Ogun PDP Ticket: Segun Showunmi Threatens Showdown With Adebutu

A former spokesperson to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar during the 2019 presidential election, Segun Showunmi, has said his decision to join the Ogun governorship race is not a joke

This is as he threatened to defeat Hon. Ladi Adebutu to win the ticket of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and emerge the party’s governorship candidate in 2023.

Before now, many had speculated that Adebutu, who is perceived as the major financier of the PDP in Ogun State, would have the governorship ticket without let or hindrance.

Adebutu recently told newsmen in Abeokuta that he had worked relentlessly for seven years, building and uniting the party, saying he deserved to have an advantage in the PDP.

“People abandoned this party, we built it from the scratch. Now the party has become very rosy, people are now struggling to snatch it from us. If people say we have an advantage in this party, will it be unusual? Can we say somebody that cooks a pot of soup should not have an advantage to take, at least, the first serving?

“If people want to come, they are welcome; but it will be unkind and morally wrong that I should be pushed aside,” Adebutu claimed.

However, it appears the former House of Representatives member would have an axe to grind with Showunmi, who threatened legal actions should the party fail to make the primary election free, fair and credible.

Showunmi, while addressing newsmen at his Abeokuta residence, said Adebutu was not qualified to be the governor of the Gateway State.

He said the PDP should give him the ticket because 45 per cent of the votes is from Ogun Central.

According to him, the PDP, since 1999 has not given its ticket to a candidate from Ogun Central Senatorial District where he hails from.

Showunmi denied being pushed into the race by Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, saying he would have got the ticket if Makinde were behind him.

“Seyi is not pushing me. He only told me to unite the party. I am running on my own merit. Seyi is not playing games with them. It is their bad behaviour, their ability to get along with people, the over-exaggeration of the so-called wealth they think they have, that makes them to see others with a contrary position as an enemy,” Showunmi taunted Adebutu

His words: “I have written a pre-trial letter to the PDP National, with the intention that they should come and show cause before a court in Abeokuta, why one of the aspirants will have all the excos under his armpit, including those who said they bought him forms. That case is coming up on Thursday. I am not a joker. They (the party leaders) have been served.

“I don’t know why Chief (Kessington) Adebutu will even send that one to come and govern Ogun State when he cannot even send him to govern his company. Do they not have other sons, that the worst of them be the one that will be sent to govern the best of us? I am not one of those who play games.

“If the PDP gives the ticket to him, he is my brother. But his political ways are a bit strange. I expect to beat him like a baby (at the primary).

“I learnt they are sitting at the party secretariat, filling the party register with fictitious names. Do I look like a fool like them?… when I’ve already queried the right of those ones to even be anywhere near the ballot. Will they build something on nothing? Will it not be declared null and void? Is it not a preelection matter that will drag to supreme court back? If there’s only one judge that has integrity in this country, he would hear that case,” Showunmi talked tough.