Sunday Igboho tackles Ojudu, denies knowing him

The man who led Yoruba youth to attack the Fulani leader in his community, Sunday Adeyemo, (popularly known as Sunday Igboho), has hit out at President Buhari’s Special Adviser on Political Matters, Babafemi Ojudu, over his claims that he is a political thug.

Mr Igboho, who spoke with journalists at his home in Ibadan, on Tuesday, said Mr Ojudu lied to have said they met in 2009, in preparation of a rerun election in Ekiti State.

Mr Ojudu, on Monday, wrote on his Facebook page about his encounter with Mr Igboho, whom he said was lobbied not to destroy the election by the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu.

“I don’t know Femi Ojudu, he is insane. I’m not close to Adedibu as said in his piece but I know Ladoja. I understand that his (Ojudu) head is not correct. He should swear with his children that I ever met him,” Mr Igboho told journalists, who were at his home after one of his houses was gutted by fire.

“He wants to spoil my name. He is a mere liar. No politician gives me money for what I am doing. Police and government are not helping matters (in Ibarapa on security).”

Mr Igboho maintained that he went to evict the Fulani leader in Igangan last week because those being killed and kidnapped are “my family members and that’s why I went there. I was not sponsored.”

“Ojudu should be careful. He did not help anyone when he was a commissioner and even when he was a senator. He did not do anything. He wants to destroy Nigeria.”

Mr Igboho also denied having any social media account. A Twitter account with his name, opened in 2015, has been posting regular updates about him since January 23.

Ojudu insists meeting Igboho

Mr Ojudu’s post was no longer on his Facebook page when our correspondent checked on Tuesday afternoon.

When contacted about Mr Igboho’s denial, he simply said, “I don’t want to join issues with him. I have said all I want to say.”

He insisted that the post on his encounter with Mr Igboho is still on his Facebook page. [It is not there].

Mr Ojudu, in the article titled “The Sunday Igboho I Knew”, said that after an appeal court had ordered a rerun in a number of polling units in the election between Segun Oni of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Kayode Fayemi of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Mr Igboho was recruited as a political thug for Mr Oni’s camp.

READ ALSO: ENCOUNTER: The Sunday Igboho I Knew, By Babafemi Ojudu

He said that his team got a report that the PDP was going to use thugs to snatch ballot boxes and also frustrate the outcome of the poll.

“The biggest headache for us then was Sunday Igboho, who we learnt has been hired and paid by a Senator from Osun to come and cause mayhem in Ekiti. Tinubu instructed we must get him at all cost.”

“Six days to the election we began our search for him. Eventually, we met someone who had his number. I put a call through to him and he agreed to meet with me in Ibadan. We scheduled an appointment and had a meeting at a small hotel not far from Premier Hotel.”

Mr Ojudu wrote further that Mr Igboho pleaded that he should not make their meeting known to the public due to his relationship with late Lamidi Adedibu and the entire PDP.

“I reported back to Tinubu who then relocated from his base in Lagos to Sunview Hotel in Akure. Igboho drove down alone at about 10.00 pm. I and Tinubu had a dialogue with him.

“Igboho,”!Tinubu said, “I have heard a lot about your bravery . The Ekiti people have suffered too long under the rule of PDP. They are looking for change. I learnt you have been hired to make this impossible. I have invited you to plead with you to allow the poll to be conducted peacefully. If after that the PDP wins fine. If the ACN wins, all well and good”, he said in the piece.

Mr Ojudu said upon meeting the former Lagos governor, Mr Igboho agreed to sly the PDP by pretending as if he was threatened by the police not to be in Ekiti State on the day of the election.

Controversy

The post by Mr Ojudu triggered various reactions on social media, with several commentators calling out the former senator for being “reckless” with such utterances.

Furthermore, Mr Adedibu died in 2008, a year before Mr Ojudu purportedly held a meeting with Mr Igboho.

PREMIUM TIMES recalled that Mr Igboho was involved in the combative politics between Mr Adedibu, and former Oyo State governor, Rashidi Ladoja.

He was known to be the leader of Mr Ladoja’s ‘political thugs’ during the combat.

This was after Mr Ladoja was illegally impeached as the governor of Oyo governor 2006 due to a political disagreement he had with the late Mr Adedibu.

The court, however, reinstated Mr Ladoja 11 months after he was impeached.

Up until Mr Adedibu died at the University College Hospital in Ibadan on June 11, 2008, Mr Igboho was not in his camp.