Ondo State APC primary Elections and the conspiracy against The Winner.

Politics is the survival of the fittest-jungle justice you may call it. Sometimes, journalists could be found wanting in occasions that demand strict adherence to ethics of the profession, fairness.To them, it is called shenanigan.


Otherwise how could one describe an interview granted a newspaper by the winner of the Ondo State APC gubernatorial primary, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, and published on the day of the primary under the headline, ‘Tinubu’ll be shocked by APC primary result’, that was completely at variance with the body of the interview .

That such a destructive headline was published on the day of the primary confirmed the fear of political analysts, that it might be an hatchet job to destroy Akeredolu politically because to undermine the leadership of Asiwaju is an invitation to political eclipse.

On reading the headline, I knew immediately that Akeredolu could not have committed such a blunder and therefore read through the whole story. My fear was confirmed for at no point did Akeredolu say something near the headline. But the damage had been done. How many people will believe that he did not say so as majority of readers just read headlines and form their opinions?

Fortunately for Akerdolu, Asiwaju is an experienced politician who has successfully walked through many political land mines. He could therefore easily recognise a political shenanigan against an opponent, in order to take an advantage of him.
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Having failed to achieve their aim of pitching Akeredolu against Asiwaju, those who had openly and nervously congratulated Akeredolu on his victory went for their plan B. They suddenly realised that they had incurred a debt of N300m over the primary and therefore hurriedly withdrew their support the following day, claiming to have seen illegal delegates who were invisible at the screening and accreditation exercise. A particular lady was quoted as saying she was on her way to the market when she won the contract to recruit fake delegates for the primary..

The whole thing is devoid of common sense. If these anonymous people, who claimed to be fake and emergency delegates and picked on their way to the market on the day of the primary, did indeed participate in the primary, where were they found to be paraded the next day? Since they were purported to be Akeredolu’s fake delegates, how did Segun Abraham locate them in the market? Or did he collect their addresses from Akeredolu who might even not know their addresses since he never met them before?

Going by the loopholes in this matter, one could alleged that Segun Abraham had simply lined up some of his sympathisers as evidence of fake delegates. On reaching home, Segun Abraham’s people could have been disappointed by the good sportsmanship demonstrated by their son by congratulating Akeredolu. They might have consequently arrived at the possibility of his paring up with another aspirant, Chief Oke, in case of a fresh primary. But this is a wishful thinking.

Segun Abraham should remain honourable and refuse to be deceived by those expecting to reap from a possible combination with Oke, if they could push for annulment of Akeredolu’s victory.

– Gboyega Amoboye, a political analyst.