The Convener of the Progressive Lawyers For Osinbajo, Dr. Kayode Ajulo, has rubbished a report by an online news portal that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, a leading presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, tucked cash in souvenir packs distributed to dignitaries that attended his courtesy visit to the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Ọlálékan Balogun, at his Alarere Palace,in the Oyo State capital.
During the visit, held last Friday, the Vice President also met with delegates and party members apparently to sell his candidature to them.
Dr. Ajulo, a leading advocate of a Yemi Osinbajo Presidency, who attended the event, said there was no cash among items in the souvenir packs. The content of the packs, he revealed, were strictly campaign materials and manifesto of the aspirant.
Describing the rumoured ‘cash injection’ as a product of the juvenile imaginations of the authors’, the Abuja-based lawyer said: “This type of gimmick is old. It is a testament to how uncreative and low those who have always wanted to disparage the unblemished character of Professor Yemi Osinbajo, PYO, can go.
“Prof. Yemi Osinbajo is not dumb like most of those who preach what they do not practice. Why does he need to buy the conscience of the same people who asked him to contest? Mischief is the biggest strategy of some well known people whenever it is election season. It is their trademark. They are at it again. They tucked cash into one of the souvenir packs and snapped to confuse innocent Nigerians.”
He then urged the general public to discountenance the rumour, saying “it is only a figment of the imagination of mischief-makers. It is a failed attempt to soil the character of the Vice President.
“I can perceive that a certain camp is very frustrated by the wide acceptability of PYO across Nigeria. Such is expected. But there is practically nothing they can do about a project divinely arranged by God.
“I can say without equivocation that people who joined the Vice President for the event did so out of genuine love and personal conviction. Some of the eminent personalities that graced the event were the revered legal luminary, Chief Adeniyi Michael Akintola, SAN, Second Republic Senator Tilley-Gyado, ranking Senator Muhammad Bulkachuwa from Bauchi State, Professor Senator Oserheimen Osunbor, former governor of Edo State, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, among others.
“Nobody can claim to have visited Ibadan for the event on the bill of the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. I dare anyone to prove otherwise, and with substantive evidence. On a lighter note, I beg anyone who has money tucked in his own souvenir pack to please share it with me.”