Amosun’s Brutal Steps
It took many by surprise when Senator Adeola Solomon, a.k.a. Yayi, reportedly withdrew from the governorship race in Ogun State. Until the news broke, he had committed a lot of resources, both human and financial, towards the actualization of his dream.
But Society Watch can authoritatively reveal that Yayi was forced to drop his ambition in the face of stiff opposition from the Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun.
Amosun is alleged to have used his closeness to President Muhammadu Buhari to put a spanner in the works of Solomon, whom he sees as a thorn in his flesh.
At various fora, Amosun had reportedly declared that Yayi would never succeed him at the Government House, no matter how hard he tried. Though many have taken umbrage agaiinst the governor, he seems unfazed, relying on his closeness to the President.
Society Watch gathered that a few days ago, Amosun approached Buhari and the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, requesting that they restrain Yayi’s ambition.
“I would say he resorted to blackmail as he urged Buhari to order Yayi to drop his governorship ambition in Ogun State. He told the President that Tinubu should be able to command Yayi to go back to the Senate from Lagos since he is one of his boys.
“Amosun pointed out that since Asiwaju Tinubu is in charge of reconciliation in the party, he should be able to talk to Yayi to drop his governorship ambition and go back to the Senate.
“He also told Buhari that the party should not continue to allow people like Yayi to disturb the peace of the party in Ogun State and that he should allow him to shop for a successor from the party,” said a source.
The source added that Tinubu told the Buhari that if what Amosun wanted was for Yayi to drop his governorship ambition, he had no choice than to cooperate with him.
It was also revealed that Tinubu informed Buhari and Amosun that the former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, would be asked to drop his ambition of going to the Senate from Lagos West.
According to the source, Tinubu stated that he only “rescued Obanikoro from the mess in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)” and that it was not a do-or-die affair for him to move to the Senate now.
Consequently, Buhari and Tinubu were said to have resolved that Yayi should drop his governorship ambition and allow Amosun have his way of producing the party’s candidate for the 2019 governorship election in the state while he (Yayi) should be allowed to return to the Senate from Lagos West.