President Muhammadu Buhari has endorsed Dapo Abiodun as governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 general election in Ogun State.
The decision of the President came during his meeting on Friday with the former governor of Ogun State, and a chieftain of the APC, Chief Segun Osoba, at the presidential villa, Abuja.
Speaking with the State House correspondents after the meeting, Osoba said the President endorsed the candidature of Abiodun and other party contestants in the forthcoming elections.
He said the President Buhari raised Abiodun’s hand and assured him and the APC of his support towards success in the Ogun governorship election.
Osoba said: “Mr. President has confirmed that his candidate in Ogun State is Prince Dapo Abiodun and that he has no other candidate.
His party in Ogun State is APC, he has no other party in Nigeria other than APC.
“He assured us that he will personally come to Ogun State to formally present Prince Dapo Abiodun as his candidate and he assured that he is clearing the air of any ambiguity whatsoever of any name dropping; any blackmail; any misinformation that anybody maybe peddling that all elections throughout Nigeria, not just Ogun State, people must vote for APC and no other party.
“That is the message that the President gave to us this morning. I also seized the opportunity to present my autobiography which I’m going to launch if the President gives me a date because in this book I reminded him of the letter he wrote to me on June 12, 1984, when he appointed me as Managing Director of the Daily Times.
“So, I presented the book to him. In the book I showed the judgment in 2003 when he won the election in Ogun state even when he was not the president.
“So, we assured him that if he can defeat an incumbent president in 2003 in Ogun State, a judgement was given where they said the election in Ogun state was fraudulent and was nullified by the tribunal, so if he can win in 2003 by defeating an incumbent president he would win in 2019, by the grace of God.”
It will be recalled that Governor Ibikunle Amosun had on Monday visited the President to present a letter formally adopting him as the presidential candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
The Ogun State governor was accompanied by the national chairman of the APM, Yusuf Dantalle.
In his remarks, the APC governorship candidate, Abiodun, said that he was elated with the President’s personal endorsement, saying that all those in other political parties campaigning with Buhari’s name and pictures should desist forthwith. Abiodun, who was selected by the APC against the wish of the state governor, Amosun, declared that he and the APC were sure of coasting to victory in the 2019 poll.
He said: “Let me thank Mr. President for clearing the air as our leader has said and reaffirming that he is the APC Presidential candidate and I, Prince Dapo Abiodun, am the APC gubernatorial candidate and I am his candidate and this (APC) is his party, he has no other candidate in Ogun State except me.
“I think that affirmation could not have come at a better time when there are a lot of ambiguities, when people have attempted to spread falsehood and all manner of misinformation. “So, I am very elated and very reassured that our president has stood by the party and has stood by me and I believe this matter will finally be put to rest and all those that are trying to gain by using the president’s picture on their posters and on their vehicles would finally begin to remove them because it’s actually illegal for you to be putting the presidential candidate of another party on the face of the poster of another party, it is an attempt to confuse and misinform the public.”
