Osoba said the electoral officer disclosed to him that the election results had been prepared even before the poll.
19 years after he lost his re-election as Ogun State Governor, Chief Olusegun Osoba recalls how he spent N140m on the eve of the 2003 governorship election in Ogun.
Osoba, who contested on the platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD) lost to Otunba Gbenga Daniel of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said he knew about the plan to rob him of victory before the election.
The former governor said the electoral officer disclosed to him that the election results had been prepared even before the poll.
He said despite knowing the plan to manipulate the election, he still shared N140m to the electorate on the eve of the election.
Osoba said this at the book launch and 60th birthday of his former Chief Press Secretary, Kayode Odunaro, in Abeokuta on Wednesday, January 19, 2022.
He said, “The 2003 election I put it behind me many years ago; 2003 is bygone whatever happened; although in his (Odunaro’s) book, he concluded that I refused to go to court; yes, I did because the evidence was too much and he alluded to some of the evidence, but let’s forget about all that; it is gone and Ogun State people have had the chance to compare and contrast, and they have given their conclusion and that is private to everybody.
“Nobody expected that the election would go the way it went, but I knew it would go the way it went because Prof Adu of FUNAAB, who was the returning officer, said the figure had already been prepared.
“Some of the security people had given me the result that they were going to announce and I knew he was referring to me spending money and some people taking my money to sleep in hotels; they pocketed the money; I knew because in politics, you must learn to na ina ku na (engage in wasteful spending) and you must learn to buy all kinds of lies; that is all part of politics.
“We shared N140m on the eve of the election and I knew it was wasted money, but I shared it because if I didn’t share it, they would say if I had given them money, they would have won.”
Osoba is a two-time governor of Ogun State. He first served as governor of the state between January 1992 and November 1993 on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
He was again elected as governor of the state in 1999 when Nigeria returned to democratic rule on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy.