THE candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] in the August 9
governorship election in Osun state, Chief Iyiola Omisore, went missing
yesterday at a radio debate where he was supposed to square up to the
incumbent,Governor Rauf Aregbesola.
Aregbesola is flying the flag of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the
election.
Also unavailable at yesterday’s debate organized by the International
Republican Institute [IRI]was Alhaji Fatai Akinbade of Labour Party (LP).
The absence of other leading contenders in the election left the candidate of
the All Progressives Congress [APC], Rauf Aregbesola, having all the time
allotted for the “Manifesto Hour” programme to himself.
Although Akinbade, sent his running mate to stand in for him the
debate organisers disallowed him from participating, saying the rule was that
candidates would not be represented by proxies.
The Unity Party of Nigeria [UPN] candidate, Ibrahim Adeoti, who was not
invited to the debate, was allowed time to speak even when he was not initially
invited.
He walked in on his own and insisted to be allowed to speak.
Organizers were shocked at Omisore and Akinbade’s failure to turn uo.
”We wrote to them and up to 20 minutes to the beginning of the programme,
they were still giving us the impression they would be attending,” said Ezenwa
Nwagwu, an official of the Partners for Electoral Reform, who moderated the
debate on behalf of the IRI.
“We even started the debate 45 minutes late just because we were waiting for
the PDP and LP candidates to show up.”
The Director of Media and Strategy,Omisore’s Campaign |Organisation, Diran
Odeyemi, claimed his principal was not properly invited.
”It was only this morning (yesterday) that our candidate (Mr. Omisore)
received a text message reminding him of the debate and that he was being
expected at the OSBC studios,” Mr. Odeyemi said,adding:”We did not receive
any letter from them. We have a rally today in Ikirun and as I speak to you,
we are on our way there.”
But Mr. Nwagwu rubbished Mr. Odeyemi’s claim, calling it “mere political
shenanigan”.
“We invited them properly,” Mr. Nwagwu said. “It was not verbal invitations.
We wrote them letters and the records are there. If we did not properly invite
them, how did the APC candidate attend? How did the LP candidate get to
send his running mate?”
The Labour Party admitted that Akinbade was invited but explained that he
could not personally attend as he had another appointment to keep,hence the
decision to his running mate.
”In order not to create a vacuum, he sent his running mate but the organizers
did not allow him to speak,” said Kayode Oladeji, the spokesperson for Mr.
Akinbade, the LP candidate.
“As far as we are concerned, we fulfilled all righteousness. It is the
organisers thst should explain why they did not allow our candidate’s running
mate to participate.”
However, Mr. Nwagwu declared that rules were clear from the start.
“We had made it clear that only candidates, and not their running mates were
expected to participate. There was no room for running mates and they all
know that,” he said.
Aregbesola told listeners that the best thing to have happened in the since
its creation are his programmes which the PDP wants to destroy.

Imagine