Senator Yele Omogunwa has condemned most of the gubernatorial aspirants under the APC in Ondo State as lacking in integrity. In a statement issued by him, he singled out for vilification those aspirants under the auspices of the Unity Forum that disputed the announced concensus candidate of the group after initialky pledging to abide by the result of the screening committee set up by the Forum.. Senator Omogunwa was the chairman of the committee. According to him, all the ten aspirants in the group “openly with their God-given mouth pledged to support whoever was recommended.” He lamented that after the recommendation, only one of the aspirants, Olarewaju Kazeem, accepted the result.
So far twelve aspirants have obtained the nomination form under the APC. Five of them are from Owo, the home town of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu. They are Akeredolu himself, Bukola Adetula, Olayide Odunlami, Awodeyi Akinsehinwa and Mrs. Jumoke Ajasin-Anifowoshe. Two others are from the northern senatorial district and they are Pastor Segun Abraham and Nat Adojutelegan. Five are from the southern senatorial district and they include D. I. Kekemeke, Olusola Oke, Olusola Iji, Ifedayo Oyedele and Jimi Odimayo. There are none from the central senatorial district. But according to Senator Omogunwa, “The best of my estimation is there are only 3 serious Aspirants in APC. They are Governor Rotimi Akeredolu SAN, Chief Olusola Alexander Oke and D. I. Kekemeke.”
The Senator derided those who claim to have been endorsed by the powers-that-be, with a veiled reference to Ife Oyedele believed to be his close associate. “Let’s see where the endorsement would take the Endorsees who claim they are foundation members and constitution drafters of APC to in the final analysis,” he said cynically.
The Senator lost his seat to the PDP during the last national assembly elections when Governor Akeredolu sponsored a candidate against him under the AA party thus splitting the votes of APC. But he said that Akeredolu was better than many of the aspirants except that the Governor had, “reckless approach and he is not getting it right.”
It will be recalled that Chief Olusola Oke was the disputed consensus candidate of the Unity Forum while Kekemeke operated independently of the Forum. While the ten Unity Forum adpirants were waiting for endorsenent by the Forum, Kekemeke went straight to the fiield and has been on the field for over a year before the crumbling of the consensus effort of the Forum. That has given him an edge over the others who did not begin to activate their structures until about a month ago when the consensus arrangement failed..
Apart from his early start, Kekemeke is adjudged as the most qualified aspirant having served as a minority leader in the house of assembly, as chairman of the National Examinations Council, as attorney general and commissioner for justice, as commissioner for works, housing, lands and transport and as secretary to the state government. He was the pioneer state secretary of the PDP and pioneer state chairman of the APC. Chief Olusola Oke on the other hand, is an experienced gubernatorial contestant having contested unsuccessfully three times in three different political parties, namely the PDP, the APC and the AD. He was a commissioner in the Niger Delta Development Commission and a national legal adviser of the PDP. He has, however, not been privileged to serve at the executive level in any government from local to the national level..
Akeredolu, the incumbent Governor, is believed to have shed a lot of popularity weight and lost touch with the majority of the members of his party.. If Omogunwa’s postulation is anything to go by, therefore, the man to watch in this election is D. I Kekemeke.
Senator Omogunwa painted three possible scenarios that may occur in the course of events. According to him, some aspirants might collaborate, some APC members might be disenchanted and decide to vote for the opposition, or some of the desperate aspirants might choose to go and contest under a “vacant political party.”
ConcreteNews Online 