2023: Why Abiodun can't be Ogun guber candidate – APC member writes Adamu

A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State, Ayodele Oludiran, has petitioned the National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, telling him why Governor Dapo Abiodun should not be the candidate of the APC in 2023.

Oludiran, in the petition signed on April 12, said Abiodun’s candidacy would portend danger for the APC with the damning allegations against him.

According to an acknowledged copy of the petition sighted by our correspondent, Oludiran maintained that Abiodun was accused of “concealing criminal offenses he allegedly committed in the USA in the 1980s.”

The petition told Adamu that a former prominent member of the APC, who just decamped to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to procure a gubernatorial nomination form, has boasted to everyone that he has more compelling and damning documentary evidence, such as incident card and mugshot of Abiodun, in his possession. 

“This individual, also from the same Senatorial District as the subject matter, is confident that the incumbent will be disqualified by the courts to pave way for him to clinch the Governorship seat,” it was said.

In his words, Oludiran noted that there are discrepancies in Forms CF001 the governor filled in 2015 and 2019 with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“Excellency Sir, I note with grave concern that HE. Prince Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun’s actions and integrity are questionable; “while filling the columns for his educational qualifications in the INEC form CF001 for the office of Governor of Ogun State in 2019, under ‘Primary School Attended’, HE. Prince Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun recorded and claimed that he attended International Primary School Ayetoro in 1971, while in his 2015 INEC Form CF001, while vying to represent Ogun East at the Senate, he recorded and claimed to have attended another primary school, Comprehensive High School Ayetoro State Primary School, in the same 1971.

“All efforts to locate both schools, which would have been in the present Ekiti State or Ogun State - of the Old Western Region of Nigeria - proved impossible. 

“I submit that if he indeed had attended any of the above-stated schools, he would have been consistent while filling the INEC forms.

“His claim to have attended non-existent schools in 1971 also amounts to lying on oath and presenting a false certificate to INEC which are very potent grounds for disqualification as enshrined in Section 182 (1) (j) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.”

The APC member informed Adamu that “Abiodun's profile can only best be described as a bundle of consistent inconsistencies,” referring the APC Chairman to his Form CF001 submitted to INEC in 2015 where he indicated under oath that he attended the University of Ife (now known as Obafemi Awolowo University) in 1986.

However, Oludiran pointed out that in Form CF001 submitted to INEC in 2019, no mention was made of the University.

“My inquiries at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, revealed that HE, Prince Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun never even graduated from the University of Ife. It beggars belief why he would say he did in his form CF001 in 2015.

“No person shall be qualified for election to the Senate or the House of Representatives if: (i) he has presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission,” Oludiran said, quoting, Section 66(1)(i) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

Also, Oludiran said “Abiodun lied about his indictment and imprisonment in 1986.”

He explained: “On July 12, 1986, an African American male, born on the 22nd of June 1959, who went by the name Shawn Michael Davis, was arrested at the American Express Travellers Office located at 32, Miracle Mile in Coral Gables, Florida, by Officer G. Clayton of the CGPD and indicted for Forgery, altering a forged Travellers Cheque, grand theft and theft of a credit card belonging to Mr. John A. Moruay. 

“Similarly, at 8:20 pm on November 6, 1986, Officers R. Ubieta and R. Stewart of the Miami (Metropolitan) Dade police department (MDPD), Florida, assisted by US Secret Service Agent, S.A, Tim Cristine, arrested one Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun (a male Security guard, an African of Nigerian origin with Date of Birth; May 29, 1960) at 85ST, SW 107AVE (Horizons East) for forgery, altering forged instrument and resisting arrest with violence. 

“While being processed at the Miami (Metropolitan) Dade Police Department (MDPD) for detention, the fingerprint of the suspect, Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun, was squared on the US criminal database and it was discovered that the suspect is the same person as Michael Shawn Davis earlier mentioned, who then was still facing trial, and released on bail, at Coral Gables. 

“Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun was thereafter indicted for the offense of credit card fraud in Miami Dade, Florida, USA, and remanded in jail as a repeat offender with jail number: 860089436.”

Oludiran expressed concern that the Abiodun in 2015 and 2019 claimed in his INEC forms CF001, under oath, that he had never been under any sentence of imprisonment, fine for any offense of dishonesty or fraud or any offense imposed by a Court, saying the claim is false.

He also hinted that Abiodun did not disclose to INEC that he has another name as Shawn Michael Davis.

He said the governor “dubiously omitted Section B(3) “Former Names” in both forms, whereas Appendix 20, also herewith attached, expressly shows that competent authority, of the Circuit and County Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida in and For Miami Dade County, captured and affirmed that he was - as far back as 1986 - also known as Shawn Michael Davis.”

Making reference to how the APC lost the governorship seat to the PDP in Bayelsa State, Oludiran argued that “Abiodun is not permitted by the laws guiding the INEC form CF001 to decide which of his past names to keep and which one to disclose. He is compelled by law to make a full disclosure and not to Chameleonically use names as the environment changes.”

He said “If it was convenient for Oladapo Oluseun Abiodun to bear Shawn Michael Davis in 1986, it should also be convenient for him to state the name as demanded by the Sworn INEC form CF001.”

Concluding, the petitioner stated that, “it is deducible from the above-stated facts, vis-à-vis the above cited statutory and judicial authorities, that some of the past actions and records of HE. Prince Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun amount to grave infractions of the provisions of the Constitution. I, therefore, make a call for his disqualification from any future elective position in the All Progressives Congress. 

“An attempt to field or present HE. Prince Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun for the 2023 gubernatorial election in Ogun State will simply amount to inadvertently (or perhaps deliberately, having brought these infractions to your attention, sir) ceding Ogun State to opposition parties as they have rightly commenced the process of filing for his disqualification because he is not eligible to contest or aspire for the office of governor of Ogun State or any State for that matter due to the many constitutional and electoral law violations earlier enumerated.”

Reacting in a statement titled "Who is afraid of Prince Dapo Abiodun?", Tunde Oladunjoye, the State Publicity Secretary of APC, blamed the petition on "the handiwork of desperadoes."

He said "Governor Dapo Abiodun is focused on delivering on his mandate and finishing well and strong. And for his teeming supporters and followers, there is no turning back. We are solidly beside and behind him. 

"To the sore losers and agents of darkness, I make bold to say that, even the latest shenanigan will not postpone their day of ultimate defeat and doom.

"In the words of Shakespeare: “Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, it seems to me most strange that men should fear; seeing that (their political) death, a necessary end, will come when it will come (certainly in 2023).

"Our opponents/enemies have never been so devastated and hopeless. We have the entire party structure, we are relevant in national party affairs where our team hold sway and we are performing on all fronts at home, they are facing political extinction!

“Writing of satanic news and petitions is true-to-form. This is all that is left for them to do, we must remain laser-focused; our performances are best way to humiliate and respond.”