Former Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives, Hon. Lasun Yusuff, has said that Senator Ovie Omo-Agege was compensated for the hatched job he did during the governorship primaries of the All Progressives Congress in Osun in 2018, with Deputy Senate Presidency.
He said Omo-Agege was sent to Osun purposely to rig him out of the governorship race.
Lasun said this in Abuja on Thursday when he picked the nomination form of APC at the party national headquarters.
The former Deputy Speaker revealed how his party, APC rigged governor Adegboyega Oyetola into office in 2018, saying the party lost the governorship election to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Lasun also revealed that the current deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege, was compensated with his current office because of the role he (Omo-Agege) played in 2018 in Osun APC governorship primary.
Speaking with newsmen at the APC national secretariat Thursday in Abuja, after he picked his nomination forms to contest the party’s governorship ticket, Lasun warned that “Nobody born of a woman can repeat what they did to me in 2018 because I was rigged out.
“Let me remind Nigerians today that the controversies surrounding whether direct or indirect primaries in All Progressives Congress, the confusion started in Osun state in 2018 with the sole aim to rig Lasun Yussuff out of the governorship primary election. But because of the kind of person I am, I knew this and people called me all over the country that I should not take part in that primary election.
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“Let me tell you all these, the former governor of Zamfara state Abdulaziz Yari, was the chairman of that primary election committee. On the day of the primary election, Yari did not come to Osun. That’s left for you Journalists to find out why he did not come but let me give you a glimpse, the man knew I was popular but he was instructed to go and do a particular thing but he told them that he has ran an investigation and discovered that the Deputy Speaker too was popular. That’s why Yari did not come to Osun during APC primary election in 2018.
“The job was undertaken by the current distinguished Senator, His Excellency Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege. He became the Chairman of the Committee over night, and I want to say, if he likes he can controvert this that one of the reasons Omo-Agege is the Deputy Senate President today was that he was compensated for that job.
“Omo-Agege was in my hometown for four hours on the day of that primary election, he was actually conducted three ward primary out of six ward of my hometown and he signed three results in my hometown on the day of the said primary. So if I had wanted to go to court what happened in Zamfara would have happened in Osun state but I never went to school because I want to start writing petitions to Court, my life has always been if you think you have power to cheat me, go ahead and cheat me but sometimes someday we will meet again, and that’s why I never allowed Osun to go the way of Zamfara state, but on Thursday when they met us at the party secretariat I warned them, I said if you rig me out of this election I can assure you that you are not going to win the governorship election. They thought I was a small boy and that I was just blabbing or just a mear threat but my friends, you are a witness to what happened when the election was eventually held, did they win? They didn’t because there was no way they could have won.
“Aregbesola and some of us his friends came together in 2004 and we fought the battle to claim that state for the Progressive, on this note I salute Aregbesola’s courage because for that period of time he led from the front but that is a story for another day, the story for today is that I bought the form and I am contesting for Osun state governorship seat in 2022 and nobody born of a woman will do what they did to me in 2018 again.”
When challenged on his allegation that APC did not win in 2018 Osun governorship election, Lasun insisted that “the allegation is not weighty, I have prove,” he said
Responding to a statement credited to Osun west leaders that nobody should contest against governor Oyetola, Hon. Lasun said “the leaders of APC who issued such statement have the right to do so.”
On whether he was benefiting from the crisis between former governor Rauf Aregbesola and the incumbent governor Oyetola, the former deputy speaker said: “If had wanted to benefit from the crisis, I was best positioned in 2018 to either distrust and make sure APC never win election.”
On why he is contesting against Oyetola, the Osun born politician said: “I will not criticise anybody there now but I will talk on what I will do. To start with, where I did my Secondary School Certificate in 1979, 42 years ago, with a division one, and as a government scholar, about six months ago that School has not been presenting candidates for either WAEC or NECO. So, I know this, I am a grassroot man. That’s one of the few things I am going to change. I am a big time farmer, I am going there to give it a face lift. As a trained Engineer, I am a developmental economist, in four years I will create an economy for Osun, I know I can do that.”
