Osun 2022: PDP Govenorship Candidate Evades Arise TV Debate
By Collins Mbakwe
The governorship ambition of the factional Osun State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Senator Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Ifeanyi Adeleke, suffered another catastrophic blow yesterday when he shunned a debate organized for some of the governorship contenders by the ARISE Television in Osogbo.
The debate session which was held at the popular Aurora Event Centre, along Ring Road area of the state capital, featured the incumbent Governor Gboyega Oyetola who is the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate; Dr Akin Ogunbiyi of the Accord Party; the Right Honourable Lasun Yusuff of the Labour Party and Architect Goke Omigbodun who is contesting under the Social Democratic Party(SDP).
The debate session which is in line with the international best practice in all climes was an opportunity for the candidates to sell themselves and their programmes to the electorate.
The space meant for the PDP candidate during the event was conspicuously vacant throughout the duration of the live programme yesterday.
A source close to the organizer of the programme disclosed that there was no oral or written excuse from the embattled PDP governorship candidate for the reason for his absence.
It was learnt that all the invited governorship candidates were notified of the event at the same time through the same channel of communication.
One of the co-ordinators of the event, Mr Reuben Abati, was intermittently informing the audience that Adeleke was being expected.
The failure of the PDP candidate to grace the debate session was being informally discussed by the audience in hushed tones at the venue.
It was the collective summation of the people’s observations that it was because the debate session was in English Language that made the candidate to ditch the event.
Sources close to Senator Ademola Adeleke Campaign Organization disclosed that an emergency meeting was held by the members of the campaign team immediately the ARISE TELEVISION invitation was extended to the PDP candidate.
It was leant that based on the challenges of Senator Adeleke, it was unanimously agreed that the candidate should stylishly ignore the invitation.
A member of the audience who did not want his name in print stated categorically that he knew that Ademola wouldn’t attend any debate that is conducted in English Language.
Another member of the audience at the event said: “Is it a must that Ademola should aspire to become Osun State governor when he knows that he is not mentally endowed to function at such exalted political office?
“If the family of Ademola Adeleke fail to observe that the actions and inactions of their son who is the exponent of ‘E ku iroju’ has been bringing avoidable shame to them, it is high time the people of Ede called the governorship pretender to order.
“Those who are packaging the PDP governorship candidate know that he cannot win the election but they are only using him to line their pockets”.
It will be on record that Ademola Adeleke bungled another golden opportunity to shine at the governorship debate in Osogbo.
All the governorship candidates in attendance strived to sell themselves to the people .
Governor Oyetola stole the occasion as he effortlessly reeled out the verifiable achievements of his administration in all ramifications across the state.
The governorship aspirants who exchanged pleasantries with one another took a group photograph after the event.
