Lagos — Alliance for Democracy (AD) has defended the position of the former governor of the state, Aremo Olusegun Osoba over statement credited to the incumbent governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel that the 2007 election would be bloody and that the government would fight it with its last drop of blood.

Osoba had in a recent chat with colleagues in the media, called on the Federal Government to warn its governor in Ogun State, who was reported to have said in an interview with elendu reports, an internet media that next year's election would be bloody in the state.

But reacting to Osoba's call, the Director of Organisation of PDP and a Special Assistant to the incumbent governor on Public Affairs, Mr. Wale Adedayo, in a national daily (not THISDAY), dismissed Osoba's statement, saying it was cheap publicity.

However, in a counter-reaction, Alhaji Abimbola Awofeso, AD secretary in the state said it was cheap for the state to react to a statement like that when it did not originate from Osoba.

Awofeso recalled that elendureports in a 12 paragraph report quoted the governor in the last paragraph as saying "you are being used by people who are interested in Ogun Politics. These are people we helped to become Governor and now they feel we are outshining them. It's all jealousy. Many more stories will come your way, mark my word. 2007 politics in Ogun State will be bloody and we are ready to shed the last drop of our blood".

He however said from such statement which "I believe elendureports have on tape and which has not been denied by the Daniel administration's numerous media managers up to the time of Osoba's interview on June 21, 2006, three weeks later, Osoba was justified as a stakeholder in sounding alarm. If Adedayo and the media team of Daniel have not read the elendureports due to their various 'organising' activities unrelated to media function, then this is a wake up call as the story is still on post at the web site.

"And then they should do the right thing in contradicting the story as was done by Dr. Peter Odili, Governor of Rivers State, in newspaper advertorials to similar story on elendureports that just quoted a third party (EFCC's Nuhu Ribadu) on Odili", he said.

On the accusation that Osoba sought to court "cheap popularity" through his admonition, Awofeso maintained that "Adedayo cannot claim ignorance of Osoba's exploits and achievements as a journalist in Nigeria and overseas. He cannot also claim ignorance of Osoba being the first Africa in the Governing Board of International Press Institute (IPI)".

Also speaking on the performance of AD and Osoba in relation to Daniel and PDP, Awofeso averred that "Adedayo cannot deny that most of the so called achievements of Daniel are white elephants projects or over-hyped proposals like Cargo Airport that are yet to see the light of the day and without any impact on people. This realisation has led the PDP government to now embark on emergency electrification and grading of rural roads it has abandoned in the past three years in a futile bid to fool the people as 2007 approaches.

"In any case, it is now on record that Daniel in three years has collected over 100 Billion naira in statutory allocation alone which is more than all the money received by the state in the last 10 years prior to 2003. When this sum is added to increased IGR and the scandalous sale of Ogun state land, then it would not be difficult to conclude that Daniel administration's so called achievements amounts to profligacy at best and at worst official robbery", he maintained.