ABEOKUTA – A governorship aspirant on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2023 election in Ogun State, Hon. Ladi Adebutu has accused the State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun of turning the annual Akesan Day celebration of Iperuland into a political rally.
Adebutu while addressing journalists on Saturday at the annual Akesan day in Iperu, said the governor has denied many indigenes of Iperu opportunity to have fruitful celebration.
Both Adebutu and Abiodun are prominent indigenes of Iperu in Ikenne Local government area of Ogun State.
While Abiodun is a Prince of Iperu, Adebutu is a high chief, the Seriki of Lopere of Akesanland, a title which makes him one of the kingmakers in Iperu.
Akesan day is an annual festival where sons and daughters, including well-wishers of the town converge for the celebration.
According to Adebutu, the governor’s ‘hijacking’ of the celebration forced many sons and daughters to held separate celebrations at different locations in the town.
Speaking to journalists at the venue of his celebration, Adebutu alleged that, the Governor hijacked the celebration and turned it into a political rally for himself thereby depriving the people of Iperu a benefiting Akesan day celebration.
Adebutu said it was regrettable that the festival which was meant for the entire people of Iperuland was being turned into a “one-man show”, describing it as an attempt to subvert the culture and tradition of the people.
His words: “Akesan day is one day of the year when all the children of the land get together to felicitate and thank God for life. We seized the opportunity of the day to do our contributions to the development of our town and our various individualities.
“Before today, we have always had a nonpartisan activity, but you can see the folly of today’s activity. Somebody because of his little mindlessness has turned it into a partisan event.
“This occasion is an Iperu event, but it has been turned into a campaign event for one person and it has been dragged into a campaign movement for one person.
“This is meant to be for Iperu and for Iperu indigenes as a whole, but somebody has dragged it into one person single event and if that is the case, we can leave him to go and do his thing and the rest of Iperu will go and do our thing, one person can not be the entire Iperuland.”
He urged the people of Iperu and the entire Ogun residents to remain resilient in the remaining months of the tenure of the Governor, saying “in the next six months comfort shall return to the people of Iperuland and the entire Ogun people, we shall have security, we shall have good governance, we shall have peace in our State and shall have a system that is all-embracing.”
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