Presidential primaries: Ogun commercial riders’ chairman, Shotayo, denies threatening APC secretary

From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta

Chairman of the Riders and Owners of Motorcycles Organisation (ROMO), Ogun State Chapter, Rasaq Olusola Shotayo, popularly known as Sholebo, has refuted allegations circulating on social media that he issued a threat to the life of the secretary of the All Progressives Congress in Iju Ward, Ado Odo/Ota Local Government Area, Mr Aleshinloye Owolabi, during the recently concluded presidential primary election of the party.

In a statement he personally signed on Sunday, Shotayo described the allegation as false, misleading and a deliberate misrepresentation of his remarks at the ward meeting, insisting that the viral video in question had been manipulated to distort the true context of his intervention.

He explained that as a major stakeholder and committed member of the APC, his comments at the gathering were made strictly out of concern for the declining state of party activities in the ward, which he attributed to the inactive role of the ward secretary.

Shotayo maintained that his intervention was aimed at drawing attention to what he called the backwardness affecting the ward’s political structure as a result of poor coordination and lack of effective leadership participation by the secretary, a situation which had generated dissatisfaction among party members.

He added that members of the ward had reportedly called for the secretary’s removal due to his alleged non performance and absence from party affairs, stressing that his comments were reflective of the prevailing sentiments within the party structure in the ward.