• Promises Oladokun APC National Vice Chairman
• Akinleye To Be Commissioner
• Considers Dissolution Of State Excos
Your darling publication- www.oyoinsight.com can authoritatively report that Governor Abiola Ajimobi has stepped up efforts to break the ranks of the Unity Forum, the breakaway faction of the Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
At the weekend, he engaged a former deputy governor of the state, Chief Iyiola Oladokun and former secretary of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in the state, Hon. Dele Akinleye, for the task.
Impeccable sources at the Agodi Government House, Ibadan, where the meeting took place revealed exclusively to www.oyoinsight.com that the governor received report of a trouble shooting effort made to Okeogun by some members of the state executive of the party and decided on the way forward for the party.
OyoInsight learnt that the peace effort led by Chief Samuel Mojere Akindele from Oyo met a brickwall in the leaders of the Unity Forum.
The leaders, who had been part of the Progressive Movement from the times of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, were said to have asked Akindele if it was the practice of Awolowo to come to the localities of party elders and impose party executives on them, a query to which Akindele responded in the negative.
Tbe leaders were said to have dismissed the Akindele peace mission because, according to them, it (the Akindele group) was not bold enough to tell the governor the truth that his plot to impose leaders on the party will only destroy the party.
At the Government House meeting, the governor reportedly claimed that Unity Forum is stronger in Okeogun, hence his decision to engage Oladokun to poach the leaders of the group in the area. In return, he said he had proposed Oladokun, who hails from Ado-Awaye in Iseyin local government, as Vice Chairman (South West) of the APC.
However, sources in the know disclosed to www.oyoinsight.com that the governor was only selling Oladokun a dummy as he had reportedly nominated Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, an ally of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, for the party post.
Afikuyomi, a two-term senator who represented Lagos State, also served as Commissioner for Tourism. Ajimobi claims Afikuyomi is from Awe in AFIJIO local government area of Oyo State. However, www.oyoinsight.com could not confirm this as at press time but party elders contacted in the area said he is unknown to the party in the area.
The offer to Oladokun is the second of such engagement for him. When Ajimobi severed relationship with Chief Michael Koleosho who had championed the cause of his governorship aspiration against late Alhaji Lam Adesina who had supported Olufemi Olufemi Lanlehin ahead of 2011 elections, it was Oladokun he nominated to the Board of Trustees of the APC at the expense of Koleoso. Koleoso is a known leader of progressives in Okeogun among whom little is known of Oladokun.
Dele Akinleye, who had also served as Oladokun’s personal assistant while he was deputy governor was also promised appointment as commissioner if they successfully break the ranks of leaders of the Unity Forum.
Akinleye, who hails from Ipapo, is to replace Ajiboye Omodewu who is from Otu, in the same Itesiwaju local government with him. The governor, www.oyoinsight.com gathered, reportedly told the meeting that he plans to dissolve the cabinet to release members who plan to contest in the 2019 elections and include aggrieved members of the party.
When contacted, leaders of the Unity Forum said they are not disturbed by the development. Said one of them, ” Ajimobi will always find people to deceive and use. If you look at the people he is recruting for the job, these are people who cannot convince even their wives at home to support Ajimobi. The leaders of Unity Forum are principled people who will not sell their rights for a pot of porridge.”
