Osun APC primary: Gov. Oyetola, Tinubu’s political machine retires Aregbesola

By OLUSESAN LAOYE

At last the much awaited and much talked about governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, has been held and as it was widely speculated, the incumbent governor of the state, Gboyega Oyetola, who had slugged it out with two other top contenders has emerged the flag bearer of the party in the July governorship election.

Oyetola defeated Moshood Adeoti supported by the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Lasun Yusuf in a direct primary conducted in an option A4 manner, where members of the party lined up in front of the posters of their preferred aspirants.

The result, though claimed to have been falsified through counting of voters on line, did not only baffle those in Aregbesola’s camp but also shamed them in their respective wards.
The results were announced Sunday morning by AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, Kwara state governor and chairman of the Osun APC primary election committee.

He said “I hereby certify that Gboyega Oyetola, having secured the highest votes cast at the primary election and having met all guidelines contained, is hereby declared winner”.
Oyetola was adjudged to have polled 222,169 votes while his closest challenger, Moshood Adeoti, secured 12,921 votes and Yusuf Lasun had just 460.

According to the primary election committee, the total number of accredited voters stood at 247,207 while 235,550 votes were cast.
The results were so humiliating that, Adeoti, Aregbesola’s anointed candidate, was even defeated in Aregbesola’s ward where Oyetola had picked a total vote tally of 309 against Adeoti’s 149 votes.

Also the former Deputy speaker of the House of Representatives Lasun Yusuf was equally humiliated in his constituency.
The scenario was the same in virtually all the wards of those who Oyetola believed had ganged up against him and never wished for him to get the ticket of the party to run for a second term.

Though the victory of Oyetola in this contest was envisaged, but no one ever thought the victory would be so overwhelming, and that he would completely humble his foes, who had boasted that he would not pick the ticket of the party.

Not that Aregbesola did not know that both of them were fighting for the battle of their political careers in Osun State and the entire Nigeria, he knew and he was ready for the consequences, when he threw a bombshell during his campaign in the State for Adeoti his preferred candidate against Oyetola.

While he came out to attack his erstwhile mentor and confidant Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, he had categorically said while addressing the mammoth crowd every where he went that ” we knew that the result of the primary would be manipulated at the top but we would go out to vote and you should leave the rest for us, we know what to do and we are sure that Oyetola would not return to the government house.”

As one of Aregbesola’s allies, Alhaji Rasaq Salinsile, who is the leader of the splinter group the Progressives Top told journalists while the primary was going on, “the language of the security operatives all over the state gave us the impression that they were up to something and what they were looking for is for us to resist the antics of their rigging which to us is a day light robbery.”

He further argued that because they already knew what would happen, that was why they lodged the complaint earlier that they were objecting to the choice of the chairman of the committee that would conduct the primary.
He also said that because Oyetola is a member of the Mai Mala Buni caretaker committee overseeing the party at the National level, they knew that the committee would not want its member who is also a serving governor to be humiliated.

Also, a day to the primary and already sensing defeat, which he said would be from the back door, Adeoti had cried out that the party membership register was not made available to the aspirants and their supporters, in a bid to allow the Governor and his men manipulate the process of the primary.

He added that the membership register has since been kept at the Government House in Osogbo due to Oyetola’s membership of the National Caretaker and Extraordinary National Convention Planning Committee of the APC.
With the statements from the two leaders in Aregbesola’s camp, it was glaring that the game was up and true to what they have envisaged, their supporters in many wards in the state complained that their names were missing from the party’s registered list, which made them to be disenfranchised.

The outcome was a total disappointment to the Aregbesola group, and it is clearly yet to come to terms with it.

Although they have rejected the result and Aregbesola himself said that the whole thing was a sham, adding that they are ready to challenge the whole process in court, political watchers and even members of the opposition PDP in the state, though expressing reservations on the outcome, believe that the Oyetola , Tinubu and Akande groups that Aregbesola had lambasted would not have gone that far to humiliate him, if he had not shown his preparedness to embark on a total war in his utterances, when he called them all sorts of names in a manner that showed he was completely done with them.

The plan for Aregbesola’s defeat in as hatched in Akande’s house. While Aregbesola was busy moving round the state to vent his anger on the leaders, especially, Tinubu and Akande, without any noise were busy strategizing on how to send him packing from Osun State, because they knew that Aregbesola who has his tentacles all over the state is not a very easy person to deal with.

The entire leadership and loyalists of Akande, Tinubu, Oyetola and all the key officers in Oyetola’s government, assembled at Chief Akande’s house in Ila Orangun and were given specific instructions, as to how to carry out the primaries in their respective wards and areas.
They were equally mobilized and their plan worked and that was how they were able to clip the supporters of Aregbesola at the election ground.

It was learnt that part of their antics, was the movement of the security personnel all over the state a day to the primary to warn and scare away, whoever may want to cause trouble.
Sources said they had to do that knowing the stuff Aregbesola and his team are made of, as they are not the type to be easily swallowed.
It was also in Akande’s house that the Oyetola group mobilized to seek the support of traditional rulers and some notable politicians to give Oyetola support, in their respective domains, on the ground that the governor has been doing well for them since he came to office.

This move informed the statement of the Owa Obokun of Ijesha land Oba Adekunle Aromolaran, against Aregbesola, calling him a rascal.

The monarch argued that he would rally his people to support Oyetola despite the rascality of his opponent saying, “those who are against Oyetola should go and smash their heads on the electric poles” He added ” we don’t give room for rascality in Ijesha land.”

With the result is now out and the coast clear for Oyetola, the people in Aregbesola’s camp said they have not given up and they would continue to fight till the last minute when the governorship election would be held.
What this means is that as Aregbesola himself has said, the battle is not yet over and the battle may now resume in the court of law or elsewhere.

Sources in Aregesola’s camp told Business Hallmark that the battle has only just begun, that they have plans ahead of them because they already envisaged that the primary would take that shape.

He pointed out that a court action would soon be initiated and their grounds and bone of contention are clear.

According to him, Oyetola is a member of the National caretaker committee of the party that midwifed the primary and as a result, he had become a judge in his own case “and there was no way he would be fair to the other parties contesting with him.”

It was argued by an observer that if the case is not resolved and it gets to court, it means APC would be very busy with litigations, which would cause division in the party and that could automatically lead to other challenges.

Should Oyetola lose the governorship election to the opposition that is already waiting to capitalize on the fallout, Aregbesola would then take full control of the party in Osun and since Buhari would no longer need anyone of them, he would stay aloof and regard the problem as their own.

The crisis is also going to have a backlash effect on virtually all of them and that is why they are fighting tooth and nail to ensure they win head or tail.

For Chief Akande, it would send him to political retirement and which could eventually make him to adopt a ‘siddon look’ attitude while Oyetola if he loses, will just quietly go back to his business in Lagos, which his opponents alleged he has used the four years in office to fortify. For Tinubu, it means his presidential ambition would suffer a setback, as he would have less than a state to use to bargain on behalf of the South West, if PDP takes Osun, and perhaps also Ekiti, as the days go by.

For Aregbesola as well, the election means a lot to him and that is the reason he must ensure that Oyetola either by crook or fair means does not have a chance to win the election through first having his nomination nullified.

If Oyetola comes back, Aregbesola would be almost literally finished, as having offended Tinubu and his loyalists in the south west who would keep humiliating him on account of the development, would then have cut him to size.
Again he would have lost about all of his political foothold in Osun and Lagos.

Speaking on the outcome of the primary, Oyetola said he was sure of victory and he had no doubt from the beginning that his enemies would be shamed.

He also said that he had placed his victory and journey to run Osun State in the hands of God.
Also commenting on the issue, the Senator representing Osun West Senatorial Division, Bashiru Ajibola said that he had warned those in Progressives Top, that they should not form a faction of the APC adding “I warned them, told them that they are either forming a faction to destroy the party, or earn yourself a disgrace. I then asked them which one is better?”

He further argued that the primary had shown that those in the Top Progressives have no where to go but wanted to destroyed the party which “has vindicated my earlier stand on the battle, which they started and which I knew quite well they would not win.”

“I am only appealing to those that lost to accept the outcome in the spirit of democracy, unity, cohesion and development of our party. They should also accept the result in good faith and ensure that we join hands together to ensure the success of our party in the July election.”

In his reaction, the Chairman of the Aregbesola’s group, the Progressives Top, Alhaji Rasaq Salinsile faulted the primary election , saying “it’s an effort in futility.”
Salinsile told Business Hallmark in Iwo that members of his group were disenfranchised as they couldn’t find their names on the party’s register.

He alleged a conspiracy by the state governor, Gboyega Oyetola with the party at the national, since he is one of the National Extra Ordinary Caretaker Committee of the party, saying, his group will reject the outcome of the primary that had been tilted to favour Oyetola by the Mai Mala Buni committee.