I won 2014 gov poll —Omisore

FORMER Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Iyiola Omisore, has insisted that he won the 2014 Osun Governorship poll, defeating the incumbent, Rauf Aregbesola.

He made this assertion while featuring on a facebook Hangout with Omisore, alleging that the poll was manipulated by All Progressives Congress (APC), the party to which Aregbesola belongs, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The former Osun deputy governor said evidence abound that series of rigging were perpetrated during the exercise as some people were captured on the screen, while being locked up and made to engage in thumb- printing for the APC candidate, Aregbesola, following which he had to challenge the outcome of the poll both at the Tribunal and the in court of law.

Omisore, while disclosing that the manner in which the said Osun poll was rigged for Aregbesola is already on YouTube, noted that, “Elections are won and lost not by one’s achievements but by acts of the people out there.”

“You know I challenged the last election in court if you go to YouTube now, you see how Aregbe manipulated the last election where Aregbe locked some people in and they were thumb printing APC.

“We had a REC, one Ambassador Akeju, who was a Lagos State commissioner as at that time. We took him to court, he was not fit to be REC, but the INEC insisted he must be REC, so he manipulated and he connived and rigged the election massively.

“That is why we went to the Tribunal and exposed all these things at the Tribunal level. The people in Osun State knew I won the election actually. Everything is history. Eventually, their judgment were pronounced, we protested it.

“I say you go to YouTube, it is there, of course. The courts said they were not enough evidences, it depends on how the judge perceived their own judgment. The people’s verdict is on our side,” he said.

Speaking on the next year governorship poll hold in Osun, Omisore said it was too early to disclose his interest as the INEC was yet to come out with a timetable and preparations for it, pointing out that he would make appropriate response once the electoral commission came out with its timetable.

“On 2018 election, I appreciate the excitement of the people, their curiosity, but the point I am now, am not talking about any election. Election has not come around this time at all, INEC will come out with the timetable and I will make my ambition known when it is time for electioneering. At this level, what I am concerned with now is to ensure that we respond to the public, let the people know the man behind the screen, that is Omisore,” the former deputy governor said.

Responding to a question on Osun debt, the senator said the fact that the state was hugely indebted was no longer news to an average Nigerian, declaring that Osun government under Governor Aregbesola had in the last seven years been piling up debts, which he put currently at about N203billion.

He, however, assured that giving his contact globally with international organisations and his pedigree educationally, professional and financially, the problem should not be difficult to address if he should be giving the opportunity to serve as Osun governor.

“That the government of my state is in debt is not news to anybody. It has been happening in the last seven years, it is not new to anybody, but we will have to wait for the next election to make a change.

“But giving my contact globally with international organisations and my pedigree educationally, professional anf financially, I should be able to put everything into use when we get there. For now Osun is in debt and it is in debt and the burden is on the governor for now,” Omisore said.