By Jamiu Ganiyu
The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Lasun Yusuf has explained why he was conspicuously absent at last year’s inauguration of Governor Gboyega Oyetola.
The Ilobu born politician disclosed this while speaking through his Senior Special Adviser on Constituency Relations, Professor Aderemi Ajala, exclusively with osun.life on issues relating to politics and governance in both Osun and Nigeria.
Lasun who debunked the insinuations that he did not to attend the swearing in because he was not disposed to the emergence of Governor Gboyega Oyetola, as the flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress in the primary election, said he jettisoned the official swearing in of the new governor because he was not officially invited as expected of a person of his status and asserted that it is protocol that has security implications which must be strictly adhered to.
In his words, “I was not invited and whoever wants to prove that, I challenge such person to come out. My position in Nigeria and our party has gone beyond the level of just attending a function without being invited because there are two reasons attached to it; my security details would want to know where I am going and who has invited me to such an event, so if I am not invited, I am going there at my own security risk and no security officials attached to me will follow because they would want to have documents and know who is to be held responsible if things went right or bad.”
“For instance, His Excellency, Governor Gboyega Oyetola can’t just go to anywhere without evidence of invitation as Governor because his security details would want to also know who is to be held responsible if things go haywire, so in as much as I was not invited to the inauguration, then I don’t need to go.” he concluded.
The runner up in the 2018 governorship primary of All Progressives Congress said he has since forgotten all issues surrounding the governorship ticket of the party because he knew right from the beginning that in politics whenever there is more than one interest in a particular position, someone would get it at the end.
He, however, lamented the declining fortunes of APC in State which he concluded has not been managed well by concerned stakeholders. He opined that some valuable members whose contributions cannot be underestimated but were dissatisfied with the ways the gubernatorial primary was handled and left the party needed to be worked upon in order to better position the party for better performance.
However, when osun.life reached out to a member of the Inauguration media committee, Mr. Jamiu Olawumi, he said there is no way such a personality like the Deputy Speaker could have been missed out on the list of invitees by the protocols committee.
“Rt. Hon. Lasun Yusuf is not a personality that could have been cross over. It is not contentious, he must have been invited, we cannot afford to have ignored such kind of status unless he has a personal thing that could show that he was not invited.” he concluded
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