For the Ogun State All Progressive Congress, it is now a case of who blinks first between Governor Ibikunle Amosun and the National Working Committee of the ruling party over the State Governorship primaries which has come up with two “candidates”.
Trouble started within the party over the struggle for its soul and the presentation [primaries] of its candidate for the 2019 elections, although it had been brewing before the party announced its programmes for the forthcoming elections.
First, it was Governor Amosun who announced a “consensus list” of about 40 people, including himself as a Senatorial candidate, which drew the ire of some group in the party who argued that there was no level playing field for all the aspirants especially when a large number of people were interested and in fact were prepared to obtain the nomination forms. The announcement came after a meeting attended by all the aspirants where there was clearly not agreement on consensus with some aspirants including a former Deputy Governor, Senator Adegbenga Kaka kicking against such an arrangement.
The list was thrown out of the window by the NWC which saw it as not reflecting the popular opinion of the generality of the members who by then had started obtaining forms and letter of expression of interest. Another meeting of the State Executive Council was then called, which most of the aspirants snubbed, where the Governor announced that the mode of selection of candidates would now be ‘Indirect”.
Again, members of the party, especially the aspirants kicked against the decision and insisted on having the direct option which the National Working Committee also bought into. By this time however, the party has been clearly divided into three. Those that were selected in the Governor’s list and their supporters, some aspirants from the Governor who were not selected in his list and other aspirants and their supporters who the Governor later labeled “profiteers ” and “those who want to reap where they did not sow”
Immediately after the announcement by the NWC that Ogun primaries would by direct option as in Lagos State, a national leader of the party and former Governor of the State, Chief Olusegun Osoba summoned a Consultative Forum in his expansive compound and preached unity and peace noting that all members of the party should avoid rancor.
But while this was playing out, a group had sought and received a court injunction restraining the State Working Committee led by Chief Derin Adebiyi from conducting the primary and that the manner and process of their attaining office was null and void.
The NWC eventually released the name of those to conduct the primaries with a retired Commissioner of Police Mr. Indabawa as Chairman and Senator Gbenga Aluko but by which time tension had heightened. The House of former Governor Olusegun Osoba was invaded and insulting graffiti were written on his walls
A meeting called by the Indabawa Committee to meet the aspirants ended abruptly when gun tooting hoodlum invaded the premises shooting sporadically and by the next day it was very clear that there was danger ahead prompting the committee to seek for more security.
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The Government declared a public holiday for Primary and Secondary students on Tuesday for their premises to be used but the Committee said it was still making adequate arrangement. An apparently angry Amosun who had on Monday declared that he would not hand over the state to those he called profiteers went on with the Primary with “his own people”
To show its dissatisfaction with the National APC the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Taiwo Adeoluwa on Tuesday evening at a press conference said “we are no more ready to follow any directive or guideline from the National APC on the Governorship primary. They favored a particular aspirant. As far as we are concerned we conducted our guber primaries today Tuesday and elected our candidate. Any day the NWC is ready to conduct their own, our candidate will face their own”
The following day, the Indabawa committee released election materials and observed by the Independent Electoral Commission [INEC] and another round of primary started. By late afternoon the result of the Primary Conducted by the Derin Adebiyi executive was announced with AbdulKabr Adekunle Akinlade, a member of the House of Reps emerging. Same day, late evening the Indabawa Committee raised by the NWC announced Prince Dapo Abiodun, a businessman as the winner.
From the above the question on the lips of close watchers of unfolding events in the state on its parallel primaries is, who blinks first?
