Former Governor of Ogun State, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, has made revelations on the 2003 governorship election, which he lost to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and two-term Governor of the state, Otunba Gbenga Daniel.
Osoba, who said he was warned ahead of the poll that the results had been collated, spoke at a book launch on Wednesday.
The book, titled: “Colour of Perception,” was an autobiography written by his former spokesman, Chief Kayode Odunaro.
The chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, who lost the election on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy, said: “The 2003 election, I have put it behind me many years ago.
“2003 is bygone.
“Whatever happened, although in his 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.
“The civil servants themselves have been able to compare and contrast and they are able to now give their own conclusions because I can tell you as governor, I never had anything like what they now call Chief of Staff.
“What is chief of staff?
“PA this, PA that, retinue of advisers.
“I had only nine commissioners.
“I never brought even a messenger into office.
“The civil servants in Ogun State were the ones that managed the affairs of government.
“The equivalent of Chief of Staff, the equivalent of the Office of the Governor.
“Sola Adeyemi and co were my PAs the first time and the second time.
“I used civil servants throughout.
“I didn’t bring what they now call technocrats.
“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… the figure had already been 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 ‘na ina ku na’ (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 N140 million on the eve of the election and I knew it was a wasted money, but I shared it because if I didn’t share it, they will say if I had not given them the money, they would have won.
“So when my son was contesting, I said now you want to contest the House of Representatives, now you are going to ride on the N140 million that you quarrelled that I spent at that time because those that I gave the money to, whether they chop it or not, now you are going to enjoy the goodwill.
“When I left office, he was one of the people I took pity on and put him on my payroll.
“He engaged my successor robustly.
“They (successor) set to blackmail me, to destroy all that we did, but at every point, he would come out with a robust statement with facts, figures and everything at the risk of his life.
“We all know what happened after we left office, the kind of things that some governments were doing all over the country, how people were missing, yet Odunaro took the risk of engaging that government to the point that my successor had to invite him and the Governor was trying to cajole him to snatch him away from me, but again he stood his ground.”
The 318 page book of 38 chapters was reviewed by journalist and columnist, Dr. Festus Adedayo, who described it as “seductively inviting” because of its “aesthetic power” and an “elegant work of literature.”
Adedayo added that the book is a combination of intellectual richness and beyond biography, but historical rendition of military and civilian administration.
Oduanro said he decided to write the autobiography to expose his work experience to the world, particularly upcoming journalists and media managers.
Odunaro announced free donation of the book to all libraries and tertiary institutions in the state.