Akin Akinniyi, Abeokuta.
Ogun state governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, and his loyalists in the All Progressives Congress (APC) have started perfecting plans to dump the ruling party, Osun Daily has learnt.
Their imminent exit from the APC was as a result of the alleged refusal of the party’s national leadership to uphold the candidacy of the governor’s preferred candidate, Adekunle Akinlade, for the 2019 governorship election.
A meeting preparatory to Amosun’s defection was held on Wednesday night at his private residence located at Ibara GRA, Abeokuta.
In attendance at the meeting were APC members from the 20 local government areas of the state, who were loyal to the governor, as well as top government functionaries in the state.
The state chapter of APC had been engulfed in crisis following the adoption of an oil magnate, Prince Dapo Abiodun, as the party’s gubernatorial candidate for 2019 as against Amosun’s choice.
A highly placed source, who was present at the meeting on Wednesday night, confirmed the plan to pull out of the APC.
According to the source, Amosun briefed his loyalists on the outcome of his meetings with President Muhammadu Buhari as well as the APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, which were not favourable.
The source said the governor informed his loyalists that rather than address the pending issue, the party leadership in Abuja asked him to share the National and State Assembly tickets with certain individuals in the state who never participated in the just concluded governorship and legislative primaries.
The governor was said to have berated those who manipulated the primary election to produce Abiodun as against the consensus governorship candidate of the party, Akinlade.
Amosun, the source added, made it clear that he could not work with Abiodun because he lacked the wherewithal to win elections.
According to him, Abiodun who could not win a senatorial district election in 2015 will be unable to win the whole of Ogun State in 2019.
The governor was said to have maintained his stance that he would bid APC goodbye rather than accept Abiodun’s candidacy.
He, however, did not disclose the particular political party he and his loyalists would consider.
Asked about the growing speculation that the governor is likely to defect to Accord Party, the source insisted that the governor was silent on his choice but only declared that his next sanctuary would not be the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
