Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, has drawn the ire of the Muslim community after he snubbed an interactive session organised by the League of Imams and Alfas to engage governorship candidates, ahead of March 11 election in the state.
The programme which was held between Tuesday and Thursday in Abeokuta, was put together by the Directorate of Leadership and Good Governance of the League of Imams and Alfas in the state .
Our correspondent reports that 11 candidates were invited to the three-day interactive session, out of which
seven candidates attended, while four others, including Abiodun, were absent.
The chairman planning committee, Quassim Sanusi, described the governor’s absence and his inability to send a representative as disrespectful to the Muslim ummah.
Sanusi said that the governor through his aides got the invitation to participate in the interactive session, slated for Wednesday.
Our correspondent reports that the Wednesday’s schedule clashed with the presidential rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abeokuta, but the body rescheduled Abiodun’s appearance for the next day, which he failed to honour.
Apart from Abiodun, three other governorship candidates: the New Nigeria People’s Party, Olufemi Oguntoyinbo; Action Democratic Party, Shokunbi Olanrewaju and National Rescue Movement, Oludayo Ogunrombi were also absent from the event.
Reacting, Sanusi said, “The letter was delivered via the formal channel, Dapo Abiodun campaign office and acknowledgement obtained by us. We didn’t get any formal request from the APC candidate for a reschedule of the proposed parley with us. No notification that he won’t show up.
“The trio of NNPP ,NRM and ADP received our invitations and committed to the event but did not show up after all. In fact, the PDP candidate, Ladi Adebutu who could have been excused due to the death of his mother sent his deputy, Adekunle Akinlade.
“We scheduled governor Abiodun for Wednesday which clashed with the campaign of the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu. We gave him another chance to appear the following day, he never showed up and never got back to us. This is disrespectful to the Imams and Alfas in the state. Others did the same.”
Efforts to get comments of the governor through his aides – Chief Press Secretary, Kunle Somorin, Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Waheed Odusile and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Communications, Remmy Hazzan – proved abortive as they neither picked up their calls nor responded to text messages sent to their mobile phones.