Chairman of Hayden Petroleum, Dapo Abiodun, has rejected the choice of Adekunle Akinlade as the Ogun State All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate for the 2019 elections.
Akinlade, representing Egbado South and Ipokia Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives, is the anointed candidate of Governor Ibikunle Amosun.
He hails from Ogun West Senatorial District, popularly known as Yewa/Awori District, the region which has not produced governor since the creation of Ogun State in 1976.
Presenting Akinlade at the APC secretariat in Abeokuta on Thursday, Ogun State party chairman, Derin Adebiyi, said Amosun had heeded the clamour by Ogun West to produce the next governor of the state.
“Our governor is used by God for the benefit of Ogun West in the choice of the candidate. I will also call on other aspirants to support the chosen candidate, and we should also know that whatever God has written nobody can change it,” Adebiyi said.
Akinlade, 48, served as the senior special assistant on taxation and revenue to Amosun between 2011 and 2014 before he was elected into the lower chamber of the National Assembly in 2015.
Amosun’s Chief of Staff, Tolu Odebiyi, and Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Suraj Adekunbi, among others also jostled for the ticket from Ogun West.
One of the first to kick against Akinlade’s adoption was Abiodun, an aspirant from Ogun East.
“Our attention has been drawn to a misleading media report and total misrepresentation of facts, being sponsored by the Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, and his puppet State Exco indicating that there was an agreement by some unidentified stakeholders to select the next Ogun APC governorship candidate through a consensus arrangement,” Abiodun said in a statement Thursday.
“This development is basically aimed at hoodwinking the general public, thereby throwing up confusion into the political environment of our dear state, especially within the APC.
“We received this news with rude shock and wonder why the proponents had chosen to toe a political path that is undemocratic, unjust and unfair to all other governorship aspirants within the party, as they were not duly consulted before such decision was reached by the governor and his political group. A consensus only obtains where there is only one aspirant which would still have to be affirmed and ratified by voting.
“The national body of our great party has made itself clear on the issue of primaries, and instructed that all the states being ruled by APC must adopt the direct primary election method and in a situation where such is not feasible, a resolution of any other alternative primary election process should be forwarded to the national body for proper ratification and adoption.
“Such resolution is expected to be taken by critical stakeholders, which includes all governorship aspirants, without excluding any.
“At this time and age, it is somewhat amusing that Senator Ibikunle Amosun will gather some aspirants of just one Senatorial district and unilaterally decide and announce a purported and sham consensus.
“It is worthy to note that at no point did Prince Dapo Abiodun and many other stakeholders of our dear state receive any official or unofficial invitation to attend the said stakeholders meeting where this issue was discussed.
“We hereby call on our supporters and the general public to completely ignore and disregard this make-believe political narrative being sponsored from within the government of Amosun against Prince Dapo Abiodun and a few others.
“Finally we would like to reiterate our full commitment and support for any primary election process that falls within the guidelines which was stipulated by the National Working Committee of our great party APC,” Abiodun stated.
