Oke Braces Up for Ondo 2024 Guber Race
Fidelis David writes that a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Ondo state, Olusola Oke, has joined the mounting tempo of campaigns and political activities by aspirants jostling for the tickets of their parties ahead of the November 16, 2024 governorship poll in the Sunshine State.
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu recently for the umpteenth time recently announced that Ondo state Governorship election will hold on Saturday, 16th November 2024 while party primaries will hold from 6th to 27th April 2024 in line with Section 178 (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
Besides, INEC said the submission of the list of nominated candidates via the online portal will start at 9.00am on 29th April 2024 and close at 6.00pm on 20th May 2024.
As a result of these, political arena in the sunshine state of Ondo is changing very fast. This reason is not far fetched. It is less than two months to the party primaries ahead of the governorship poll.
The drumbeats of war are increasing in tempo. The aspirants are reaching out and as the primaries draw near, the aspirants and their parties are becoming even more conscious and anxious of the mode of primary to be adopted by the national leadership of their parties.
For now, there are no fewer than 20 aspirants from both the APC and opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) jostling to take over from Aiyedatiwa, whose tenure ends on February 24, 2025. The aspirants are made up of seasoned campaigners and neophytes who are hoping to upset the old order.
One of the major contenders for the race is a two-time governorship candidate in Ondo State and an aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress for the November 16 governorship election in the state, Olusola Oke, who is from Ilaje, the second most populous local government in the state.
For Oke, so much has gone into preparations for the elections and his only goal is to win and become the next governor of Ondo State.
Oke, who hails from Ilowo, in Ilaje LGA, is a lawyer by profession, having been called to bar in 1987. He has held several positions in the Ondo State government before he was elected a member of the House of Representatives (Ese-Odo federal constituency) in 1992 on the platform of the then Social Democratic Party.
In 1999, he was appointed a member of the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to represent Ondo State. He was appointed the Chairman of the Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC). He is a one-time National Legal Adviser of the PDP who contested the 2012 governorship election under the PDP and lost to the former governor of the state, Dr Olusegun Mimiko who was then in Labour Party.
However, Oke left the PDP for the APC. But, after the APC's controversial primaries where he came a close third, he joined the AD in 2016 and became the party's flag bearer for the 2016 governorship election.
But in January 2018, he was received back into the APC by the state Chairman of the party, Ade Adetimehin and late Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu.
Oke’s Chances Ahead of November Poll
On December 19, 2023, Oke held an interdenominational thanksgiving service, at the International Culture and Events Centre (the Dome), in Akure, after being involved in a ghastly motor accident on Friday, August 25, 2023 and was rumoured to have died, thereby dominating public conversation in the coastal state and the country as a whole.
The colourful billboards and large banners found nearly in all the nooks and crannies of the state, coupled with the huge crowd that attended the event suggested that he's loved by the people of the state.
His close allies believe that his state wide political structures and financial resources available to prosecute the governorship race, shows that Oke has a brighter chance of emerging victorious at the APC primary and the governorship polls.
Some political admirers of Oke also opined that his candidature will give APC landslide victory at the poll while Aiyedatiwa's camp still see Oke as a major threat to the governor and his bid to return as the governor of the state.
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