By Oludamisi Ojo
Former governor and the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for the June 18 election in Ekiti State, Segun Oni, has disclosed that he did not sign any deal with former Lagos State governor and presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, ahead of Saturday’s poll.

He, however, said there is no point denying the fact that Tinubu and himself were once intimate political bed-fellows.

According to him, the APC national leader’s emergence as a presidential candidate won’t sway him to abandon his governorship aspiration, or compromise it.

Oni spoke with reporters in Ado-Ekiti yesterday while reacting to the reports that Tinubu had struck a deal with him on the need to backtrack on his aspiration to pave the way for the victory of APC candidate, Biodun Oyebanji, in the impending poll.

Watchers say Oni became the APC National Deputy Chairman (South) through the grace of Tinubu in 2015, before he returned to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2019.

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Yesterday, he told reporters; “Let me say that this is a lie, I have not seen Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for over a year now. I am here for the Ekiti people, and I will not compromise the interest of Ekiti people for anything.

“I am also not desperate. I am a content person, and I am not a person that can be bought with money, I can’t be purchased. So, I did not meet anybody anywhere to compromise my candidacy.”
Oni said he hearkened to the persuasion from the generality of Ekiti people to veer into the race, and that he won’t betray the confidence reposed in him by being steadfast and honest in the prosecution of the election.
He also faulted politicians ‘planning to ‘buy’ the conscience of the people in the election, describing vote-buying as an unpardonable criminal offence in the face of the law.
The governorship candidate also appreciated the commission for its resolve to work with the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), to tackle the perpetrators of the criminal tendency.

“EFCC and ICPC operatives must clamp down on those who want to be in power at all cost, but as good as this is, our people must resist an unlawful arrest. Nobody should be arrested unlawfully, while others are being protected. The clampdown must be total.

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“If anyone commits an offence, let him be arrested lawfully through a warrant of arrest. We have seen a situation whereby the minority was lorded over the majority, but it won’t happen again in Ekiti.

“Vote buying is a criminal offence, and that the position of the ballot box must be such that you drop your ballots before the prying eyes of the buyers see where you voted,” he said.

He assured that the SDP won’t engage in vote-buying, saying “This doesn’t mean some people will not be paid for rendering services to us, but for vote-buying, SDP is bluntly opposed to this.”