He said the recent meeting between his principal and his Oyo State counterpart discussed issues around the Peoples Democratic Party in South West region.
Rasheed, who was reacting to claim on social media that his principal prostrated for Makinde at a meeting held at Oyo Governor’s Lodge in Abuja, said there was no need for such, and urged members of the public to disregard the insinuations.
He said Adeleke had gone to Oyo Lodge to observe the renovation work in the building, as Osun planned to also embark on renovation of its lodge and only leveraged the opportunity to discuss issues concerning PDP in the region with Makinde.
The statement read in parts, “Our attention has been drawn to a planted fake news about a purported private meeting between Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State and Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo state. The concocted lies in the said story have no basis in truth as at no point did Governor Adeleke have any private talk with his Oyo state counterpart.
“Governor Adeleke had visited the Oyo state Governor’s lodge to see the newly renovated Oyo State Government House as Osun state government is embarking on a similar renovation of Osun Government House located within Asokoro.
“It was also an opportunity for both leaders to review the state of the relationship and chart a path to strengthen the Peoples Democratic Party within the South West zone including the issue of filling the vacancy existing within the party zonal leadership.
“The interactions were in the open and at no point did the question of begging and prostration arise as there was nothing to plead and beg about.”
Stating more facts about the meeting between the two governors, Rasheed added that the parley was held in the living room after which photographs were taken in the presence of people in attendance.
He further said insinuations about infighting either among Osun Government functionaries or otherwise were the handiwork of those profiting from the lack of substantive leadership for the party in the zone and insisted that there was no infighting within Adeleke’s cabinet.
“We, therefore, urge members of the PDP across the South West to ignore the fake news and focus on making a success of the forthcoming zonal meeting in the best interest of the party,” Rasheed said.