Former Deputy Speaker House of Representatives, Hon. Yusuf Lasun on Thursday, raised the political climate in the push for Osun gubernatorial election scheduled for 2022, attacking the current Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege.
Lasun insisted that Omo-Agege’s current position in the national assembly is a reward for spearheading the rigging that took place in the Direct Primaries conducted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that produced the governorship candidate in Osun State in 2018.
The former Deputy Speaker divulged that the current confusion over Direct and Indirect primaries was birthed in Osun State with the sole aim of rigging him out of the governorship ticket, even as he threatened that the 2018 treatment will not be accepted this time around.
In a swift reaction however, the Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to the Deputy President of the Senate, Yomi Odunuga said: “The former Deputy Speaker is entitled to his opinion on what transpired. The Office of the Deputy Senate President will not join issues with him.”
Speaking earlier to journalists at the National Secretariat of APC in Abuja after obtaining his nomination and expression of interest forms for the Osun State APC governorship ticket, Hon. Lasun also alleged that the APC did not win the governorship election in Osun State in 2018.
He said: “If not for my campaign, because I came out very early for my campaign in 2017, APC was dead in Osun. Dead to the extent that it was not possible for APC to win that governorship election unless it was given to someone like me.
“Let me remind Nigerians today that whether it is a Direct or Indirect Primaries, the confusion started in Osun State in 2018, with the sole aim of rigging Lasun Yusuf out of the governorship election.
“I knew the election was going to be rigged because the platform was already prepared.
“And let me tell you this, the former governor of Zamfara State (Abdulaziz Yari) was the chairman of that committee. On the day of the primaries, Senator Yari did not go to Osun. That is left for you journalists to go and find out why he did not go.
“But let me give you a glimpse of what actually happened. The man knew I was popular. The man was instructed to go and do a particular thing, but he told them, I have run an investigation and I have discovered that the Deputy Speaker is popular, if you want us to come and achieve this, it might be difficult. That was one of the reasons that the man didn’t come.
“The job was undertaken by the current distinguished Senator, Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege. He became the Chairman overnight.
“And I want to say, if he likes, he can refute this, but one of the reasons why he is Deputy Senate President today was that he was compensated for that job.”
