Aregbesola’s Outburst Against Deji Is Appalling, Says Adeleke Family

For describing business mogul, Deji Adeleke, as being insane, the family of the late Isiaka Adeleke, yesterday, faulted Governor Rauf Aregbesola, saying the outburst was appalling.

This was contained in a statement issued by the Adeleke family in reaction to the statement made by the governor at a campaign rally in Ede on Wednesday.

Aregbesola, at the campaign of the All Progressives Congress in the Osun-West senatorial district by-election holding on Saturday, said Deji might have gone mad because of the death of his elder brother, Isiaka.

The governor’s vituperation was in reaction to an allegation that he owed Deji money. But Aregbesola said he did not borrow any money from Deji at anytime, saying it was the Adelekes that had been collecting money from him.


He said, “Deji Adeleke is a businessman, he is not a politician but it is like his brother’s death has run him mad. (O dabi pe iku egbon e ti da lori ru). It is a lie that I borrowed money from Deji.

“It is to the glory of God that they got the Certificate of Occupancy of their university from our government. Why didn’t those who are their new friends give them the C-of-O of that university? If Deji Adeleke had so much money, why did he beg me to waive the payable tax of his university? Why couldn’t he just pay?

“I am bold enough to say this over and over again because I have never sought assistance from any member of the Adeleke family, even during the lifetime of Senator Isiaka Adeleke. Nothing of such occurred.”

But the Adeleke family stated that the utterance of Aregbesola  was not befitting of a governor, stressing that the governor, who had not held the television programme, ‘Ogbeni Till Day Break’, for some years, hurriedly organised one after the sudden death of Isiaka and he danced all night long during the show.

The statement read, “What’s more appalling is Aregbesola’s outburst – as widely quoted in major newspapers, that Senator Isiaka Adeleke’s sudden death ‘has affected the psyche’ of Dr Deji Adeleke. How? One may want to ask: If Aregbesola has a giant, a towering personality and eminent person like the late Senator Isiaka Adeleke in his family, and he lost such a distinguished personality to the cold hands of death, will he take to the streets and dance merrily?

“Why should Ogbeni Aregbesola carry politics to this ridiculous end and act like a tin god, who will never leave the office as governor and this transient world as a human being? To those of us living, inclusive of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, we don’t know how we will end up. Senator Isiaka Adeleke died gloriously. The whole world celebrated his death.”

“What is the sin of the Adeleke family in putting one of their own forward to contest the Osun-West senatorial by-election, if that is what is giving Ogbeni Aregbesola some concern.

“If Aregbesola is talking of a contentious Certificate of Occupancy, is he the one that provided the billions of naira that put Adeleke University up as the ‘Harvard’ of Nigeria?”

Punch