Buhari, Osoba, Dapo Abiodun meet in Aso Rock

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday met behind closed doors with former Ogun State Governor, Chief Olusegun Osoba at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Also at the meeting was the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Ogun State, Mr. Dapo Abiodun.

Speaking with State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, Osoba said that one of the reasons for his visit to the Villa was to present the APC candidate to the President.

He said: “First of all, I want to wish the President a successful election. 2019 will by the grace of God be a defining year for the President.

“Secondly, we have come to present our candidate in Ogun state; the candidate of the president; the candidate of APC.

“And the President has raised his hand and told the world that his candidate in Ogun State is Prince Dapo Abiodun and that he has no other candidate. His party in Ogun State is APC. He has no other party in Nigeria other than APC.

“He has assured us that he will personally come to Ogun State to formally present Prince Dapo Abiodun as his candidate, and he assured us that he is clearing the air of any ambiguity whatsoever, of any name dropping, any blackmail, any misinformation that anybody may be peddling; that in all elections throughout Nigeria, not just in Ogun State, people must vote for APC and no other party.

“That is the message that the President gave to us this morning, and I also seized the opportunity to present my autobiography, which I am going to launch when the President gives me a date.

“Because in this book, I reminded him of the letter he wrote to me on June 12, 1984 when he appointed me as the Managing Director of the Daily Times. He laughed and he was happy to see the memory and that he has always known me to be a man with an elephantine brain.

“So I presented the book to him, and in the book, I showed the judgment in 2003 when he won the election in Ogun State even when he was not the president.

“So we assured him that if he could defeat an incumbent president in 2003 in Ogun State… a judgment was given where they said the election in Ogun State was fraudulent and was nullified by the tribunal.

“So I said if he could win in 2003 and defeated an incumbent president, he will win in 2019 by the grace of God.”

On his part, Dapo Abiodun thanked President Buhari for clearing the air and re-affirming that he (Buhari) is the APC candidate for President and he (Abiodun) is the APC governorship candidate in Ogun State.

He said: “Naturally, APC is his party and there is no other candidate in Ogun State except me.

“I think that affirmation could not have come at a better time when there is a lot of ambiguity, when people have attempted falsehood and other kinds of misinformation.

“So I am very elated, very reassured that the President has stood by the party and stood by me, and I believe that this matter will finally be put to rest and all those that are trying to gain by using the President’s picture on their posters, on their vehicles will finally begin to remove it, because it is actually illegal for you to be putting the presidential candidate of one party on the face of the poster of another party.

“It is an attempt to confuse and misinform the public. I believe that after today, that will be put to rest and everybody will know that in Ogun State, the only party to vote for is APC from the presidential election, to gubernatorial, to senatorial to House of Reps and the House of Assembly.”