APC chieftain calls Gov's attacker 'a cheap blackmailer'

Adelani Baderinwa, who served as Senior Special Assistant on Information & Strategy to Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, has taken aim at Alhaji Fatai Diekola Oyedele.

Oyedele had claimed that he brought Aregbesola into political reckoning in Osun State.

Aregbesola was commissioner for Works and Infrastructure in Lagos when he vied for the position of Osun Governor in April 2007 on the platform of the defunct Action Congress.

Oyedele and Aregbesola are both members of the governing APC in Osun State.

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"Our attention has been drawn to a reckless statement credited to one in which he claimed that he brought Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to Osun and that he will send him back to Lagos", Baderinwa said in a statement made available to Pulse.

"We say that this claim is a fallacy of the highest order and over estimation of his person and political power.

"Rather than tell lie of the story, Alhaji Oyedele should have shown modesty and tell the story as it is".

Baderinwa who served as press secretary to the Osun Governor between 2000 and 2003, said it was Aregbesola who brought Oyedele into political reckoning and not the other way around.

"Alhaji Oyedele was brought into Rauf Aregbesola Campaign Team when he was, like several others, kicked out of PDP in 2006.

"As at that time, Aregbesola was firmly on the ground in Osun political firmament as he had done several rounds of consultations with real political heavyweights.

"May we note that it amounts to arrogance to say he would send Ogbeni back to Lagos when he cannot do a street walk with him in Osogbo, his hometown.

"If it is popularity, Ogbeni has it because he has shown that he was not selfish and greedy.

"Aregbesola's acceptability ratings was a soar away as he put together a most formidable campaign organisation which he named Oranmiyan.

"The Oranmiyan Movement which has members in all parts of the state was launched epochally in Osogbo despite the incumbent government's machinations to stop it.

"Alhaji Diekola Oyedele and his ilk were still in PDP all of these times battling to safeguard their membership while some of them were outdoing each other in the bid to stop Aregbesola as a mark of loyalty to the PDP government".

Aregbesola assumed office as Governor of Osun State in November of 2010 after a protracted legal battle withsitting Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola of the PDP.

He was reelected Governor on August 9,2014 after dusting off the challenge from Sen Iyiola Omisore.