Communications Minister, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, yesterday, swore not to campaign for the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate in Oyo State. Shittu, a close ally of President Muhammadu Buhari, was one of the contestants who vied for the governorship ticket of the APC in Oyo State. He became aggrieved after he lost the ticket in controversial circumstances to a protégé of Governor Abiola Ajimobi, his arch-political rival.
APC reacts However, reacting to Shittu’s comments, the State Chairman of APC, Chief Akin Oke simply said: “He (Shittu) was not the only one who voted for President Buhari in the 2015 election and he is one of the major beneficiaries in the party. If he said he would work against the party in the 2019 election, I leave it to his conscience and God.”
Speaking with newsmen in Abuja, Shittu said it would be foolhardy for him to “be defrauded out of a primary process and still simply behave like a slave.”
On whether he would support Gov. Ajimobi’s preferred governorship candidate and the APC flag bearer, Shittu said: “I think it doesn’t arise. I will be a bastard to be defrauded out of a primary process and to simply behave like a slave. It won’t make sense. I have been a foundation member of APC and I have twice aspired to be governor. In 2011, I aspired and I was defeated by the incumbent.”
Also, he said: “In 2015, I aspired, I was defrauded from the primary at that time and I challenged that process which produced Governor Ajimobi who won for a second term. I went to court, we were still in court when my appointment was announced. That made me to abandon that case and the governor, instead of him to thank his God that he was relieved of the case started a campaign against my confirmation by the Senate. “He (Ajimobi) was going around, blackmailing me, urging senators not to confirm me.
At the end of the day, common sense prevailed, I was confirmed and ever since he has continued to attack me. And what is the basis of the attack? He believes that, which is wrong anyway, that he and his cohorts can not have a Buhari at the federal level and another Buhari in me at the state level. He told people close to him that if Shittu succeeds, he would be in jail.
Why he thinks so, I still don’t know.” On the ongoing reconciliation moves put in place by the leadership of APC, the Minister said it should have been restitution before reconciliation. He said: “There won’t be peace without restitution. So, restitution should come before the reconciliation.” While denying media reports in some quarters that he had closed down the Buhari Campaign Office he opened in Oyo state, the Minister said: “We had a rented apartment; the house in question wasn’t my property. We rented it and we simply couldn’t afford to sustain the rent and the landlord was impatient with us and said we either pay or get out of the place and we took the most sensible decision by vacating that premises.
“We are in the process of looking for another building which would be used for General Buhari second term in office campaign, hopefully we would be able to get something cheaper than we had. So, it isn’t true to say that I was no more campaigning.”
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