Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, a former Chairman of Nigeria Bar
Association and the candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN in 2012
Ondo State governorship election has once again taken a swipe against the
national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola
Ahmed Tinubu, saying he would be shocked today at the result of the party's
gubernatorial primary billed to hold today in Akure, signalling the crisis
rocking the Ondo State chapter of the party seems to have no known end over the
purported endorsement of Dr. Olusegun Abraham by Tinubu.
Akeredolu in a fresh interview with Punch Newspaper
preempted the party's primary election where a candidate will be elected when
he said that Dr. Olusegun Abraham, a candidate believed to be been endorsed by
the National leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will come as far as
fifth position in the race.
The former NBA chairman enraged when Punch Newspaper's Peter
Dada mentioned a purported gang up against Tinubu's Man, Abraham. He said
"What do you mean by gang up? I am not ganging up
against anybody and I don’t know whether some people are ganging up against
anybody. What I know is that I am running for governorship and I am running to
win the primary and I will win the primary."
"Gang up for what? Gang up against somebody who has no
vote, somebody who is not known, somebody who cannot win, somebody who has no
structure? Wherever it is he comes from, he cannot win. We don’t need to gang
up against him; he would come in this election a distant fifth with all the
support he gets. Even with every support they give him, he would come a distant
fifth."
"All I know is that I am working to win and I would win
the primary.".
On his recent outburst against Tinubu, Akeredolu did not
mince word to reiterate that he was never endorsed by anybody, even Tinubu.
"I don’t know those who are saying so; I don’t know
what they mean by endorsement this time around. There was never a time that I
was endorsed by anybody. I keep explaining it to anybody that cares to listen
that there was no time I was endorsed by anybody. We had a process that every
candidate submitted to in 2012. That process is called caucus team. The caucus
of the party interviewed and interacted with all those who had interests in
being governor and by unanimous decision, the caucus team picked me."
"There was no issue of endorsement. I have never sought
anybody’s endorsement. I have never asked anybody to endorse me. But I have
informed the leaders of the party that I am running. I informed Asiwaju, I
informed Baba Bisi Akande and I informed the President of the country. I
informed virtually all the leaders of the party including all the
governors."
"I did not ask them to endorse me. I only went to
inform them. That was what happened. If I had sought for endorsement, I would
have been disappointed. But since nobody endorsed me, there is nothing like
disappointment."
"I will not say Asiwaju (Tinubu) supported me, many
people will think he did. I knew in 2012 that he mentioned to me that he was
the one that asked Olusegun Abraham to contest, so if in 2012, he brought
Abraham, his friend, because they are close, then I don’t think I have to say
more than that.
"The possibility is there for anyone to think that
since he (Tinubu) asked somebody to contest, maybe he was persuaded then and
had to be part of the collective decision. I want to believe that Asiwaju must
have been persuaded by our leaders. So I went into the 2012 election with the
belief that Abraham was his candidate but like I said, it was possible for him
to have been persuaded at the meetings when the committee took the decision. If
the opinion of the committee favoured me, then there was nothing anybody could
have done. We have leaders who can testify to this that Tinubu did not impose a
candidate in 2012, it was the decision of the committee."
On he emerged as the party party candidate in 2012,
Akeredolu said;
"Let me start from 2012. We operated under the Action
Congress of Nigeria and the party in 2012 did not say it was going to conduct
primary. In the ACN in 2012, nobody paid money for expression of interest but
here, all aspirants have paid N2m each, except the lady among us who paid N1m.
In the ACN, nobody obtained any form but here, we have all paid N5.5m each to
obtain form to run this election except for the lady, who got it for free. When
I say that I was not imposed or endorsed by anybody in 2012, I stand by
it."
"I remember the operation and all of us who contested
know it too. We attended meetings, not once, twice, three times or four times
with the leadership of the party then; that was the style in the ACN. The
leadership of the party formed a committee headed by Chief Akande and included
all past governors like Tinubu, Niyi Adebayo, Segun Osoba, and probably Lam
Adesina and governors of the ACN then."
"So the committee needed to get a consensus candidate,
so it was not one person that imposed the candidate. Tinubu couldn’t have
imposed me; he couldn’t have endorsed me because like I said, there was a
process and it was one that all of us submitted ourselves to."
"In an interview, I said there is a law that says that
you cannot complain of an injury when you have voluntarily submitted yourself
to the process. In that process all along, if not all the time, the committee
usually asked us if we were all prepared to abide by its decision and accept
whoever was chosen among us and everybody said yes. So, I know for a fact that
in the meetings, because it was not just one meeting, people argued in support
of different aspirants."
"If by consensus in that meeting, I was endorsed or
chosen to be the candidate, then it was not one person choosing me as the
candidate. So it was not one person that imposed Akeredolu on others. I am sure
if you ask Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, he will tell you that he did not impose
Akeredolu on others. What I’m trying to get at is that after I emerged as the
consensus candidate, as a predominant leader of the party then, Asiwaju Tinubu
engaged other aspirants and told them why the committee picked Akeredolu. And
as the leader of the party then, he spent a fortune to assist us in the
election in the state and nobody can take that away from him."
"So when anybody comes around and says that Akeredolu
was imposed on others, I always take pains to explain that I was not imposed on
others. All of us who contested agreed to abide by the decision of the
committee and not that Asiwaju said this is the candidate. In this particular
case, Asiwaju had told all of us to go and run for the primary, and then, he
came out to say he was endorsing a particular person, when all of us had spent
money to obtain forms. There’s difference in the two cases. People must try to
understand and many of us should be able to say the truth."
Read full interview from Punch Newspaper
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