Chief Kessington Adebutu is a wily old man. Now that he has failed to install his son, Ladi, as Ogun governor, he has resorted to a more desperate measure: like conning the incumbent governor and rightful occupant of the State House in Oke Mosan, Governor Dapo Abiodun, into a false friendship.
The father of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) flagbearer at the 2023 gubernatorial election, Ladi Adebutu, recently penned a reconciliatory letter to Governor Abiodun, urging him to mend fences with his son, in the interest of peace and progress of Ogun State.
Stranded and disgraced, the founder of Baba Ijebu lotto, who has suddenly found himself marooned on the sobering island of political failures, has resorted to shouting lies across the seas of misunderstanding, hoping the fog will carry his mischief to the distant ports in people’s minds.
Unfortunately for him, more discerning stakeholders in Ogun politics have seen through his con and have called his bluff. A group, the Progressive Movement for Social Justice, has described the letter written by the billionaire businessman, Chief Adebutu, seeking reconciliation of his son, Honourable Ladi, with Governor Abiodun as a ruse, saying that he ought to have made an attempt for genuine reconciliation before the Supreme Court judgment affirming the governor’s mandate.
The group urged Governor Abiodun to disregard the letter, which it was gathered, was deliberately released to the media even before it got to the governor. This, the group alleged, was an attempt to receive undue sympathy from the public.
According to them, since the lotto boss did not contest election against Governor Abiodun, there was no reason for him to speak for his son.
In a statement signed by its secretary, Ahmed Oladimeji and made available to newsmen in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, the group wondered why the camp of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate did not explore the reconciliatory approach after the March 18, 2023 election, but lodged a frivolous appeal at the Election Petitions Tribunal, the Court of Appeal and the apex court, allegedly using lobbyists to influence judicial process and subvert the people’s mandate.
It said that it is insulting that after demonising the governor for the last eight months and sowing discord across the state with the hope of desecrating the image and personality of the governor, Chief Adebutu is now talking about his son “sheathing the sword.”
The statement said: “Unconfirmed reports say that the chief vowed that even if it was last agenda, his son would be governor. Are the Ogun people to forget how the camp of the PDP candidate promoted division and disunity in the state just because the Supreme Court has now affirmed his freely given mandate?
“Without doubt, the letter is medicine after death, a deliberate tactic to seek a political solution to the ongoing criminal trial of the PDP candidate for alleged vote buying.
“By the way, why would the father be speaking for the son? Isn’t that in itself a confirmation of the widely held insinuation that Ladi is being remotely controlled by his father?
”The PDP candidate and his co-travellers deliberately interrupted the wheel of progress in Ogun State and prosperity will not be fair to them.”
Chief Adebutu had vowed to make his son, Ladi, Ogun governor after succeeding at influencing his emergence as a Senator in Ogun State.
So doing, the lottery boss committed his time and resources to the gubernatorial fantasy, hoping that the odds would favour his chubby socialite son (Ladi) and he would emerge as Ogun governor via the 2023 elections.
But nursing a gubernatorial fantasy, father and son would find, was a terrible, fickle thing–an escapist venture that often morphs into an eternal, horrendous nightmare for those who fail at it, and a fancy frantically avoided for its horrors.
Reality eventually schooled father and son as Prince Dapo Abiodun triumphed at the polls after a hard-fought run.
Pundits ascribe Chief Adebutu’s offer of an olive branch to Governor Abiodun as a move borne of desperation and political expediency.
It need not be overemphasised that Chief Adebutu made a bad investment in Ladi’s gubernatorial quest. More people have argued that it was actually Chief Adebutu’s dream, not Ladi’s, to install an Adebutu clan member in the State House in Oke Mosan.
Lacking the gift of foresight and brilliance in private and public offices, Ladi failed to realise that his frantic bid to beat Governor Abiodun to the Number One administrative seat in the State House was ill-advised.
Since 2018, when the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Abuja, presented Ladi Adebutu with the symbolic party flag, to enable him contest the Ogun State governorship election on the party’s platform, he had been engaged in a futile battle to occupy the State House in Oke Mosan, in Abeokuta, the state capital.
Despite enjoying the support of saboteurs interred in the power structure of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Ladi failed to defeat Abiodun at the 2023 governorship polls – his second attempt and loss.
The Supreme Court on Friday, January 19, upheld the election of Dapo Abiodun as governor of Ogun State. A five-member panel of the Supreme Court, headed by John Okoro, held that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Ladi Adebutu, failed to prove allegations of non-compliance with the Electoral Act during the conduct of the March 18 poll.
“This appeal is unmeritorious and ought to be dismissed and it is hereby dismissed. The judgement of the Court is hereby affirmed,” Tijjani Abubakar, who read the lead judgement, said.
Abiodun was re-elected as the Governor of Ogun State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in March 2023.
