A Gubernorial  hopeful in Osun State, Honourable Gbenga Onigbogi has said that the reason why he is in the  race is  to serve the people better in higher capacity.
Hon.Onigbogi who disclosed this in Ilesha at official declaration of his ambition to contest the Governorship election come 2011  noted that contest for public office is not for personal aggrandizement but a call to fulfill the yearning and aspiration of the people.
“I want to serve my people because I believed that I am eminently, professinally, politically and morally qualified and financially competent”, Onigbogi declared.  
He called on the other aspirants in the zone to support his ambition in the interest of Ijesha land, saying he has a blue print for the development of the state and ready to implement it if elected as the Governor in 2011.
 
Hon Onigbogi also used the occasion to deny his involvement in the fracas that occurred in the house on June 22nd this year which led to his suspension and that of other members of the Progressive Group in the house.
He said that his name was erroneously included on the list of those suspended by the house for their unruly behavior on the floor of the house, saying that he was outside the country when the incidence occurred. 
“I and Hon West Idahosa who was included in the list were not physically present on the floor of the house when the fracas occurred. I was in India by that time and that is why when the house discovered that a mistake had been committed it did not write our party both at the national and state levels of our alleged suspension,” he added.
Meanwhile,Former Minister of Transport and Aviation, Chief Ebenezer Babatope has refuted the 
insinuations that he collected up to the tune of N20 million from Governorship 
Aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ijesha zone of Osun state, describing the rumours as the figment  of  the imagination of his political detractors.
Babatope who is a member of the PDP Board of Trustees and Chairman of the party’s Elder’s caucus in the six Local Government Areas in Ijesha land denied allegations of financial impropriety in the running of the party in Ijeha land, stressing that he has done his best for the upliftment of the party not only in Ijesha land but Osun state in general.
                                                                  
The former Minister also berated some Governorship aspirants in Ijesha land,  describing them as paper weight, even as he faulted statements credited to some of the aspirants that the leadership of the party in the zone has pulled its  weight behind a single candidate.               
Babatope who reaffirmed the stand of the PDP Elders caucus in Ijesha land on the 
endorsement of the Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on 
Niger/Delta, Hon Gbenga Onigbogi as the candidate of the party elders in Ijesha 
land, maintained that other aspirants from the zone are free to contest the 
election.
The PDP Elders caucus had in April this year endorsed Hon Onigbogi as the 
party’s candidate in Ijesha land out of the nine aspirants who had expressed 
their intention to contest the Governorship election in the state, a development 
which caused division within the party in the zone.
 In another development,a group within the party in the zone, the Ijesha Redemption Movement under the 
leadership of Hon Gbenga Fowowe petitioned the state secretariat of the party on 
the action of the PDP elders’ caucus, and threatened to pull out of the party, 
should the action of the Elders caucus stand.
The group alleged that Babatope and a few other leaders of the party in the zone 
received a sum of N20 million from Hon Onigbogi before he was endorsed as the 
sole candidate of the party in the zone. The group further alleged that some 
leaders of the party were not carried along before endorsing Onigbogi, 
describing the action as selective and parochial.
 

But Babatope insisted that Onigbogi was picked amongst the array of aspirants 
from the zone because he was the best of all the aspirants from the zone, adding 
that the choice of Hon Onigbogi as the candidate for the zone does not stop 
other aspirants from going ahead to pursue their aspirations.
He said “there are so many factors we considered before our eventual choice of 
Onigbogi; this includes aspirants’ wealth of experience as a politician, his 
contributions to the PDP in the past and also his financial muscle to fight the 
election if eventually pick as the party’s flag bearer because Governorship 
election involves huge sum of money to prosecute.”
Corroborating the views of Babatope, Onigbogi a second time member of the House 
of Representatives, said “I did not give any money to any of our leaders 
before I was endorsed as the candidate of the party in Ijesha land. I did not 
influence my endorsement at all. I was screened the same way other aspirants 
from the zone were screened, and having gone through serious scrutiny I 
eventually emerged as the candidate of all the PDP members in Ijesha land.”