I Was Robbed Of Victory In 2003 Ogun Election – Osoba

I Was Robbed Of Victory In 2003 Ogun Election – Osoba

Former governor of Ogun State, Aremo Olusegun Osoba yesterday took a retrospective look on the year 2003 governorship election in the state which he lost and declared that its result was fabricated to favour the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Otunba Gbenga Daniel.

Osoba, who spoke at public presentation of a book authored by  his former Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Kayode Odunaro in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital, said last minutes’ security reports had clearly indicated that the results had been written prior to the conduct of the year 2003 Ogun guber election in the state.

Osoba, who contested the election on the platform of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) stated further that despite his knowledge of a high powered rigging of the election, he gave in to the advice of his followers and consequently shared the sum of N140 Million to party’s ad-hoc personnel on electoral duty on the eve of the election.

The former governor while commenting on the book titled, “Colour of Perception – An Autobiography”, recalled, “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.’’

He, however, said he refused to challenge the outcome of the election at the tribunal, despite the evidence at his disposal because he had put the experience behind him.

“The 2003 election, I have 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 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 would go the way it went because Prof. Adu of FUNAAB who was the returning officer…. The figure had already been prepared.