Credit Card Fraud: Gov. Abiodun Denies Admitting to Conviction of Crime; Threatens To Sue Online Newspapers

Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, has rubbished a viral report that he admitted to the conviction for an alleged wire fraud in the United States in 1986.

The Governor, through his Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Alhaji Waheed Odusile, said there was no iota of truth in the report which, he said, only existed in the infantile imaginations of the authors and purveyors.

A member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Mr. Ayodele Oludiran, had reportedly submitted a petition to the national chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, seeking Governor Abiodun’s disqualification from the Ogun State gubernatorial election over an alleged wire fraud conviction in America.

The petitioner also cited alleged “inconsistencies” in the forms filed by Abiodun for the 2019 governorship poll.

But reacting to the alleged petition, Abiodun’s lawyer, Chief Afe Babalola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, through his law firm, Afe Babalola & Co., described the allegations as “baseless”, and urged the national leadership of the party to thrash them.

In the letter dated April 19, 2022, and received on behalf of Adamu by Ambassador Samuel Jimba on April 26, 2022, the law firm described the petition by Ayodele Oludiran as brimming with “spurious and unfounded allegations”.

Afe Babalola & Co., in the letter, also posited that the petition was, among others, “a deliberate move to deprive him (Governor Abiodun) of the opportunity to set the records straight and knowing full well that the petition was characterised by falsehood and malice”. (Read the full text of Afe Babalola’s letter).

On the viral report that Governor Abiodun reportedly admitted to committing the crime, Odusile noted that there was no place in the 14-page letter where Abiodun admitted to the conviction of any crime.

In his press statement, a copy of which was made available to The Crest, Odusile advised journalist to be faithful at all times to the ethics of their profession as the publication of truth at all times is the hallmark of standard and credible journalism.

Our attention has been drawn to a story with a misleading caption in some online newspapers.

To say this story is fallacious is to say the least. It is an admission to the fact that the journalism profession, which we still hold as noble has been thrown to the dogs. Journalists are expected to fact check their information before going to the press.

This particular story was purportedly from a letter written by Afe Babalola & Co, to the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a response to a petition written by a political mercenary.

Nowhere in the letter written by the Afe Babalola & Co. was there any admission by Prince Dapo Abiodun to have admitted to committing any crime.

The letter written by the governor’s lawyers was twisted and presented to suit a particular purpose best known to those that authored / sponsored it .

It should, however, be noted that their obvious game plan is to discredit the governor and get through the backdoor, what they could not get through the ballot.

Prince Dapo Abiodun is unperturbed by this machination. Just like they failed in 2019, they will also fail this time around.

For the avoidance of doubt, let it be noted that Prince Dapo Abiodun did not admit ever being convicted of any crime.

While we enjoined journalists to comply strictly to the ethics of their  profession,  we shall however not hesitate to take appropriate legal step against the purveyors of this blatant falsehood.

Alhaji Waheed Odusile

Hon. Commissioner of Information and Strategy

Ogun State