The three-term Senator currently represents Osun West
Senatorial district having won the election on the platform of the All
Progressives Congress, APC, in 2015.
Adeleke died Sunday at Bikets Hospital in Oshogbo, the Osun
state capital, after suffering a heart attack according to family sources.
Adeleke, the first civilian governor of Osun state, in 2014,
dumped the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
At an event in Osogbo, the Osun state capital, while leading
thousands of his supporters to defect to APC, Adeleke noted that with the
alleged assault on him by the then Minister of Police Affairs, Jelili Adesiyan,
and candidate of the PDP, Iyiola Omisore, he and his followers were no longer
safe in the party.
The former governor claimed he was called upon by the
leaders of the PDP to contest the governorship seat in Osun having realised
that Omisore stood no chance against the incumbent governor, Rauf Aregbesola.
He said he was thereafter betrayed and hounded.
“I am happy to be in the progressives. I was a governor
under the Social Democratic Party (PDP) which was a progressive party, I was
fully involved in the struggle for June I2″, Adeleke said.
“I was asked to come and vie for governorship that Omisore
is not capable, I accepted, but a day to the congress I got to the hotel in
Osogbo. The people I sent there were on the floor with guns pointed at their
heads and I told the police that they are members of our party from Ede.
“I then moved towards the room where I met Sogo Agboola,
Jelili Adesiyan, Iyiola Omisore, Gani Olaoluwa and others. As I was about
explaining what happened outside to the Minister, he descended on me with
blows. So also was Omisore and others.
“They are a party breeding thugs. How can a whole minister
of the Federal Republic be boxing, I have nothing against PDP, but I don’t see
myself working for a criminal. I can’t support a violent person to go to the
Government House.”
By Wale Odunsi
