Ejigbo, the ancient Osun city stood still on Monday afternoon as Governor Rauf Aregbesola led the campaign train of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the July 8 senatorial by-election, Senator Mudashir Husain, in a mega-rally.
Governor Aregbesola before a mammoth crowd said the ruling party withdrew Senate ticket from Senator Mudashir Husain in 2015 to rescue late Senator Isiaka Adeleke from political humiliation.
Aregbesola, in honour of the memory of the late Senator Adeleke, asked the mammoth crowd to observe one minute of silence after which he prayed for the repose of the soul of the politician.
He said the decision was deliberately made and unanimously agreed upon by the leadership of the party to restore Adeleke’s dignity and integrity having suffered humiliation of his erstwhile political friends.
Aregbesola before mounting the rostrum in front of the palace, had earlier paid courtesy call on the Ogiyan of Ejigbo, Oba Omowonuola Oyeyode Oyesosin.
Aregbesola frowned at what he described as unfounded speculations over the party’s choice of Husain, saying neither him nor any member of the party had done Adeleke’s family any harm.
He said the party asked Husain who was already nursing his second term ambition in 2015 to withdraw having understood the degrees of humiliation meted out to late Senator Isiaka Adeleke by the leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
According to him, it is regrettable and disheartening that some people especially disgruntled politicians are still spreading poisonous rumours to gain cheap political gains over the choice of Senator Mudashir Husain as the APC flag bearer.
“It is pertinent to clear the air that Husain was asked by the leadership of the APC in 2015 to withdraw his senate ticket for late Senator Isiaka Adeleke who we felt sober about the humiliation being meted out to him by his former party.
“We took this decision unanimously by the leaders of our party because at that time APC was the only party that could rescue late Senator Adeleke from humiliation.
“The action was taken to restore the already lost dignity, integrity and political relevance of late Adeleke who had been humiliated in PDP.
“As we all know, Adeleke had already defected to APC and the only thing the party considered as honourable to compensate him and wipe off the degrees of humiliation being given him was to give him the senate ticket.
“To me, we wonder how harm has been done to anyone on this because what the party did was the best even despite the fact that Husain felt cheated. We talked to him, begged him and he remained loyal to the party even to this present moment,” Aregbesola added.
He said, “It is important to let people know why our party resolved on Husain as its candidate because since we withdrew Senate ticket from Senator Mudashir Husain, we have been making several efforts to give him particular political appointment but not actualised.
“While doing this, we never thought of death to anyone neither we had a premonition that there would be a vacancy at the Osun West Senatorial District, but when God’s will took our Senator, then the party unanimously agreed to sponsor Husain as a means to pay him for his extreme loyalty and commitment to the party.
“So, Husain was chosen not for political interest but for his loyalty, honesty and commitment to the party.
“We did not do this to hurt anyone neither did we take the action to inflict pains on anyone. It is strictly party decision and nothing anyone could do about it.”
Aregbesola, who laced his campaign speech with songs, said the Peoples Democratic Party had lost relevance in the Nigerian political terrain, adding that the party was notorious for leaving Nigeria in a parlous economic state that Nigeria later found itself.
“Is it now that the PDP has been decapitated that they will now pose a threat to us in Osun? It is illogical,” the Governor said.
