By Shina Abubakar

OSOGBO—GOVERNORSHIP candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, in the July 16 2022, governorship election in Osun State, Mr Oyegoke Omigbodun, said his victory at the poll will end godfatherism in the state.

The architect turned politician, in a chat said: “We should have a government that will be independent of any godfather, whether the godfather is in Lagos or the godfather is somewhere within the state and running the business of the state. The people of Osun should vote a governor who should be a man after their own heart and I am that man.

“There is something I proudly declare; I was born in Osun, I was groomed in Osun, I lived all my life in Osun. You must have been aware that sometimes ago, a governor served out his tenure in a state and as soon as the tenure ended, the next day, he was going to step on a plane and jet out of the country to the United States of America before he was arrested; that would ordinarily not happen if such people lived in the areas where they served. 

“So, the kind of governor the people of Osun deserve is the one who keenly understands everything to be able to deliver. The kind of governor the people of Osun should have is the one who has track record of performances in areas where he has operated before. I am that man.”

Omigbodun also indicated that he is targeting the elites in the state as he has observed their apathy in elections over the years.

He said: “I am also going to target my campaign and canvassing for votes to the intellectuals and that is why I am going to rely on the media; social media, newspapers etc. The people that read newspapers, the people that will listen to the news on radio, the people that watch trends on social media but will ordinarily sit down on the day of election and not go out to vote, I need to reach those people. 

“Why am I saying so? The last election of 2018 in Osun State, there were 1, 698 000 odd numbers of registered voters. By the time the elections were over, Governor Gboyega Oyetola won Osun State with 250 000 votes, the first runner up, Demola Adeleke also had about 250 000 votes. The difference between them was about 400 votes. Each of them has 250 000 votes but winner had a few hundred on top of it. 

“Omisore who was my party’s (SDP) candidate then had 128, 000 votes, all together, everyone that voted was 694, 000 people which tells me over a million people did not vote.

“When I sought to find out who these people were, they were mostly those living in the GRA, staff quarters of higher institutions; these were people who felt perhaps they were too decent in quote, too unbothered to go out to vote. They are probably just watching television and reading newspapers when people were voting. When I tried to speak with some of them, two things most of them said was that they stayed away because there were attempts to buy their votes and they were not even sure their votes will count. 

“Now, I am already making them to understand that INEC has a new law. That those who vote would have their result announced straight from the voting unit, so it is going to be difficult for anyone to change eight votes at the voting unit to 800 at the local government and 8000 at the state level. All those shenanigans will no more be easily practicable.”