Iyiola Omisore, former deputy governor of Osun state, says the government has been begging him for falsely accusing him of killing Bola Ige, former attorney-general of the federation.
Omisore said his ordeal began in December 2001 when he was accused of involvement in the murder, and that he was subsequently impeached as deputy governor.
He said he had been discharged and acquitted in the case, and government had been begging him over charges of malicious prosecution.
“When we were framed up that we killed Bola Ige, we thought it was a joke. How can somebody be in Ife and kill somebody in Ibadan? It was later they confessed that it was for politics,” he said in an interview.
“That was why I sued Oyo state government for N2 billion over malicious prosecution.
“We are still in court. They are dodging and begging me now. The judgement was very clear that we had no business in court at all.”
“We started AD. I was one of the persons funding AD in 1998. The party was formed in my suite at Nicon Hilton, Abuja. There is hardly any politician in the south-west that brought resources to politics than I did. I came into politics with my resources, wealth of experience, everything I had.”
“Omisore is more of a professional engineer, a technocrat. I have made more impact in engineering than any politician you can think of in this country today. I stand to be corrected. They want to kill that aspect of my life and play up politics.”
“Omisore’s political adventure follows a tradition that goes back to his background.
“We are the main Afenifere. We go to Owo every month. I am a man of history. My grandfather was part of Egbe Omo Oduduwa in 1941.
“So I am a part of that history. We were traditionally UPN (Unity Party of Nigeria) in the family. When it came to the time of AD, we were the ones doing Afenifere and AD together. It was Kofo Bucknor Akerele and I that gave it AD.
“We left PDP, that we were not joining them, to register another party. By the time we got to the INEC office, they had taken all the AAs. We wanted to have AA, AB, or AC. We wanted our name in front on the ballot. We wanted to tell voters, ‘Vote for number one.’ That was the idea behind AD.
“Chief Bola Ige, Baba Adesanya, and others said we should go and collect form. By the time we got there, the names given to us had already been taken. We said, let us take AD then, and we brought it back to them.”
