The Ogun State government has advised the people to be wary of political opportunists who take delight in lying to get sympathy and votes.

This call was made following the claim by the governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the March 11 election, Biyi Otegbeye, that the government spent N7bn on the Gateway City Gate Project at the Sagamu Interchange, whereas the cost was less than 5 per cent of his claim.

A statement issued in Abeokuta on Friday by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Dapo Abiodun, Mr Kunle Somorin, described Otegbeye’s assertion as “monumental falsehood.”

According to him, “Otegbeye does not have an idea of how government runs hence dishes out lies that catch his fancy, to whip up sentiments against the people’s governor, including this manner of unpardonable lie.”

The statement read in part: “The attention of the Ogun State government has been drawn to a video clip of the governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, one Biyi Otegbeye, purporting that the Gateway City Gate Monument at the Sagamu Interchange was erected at a whooping N7bn.

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“While we do not intend to join issues with Mr Otegbeye and his likes over barefaced falsehood and puerile attempt to sell his candidacy to the good people of Ogun State, it is pertinent to state that his claim is not only pure falsehood, but also absolute fallacy, complete calumny and a figment of his warped imagination.

“Having failed to clinch the APC gubernatorial ticket, Otegbeye has been wandering round parties, shopping for cheap and less known parties’ ticket, trying to get on the ballot through the back door – fair or foul.

“His attempt to hoodwink the public through his appearance before the revered League of Imams and Alfas, spewing falsehood around the City Gate Monument shows the kind of mindset he has if he were to be governor of the state

“The fact of the matter is that the iconic Gateway City Gate Monument that has received rave reviews and endorsements by a wide segment of the public, including the Presidency cost less than 5 per cent of his imagined cost.

Mr. Otegbeye must probably have thought or believed that a project of such magnitude could not have cost less than N7bn. He probably would have spent this or more if he or any of his kind were to be in charge of the people’s Commonwealth in Ogun State.”