A peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in Ogun State, Otunba Jimi Lawal has challenged the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ladi Adebutu, to return to the country to answer the money laundering and vote-buying charges filed against him by the Federal Government.

The Media Office of Otunba Jimi Adebisi Lawal (JAL),signed by Austin Oniyokor in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement reads:

The attention of the media office of Otunba Jimi Adebisi Lawal (JAL) has been drawn to the ill-advised and amateurish statement issued by one Bankole Akinloye who calls himself the State Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State.

It is rather pathetic that when other serious-minded people and professionals have moved on to channel their time and resources to productive ventures, these charlatans and never-do-wells are contented with playing politics with everything and anything, all-year round in order to continue to feed on crumbs from their fugitive master’s table.

Otherwise, how would a so-called image maker of a party issue a statement just to correct some social media reports describing Otunba Jimi Adebisi Lawal as “a former governorship candidate of a faction of the Ogun State PDP?”

If that is a title that their fugitive principal now has a right and patent to, good luck to him and his lackeys. If being a governorship candidate is the biggest achievement for the man on the run from the long arm of the law such that he wants to desperately cling on to it, it is certainly not for Otunba Jimi Adebisi Lawal. That was why he spurned all their entreaties and fought them to a standstill.

Now, Otunba Jimi Adebisi Lawal is a freeman, going about his private life and businesses while Mr. Ladi Adebutu is on the run from the long arm of justice over the same governorship run. Mr. Ladi Adebutu can tell the story of being on a medical vacation since April 2023 or thereabouts to the marines!

Again, contrary to their lies, no judgment of the Supreme Court at anytime validated the sham governorship primary election of 25th May, 2022. Rather, the apex court could not hear the appeal because the judgment that was appealed against was delivered outside the 180 days allowed by the Electoral Act, 2022, for judgment in pre-election disputes to be delivered.

It is quite illogical to allege that because a highly principled man as Otunba Jimi Adebisi Lawal joined the Ogun State PDP, then he must have been sponsored by some persons to disrupt Adebutu’s chances as if the party was an extension of Adebutu family’s estate or personal fiefdom. Pray, didn’t Ladi Adebutu himself join PDP from Labour Party? Perhaps, he was also sponsored to disrupt Hon. Gboyega Nasir Isiaka’s chances in 2015 which he did with ignominy.

The charlatans and their sponsor who keep imagining that their ill-gotten wealth would buy them the Oke-Mosan Government House claimed that someone has “smelled the emerging return of people mandate to the PDP by the court”. Nothing could be ludicrous and laughable. We urge them to first advise their fugitive principal to return home and clear his name before dreaming of getting any reprieve from the courts that he disparaged in his recent faux pas.

On a final note, if there is anyone whom the leaders and stakeholders of the PDP in Ogun State regret working for and associating with, it is the uncouth and tactless fugitive who no longer pick their calls and cannot even tell when he would return to the country, he concluded.