Following the recent outburst, the All Progressive Congress Chairman for Irewole Local Goverrment, Alhaji Owoade Arimi, has described vote-buying as an offence punishable under the law of Nigeria.
Owoade, while commenting on a recent viral video where the current Senate Deputy Minority Leader, Akogun Lere Oyewumi, had confessed that he made some money available to have his party, the Peoples Democratic Party excelled in the last elections held in Osun State, said the senator’s outburst was a self indictment.
While speaking with our correspondent, Arimi said though he hails from same town, Ikire, with Oyewumi, making such a public self confession was a slap on the senator’s face.
He hinted that if pursued further, the allegation could be proven to be a vote-buying offence, which may be punishable under the law.
In his words: “despite that I won’t wish the issue raise more dust, and I want the senator giving ample of space to deliver on his many promises to his constituents, making such a self confession and shouldn’t have been issued to the public space.”
Owoade expressed optimism that the APC in the state would reclaim the political terrain in the state soonest.
He said return of Dr. Dotun Babyemi and his supporters to the APC from the PDP was a plus to the party.
He added that: “even in Irewole Local Government, many supporters of the PDP are gearing to join the APC.
“Many of their bigwigs have contacted us but they are just waiting for the right time to make the move.”
But in contrary to Owoade, the PDP Chairman in the local government, Alhaji Ogundele Bashiru, said that though Senator Oyewumi gave some cash to a member of the party to give out to voters in a ward in the town, the intention and purpose of the act was misrepresented.
While speaking with our correspondent, Bashiru claimed the content of the viral video was twisted by the opposition to achieve cheap political calculations.
He revealed that: “the said amount of money was returned to the senator after the election as voters were reported to have rejected it, but voted the candidates of their choices. And our candidate eventually lost in that ward.”
Ogundele also described the decamp of Dotun Babayemi to the APC as a home return, claiming Babayemi had initially joined the PDP from the APC before the last gubernatorial election in the state.
He hinted that senator Lere has embarked on some developmental projects in his constituency.
He therefore implored the senator was allowed to complete the projects he has started and continue representing the constituency in the national assembly.
All efforts by our Correspondent to speak with Senator Lere Oyewumi over the issue proved abortive, while his Personal Assistant, who had acknowledged a WhatsApp message sent to him was unavailable while filling this report.
However, Lere’s media consultant, Adesola Ajayi, made a release on Tuesday where he declaimed that the senator released the money for vote-buying.
Ajayi emphasized that Lere was “actually referring to the fund as a form of mobilization but not vote buying.”
The statement urged politicians and media outfit not only to respect the senator, but to also be objective in their reportage.
