The deputy governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in the 2023 general election in Ogun, Adekunle Akinlade, has claimed that his former boss, Ladi Adebutu, compromised the 2023 presidential election to further his personal ambitions.
Akinlade further alleged that Adebutu withheld campaign funds for mobilisation until the morning of the election.
He also revealed that Adebutu took N650 million in cash to work against the PDP in the 2019 general election.
The former House of Representatives member stated that despite the large sum, Adebutu added no value to the election, losing his ward, local government, and senatorial district to the All Progressives Congress.
Akinlade, who was the candidate for the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in the 2019 election, said in a statement to the PDP caretaker committee in Ogun that Adebutu’s actions were why the PDP finished fourth with 70,000 votes in the election.
In 2019, Adebutu contested the PDP ticket against the late Senator Buruji Kashamu, who was eventually favoured by the court just days before the election.
In a statement titled ‘My Position’, a copy of which was obtained by the media, Akinlade also claimed that Adebutu’s autocratic approach led to the PDP’s defeat in the 2023 election.
“In the lead-up to the 2019 general elections, the ‘leader’ took N650,000,000 in cash from us to back my candidacy in APM against his party’s candidate while still staying in the PDP.
The result of that anti-party action was that PDP ended up getting around 70,000 votes, finishing fourth in that election,” Akinlade claimed in the statement.
When asked by the media to specify who ‘the leader’ was, Akinlade confirmed it was Adebutu, adding, “About three days after Buruji Kashamu was chosen as the party’s candidate, some people approached Adebutu and his group to come and support my candidacy in APM.
“Typically in politics, except for those of us who are driven by passion, they asked for money, and we gave them N650 million in cash. We gave them the money, they took the money, but they did nothing with it, as he lost his ward, local government, and senatorial district and didn’t win any of it for me in that election.”
According to Akinlade, all pleas by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to have former Governor Gbenga Daniel on the PDP’s ballot as a senatorial candidate in 2023 were rejected by Adebutu, which he said resulted in the loss of three House of Representatives seats in Ogun East for the PDP.
“In 2022, the PDP presidential candidate, H.E. Atiku Abubakar, visited Ogun State twice to persuade him to allow Otunba Gbenga Daniel, a two-term governor of the state and his political benefactor, to run on the PDP platform as the Senatorial candidate, but in his usual autocratic manner, he refused. This decision cost the PDP three House of Representatives seats in Ogun East, at the very least.
“In February 2023, the presidential campaign funds were delivered to Dr. Sunday Solarin at ParkInn Hotel, Abeokuta, but he did not disburse the funds until the early morning of election day… We later discovered he deliberately undermined the presidential election for his own ambition.”
In response, Adebutu described Akinlade as ungrateful and claimed that the PDP was only mobilised in the 2019 election and that he had to provide additional funds for election logistics.
Adebutu, speaking through his media aide Afolabi Orekoya, who is also a member of the caretaker committee in the state, said the PDP did not engage in anti-party activity, but a decision was made in consultation with the national leadership of the PDP.
“He says he gave N650 million. Did he have that money? Where would he get N650 million in 2019? And did Ladi Adebutu receive any money from him? Was he there when Governor Amosun sent their party leaders to meet with the PDP leaders then?
“It was an alliance, just like the one we had in 2023, which was public. It wasn’t an anti-party action done in secret; it was out in the open.
“No money was given directly to Adebutu; the leadership of their party funded the logistics, not Ladi Adebutu. In fact, Ladi Adebutu still provided additional funds to support that mobilisation,” he said.
