LAGOS: Tinubu gave me N2m to fuel my car when I met him – Igboho

*Meeting held in Tinubu’s Lagos home, not in Ekiti

POPULAR Yoruba activist, Sunday Adeyemo, better known as Sunday Igboho, has recounted what transpired between him and a national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the first and only time they met in person.

In an Instagram Live Chat with the journalist, Dele Momodu, on Tuesday, Igboho disclosed that he met with the APC leader, at the behest of former governor of Oyo State, Rasheed Ladoja, in his (Tinubu) Bourdillion residence in Lagos.

He said, “I once met with Tinubu during the build-up to the governorship election of Mimiko in Ondo State. I supported his opponent during the campaign but my father, Senator Rasheed Adewolu Ladoja, told me Bola wanted to see me. Ladoja also asked me to please Tinubu in every way.

“Tinubu later called me on the phone and asked me to meet him at his Bourdillon residence in Lagos. I honoured the invitation and went to Lagos.

“At his residence, Tinubu urged me not to support the PDP in the Ondo State Governorship Election. He told me that the PDP frustrated Ladoja in office as governor and eventually impeached him. Tinubu added that it was payback time for the PDP.

“I pledged my cooperation and left the place but before leaving his residence, he gave me N2m to fuel my vehicle. That was the last time I met him. Tinubu is still alive and he can attest to this.”

Igboho’s account and claims run contrary to that given by former Senator Babafemi Ojudu, who narrated that Tinubu and Igboho had met in Ekiti State during a gubernatorial election.Ojudu, a journalist and serving Presidential aide wrote:

Ojudu had in a piece titled, ‘The Sunday Igboho I knew’ published on Monday, recounted how he and Tinubu, had met with Igboho in the build-up to the Ekiti rerun election in 2009.

According to the narration Igboho agreed to meet with them on the condition that Lamidi Adedibu, the late strongman of Ibadan politics, must not know about the meeting.

Ojudu in his vivid account said the meeting held in Ekiti, and Igboho, who had led a group of thugs to disrupt the election, was persuaded to leave town with his band after a “golden handshake” from the APC leader. The content of the article has since been generating criticisms in the social media space.

However, speaking with journalists in his residence on Tuesday, as captured in a video made available by BBC Yoruba, Igboho said he never had any meeting with Ojudu over the 2009 rerun election in Ekiti state.