- Sponsor Okanlawon against Adeoti
- Bankroll Adebayo Oladosu as PDP Guber Aspirant
- Insist on Ajibola Bashir as APC Candidate
A major plot by the Osun state governor, Rauf Aregbesola to stop Osun West and install his attorney General as his successor during the 2018 polls has been uncovered.
The deal to frustrate rivals and pave the way for a smooth win for his anointed successor was sealed at a London meeting attended by key strategists alongside the Governor himself.
Insiders who revealed the details briefed our correspondents that the Governor’s plot is three fold namely destabilization and weakening of Alhaji Moshood Adeoti from his Iwo end, stopping any popular PDP candidate from emerging from Iwo and enforcing divide and rule to ensure the emergence of his Attorney General as the candidate of the ruling party.
On the first leg, it was learnt that the Governor has directed his Director of Press, Semiu Okanlawon to join the governorship race. Semiu hails from Iwo, the town of the SSG, Alhaji Adeoti who is reputed to be a major contender for the governorship. The Governor is said to be opposed to Adeoti as a successor.
Okanlawon has reportedly confirmed to some friends of his intention to join the race. Insiders said once he joined, he would be mobilized fully to rival or even outshine Adeoti, thereby splitting the delegates’ votes that would have gone solidly for Adeoti.
The development is already creating ripples within the party.
Aside Okanlawon, the Governor and his allies are also reported to have sent emissaries to another party man, an engineer who is based in Abuja, directing him to also join the race.
The said Engineer also hails from Iwo. Checks by this medium showed that the engineer has accepted to run. He is said to belong to the Adeoti camp until recent development.
While tackling Adeoti who is considered a major rival by the Governor, reports also indicated that the governor has his agenda to weaken the PDP in Osun West especially Iwo zone.
The Governor is focusing on Iwo according to the sources because Ede is already entrenched for PDP and another hold on Iwo will mean the party, the APC has lost Osun West.
To destabilize the PDP, the Governor is said to be working against the emergence of any popular candidate on the platform of PDP from Iwoland.
Checks by this medium also showed that the APC had earlier believed no aspirant will show interest in the governorship from Iwoland within the PDP but the situation changed when a media entrepreneur, Olawale Rasheed joined the race on PDP platform from Iwo town.
That development changed the calculation as Rasheed is said to be an old member of PDP who is well known within the party at local, state and federal levels.
We learnt that the Governor used his friend who previously served on the state World Bank Programme and a bursar at a federal school to contract a businessman who is a financier of the APC to hurriedly join the governorship race from Iwo.
The operation was reportedly coordinated with a commissioner from Iwo alongside another financier of the APC who once handled a major state water project under the incumbent governor.
The said aspirant Adebayo Rovet had indeed joined the race and at a meeting he had with some PDP youth confessed that he is an APC financier.
It was also gathered that three active members of APC are known to be working closely with the aspirant to put up campaign structures. One of such APC members had also reportedly confessed that the aspirant is an agent of the state governor.
PDP members in Iwoland who were aware of this development are said to have turned against the aspirant, confronting few of his followers of evidence that he was working for Abere.
Aside sowing seeds of crisis within PDP in Osun West, reports said the Governor has resolved to give Iwoland the deputy governorship slot to Iwo and a commissioner is reportedly penciled down for the position.
Meanwhile, the London meeting has finally adopted Ajibola Bashir as the APC candidate. Reports said the decision was reached after many submissions and on the ground, that Alhaji Adeoti has not demonstrated enough faith and commitment to Aregbesola leadership.
A sympathizer of Deputy Speaker Lasun Yusuf who spoke on condition of anonymity said the Governor is desperately pushing imposes his stooge not just on the party but on the state, adding however “this won’t work, it will fail.
“ Adeoti is a grassroots politician. If Okanlawon is smart, he would not allow himself to be used. As to Ajobola Bashir, hope you see what happened during the Ileya festival? Our people are wise, they will reject imposition “, he said.
