By Mayowa Olumuyiwa
The Ondo State Unity Group of APC is a forum that emanated as a fallout of the last governorship primary that produced Gov. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu as the party’s flag-bearer in 2017.
The Group which was primarily constituted of the Ondo political gladiators within the APC, mostly past aspirants and rival forces to the incumbent Governor Akeredolu had made moves to present a consensus candidate for primaries as published 3 months ago on February 15, 2020 by Olusola Oke, one of its frontliners.
In the same vein, a notable chieftain in the party and leader in the group, Sen. Ajayi Boroffice, representing the Ondo North Senatorial District, earlier this year, said the Unity Group of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State will present a consensus governorship aspirant for the party’s primaries.
Boroffice, a staunch member of the group, gave the assurance during an empowerment programme for women in Ondo Central and South Senatorial Districts, sometimes in January this year in Akure, the state capital.
It would be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had earlier fixed Sept. 19 and Oct.10 for the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states, respectively.
Owing to this development, the polity in Ondo State has never been so engaging since it became apparent that members of the Unity Forum were currently working together to present a consensus aspirant to slug it out with Akeredolu at the party’s primary, coming up in few months.
Sequel to a purported document released at the early hours of Tuesday May 12, by the APC Unity group in Ondo State, announcing Olusola Oke, SAN, as its candidate to face Gov. Akeredolu at the APC Governorship primary for Ondo 2020, some aspirants under the Ondo APC umbrella earlier reported to have supported the move had debunked the story as completely untrue.
One of the gubernatorial aspirants, Prince Dapo Adelegan in a telephone conversation with Kaftan Post correspondent, stated that the case of an adopted consensus candidate within the Unity Forum never arose.
When asked if the news was true, he responded by saying, it is “fake news”.
According to him, “what happened was that we were consulted to have a particular candidate forced on us but we never agreed”.
The Unity Forum had been one formidable group constituting a warring faction against the incumbent Governor and also seeks to present a consensus candidate that would face the incumbent Governor at the party’s primary election.
Another source who is privy to the activities of the Unity Forum told Kaftan Post that while the Unity Forum committee had last week approached the Nigeria Police Force for permit to hold the meeting where the plans to adopt a sole candidate would be deliberated, the Police was said to have refused to grant the request, citing the existing guidelines that forbids a political gathering of such magnitude due to the current coronavirus pandemic.
Shortly before the Unity Forum’s adoption statement was made public, social media was agog with messages being sent by some of the aspirants to their supporters about a purported plan to impose a candidate on them.
They asked their supporters to reject such moves as, according to them, the Commitee failed to put their opinions into consideration before arriving at such a decision.
It would also be recalled that the Leader of the Unity Forum, Alhaji Alli Olanusi, a former Deputy Governor in the state, was already at loggerheads with some members of his committee and the aspirants over a bribery allegation.
In March, the disgruntled members of the committee had accused the former Deputy Governor of receiving a bribe of One hundred million naira to do a bidding of a certain APC bigwig who is interested in who becomes the party’s flag bearer in the state.
While the former Deputy Governor vehemently denied the allegation, he went on to accuse his detractors of doing the bidding of the State’s sitting governor who is actively seeking a second term in office.
The latest of these epic series came with the report of the 7-man committee that made rounds across social media, adopting Olusola Oke, SAN, as the consensus candidate of the Forum.
In a statement that was personally signed by the Committee Chairman and immediate past Senator representing the Ondo South constituency, Pastor Yele Omogunwa, the Forum said it opted for Chief Olusola Oke with the consent of other ten aspirants.
The statement reads in part, “During the meeting of the Aspirants on March 23, 2020, a unanimous decision was taken by all the Aspirants that the 7-man Gubernatorial Candidate Selection Committee should come up with a candidate to represent the Unity Forum in the Ondo State 2020 General election. This is due in part to the failure of the aspirants to reach a consensus on a person to represent them as a unanimous candidate.
“In taking this collective decision, all the ten aspirants agreed to accept the candidate recommended by the Committee.”
On how the Forum arrived at the choice of Olusola Oke, the statement explains that during the process, “four of the six members opted for Chief Olusola Oke, SAN, one opted for a technocrat whose identity was not disclosed and one opted for a female Aspirant”.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Senate Majority Leader, Prof. Ajayi Boroffice, in a swift reaction to the adoption of Olusola Oke, said the Unity Forum of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State has no consensus candidate.
In a statement by Kayode Fakuyi, his Media Aide, Boroffice urged all the governorship aspirants to start preparations for the direct primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
Another counter claim also came from the Secretary of the Screening Committee of the Unity Forum, Prof. Sola Ehindero who described the rumoured adoption of Oke as false.
Ehindero said, “In reality, the report represents a coded and very poisonous political pill with the potency and deadlines to destabilise majority of our loyal Unity Forum members and destroy our dear party.
“For now, the authentic leadership of the party are holding consultations with all the loyal aspirants and the party leadership in Abuja and Lagos to select a consensus candidate,” he said.
Just within few hours after the Ali Olanusi untimely revelation surfaced and widely refuted by respective stakeholders, came the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
The elders forum of the Unity group came out with the big bang sacking Ali Olanusi and his entire committee.
The elders forum as chaired by Chief S. A. Idris, released a Press Statement with the content below:
“On our part, we observed with keen interest as follows:
That Alhaji Ali Olanusi deliberately manipulated the selection of the members of the Seven (7) Man Aspirant Screening Committee to propagate his personal agenda, which is to pave way for PDP total takeover of South West Nigeria before 2023 presidential election.
That the Four out of the seven man committee was earlier alleged of bribery and corruption during the process of their assignment by some aspirants and leaders of Unity group.
That the Secretary and other two members (H. E Mrs Kemi Iyantan and Prince Solagbade Amodeni) of the Seven (7) Man Aspirant Screening Committee were sidelined in the preparation of the said report, only the Chairman and three others that are Alhaji Ali Olanusi’s cronies, prepared the purported report.
That without recourse to the Fifty Two (52) man Special Purpose Committee of Ondo APC Unity Group who they said assigned the Seven (7) Man Aspirant Screening committee, Alhaji Ali Olanusi singlehandedly approved their report and dispatched copies of the purported report put together by the four man (instead of seven) committee to National secretariat of APC in Abuja and National Leader Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu”.
In a further attempt to uncover the controversies surrounding this saga, another APC aspirant, D. I Kekemeke, when contacted on phone by our correspondent, was not available to speak on the issue. Also, the response to the message to him is still being awaited as at the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, embattled Ali Olanusi had on Tuesday made an apology to members of the Unity Group who obviously had lost confidence in his leadership.
These series of accusation and counter-allegation, however, suggest that the last may not have been heard on the decision taken by the Unity Forum under the leadership of Alhaji Ali Olanusi.
