Wale Akinterinwa, an Ondo State gubernatorial aspirant under the All Progressives Congress (APC) platform, has refuted allegations that his campaign convoy failed to pay for fuel recently purchased at Matrix Filling Station in Ondo Town.
A closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage in circulation on social media shows vehicles numbering eight leaving the filling station while attendants were chasing after them, demanding payment. Some of the attendants who tried to stop them were also allegedly injured.
The narrator in the video claimed that Akinterinwa’s campaign convoy had refuelled at the station and fled without settling the bill amounting to approximately N150,000.
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However, Akinterinwa, through his spokesperson Segun Ajiboye, dismissed the claims as “a lie from the pit of hell” and an “amateurish attempt by some desperate politicians to blackmail” his team.
Ajiboye explained that the vehicles in the campaign convoy did, in fact, purchase fuel at the station but made full payment for the fuel received.
He said, “Over the past few weeks, there have been sustained attacks on our members and the destruction of our billboards across the state. The last attack was in Owo, where, after destroying our billboards, they went from house to threaten our members not to venture out to receive our campaign team.
Explaining further, he said “The vehicles in the convoy of the campaign organisation indeed bought fuel at the station, duly paid for the fuel they vehicles received.
“Let it noted that our convoy, indeed bought fuel at the Matrix filling station at the Akure garage in Ondo town. All the vehicles in our convoy were served fuel and full payment was duly made.
“The latest attempt to blackmail our team has not come to us as a surprise in any way. Having exhausted all their weapons and wicked machinations, the desperate politicians have now resorted to use blackmail as their weapon of attack.
“Meanwhile, determined to get the root of the blackmail effort and to put the records straight, Hon Wale Akinterinwa has directed his lawyers to write the management of the filling station to confirm the authnticity of the video and the identity of the purported member of his convoy who allegedly refused to pay for the fuel he was served.”