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2023: Obasanjo’s son visited me, pledged support for Osinbajo — Ojudu

Olujonwo, son of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has pledged to support Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) if he joins the 2023 presidential race.

The Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Babafemi Ojudu, made this known in a Facebook post on Saturday.

According to Ojudu, Olujonwo visited him on Friday to register his wish that the VP should run for President in 2023.

Ojudu, who works in the VP’s office, wrote, “Olujonwo Obasanjo, son of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, visited yesterday (Friday).

“He too, like many others, came to register his wish and aspiration that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo throws his hat in the rings for the 2023 contest.

“Smart and brimming with ideas, he promised that if Osinbajo heeds the call of Nigerians he will be willing and ready to volunteer to join the campaign train.

“Thank you Olu. I will pass your message across.”

The PUNCH had reported that Ojudu said he had been receiving threat messages from “irritants” for declaring that he won’t support the presidential ambition of All Progressives Congress National Leader, Bola Tinubu.

Ojudu had stressed that his decision not to support Tinubu was based on personal conviction, adding that any coercion to do otherwise would not be democratic.

In an earlier statement, Ojudu had said that his refusal to support the presidential aspiration of the former Lagos State governor should not portray him as a betrayer.

“The idea that everyone who has related with Tinubu and disagrees with him on this Presidential bid is a traitor and a betrayal is puerile. Many of us, his associates, were not made by him as you also want the world to believe.

“We were already made before meeting him and in the cause of relating we gave one another a helping hand… So, on this matter of 2023 I wish him (Tinubu) well but I cannot in good conscience give him my support or cast my vote for him in the coming primary. It is my right. I am above 60 years of age for God sake. I almost died seeking this inalienable democratic rights, held up in detention and severally tortured. Your god is not my god,” he had said.

Osinbajo was Lagos Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General from 1999 to 2007 when Tinubu was governor.

Tinubu had reportedly nominated Osinbajo to be the running mate of Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) in the buildup to the 2015 election.

Tinubu and Osinbajo were last seen together in public in late 2021 when the former returned from the United Kingdom where he underwent surgery and therapy for knee surgery.

Though Tinubu subsequently declared his intention to run for the exalted office on January 10, 2022, Osinbajo has not declared whether he would be running or not but his supporters have been urging him to do so and mounting campaign billboards in strategic places all over the country. (Punch)

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