By Lawrence Olaoye
The National Secretary of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party( PDP), Professor Wale Oladipo, has described his predecessor and former Osun state governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who recently decamped into the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) as a fifth columnist while in the party.
The party’s scribe also described the former governor as an ingrate and a tired soldier who had nothing else to offer in the nation’s political development.
According to Oladipo, Oyinlola is an ingrate for making uncomplimentary remarks against the PDP governorship candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, who he said raised him from political obscurity and brought him to limelight.
He said Oyinlola had outlived his usefulness both in national and Osun state politics and hence should be dismissed as a factor in the governorship election scheduled for Saturday in Osun.
He said the governorship election on Saturday would seal his fate politically, because the PDP will win roundly and soundly.
Oladipo made this remark in reaction to Oyinlola’s uncomplimentary remarks against his person and that of Senator Iyiola Omisore, the PDP governorship candidate, at the grand rally by the All Progressives Congress (APC) held in Osogbo on Tuesday.
Speaking with newsmen in Abuja, the PDP National Secretary said Oyinlola lacked the moral ground to talk ill of Omisore because the PDP governorship candidate wrote the script for him to rise to the pinnacle of politics in Osun and to become the governor.
He said Oyinlola should be reminded that he was once a mere ‘Omisore boy’ after retiring from the Nigerian Army and with a brazen desire to join politics.
He recalled that Oyinlola, all through the period, depended on the Senator for political direction and was always on the trail of Omisore like a weather beaten disciple.
He said on that ground, Omisore personally nominated Oyinlola for the governorship of Osun state, and had followed up by forwarding his name to the Ooni Of Ife, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Okunade Sijuade, Olubuse II, for approval.
According to him, Omisore considered Oyinlola for governorship in 2003 for some political reasons, while the two struck an agreement that the former governor would only do a term in office.
Oladipo said, “Notwithstanding the act of magnanimity by Omisore, Oyinlola betrayed the trust his mentor reposed in him, and hence, faced sever challenges of returning to office for second term in 2007.
He said, “I came to Oyinlola’s assistance by using a political platform; Toba’lase, which I formed in Osun state to facilitate his return to office. He was not even popular among his people in Okuku for obvious reason, and so depended on forces from outside his place to win re-election.
“If Oyinlola is abusing me and Omisore today, it is because he has lost his sense of history and hence must behave true to type as a flippant and utterly unreliable fellow”.
He said Nigerians should never forget that Oyinlola once openly demonstrated unequalled rudeness to President Goodluck Jonathan and PDP leaders in 2013 during the last PDP National Convention held at the Eagle Square Abuja.
“Oyinlola during the convention walked out on the President with his cronies in the opposition camp amid very vicious plans to break-up the ruling party which had all along been good to him.
“Nigerians should be told that as the former PDP National Secretary, Oyinlola was a fifth columnist imbued with a vile disposition and plot to fester the anti-Jonathan agenda in PDP, while his membership of the party lasted.
“It was, indeed, the Almighty God who put a stop to his evil plot to weaken our dear party while attempting to cause untold disaffection among even committed members of PDP” Oladipo added.
The PDP National Secretary said many Nigerians were hardly aware that Oyinlola got the position of PDP National Secretary through fraudulent means, stating that nemesis made him to lose the position, all the same.
He said as at the time Oyinlola was contesting the position of PDP National Secretary, he was a student of the Law School and had kept his studentship under veil, thus contravening the rules and regulations of the PDP on electoral matters.
According to him, Oyinlola would never have been allowed to contest the slot so reserved for the southwest, needless becoming the National Secretary of PDP if his antics had been exposed.
He said notwithstanding the lies and innuendoes by Oyinlola during the APC grand rally In Osogbo, members of the PDP in the state will, come Saturday, prove that he has no electoral value even in his own ward, not to talk of his local government.
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