Agunloye
Agunloye
Agunloye, who was until a few weeks ago, a leading member of the ACN in Ondo, until he returned to the Labour Party, said in an interview with Nigerian Compass on Saturday that the way and manner, the ACN candidate in the governorship election, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, was selected by the leadership of the party, would cost the party the election dearly.
He insisted that Akeredolu was chosen against the wishes of other leading lights in the party by the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as a compensation for a retired President of the Court of Appeal.
Agunloye, who said he did not just leave the ACN even after losing the ticket to Akeredolu, said that he spent about six weeks chasing the National Leaders of the party up and down before he returned to the LP.
On the choice of Akeredolu and the chances of the ACN in the election, Agunloye stated, “As at the middle of April, we held a meeting where we concluded among ourselves that the LP would win the election as at that time because the ACN was not ready for election….
We then said to ourselves that we would need to work hard to take the advantage of what we have done in ACN to win the election. April and May were gone, the integration of those that were brought to the party needed to be done, and ACN did not do
it.
“They first asked Olaiya Oni to do it but these proprietors sabotaged Olaiya Oni from doing it. They took it to Senator Kolawole in Ado Ekiti and he could not do it. Then, it was taken to Chief Bisi Akande and he also was unable to do it before I left the party.
“So, winning election is not just about the man on the street. There must be a party and campaign structure and the team to do it must be on ground. As we were battling with all of that, Mimiko was planning and strengthening his position more and more….Take for example, when ACN announced Akeredolu as its candidate, the LP people were rejoicing and in the ACN, the tempo died down.
“I also understand that the report was taken to the proprietors who then said that was what they did in Osun and Ogun State and they won and that is what they have done in Ondo State. “They are only banking on what will happen that will lead to violence or court case. I am not the one to reveal Mimiko’s plan but I can tell you that the election will be very peaceful and will be done in a landslide by the LP.”
Agunloye, who insinuated that the CAN does not mean well for the people of Ondo, stated that Ondo State would reject neo-colonisation from foreign powers in Lagos and Osogbo.
He said those who picked Akeredolu for the election did not have the interest of the state at heart.
Agunloye who floated the Omoluwabi platform, an arm of the ACN in order to contest the primaries said he has nothing personal against Akeredolu but the processes that led to his emergence and the way the leadership of the party handpicked him.
His words “That process did not have any input from Ondo State . In fact, I was surprised that even if the proprietor has already made up his mind on what to do; sometimes you will allow elders and leaders of the party in Ondo State to speak their minds on the matter.
“You will then ask them if they could appraise this candidate or suggest something about what to do about the candidate you have decided to choose. Even in the processes of taking instructions from the proprietor in Lagos State, Ondo State representatives were not there. Even in the process of breaking this unpopular news to us, Ondo State people were not there because I remembered those meetings we had with Asiwaju Tinubu, Lai Muhammed, Baba Akande, Segun Osoba, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, Dele Ajomale and two other people of which one was from Ondo State.
“The processes were not even hatched or decided on the soil of Ondo State. That process was a manifestation of the directive from just a single person and was supported before or after the event by some of his co-proprietors. So, that was the kind of process that produced Akeredolu.”
On the allegation that Akeredolu was to compensate a former President of the Court of Appeal, Agunloye said “The second part is that Tinubu himself was quoted to have said that he needed to do this as compensation to Justice (name withheld). We were asking him what concerns Ondo State with Justice (name withheld) and if he had done any good for you, find a way of compensating him and if he is interested in governorship of Kwara State , give him Kwara State and not Ondo State .
“This is why Ondo State must see this struggle as struggle against neo-colonization, any form of remote control outside and struggle against carrying resources of Ondo State outside for whatever purpose. As for cooperation, there will be cooperation and there will be regional integration but to have our state become resource for other people in any form is soundly rejected.”
The former minister said with his exit and other prominent members from the party, the ACN is as good as having lost the election.
His words “Let me be honest here. Some of the way we lost teams in the ACN will turn out to be victory for LP.”
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