Ojikutu also said her rift with President-elect, Tinubu began over 20 years ago when she opposed his governorship ambition
By Kehinde Okeowo
A former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Alhaja Sinatu Ojikutu, on Wednesday, April 12, questioned why President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. wanted to know if she is dead or alive.
Ojikutu, also explained why she vowed to renounce her citizenship and go into exile if the former Lagos Governor emerges winner of the 2023 general election.
Speaking with newsmen at her residence in Ikoyi, Lagos yesterday, the former deputy governor said her rift with Tinubu began over 20 years ago when she opposed his governorship ambition.
ALSO READ: Wike says he’ll work against PDP if Dino Melaye gets Kogi guber ticket
She further added that a move by the former president, Olusegun Obasanjo to reconcile her and Tinubu failed a long time ago.
She said: “I came out before the presidential election to say that if Tinubu won, I, Sinatu Aderoju Ojikutu, would renounce the citizenship of Nigeria and I have my reasons.
“It came to me before the elections that Tinubu was asking, am I still alive? When somebody mentioned my issue to him, I understand, he said, ‘Is she still around?’ What does that mean?
“What does he mean? Yes, I am alive, hale and hearty. Have they planned my death? Why should anybody be asking if I am still alive?
“Am I safe? And there are many people like that in my category who are not safe too.”
On her decision to leave the country after Tinubu’s emergence, she said people have assured her that “he would not harm me but I know this man and I have known him for over 20 years. I know what he has done to me personally”.
Alhaja Ojikutu joined the banking industry and rose to the position of Executive Director at the Nigerian Bank for Commerce and Industry.
Her appointment to that position was the first time a female banker rose to that enviable position and she later served as Secretary to the Lagos State Transport Corporation.
She eventually joined politics and was nominated as running mate to Sir Michael Otedola, governorship candidate of the National Republican Convention in Lagos State In 1991.
They won the election and she became the first elected female deputy governor of Lagos. However, the administration was short-lived following a military coup in 1993.