The 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Adewole Adebayo, has accused members of his party of betraying him by working for the President-elect, Bola Tinubu.
Adebayo said a Senator who was a strong pillar of his campaign went and declared for the All Progressives Congress (APC), and even gave up his senatorial ambition for them.
In an interview with Vanguard, the SDP candidate said other members of his party defected to the APC days before the presidential election and worked against him.
Adewole, however, said he has learnt his lesson, stating that politicians taught him lesson academics cannot give.
He said: “If somebody was working for me, within a short time, I get the bad news that the person had defected to APC. Like a senator who was a strong pillar of my campaign went and declared for the APC and even gave up his senatorial ambition for them.
“I am just letting you know that people can pretend. When the Labor Party collapsed in the entire North-West, they said they didn’t like Peter Obi, and they came to us saying they wanted to join us, but I didn’t think it was wise to encourage brinkmanship in politics. Maybe it was a mistake on my part.”
Adewole said Tinubu won the presidential election because he had the most experienced politicians in the polity supporting him, adding that he will not be challenging Tinubu’s election at the tribunal.
He added: “Somehow, he managed to keep most of the governors with him, even those who were hostile to him at the beginning. I encountered a lot of people in the course of the campaign who said “We like you but we are stuck with our man”.
“But, you as a presidential candidate, even the sub-total of your efforts is not up to what the people are doing on his behalf even if he is somewhere in France hanging his leg. They were still very active.”
