Aregbesola is in deep mess —Babatope • Babatope, Omisore living in fool’s paradise —Aregbesola

Preparations for the governorship poll scheduled to hold in Osun State on August 9, assumed an interesting dimension on Wednesday, when the former Minister for Transport, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, at Okebode in Atakumosa West Local Government Area, said incumbent Governor Rauf Aregbesola, was already “in a deep mess”.

He maintained that apart from the victory recorded in Ekiti State during last Saturday governorship poll, masses in Osun State, were eager to dislodge the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government on August 9.

Babatope, who was part of the entourage of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Osun, Senator Iyiola Omisore, on Wednesday, said “my brother, Aregbesola, is in trouble, he is in a deep mess as a result of the Ekiti election’s result. We have witnessed the demise of APC in the South West by the outcome of that poll”.

Speaking in Ijesa dialect, the former minister called on the youth and other eligible voters not to be deterred by the alleged threats from some desperate politicians to use charms and weapons during the poll, assuring that adequate protection would be provided by security agencies for the people.

But, reacting to the statement of Babatope, Aregbesola, in a statement issued by his director, Bureau of Communications and Strategy, Mr Semiu Okanlawon, said the former minister was allegedly living in fool’s paradise, stressing that “people know the “difference between deceit and performance”.

He stated, “Chief Babatope and his PDP cohorts must be living in another world to think what happened in Ekiti is possible in Osun. Have they not heard Osun people telling them why Osun is different from Ekiti. Aside the fact of the various confounding features of that election which many are now calling hi-tech electoral fraud, the Babatopes of PDP should go and draw the line and find out where the differences lie between Osun and Ekiti”.

Aregbesola continued, “to us, Omisore has no electoral value. Even the people of Ile-Ife where he comes from have rejected him. In terms of electoral value, he is exactly the opposite of Ayo Fayose of Ekiti; despite Fayose’s own genre of politics”.

However, in his remark, Omisore, who visited the palace of Obaloja of Olokebode, Oba Ezekiel Adeniran Agunlejika disclosed that all the rights of traditional rulers in Osun State, would be restored.

He emphasised that “all the dues and constitutional rights of all categories of traditional rulers would not only be restored, but we will implement it fully to bring back the dignity of our monarchs, whose critical values have been rubbished”.