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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, has urged security agencies to investigate the senator representing Osun West in the National Assembly, Olalere Oyewumi, following the lawmaker’s confession that he bought votes during the 2023 general election.
Vote buying was one of the major challenges that confronted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the election
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) deployed its officials in some polling units to fish out those engaging in vote buying.
In a viral video, Oyewunmi, who is the Deputy Minority Leader of the Senate, narrated how he sent his aide on an errand on the eve of the election with his personal money for vote buying but was rejected by strong supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Oyewumi made the confession in Ikire while receiving defectors, led by Mr Tunde Ayandosu, one of the loyalists of the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, into the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Friday.
Ayandosu, who was the APC chairman in Ward 4, Irewole Local Government Area, decamped to the PDP alongside his supporters.
Speaking in Yoruba, Oyewumi said: “I tried all the tricks I knew to win at the Onilu House (Ile Onilu) polling unit but these people didn’t allow me.
“After exhausting money for the election, I gave my personal money to Ten-Ten to give to people, to buy votes on the eve of the election, Ten-Ten came back with my money, saying the people rejected it. I was surprised.
“That was why I reached out to these people because I cannot be a Senator and continue to fail there. I was the one who called Ayandosu from Abuja to join me in the PDP. I told him he has talent and that the party he was serving then (APC) would not allow him to grow,” the senator said.
Reacting in a statement on Saturday, APC chairman ain Osun State, Alh Tajudeen Lawal, said the confession had shown that Osun election was not free and fair.
“The confessional statement of Senator Oyewumi was a confirmation of the fact that the last series of the elections in the state which secured victory for all the PDP candidates including Governor Ademola Adeleke, were brazenly rigged
“The self-confession of Senator Oyewumi was an indication that he is a desperate politician who could go to any length to illegally corner opportunities regardless of what such portends to the right-thinking members of the society.
“In a civilized clime, Senator Oyewumi has no iota of reason to remain a minute longer in the Senate where he has been the Minority Leader based on his self-confession that he engaged in vote-buying during the election that secured a fraudulent victory for him.
“By now, Senator Oyewumi should be a guest of the statutory law enforcement agency constitutionally saddled with the responsibility of investigating such political crime involving a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Laval said.
Watch video of Oyewumi below: