The Osun State Governor-Elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke, has revealed how he won over some of the loyalists and associates of a former Governor of the State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who is now Minister of Interior, to win the June 16, 2022 poll in the state.
Adeleke was on Sunday declared winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission after polling 403,371 votes to that of the incumbent and candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Gboyega Oyetola, who polled 375,027 votes.
Speaking on a Channels TV programme, Adeleke said he never spoke with Aregbesola who was in Germany at the time of the elections.
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“I didn’t even talk to him, but all I know is his associates. For example, Kolapo Alimi, one of the lawyers that represented Oyetola at the tribunal.
“Then, anytime I saw him (Alimi) in court, because I’m a civilised person, I would go to them and greet them and say: ‘How are you doing?’
“It was later he apologised and said he was thinking: ‘Why is senator Adeleke greeting me? We are trying to mess him up and he is still greeting me.’
“But he later told me that while I was greeting him, I didn’t know that I was giving them poison. They knew that I won the election and they rigged me out and I was still greeting them.
“I believe that Aregbesola and Oyetola fell out. He (Alimi) came to me and said he has watched me and that he wants to join our party and we accepted.
“Assuming that I had been talking to Aregbesola one way or the other, then I would say that maybe he gave them the go-ahead to support me. These people have grown.
“I won’t know whether Aregbesola gave them a go-ahead or not, because I have not been talking to Aregbesola.”