A former Special Adviser in the administration of former Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, Semiu Okanlawon, has advised former President Olusegun Obasanjo to be wary of references that could take down his integrity and totally cast him in bad light in the estimation of right-thinking Nigerians.
Okanlawon was reacting to Obasanjo’s claim that the election that brought in Governor Gboyega Isiaka Oyetola was one of those instances that cast doubts on the ability of the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct a free and fair election.
Okanlawon, in a statement on Sunday said Obasanjo, in his desperate attempts to rubbish the integrity of INEC and the Muhammadu Buhari administration, has collated false claims, presenting them as facts.
He said Obasanjo misfired using the Osun State September 2018 election as an instance of electoral fraud.
He said: “Obasanjo, in his claim, said what was conclusive was declared inconclusive. He said that the rerun was unnecessary. This is rather unfortunate coming more so from a former President of Nigeria who has been assigned the responsibilities for monitoring electoral processes on the continent of Africa.
“If Chief Obasanjo could not recognize the need for a rerun as deemed proper by INEC, the authorities constituted to administer the exercise, how much of credibility can we then say had been applied in his supervision of some of the elections he had monitored in Africa?”
The former spokesman of the Aregbesola administration said while the dispute arising from the Osun State governorship election is currently at the tribunal, it is instructive to note that a huge sum of votes belonging to the All Progressives Congress candidates were voided, with the reasons for the voiding to be determined appropriately by the tribunal.
Okanlawon added: “The fact is that Governor Gboyega Oyetola was validly elected as Governor of Osun. The mere realization that very huge numbers of ballots that were APC votes but voided is a clear indication that APC won the election.”
He said the Peoples Democratic Party made dubious efforts to manipulate the election last year adding that however, the people of Osun have become so vigilant knowing the implications of the return of PDP to power.