President Muhammadu Buhari and his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo,
on Thursday disappointed a mammoth crowd who thronged the Democracy Park in
Akure for the flag off of the 2016 governorship campaign of the All
Progressives Congress, APC.
The event, which effectively kicked off at about 11
a.m., was however attended by some APC governors, federal ministers, and top
echelons of the party.
Officials of the campaign kept informing the crowd
at the earlier part of the event that the president and his deputy were on
their way; but as time went on, it was soon clear that they would not be
coming.
The publicity secretary of the party in Ondo State,
Abayomi Adesanya, said the president and his deputy encountered an emergency
situation that they needed to attend to on Thursday.
“The President and the Vice President had an emergency
state matter they had to attend to and so could not turn up,” he said.
PREMIUM TIMES check, however, revealed that the
Ondo event was never on Mr. Buhari’s schedule.
Mr. Adesanya, however, said President Buhari would
be in Ondo State for the grand finale of the campaign, scheduled tentatively
for November 19.
Messrs. Buhari and Osinbajo were not the only
obvious absentees from the rally the party hopes to use to jumpstart its
troubled campaign.
A national leader of the
APC, Bola Tinubu, and top party leaders close to him, also boycotted the
event. Mr. Tinubu’s allies who were absent include the current Lagos
State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, and the Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola.
Vice President Osinbajo is also an ally of Mr. Tinubu and was reportedly
nominated for his position by the former Lagos governor under whom he served as
justice commissioner.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported how Messrs. Tinubu, Ambode,
and Aregbesola would be absent from the event.
Mr. Tinubu, the APC’s most
influential politician in south-west Nigeria, is opposed to the candidacy of
Rotimi Akeredolu, the party’s flagbearer for the November 26 election. He had also
publicly accused the APC national chairman of manipulating the party’s primary
process in favour of Mr. Akeredolu and against his preferred candidate,
Olusegun Abraham, who was also absent from the rally.
Although party officials
kept telling the attendees at the event that Mr. Tinubu and his allies would
attend, that was not to be.
At the rally, the National
Chairman of the party, John Odigie-Oyegun, formally presented the flag to Mr.
Akeredolu.
Mr. Odigie-Oyegun said Ondo
residents should effect a change in the government by voting Mr. Akeredolu on
November 26.
He advised them to turn out
on election day to vote for the APC candidate.
He said Ondo State was
strategic to the federal government and a vote for APC would place the state in
a vantage position.
While speaking, Mr.
Akeredolu said he would provide jobs for the youth through agriculture and
entrepreneurial development.
He urged the people to vote
for him and said he would ensure prompt payment of salaries.
The rally was attended by
Governors Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto, Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun, Simon Lalong of
Plateau, Ahmed Abubakar of Bauchi, Kashim Shetima of Borno and the Benue
State Governor, Samuel Ortom.
Also present were the
ministers of solid minerals, defence, health, and labour and
productivity. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir
Lawal, was announced as representing the Vice President.
The APC is expected to be a
major challenger to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in Ondo which is also
engaged in an internal tussle on who would be its candidate between Eyitayo
Jegede and Jimoh Ibrahim
...Premiumtimes
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