeokuta, revealing, at the flag-off of SDP rally in the state capital last week, plans by his party to pull not less than 500,000 votes in the governorship election.
Amosun, through the Director-General (D-G) of his campaign organisation, Chief Bode Mustapha, accused Osoba of plotting to rig the general elections with his 500,000 ‘phantom figure’.
But Osoba replied, saying it was not in his character to engage in rigging, violence and other electoral vices, urging his supporters to maintain the peace before, during and after the election.
Mustapha, the D-G of Senator Ibikunle Amosun Campaign Organisation (SIACO), said: “What kind of mysterious, magical stunt does Chief Osoba have under his hat that will automatically produce a half-million votes out of nothing or from clear blue skies when the whole world already knows that neither he or his party possesses the support to command even a fraction of that amount of votes from any ward in any part of Ogun State?
“Ideally, Chief Osoba should be patient enough to test his popularity at the polls. Here is a party, the SDP, that could not even garner marginal support from its campaign at Itoku Market amongst other parts of the state capital. Perhaps, there are high and mighty plans underhand to rig these elections. We strongly believe that SDP is working for the PDP to truncate democracy in Ogun State”.
But, Osoba said his party would run a campaign that would focus on issues and address specific needs of the people.
He said: “We have told our party members not to abuse or attack personalities of opposition parties’ candidates. We are not interested in running anybody down.
“Party members should not engage in abuses or attacks, particularly personal attack on candidates, except when they have genuine and unassailable evidence to back up their claims.
“Party members should not join in the silly idea of tearing posters and destroying billboards of other candidates and parties. Any misbehaviour or inappropriate action, including cases of violence, should be immediately reported to the appropriate law enforcement agency.
“I believe if we concentrate our effort on winning more people to our side through persuasion and propagation of our philosophy and programme, we will achieve our objectives of winning the forthcoming elections”.