APC Makes Peace With Amosun, Offers Him 3 Senatorial Slots

To end the lingering post-primary elections crisis rocking Ogun State, the All Progressives Congress has taken steps to pacify Governor Ibikunle Amosun.

To this end, the party has given the governor three senatorial slots and the right to bring in one member for the House of Representatives.

Subsequently, the governor’s name and two others have been submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commisison as the party’s senatorial candidates in the 2019 election.

The name of the former deputy governor of the state, Mr. Segun Adesegun, earlier submitted to INEC had been substituted with that of Senator Lekan Mustapha.

It was further learnt that the party had promised to give the ex-deputy governor a ministerial appointment once the party gets to power in 2019.

The state chapter of the party had been enmeshed in internal crisis following the governorship primary that produced Mr. Dapo Abiodun as the candidate of the party, against the preferred choice of the governor, Adekunle Akinlade, who had been chosen as the party’s consensus candidate before the primary.

But, after the primary, conducted by the electoral committee from the National Working Committee, in which his candidate lost, the governor had protested against the outcome of the election as he lashed out at the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and a former governor of the state, Chief Segun Osoba, for maintaining “deafening silence” on the matter.

The governor had also visited President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo about four times in three weeks over the crisis.

He had also dismissed rumours that he was planning to leave the party, while insisting that he would hand over to Akinlade as against the winner of the primary.

But in a bid to end the crisis, the party gave the governor the senatorial slots and the Rep position.

Already, the names on the provisional list of the National Assembly candidates for Ogun State released by the Independent National Electoral Commission on Thursday showed that Amosun got the ticket for the Ogun Central seat, thus displacing the incumbent, Dr. Lanre Tejuoso, who had expressed his intention to go for a second term. And for the two other senatorial seats in Ogun East and Ogun West, the names of Senator Lekan Mustapha and Chief Tolu Odebiyi were on the list respectively.

The name of a former deputy governor in the state, Prince Segun Adesegun, who was equally in the race for the ticket of the Ogun East Senatorial District, was conspicuously missing on the list. He, however, said he had decided to let go and move on.

Meanwhile, former President Olusegun Obasanjo was said to have visited Amosun on Friday morning in his office at Oke Mosan, Abeokuta.

Sources told our correspondent that the former President arrived the office some few minutes before 10am.

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