Posters portraying Osinbajo ‘betrayal’ traced to Tinubu’s supporters — OSM

Tinubu
L-R: Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN. (File photos)

A group said it has unmasked the Tinubu Campaign Team as the sponsors of the blasphemous poster campaign against Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, pasted across the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, despite its denial through a press statement dated April 19th 2022.

The Osinbajo Support Movement (OSM), said this in a statement released on Thursday, April 21, 2021, and signed by its Director of Media and Publicity, Adejuwon Babatunde.

Recall that posters carrying the VP’s picture with the inscription “The Judas Who Betrayed His Master,” littered walls and street light poles in parts of the FCT on Friday and Saturday 15th and 16th April 2022, the Easter period, raising blasphemous dust against the sponsors and brains behind the posters.

The posters elicited wide condemnation across the country.

OSM said, “following the public reaction and the failed attempt to brand Prof Osinbajo as a betrayer, the Tinubu Media Team ‘ate its own words’ with crocodile tears, claiming it was an attempt to ‘rope Tinubu into a storm of blasphemy.’

“But evidence now unravelled by the Osinbajo Support Movement (OSM) showed links, including telephone chats and call logs of a suspect arrested by security agencies indicate that the Tinubu Campaign team was indeed responsible for the posting of blasphemous posters seen in parts of FCT on Friday 15th April 2022.”

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It further said in its statement that: “Though the prime suspect, one Mike from Osun State, denied working for the Tinubu campaign team, records of his phone chats with a member of the Tinubu campaign team, contradicted his statement to the Police.”

Stating further in its statement, OSM said, “according to security agents, he denied working with anyone and attributed his actions to frustration, but records of his phone chats with one Aminu and one Tosin from the Tinubu Media group, dated Thursday, March 24, 2022, and Tuesday, April 12, 2022, all revealed the involvement of the campaign team in the despicable act.

“In an SMS dated March 24, 2022, Mike reminded Aminu, about their meeting ahead of the APC Convention, stating that ‘I celebrate you, sir, we need to see today concerning Asiwaju for the Convention.’

“On April 12, 2022, Mike sent another SMS to Aminu saying ‘Aminu, I don’t know why you are doing this to me. I promise not to call you again. I thought we are all working for the success of Asiwaju. This act is not good enough.’

“In another SMS on April 12, 2022, Mr Oluwole was been in touch with Tosin (whose contact was saved on Mike’s phone as Tosin, Director Media Tinubu Support Group) over a document that was printed and ready for pick up.

“The above exchanges between Mike and the other persons contradict his claims that he wasn’t working for anyone including Tinubu supporters.

“The action by Tinubu’s supporters has exposed the desperation of the Vice President’s political opponents and the apprehension in their camp over Osinbajo’s increasing popularity and wide acceptability by Nigerians.”

However, in concluding, OSM said: “We urge the VP not to be distracted as the race for the 2023 elections intensifies. Nigerians however need to be vigilant and beware of the antics of those who do not mean well for our country, and who are deploying desperate strategies in an abortive attempt to revive a failing campaign.

“Just as the Osinbajo media council noted earlier in the week through a statement, detractors will be unrelenting in their promotion of campaigns of calumny against the VP, but his admirers must remain resolute and firm to emerge victorious at the end of the day.”