The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, on Tuesday, said the name, ‘Ileri Oluwa’, a political name that the incumbent Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, had been using since he came on board, actually belonged to him.
Aregbesola, who said he had withdrawn the name and given it to his anointed candidate in Saturday’s governorship primary, Moshood Adeoti, declared that Oyetola would not serve another term in office.
Speaking in Yoruba language during a rally held in Iwo, where he presented the All Progressives Congress flag to Adeoti, the minister said he only lent Oyetola the ‘Ileri Oluwa’ name.
Aregbesola accused Oyetola of misusing power given to him, saying the governor used the opportunity to tarnish his name and destroy all his legacies.
He said, “I am the one bearing Ileri Oluwa, they are not the one. If you can remember vividly in 2014, K1 sang the Ileri Oluwa song, which he did for us in Osun. Aregbesola is Ileri Oluwa; Aregbesola is the one bearing Ileri Oluwa.
“Yesterday (Monday), at Ijebu-Jesa, I called on God that enough is enough. We have collected it from them now. I lent them to use, but they misused it; now, I have collected it from them.
“All the prayers that had been said through the name have returned back to me.
“We lent them and they misused the power to back-bite us and tarnish our image to destabilise the peace of Osun State; all the good works that God has used us to do, they wanted to destroy.
“I heard they said they wanted to go for a second term; that will not happen. I have given Ileri Oluwa to Moshood Adeoti.”
In his remarks, Adeoti said progressive politics in the state was almost dead before the arrival of Aregbesola in 2004, noting that the ex-governor resuscitated it after the Peoples Democratic Party had taken over the state.
While reacting to the minister’s statement, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Ismail Omipidan, told our correspondent that Aregbesola was not God and therefore could not determine the fate of his principal.
Omipidan said, “As the 2022 governorship contest draws closer, like the saying goes, there is no point comparing the sun with the moon, both shine when it is their time.
“For now, it’s Oyetola’s sun that is shining by the permission and grace of God and the power of the people of Osun. And as the majority are already saying, this sun will shine beyond 2022. Therefore, it is God and Osun people who will determine Oyetola’s fate and not an individual trying to play God.”
