I didn’t flee from Nigeria – Ladi Adebutu

Ladi Adebutu


In this exclusive interview with TAIWO BANKOLE, the 2023 Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate in Ogun State, Oladipupo Adebutu, speaks on why he has been away from the country for over six months, expressing confidence that he will get justice at the Supreme Court

You have been away for about six months now, could you please tell us what is happening, Sir?

Let me start by extending my gratitude to God, the good people of Ogun State, and the leadership and followership of our great party for their steadfastness for this mandate that was freely given to us by the good people of Ogun State during the March 18th, 2023 governorship election. Six months seem like a long time, like an eternity but the truth of the matter is that everything is for a purpose. If everything works out well, if the right ideology comes at the right time, then you can have your dreams and goals achieved and sustained. We have had a difficult season with the electioneering. We decided to take a break, so I chose to go for my routine medicals. Society by and large recognised our efforts. They recognised that we won the election.

In the full glare of the nation, I was given a resounding recognition by the populace as I departed the Muritala International Airport, Lagos en route to the United Kingdom. I left the country with the expectation to return in about a month. However, after about one or two weeks, I started hearing the story that I absconded. It was really funny because for what purpose would I have absconded?


I was not surprised when various fabricated stories emerged that I had absconded from the law. This naturally followed after I had rebuffed their pleas. Subsequently, innuendos started coming that if we dared pursue our case at the tribunal, all manners of mayhem would be let loose.

2023 poll

When it came to that I even felt more encouraged because they knew that I knew all their shenanigans. I sent the message back that I was not going to stop pursuing this mandate at the court and God willing, whatever storm came, I would count it as part of the sacrifices to serve the people of Ogun State. The most annoying part was the mayhem unleashed on some communities which prevented elections from taking place in 99 polling units. At least these were legitimately documented. The mayhem unleashed throughout the state made it impossible for over 40,000 people to vote. We are all aware of what happened on the election day. One won’t believe it was an election. One would rather think it was a war. There were so many guns in circulation, and people were snatching ballot boxes in the full glare of the security operatives. The level of mayhem and anarchy was unbelievable. There were many guns in circulation. Guns found their way into the hands of these young people and after the elections were never retrieved. The killings have continued particularly in Sagamu. One can see the correlation, the availability of guns is proportional to disenfranchised voters, namely 46 polling units in Sagamu. Rationally, it became obvious that these guns were flowing all over the place. These misdirected young people were misbehaving killing one another, threatening market women, and harassing people everywhere. So, it did not need too much common sense for me to say to myself that I had to allow these winds to blow by because what would happen if these marauding people were to gun one down? There will certainly be a lot of crying and shouting and that will be the end of this mandate that they are trying to desperately abort.




Rather than be murdered and allow the mandate to die a natural death, I will keep away until such a time when the matter is disposed of by the court. I decided to take a break because we are not dealing with people with conscience. We are not dealing with people that operate within the law. The Electoral Acts states clearly that the authority to prosecute any criminal issue whatsoever during an election is the Independent National Electoral Commission so that it will hopefully be the impartial arbiter that will adjudge or even indict or feel that there is a need to pursue any form of litigation. Till now, INEC has not instituted any matter against me, and for that matter, the tribunal has disposed of allegations of vote-buying against me, and that decision was never appealed. Given the time frame allotted, INEC at any time has not accused me of any wrongdoing. No other body is vested with the authority to make issues about vote-buying relating to criminalities. The one vested with the powers did not do anything within the time frame. The tribunal which is the first court of instance has nullified the allegations. The Appeal Court has said nothing about the issue and you have continued to shout all over the place that Ladi Adebutu has run away because of the criminal charge of vote-buying. It is not true. What they rely on abinitio is nothing but abuse of government powers and that is why they have been shouting about vote-buying because they knew that if one is convicted based on this allegation wrongfully, one would have lost the strength to pursue this mandate freely given by the good people of Ogun State. So you must congratulate me for facing a biased umpire and a very desperate opponent that wants to cling to power at all costs, and by the grace of God we defeated them even though…

How do you see all the judgments so far, particularly the one from the Appeal Court, Lagos?

I have said that I am determined to do all that is within my capacity with the help of God to retrieve this mandate freely given to me by the good people of Ogun State. I need to actualise this mandate because there is a lot to be done to return smiles to the faces of the people. It is the least I can do to justify the confidence reposed in my leadership which made them defy everything to vote for us. Ogun State must get out of its present uninspiring government. The disaster is enormous. A lot of strange things are happening in the state. A few weeks ago, I heard that a Finance Director attached to the Governor’s office was murdered in cold blood supposedly because he was returning from banks where he had made withdrawals of over N100m.

My heart bleeds over this loss of life and my heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased. May the Almighty God comfort the wife, children, and the aged Mum of the deceased. Having said that, I still want to query what rules or laws authorise a government to possess such huge cash.

Our internal revenue was carted away in cash. If all the stories we have been hearing are false we have seen one live example of the government of Ogun State operating in cash. Unfortunately, we have a promising young man who has lost his life because Ogun State is transacting in cash in the year 2023.

Ogun deserves a far better deal. We are very grateful for what we got at the Appeal Court, it has rekindled our hope and further strengthened us in the struggle to set Ogun State free from the shackles of bad governance. The Appeal Court judgment makes a whole lot of difference when compared with that of the tribunal which in the actual sense of it was a sad one for mankind, sad one for Nigeria and Ogun State in particular. All that they looked away from at the tribunal was distilled into eight issues at the Appeal Court. Five of the issues were agreed upon by the three judges and unanimously decided in our favour.

Two of the remaining issues were decided through split judgment while the other remaining one was through unanimous and that’s the only one relating to Supreme Court pronouncement which does not necessarily apply to us. We shall be there to prove our case. I am however happy that whenever we have women of substance in the position of authority they usually stand tall and shoulder high above men.


When you read the detailed minority judgment by Justice Jane Inyang you will be proud of her. The most empty-headed person after reading this judgment will know that she was being truthful.

In the majority judgment, the presiding judge said he concurred with her what else can we say?

So, when you concur that what someone is doing is wrong and you later deviate from the judgment… All that will be determined at the Supreme Court.

Like I have said, I insisted that since 1992 during the 3rd assembly when I made myself available the people of Ogun State have continued to accept my services, I shall continue for a lifetime to offer myself to serve my state and the country as a whole because of my heritage, that is the only thing we understand and I promise you that just very soon, Itura a de for everyone in the state.

What do you hope to do better if get your mandate?

We have antecedents; people should always ask what fruits this tree bears. We have the antecedents of having compassion and doing things transparently. My service to the people of Ogun State has been without blemish. I have been to the National Assembly twice, and been a Commissioner at the Local Government Service Commission among others and we have transparently served the people. I am an agricultural entrepreneur in the state and I have always argued that the government has no business in business rather it will only create an enabling environment for businesses to flourish. We have our 7-point agenda tagged ITURA DE being acronym for Improved Security, Law & Order; True Local Government Autonomy, Public Service Reforms and Workers Welfare; Urban Regional Development, Physical Planning & Transportation; Rural & Border Communities Development; Agricultural and Economic Development; Development of Women, Youth and Sports and Enhancement of Education, Healthcare & other Social Services. For all these, we have our master plan for the implementation of the agenda.

For instance, aside from the harmonisation of taxes and levies, we shall leverage the liberalisation policy of the Federal Government on power generation. We shall bring partners and investors to help with this because once this challenge is dealt with it will open more job opportunities for our people because it will aid investment.




The current story of a poor network of roads across the state will be seriously addressed truthfully in such a way that the private sector will completely invest in major infrastructure like roads to bring about a marked difference to the acrobatics currently ongoing in the state. We shall then use available government funds to massively development our health and education sectors. The other time I saw a video of some pupils in a ramshackle classroom being beaten by rain, I felt so sad; we won’t tolerate that under our administration. Our women and children as a matter of necessity under our government will have relief from the trauma we are all going through now because this is going to be a government driven by compassion and willingness to serve with all sincerity. Our local government will equally have the autonomy to contribute meaningfully to the development of the state unlike what currently operates in the state. We shall rejig our finance management because as we speak Ogun State is probably the most indebted state, and we are not going to allow that to continue.