The candidate of the Social Democratic Party in the Osun State governorship election, Iyiola Omisore, has told a group he described as “faceless” to stop peddling unfounded allegations against him.
The group, Yoruba Youth Socio-cultural Association, had frowned at the invitation of the former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, and the quizzing of a former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over N2.6 billion released by former National Security Adviser, retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki, without inviting Omisore, another beneficiary.
The fund was said to have been released through Obanikoro to Fayose and Omisore for the prosecution of the governorship elections, when Omisore ran as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party then.
Reacting to the call, Omisore, through his Media Office, said: “Our attention has been drawn to a poorly written statement being circulated around by a faceless group called, Yoruba Youth Socio-cultural Association criticizing the exclusion of Senator Iyiola Omisore’s name from a purported travel ban list.
“Ordinarily, we would have ignored this baseless and worthless allegation from this group as this clearly can best be described as the hands of Esau but voice of Jacob but for a few that may be misguided, we owe them a sacred duty of making this clarification.
“This fictitious group is a creation of those who were not happy with the recent political developments in Osun state and who obviously do not mean well for the state but only trying to mutilate the high integrity of Senator Omisore. We have no doubt of the existence of some failed politicians who have scores to settle with the former Osun state deputy governor but are now feeling frustrated with his continuous rise in the political firmament of the country despite all their ”pull him down” effort. These set of persons represent retrogression, deliberate falsehood and under-development. Again, they have failed.
“Let’s face the facts squarely. Senator Iyiola Omisore was wrongly alleged in 2016 and he surrendered himself to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for investigation and was given a ‘clean bill of health’ by the anti- graft body after a thorough investigation. It is on record that no case was instituted against him in any court of our land and neither was he arraigned before any court either. He has been enjoying his freedom and has even presented himself for election into public office passing through all security screenings.So we ask, what is the noise about? The basis for placement on the watch list and travel ban is to ensure that those answering EFCC charges are held within the country and for someone not having a current case with the anti-graft agency, there may be no basis to restrict his movement.
“Yoruba youths all over the world are known to be intelligent and industrious and will never subject themselves to be used by political jobbers and rejected politicians for a tasteless cheap plate of porridge. We know our youths will never make reckless statements like that.
“Senator Omisore is busy with the arduous task of building alliance across different political parties with the aim of developing Osun state and using his contacts from his extensive network garnered over the years in the course of his private practice as a successful chartered engineer and will not allow distractions from fake group like this to discourage him.
“Lastly, we urge our revered media houses not to encourage the perverted voices of these irritant faceless groups as we are sure they will continue to throw obstacle, futilely though, to his path.”