N2bn vote buying: Adebutu sues Malami, others, demands investigation into police interim report leak

By Coic Chibueze On May 23, 2023

Oladipupo Adebutu, the Peoples Democratic Party’s 2023 Ogun State governorship candidate, has asked the police to investigate how the interim report of an unfinished investigation was leaked to the press.

Adebutu asked how the police interim report reached the media without completing the investigation.

However, the governorship candidate confirmed that he sued Abubakar Malami, Usman Baba, Yusuf Bichi, and Abdulrasheed Bawa over allegations of vote buying.

“It is just a petition,” Afolabi Orekoya told our correspondent on Tuesday.

Orekoya denied the N2 billion vote-buying allegations, calling them baseless.

The statement was in response to an online media report alleging vote buying by the Ladi Adebutu Campaign Organisation during the state governorship election.

Orekoya vehemently denied the claims in the statement, calling them baseless and a desperate attempt by the All Progressives Congress in the state and the governor-elect, Dapo Abiodun, to undermine their strong Tribunal case.

The state PDP challenged Abiodun’s victory and dragged the APC and him to the election petition tribunal.

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Orekoya said the APC and its candidate had tried to coerce, intimidate, and harass Adebutu and his family into withdrawing their petition, but failed.

Thus, he was not surprised, as the APC has used media trials, malicious tactics, and deceit to sway public opinion and confuse the judiciary.

The statement read, “The unsubstantiated claims that a certain “PDP Chieftain in trouble as police uncover shocking N2 billion vote-buying scheme” by some online news platforms led by Premium Times are nothing but further evidence that Ogun APC and Dapo Abiodun have decided to go for cheap blackmail after realising that our candidate and PDP’s petition before the Tribunal is unequivocally tight.

“This has not come as a surprise to the Ladi Adebutu Campaign Organisation because, after failing in their efforts to coax, intimidate, and harass the PDP Candidate, Hon (Dr) Oladipupo Adebutu, and his family to withdraw the petition despite pleas from their emissaries, delegations, and offer of monetary compensation, the APC and its candidate at the March 18th governorship election, Mr Dapo Abiodun, have resorted to blackmail, media trial, depravity, and malfeas

“Members of the public will recall that immediately after the election, Mr. Tunde Oladunjoye, the Ogun APC Publicity Secretary, in an attempt to force Hon. Oladipupo Adebutu to drop the petition against his party (APC), claimed on a Channels TV show that one of the many humanitarian gestures of the Adebutu family was for other purposes and intent.

“For clarity, the burial of the Adebutu matriarch, Late Dame Caroline Adebutu, on February 11th, 2023, is in the public domain, and it will be unreasonable and unconscionable for anyone under the guise of paid reporting to attempt to twist the details.”

“It should be noted by members of the public that this purported “interim report” of an investigation, which the APC also alluded to, which has not been concluded, is being preempted by them,” the statement said. Thus, Mr. Abiodun and his party’s attempt to blackmail our principal by acting as police whistleblowers is obvious.

“We hereby call on the police authorities to open an investigation into how “explicit” details of the interim report of an uncompleted investigation were leaked to the press, even though the petition leading to this investigation is political.”