EXCLUSIVE: Makinde-Olopoeyan’s Alliance Crashes Again • Adekanmbi Unsettled As APM Organises Parallel Council Primaries
The Alliance between ‘Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo State and one of his major backbones, AbdulRasheed Adebisi Olopoeyan, is about to crash again, OYOINSIGHT.COM can authoritatively report.
Sources in the know of development between the duo said the latest issue is connected to the selection of candidates for the planned local government election by the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission, OYSIEC, later in the year.
OYOINSIGHT.COM understands that trouble started when Makinde did not leave any chairmanship slot for legacy members of Allied People’s Movement, APM, which he joined months ago after his bid to take the structure of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, failed.
Olopoeyan, this newspaper further learnt, had complained about how his men, the APM members, were not considered for positions during the selection process of candidates for state and national assembly seats. Makinde was said to have pleaded with Olopoeyan to let it slide and that it will be corrected with the chairmanship candidates’ selection.
But the chairmanship selection process, which was concluded few hours ago has left ‘Bimbo Adekanmbi, governorship candidate of the APM, unsettled as he is looking for ways to mediate between the two leaders.
While Makinde, as at press time, is not ready to concede any slot to Olopoeyan, the latter yesterday organised a parallel selection of candidates across the 33 local government areas on Monday. Though OYSIEC was not in attendance, APM was said to have written the body last Friday and it was acknowledged. OYSIEC, it was discovered, did not open its office yesterday, allegedly on the instruction of the governor. It was also learnt that Makinde travelled to Abuja yesterday to ‘report’ Olopoeyan to the national chairman of APM.
As it stands, APM has double candidate for the 33 chairmanship and 352 councilorship seats across the state.
Another source said Makinde last night asked Olopoeyan to ‘chill’ and wait till he comes back apparently in a bid to tinker with the list.
”He cannot afford to have Olopoeyan on the opposing side. He has lost a lot of people. From Alhaja Mulikat Adeola Akande to Oloye Jumoke Akinjide, Chief Bisi Ilaka, Senator Hosea Ayoola Agboola, Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja and many others who will leave in the next few months, he cannot afford that again. The problem is that Governor Makinde may want to dribble Alhaji Olopoeyan as he has always done. That one too is calculative. Makinde may want to delay things till it will be not be possible again to effect changes,” the source added.
In The Beginning…
Unknown to Makinde, Olopoeyan, who had calculated well ahead, had taken the structure of the APM before the collapse of the PDP, and filled the executive seats with majority of his loyalists who are of the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP extraction. When Makinde and his people joined, they were in a haste to ask for change of leadership.
This is not the first time the two leaders would be in an alliance that will break. Olopoeyan was the leader of the political group that brought Makinde into government in 2019. Shortly after, the alliance crashed as Makinde wouldn’t accept any request from Olopoeyan. Makinde was said to have revealed that he had paid the Olopoeyan for his ‘service’.
