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Governor Abiola Ajimobi cannot be stampeded or blackmailed into submitting to the antics of any aspirant or group ahead of the 2019 governorship election in the state.
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Alhaji Kehinde Olaosebikan said this in view of the teeming number if aspirants in the party seeking the governor’s blessing.
Alhaji Olaosebikan who spoke with journalists in Ibadan on Thursday, said that Ajimobi’s wish for the party’s candidate to come from a particular zone was not a guarantee that the candidate must come from that zone and should not be taken as a license for blackmail.
Olaosebikan, a former Chairman of Oluyole Local Government explained that the governor’s sympathy for Oke Ogun was predicated on the fact that the zone had many competent and popular people capable of winning the support of other zones.
He said: “It is true that Governor Ajimobi had expressed his wish for the candidate of the party to come from Oke Ogun Zone which was based on his conviction that Oke Ogun has capable, popular and competent people that could navigate the political waters of Oyo State successfully and win majority votes from other zones. He never meant limiting the contest to Oke Ogun Zone alone”
Olaosebikan said the governor’s support was an encouragement for the people of Oke Ogun to believe in their ability to produce his successor.
Agreeng that aspirants and politicians were at liberty to adopt strategies they consider suitable for their campaigns, Olaosebikan frowned at a situation where aspirants would out of frantic politicking, resort to blackmail over a wish expressed out of genuine love.
“The reality of the prevailing political climate in Oyo State is for the party to maintain an objective stance leaving all the aspirants to contest based on their strength, competence, capacity and popularity among the party hierarchies across the state and not on where they come from,” he said.
“If it is Ayete in Ibarapa Zone, Kishi in Oke Ogun Zone, Fiditi in Oyo Zone, Akanran in Ibadan Zone or Oko in Ogbomosho Zone, let the number of political bridges you have built over time do the work for you. This is not the time to say because I am from a place and the governor has said it is our turn, and then you must give me the ticket. No! The All Progressives Congress cannot afford to do that now, as we want to win the gubernatorial and all other elections, landslide.”