From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
The Olubadan-designate, Senator Lekan Balogun, yesterday, said he has not endorsed the 2019 governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, as his preferred aspirant for the 2023 gubernatorial race, as reported in a section of the media.
Senator Kola Balogun, representing Oyo South in the National Assembly, made the clarification in a statement issued in Ibadan, by his media aide, Mr. Dapo Falade.
A section of the media had alleged that the Olubadan-designate endorsed Adelabu for 2003. He was quoted to have said: “My incoming president, look at this my son, Bayo Adelabu, will surely be elected as Oyo fovernor in 2023.”
But Senator Kola Balogun, who is the younger brother to the Olubadan-designate, explained that a presidential aspirant on the platform of APC and former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, paid a courtesy call on Oba Lekan Balogun on Sunday , saying he actually spoke on behalf of Olubadan.
His words: “It is true that a presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, led a team on courtesy visit to the new Olubadan of Ibadanland, Senator Lekan Balogun, last Sunday. However, it is a total falsehood that the Olubadan-elect endorsed one of the governorship aspirants of the APC in Oyo State, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, as his candidate for the 2023 elections.
“The falsehood being reported on the social media in that regard is a figment of the imagination of those I can say are well entrenched in the art and act of lying. In the first place, Oba Lekan Balogun did not speak during the visit.”