By Bukola Kayode
The Osinbajo Support Movement (OSM), has accused supporters of the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and presidential aspirant, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of being behind a controversial poster in which fellow presidential aspirant and the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo was depicted as a betrayer.
Adejuwon Babatunde, Director Media and Publicity for OSM said in a statement sent to Frontline News Online, that, despite its denial through a press statement dated April 19th 2022, the Tinubu campaign team has been unmasked as sponsor of the blasphemous poster campaign against Professor Yemi Osinbajo, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Recall that posters carrying the Vice President’s picture with the inscription “the Judas who betrayed his master”, littered walls and street light poles in parts of the FCT on Friday and Saturday 15th and 16th April 2022, the Easter period, raising blasphemous dust against the sponsors and brains behind the posters.
The statement read in part: “The poster campaign elicited wide condemnation across the country. Following the public reaction and the failed attempt to brand Prof. Osinbajo as a betrayer, the Tinubu Media Team “ate its own words” with crocodile tears, claiming it was an attempt to “rope Tinubu into a storm of blasphemy.”
“But evidence now unraveled by the Osinbajo Support Movement (OSM) showed links, including telephone chats and call logs of a suspect arrested by security agencies indicate that the Tinubu Campaign team was indeed responsible for the posting of blasphemous posters seen in parts of FCT on Friday 15th April, 2022”.
“Though the prime suspect, one Mike Oluwole, a 52-year-old Abuja-based graphics designer from Osun State, denied working for the Tinubu campaign team, records of his phone chats with a member of the Tinubu campaign team, contradicted his statement to the Police.
“According to security agents, Mr Oluwole denied working with anyone and attributed his actions to frustration, but records of his phone chats with one Alhaji Aminu Suleiman and one Tosin Adeyanju from the Tinubu Media group, dated Thursday March 24, 2022, and Tuesday April 12, 2022, all revealed the involvement of the campaign team in the despicable act.
“In an SMS dated March 24, 2022, Mr Oluwole reminded Alhaji Aminu Suleiman, about their meeting ahead of the APC Convention, stating that “I celebrate you sir, we need to see today concerning Asiwaju for the Convention”, the statement further read.
According to the statement on April 12, 2022, Mike sent another SMS to Alhaji Aminu saying “Alhaji Aminu, I don’t know why you are doing this to me. I promise not to call you again. I thought we are all working for the success of Asiwaju. This act is not good enough.”
“In another SMS on April 12, 2022, Mr Oluwole was in touch with Ms Tosin Adeyanju (whose contact was saved on Mr Oluwole’s phone as Tosin Adeyanju, Director Media Tinubu Support Group) over a document that was printed and ready for pick up.
“The above exchanges between Mr Oluwole and the other persons contradict his claims that he wasn’t working for anyone including Tinubu supporters.
“The action by Tinubu’s supporters has exposed the desperation of the Vice President’s political opponents and the apprehension in their camp over Osinbajo’s increasing popularity and wide acceptability by Nigerians” the statement read.
“We urge the Vice President not to be distracted as the race for the 2023 elections intensifies. Nigerians however need to be vigilant and beware of the antics of those who do not mean well for our country, and who are deploying desperate strategies in an abortive attempt to revive a failing campaign.
“Just as the Osinbajo media council noted earlier in the week through a statement, detractors will be unrelenting in their promotion of campaigns of calumny against the Vice President, but his admirers must remain resolute and firm to emerge victorious at the end of the day”, Babatunde added.
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