“Although I should not be the one speaking but I just want to clear the air on a lot of misgivings that has been spreading.
“On behalf of my late husband, children and the entire Ajimobi’s family, I want to sincerely thank you for all your support at this very crucial point of our lives.
“My husband is not a very difficult man but thank God we are here today. For me, when things like this happen, I want to pick up something. It is a time for everyone of us to reflect on our lives because death is a necessary end. It will come when it will come. We don’t know who is next and we don’t know when our time will come.
“Either you are a Christian or a Muslim, both religions teach love and peace and I am glad that the deputy Governor of Oyo State is here because I need to put some records straight. It is the first time I’m going to make any public announcement or statement since my husband actually died.
“I opened the papers a couple of days ago and I saw the Oyo State Government writing a lot of things.
“Your Excellency, the Deputy Governor of Oyo State, for the avoidance of misinformation to the public and damage to the image of my husband because my husband is a peace- loving person. He lived for peace passionately.
“My husband took ill on the 22nd of May and he was hospitalised and I was reading in the papers that the Governor of Oyo State, His Excellency Seyi Makinde, claimed he called me. But he didnt.”
Referring to the Deputy Governor, she said “I don’t have your number and I have never spoken with you on phone. But it’s important we put the records straight because this is a family of politicians and I don’t want anybody to tarnish my husband’s name and well my husband is gone. It could be me or anyone else tomorrow.
“Life in itself is vanity upon vanity. Either you are PDP or APC, the man is dead and he has been buried.
“But the Governor didn’t call me. Even if he had called me and I didn’t pick his calls, I don’t have his number and I have never spoken with him on the phone. He could have sent me a text message for record purposes.
“And then today again, I read in the papers and saw how the Ajimobi’s family was lying about something again.
“Mr Deputy, my husband never had anything against the Governor or anyone else. We were in different parties but he was an elder stateman and he slept on the ground.
“The Governor of Oyo State never called me nor sent a condolence message, my husband was hospitalised for one month. What politics are we playing, please?
“Life is short, I’m a Christian and my husband is a Muslim, we all should let the fear of God guide us in whatever we are doing. Ajimobi is gone today. Whatever he does doesn’t matter to me. It doesn’t matter to me as his wife and his widow. I’m going to mourn and respect my husband’s wishes and that was what I did today, laid him to rest peacefully.
“I don’t want any controversy. Everything I read in the papers, I just swallowed them all and let it go. So, please, the press are here, we never had any rift with the Governor with the state government. I never dialogued with them. I never contacted them nor sent them a word because I didn’t know it was necessary for me to send official messages that my husband was hospitalised.
“I didn’t send messages to Governor Fayemi. I didn’t send to Governor Ganduje. I didn’t send to Lagos State Governor, I didn’t send messages to anybody because it was all over the social media and they knew that my husband was ill.
“I think the least anybody can do as a God- fearing person was at least to send me a word of encouragement at that time. And even after he died. Not even you Mr Deputy Governor called. If you had called me as you claimed and I didn’t pick, you could have at least sent me a message Sir.
“I don’t have your number, I am the wife of a politician, I don’t pick numbers that I don’t know Sir. You can send a message. Everybody is going to die. My husband is dead and he served this state for eight good years.
“Are you saying he didn’t contribute anything to this state and you could not honour him for a second? The man is dead and I need to put the record straight. I don’t want anybody, any government to tarnish my husband’s image. He was a peace loving man. And he played his role and he’s gone.”
“Nobody can be on the stage for so long. You come, play your roles and you leave. Somebody else comes. I pray for Governor Seyi Makinde to succeed because that is the only time I would say that my husband succeeded.
“So, please let’s put the record straight. I never had any interactions with Governor Seyi Makinde, he did not contact the family and that is the fact. His deputy Governor is here, he did not even send me a text message and I don’t have your number and I don’t pick calls from numbers that I don’t know. So, please let’s stop dirty politics.”
On social media, supporters of Governor Seyi Makinde claim the former First Lady is blackmailing the Governor with her husband’s burial.
According to one of the reports quoting an online publication, the writer wrote:
Details have emerged as to the real reasons behind the unfriendly disposition of the family of the deceased governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi to the incumbent Governor Seyi Makinde.
Tongues started wagging on Sunday when a video went viral in which the former First Lady, Mrs. Florence Ajimobi raised dust over the failure of the governor of Oyo State, Engineer Seyi Makinde to reach out to her since the sickness and eventual demise of her husband, Senator Abiola Ajimobi.
In the said video, the former First Lady was seen accusing Governor Makinde and his deputy, Engineer Rauf Olaniyan of failing to reach out to her.
But sources knowledgeable about happenings in Oyo State confirmed to GOALPOACHER NEWS that the Governor was actually frustrated out of his bid to take good care of his predecessor.
“Governor Makinde, on hearing of the sickness of his predecessor asked one of his Special Advisers to make contact and establish the true situation. The said Adviser got in contact with the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Obafemi Hamzat, after attempts to reach the former First Lady failed.
Sources said that Hamzat’s intervention led to the communication of the phone number of a personal physician to the late former Governor to the Adviser who transmitted the same to Governor Makinde. It was gathered that through the Commissioner for Health in Oyo State, the governor summoned the said personal physician, who happens to be the wife of a politician and former office holder in the Ajimobi government.
The said doctor, while she was on her was to the Government House in Ibadan, was said to have told her husband, who immediately asked her to abandon the trip to the Government House and sneak into Lagos.
That effort stalled, the Governor of Oyo State again requested for and put calls through to the former First Lady, who ignored the calls.
The governor was then said to have reached out to his colleague in Lagos, Babajide Sanwoolu for interface.
It was gathered that the interface between the family and Sanwoolu did not go through as the former First Lady again stalled.
Sources further said that with the obvious determination of the former First Lady to carry Oyo State Government along in the health situation of her husband, Governor Makinde had to hand every other thing over to Sanwoolu in Lagos saying: “My brother, I leave everything in your hands. Look after him for us as a state and if there is anything I should do, I am just a phone call away.”
Upon hearing of the eventual demise of Senator Ajimobi on Thursday, Governor Makinde was again said to have reached out to the former First Lady, who never picked nor returned any of his several calls.
Nonetheless, the governor, who was in Benin City Edo State for a PDP assignment immediately directed the state flag be flown at half-mast in honour of the late former governor, the source stated.
He further explained: “I was in the know that the governor was about calling a special Exco session to decide on the best way to immortalise the departed governor but the uncooperative posture from the former First lady stalled all that, one of the sources said.
The source continued: “What happened thereafter was that the Governor of Oyo received calls from Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who broke the news of the death of Ajimobi to the state governor and then requested that the family had asked him to plead with Makinde to released the controversial Quarter 361 with adjoining Plots B and C totalling 23,627 sqm(about 48 plots) which was part of the illegally acquired land revoked by the state government in February this year.
“Governor Makinde wasted no time in telling the Vice President that the land in question is under litigation and that it was the same late Ajimobi who filed a suit against the government over the revocation of the controversial plot of land.
“After Osinbajo’s call to Governor Makinde came the call of former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the same matter, other governors and other well- meaning leaders of both the PDP and APC.
“Governor Makinde only stated the situation of things as per the fact that the house in question is under litigation and it would amount to toying with the power of the courts to allow such burial there. The governor was also said to have confirmed that bodies are by law not to be buried in a GRA like Agodi and even Oluyole estate. He however was said to have told the statesmen who called that he had nothing against burying the former governor in Oluyole Estate, where he lived till he died.
“You can see that it is baffling that all the efforts of Governor Makinde on the Ajimobi matter were rebuffed. The former First Lady cannot even under stand the state protocol after eight years in Government House. She needed to first inform the sitting Governor about her husband’s sickness and then the eventual demise. There should be no excuse for that lapse.
“I am sure her anger against Makinde is because he refused to allow her gain ownership of Quarter 361 through the back door. You want to wonder why a woman who just lost her husband would be concerned about something as ephemera as property.”
The source concluded by saying that the attempt to blackmail Governor Makinde will not stand.
