Chief Olusegun Osoba, former governor of the western Nigerian state of Ogun has confirmed that he met Iyabo Obasanjo, the daughter of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, during his trip to the United States in September 2013.
He also confirmed that Iyabo expressed a similar view about his father’s politics and the country, similar to the sentiment expressed in the public statement credited to her.
Chief Osoba, in an interview with Saharareporters, said he was in the United States for the 73rd anniversary of the Nieman Foundation Fellowship when he ran into Iyabo, a former senator in Nigeria.
The former governor told SaharaReporters he was staying at The Charles Hotel in Cambridge when he had a chance encounter with the daughter of the former president who told him her car was parked in the hotel’s basement parking lot.
Chief Osoba said that, after the meeting, Ms. Obasanjo went downstairs to get her car and then drove him to the offices of the Nieman Foundation Center where he had an event.
He said the journey took close to an hour, leaving plenty of time for a long conversation between him and former President Obasanjo’s daughter.
Osoba disclosed that Iyabo expressed exactly the same sentiments about her father contained in her letter, that is now being dubbed as a forgery.
According to the former governor, Iyabo stated that her father would divide the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) more than it was then after his so-called intervention in the party.
He said she also stated that she had no plans to return anymore to Nigerian politics, a sentiment she expressed in the acerbic letter to her father.
Chief Osoba added that, after his return from the US, he met former President Obasanjo a month later at the 80th birthday party of Chief Adedoja Adewolu and told him of his encounter with Iyabo in Massachusetts, including her view of his intervention in the PDP.
Osoba said he strongly believed that his discussion with Obasanjo might have prompted the former President to tell his daughter to run on the platform of the APC, another revelation made in her letter.
Iyabo in an 11-page letter described her father as a liar, manipulator and a hypocrite.