Former Governor of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun Osoba, has revealed how he was allegedly rigged out of office during the 2003 governorship election when he sought re-election.
Osoba explained that he had earlier received an intelligence report that election results were already prepared, saying he was warned to back out of the poll.
The Oluwo of Oba, who said he insisted on going ahead with the contest, spoke in Abeokuta on Wednesday, at the book launch and the 60th birthday of his former Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Kayode Odunaro.
Osoba, who had contested under the Alliance for Democracy (AD), lost to his successor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The veteran journalist also revealed how he shared N140million on the eve of the election by bowing to pressure from his followers.
The octogenarian stated that he did not challenge the outcome of the election in court despite the evidence at his disposal, because he had put the experience behind him.
He said, “The 2003 election, I have put it behind me many years ago. 2003 is bygone. Nobody expected that the election would go the way it went, but I knew it would go the way it went because the figures had already been prepared.”
Osoba said some security had given him “the figure of the result that they were going to announce.”
He recalled spending money and how some people took his “money to sleep in hotels and pocketed same,” saying, “in politics, you must learn to engage in wasteful spending and you must learn to buy all kinds of lies.”
“I knew that the election was concluded, I was warned, the electoral officer from Cross River had told me after the Presidential election that, ‘Chief don’t contest the governorship, it is concluded’, but I said no.
“We shared N140million on the eve of the election and I knew it was a wasted money, but I shared it because if I didn’t share it, they would say if I had not given them the money, they would have won.”
The former governor while commenting on the book titled, ‘Colour of Perception – An Autobiography’, scolded Odunaro media aide for playing down the intrigues that characterised the 2003 election in the publication.
