…says Yewa/Awori, not Gov Amosun picked Akinlade
A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress and a member of the Ogun West Council of Elders, Senator Felix Kola Bajomo, has said that the emergence of Dapo Abiodun as the gubernatorial candidate of the ruling party in the state for the 2019 election is part of the grand plot by the APC National Working Committee to deprive the Yewa/Awori people another opportunity to produce the next governor of the
state.
Bajomo, who faulted the decision of the party’s NWC to reject the lawmaker currently representing Egbado South and Ipokia Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon Adekunle Akinlade, as the APC standard bearer, also backed the recent protest against the emergence of Abiodun as the party’s governorship candidate for the 2019 poll.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with our correspondent in Abeokuta, the state capital, Bajomo said that the Ogun West Council of Elders had given Governor Amosun their words at a meeting held at his office in Abeokuta that they would support any candidate he put forward, saying that the elders still maintained their stand and would back the choice of Akinlade.
The former lawmaker, who noted that the emergence of Abiodun from Ogun East would only be a clog in the wheel of progress of the Ogun West people, insisted that the governorship should remain zoned to Ogun West to maintain peace in the state.
“When people don’t want to take a stand on this matter, it’s like encouraging injustice to stand. The whole exercise at the moment seems to be giving indication that Ogun West may be deprived of an opportunity, which had been prosecuted in accordance with the due process; to me it’s a tyranny to the minority, no matter how much is being made to justify it. It is not as if the Ogun West people did not pursue the matter in accordance with the rules and principles of democratic setting,” he said.
He described as false rumors making the round that Governor Amosun picked Akinlade as his anointed candidate, saying that the Federal lawmaker emerged as the party’s standard bearer after a direct primary election had been conducted.
Bajomo, who said that the primary election that brought Akinlade as the party’s flag bearer was free and fair, noted that he was accepted and chosen by the Ogun West people and not the governor.
He said, “The party rightly zoned the governorship to Ogun West. It is not uncommon for the party to do zoning; it is not also uncommon for even the country for the sake peace to zone the presidential candidature. At the moment, as far as we know, the presidential candidate of the APC has been zoned to the North and that of PDP, too, to the North. So, why is it alien or why is it being considered as unacceptable when as a matter of fact that the party formally zoned the gubernatorial seat to Ogun west?
“The exercise conducted duly was fair and everybody was given the chance to participate and it is clear that majority of party faithful were in favour of Ogun West candidature, including Ogun East. if for any reason, which I cannot fathom at the moment, it is being challenged, only the power that be should have organised a final open primaries and ensure proper executive supervision. To run away from doing that, there cannot be reason why Ogun West should be deprived.”
He argued that there was nothing wrong in Amosun supporting Akinlade’s candidature, stressing that every sitting governor would want to support somebody that shared his leadership ideas to succeed him and continue his work after leaving office.
Bajomo said, “It is also not true. Some of the things that I heard is that they said the governor handpicked a consensus candidate. The Ogun West people were the people who encouraged their people to express their interest and ten of them did so and if a governor is in place, you cannot expect a governor not to have a say as to who will succeed him.
