Osun

2026: I Will Quit Politics If PDP Gets 500 Votes In Esa-Oke – Wole Oke Boasts

ByOlamilekan Adigun

PublishedApril 24, 2025

Mocks Adeleke’s Appointees From Obokun, Oriade LGs

The lawmaker representing Obokun/Oriade Federal Constituency, Wole Oke, has vowed to quit politics if the Peoples Democratic Party in Osun State gets 500 votes in Esa-Oke, a community in Obokun Local Government, in the next election.

OSUN DEFENDER reports that Oke, in a letter to the chairman of the PDP in Obokun Local Government, announced his defection from the party on April 16.

Oke, while answering a question during an interview on a private radio programme in Osogbo on Thursday, Oke boasted that his influence has been the driving force behind the PDP winning in the Obokun and Oriade local governments.

The lawmaker who is rumoured to be moving to the All Progressives Congress, also mocked political appointees from the two local governments under Governor Ademola Adeleke, boasting that their salaries is not enough to pay the school fees of some of the students he enrolled from his constituency.

Oke also alleged Adeleke of neglecting the people of his constituency, noting that all efforts to get something tangible for his constituents from the present administration proved abortive.

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He said, “I don’t argue with people on such issues. You wait until we conduct our next election. I will be able to give you statistics of what will happen in the next election. I give you, for example, PDP will not get 500 votes out of close to 9000 votes in Esa-Oke. Take that to the bank. I can also tell you the results in other places. In Ikeji Arakeji, Owenna, Dagbaja, Ipetu-Ijesa, mark my words, PDP will struggle to get 1,000 votes if they are on the ballot. Write it down and if the statistics fail, I will quit politics.

“I know those people who are working with the governor and honestly, because we sweat and laboured to put the government in place, so as a commissioner or special adviser or a chairman of a board, if they converge and said this is their position, let them converge, it is their entitlement and I will leave them to enjoy same.

“In Obokun/Oriade, we have close to 80,000 votes. The totality of the people in government now from Obokun as at the last count are about 11 with their total earnings per month less than N10m. In Oriade, they are fewer, and let me put their earnings at N10m also. That’s N20m in total per month. That is the money we spend on paying children’s school fees. Is that what they will use for election in Ipetu Ijesa?

Go to Esa-Oke and look at the road linking the town to Imesi-Ile and Oke-Imesi. Look at the road linking Ijebu-Jesa to Iwoye to Esa-Odo to Ilare, go to Ijebu-Jesa to Ere to Iboku to Ada Owode and Ada. After that, come back to Oriade and check the road from Ira to Ogotun and the road from Ikeji-Ile to Arakeji; you will cry at their states. These are the roads that I used to blackmail APC to get our people to vote for PDP in 2018 and 2022.

“The last time those roads were rehabilitated was during Baba Akande’s government. We are human beings and not animals. Is it out of place to ask for potable water? I’ve been in the parliament for almost 18 years. I’m a lawyer and a developmental economist. It is the private sector that feeds the government, and how do you get money from the private sector? It is through their tax levies. So, if you collect all that money and you now have to share it, why should we be left behind?

Olamilekan Adigun

Olamilekan Adigun is a graduate of Mass Communication with years of experience in journalism embedded in uncovering human interest stories. He also prioritises accuracy and factual reportage of issues.