Group Calls for Governor Amosun’s Suspension
After publicly declaring unequivocal support for the governorship aspiration of Adekunle Akinlade as against his own party, the All Progressives Congress, APC’s candidate, a group, the Youth Vanguard, has called for the indefinite suspension of Governor Ibikunle Amosun from the APC. The group’s call is premised on a statement credited to the governor where he reportedly declared at a stakeholders’ meeting held at the Presidential Lodge in Ibara Housing, Abeokuta, Monday, that Akinlade, the Allied Peoples Movement (APM)’s candidate, has his ‘full blessing.’
While his infernal opposition to Prince (Dr.) Dapo Abiodun, the APC’s governorship candidate, is very well documented, Amosun, nevertheless, promised to campaign for President Muhammadu Buhari. “We will do everything possible to ensure Buhari wins massively in Ogun, but they should not miss it. I, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, will not work for any other candidate that they are rooting for to become governor. No way. They are free to do whatever they want, but I will not support them,” different media reports quoted the governor as saying. He also blamed Adams Oshiomhole, the APC chairman, for the crisis that led to the defection of his loyalists from the APC. In a statement signed by the group’s president, Dr Yemi Ishaq, “What governor Amosun has done by declaring his support for another party’s candidate is patently anti-party. How can you remain in the APC and be supporting the governorship candidate of another party? We don’t think the party can afford to have a brazen Judas in its fold in the general election. It is time for Amosun to go and join his people in the APM.” Thus, the group called on Oshiomhole to urgently suspend Governor Amosun from the party before he wreaked further havoc on the chances of Abiodun. In the run-up to the party primaries, Governor Amosun had unilaterally written out his preferred candidates for all elective posts in the state, including introducing Akinlade, his former Special Adviser and current Member of the House of Representatives as his anointed for the governorship seat. The governor’s action drew widespread flaks but he stood his ground. Alas, Akinlade lost the APC ticket to Abiodun, a factor Amosun cannot live with. Sensing that he might have been outfoxed by the party, he made repeated visits to Aso Rock to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to overturn the party’s decision. On his last public visit, he railroaded two royal fathers, the Alake of Egbaland and the Olu of Ilaro; and a former minister, Iyabo Anisulowo, to join him to beg the president to have a rethink, all to no avail. Reports say the president pointedly told him he could not upturn the decision of the party’s National Working Committee which conducted the primary and presented Abiodun as the authentic winner. It was on the heels of this that Akinlade and other loyalists of the governor decamped to the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) to pursue their ambition.