An ex-governor of Ogun State, Aremo Olusegun Osoba has disclosed that in the course of the 2003 governorship elections, he was "rigged out of office".
Talking in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on the e-book launch and the sixtieth birthday of his former Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Kayode Odunaro, on Wednesday January 19, Osoba mentioned he obtained an intelligence report in regards to the alleged rigging and he was suggested to again out of the ballot, however he insisted on going forward within the contest.
The veteran journalist who contested the election on the platform of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) however misplaced to Otunba Gbenga Daniel of the Peoples Democratic Social gathering (PDP), additionally revealed that he shared N140million to citizens on the eve of the election even after receiving the last-minute reviews from safety brokers.
He additionally mentioned that he refused to problem the result of the election on the tribunal, regardless of the proof at his disposal as a result of he wished to place the expertise behind him.
"The 2003 election, I put it behind me many years ago. 2003 is bygone whatever happened although, in his (Odunaro) book he concluded that I refused to go to court, yes I did not, because the evidence was too much and he alluded to some of the evidence, but let's forget about all that, it has gone, it is gone and the Ogun state people have had the chance to compare and contrast and they have given their conclusions and that is private to everybody.
"Nobody expected that the election would go the way it went, but I knew it will go the way it went because Prof. Adu of FUNAAB who was the returning officer had the figure already prepared.
"Some of the security people had given me the figure of the result that they were going to announce and I knew, he was referring to me spending money and some people taking my money to sleep in hotels, pocketed the money, I knew because in politics you must learn to engage in wasteful spending and you must learn to buy all kinds of lies, that is all part of politics.
"I knew that the election was concluded; I was warned, the electoral officer from Cross River had told me after the Presidential election that, 'Chief don't contest the governorship, it is concluded', but I said no.
"We shared N140million on the eve of the election and I knew it was a wasted money, but I shared it because if didn't share it, they will say if I had not given them the money, they would have won."
