*Pledges To Work Towards Buhari's Re-election
Ogun state Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun confessed yesterday that he had given his full blessings to any of his supporters and loyalists who want to defect from the All Progressive Congress (APC) to the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
Amosun who spoke while addressing a stakeholders meeting of the APC, attended by his preferred governorship candidate, and other party members in Abeokuta said "God will punish me if i stop them(defectors).
The APM had already given Akinlade automatic ticket for the governorship contest
Amosun however assured that he would remain in the APC to contest his Senatorial seat and work tirelessly to ensure re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari and urged all his loyalists and supporters to do same.
Also yesterday, all the 26 aggrieved APC house of Assembly Candidates who failed to get their nomination forms from the party leadership announced their defection to the APM.
The Governor pledged to use everything within his capacity to ensure the victory of Akinlade and other aggrieved members at their new party.
Recalling the controversy that trailed the party's primaries, Amosun insisted that there was only one governorship primary in the State
which produced Akinlade, reiterating that he would not support the party's governorship candidate, Prince Dapo Abiodun, in the 2019 election.
The governor who revealed that some people, whose name he didn’t mention, had started begging him to ensure unity of the party in the State disclosed that the only condition he would agree to do that was to return the name of Akinlade as the governorship candidate of APC.
Amosun who explained that he was never a political neonate when he was
picked as the candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, (ACN) to contest the 2011election, recalled that he won his senatorial election in 2003 and contested governorship election in 2011 and won but "robbed" before joining the ACN.
He said, “When these people (defectors) came, they told me they are leaving the APC, I said ‘no’ but I couldn’t stop them. In fact, Akinlade has my full support, I am not going to stop him, everything I have, I will use to support him, let them (opposing camp) try whatever they want to try, we also have our strategies and I am not going to hide behind one finger.
“I remain in APC because that’s what those people want, they want us to leave APC but they are joking. I will stay in APC to ensure that Buhari wins in Ogun State and to let them know that they can’t subvert the will of Ogun State.
"Every day, I will campaign for President Muhammdu Buhari, we will do everything possible to ensure Buhari wins massively in Ogun State, but they should not miss it, I senator Ibikunle Amosun, will not support anyone they are bringing (Dapo
Abiodun).
“Why would a reasonable person lord people less than ten percent over the majority, it can’t happen, they know there was only one Primary and they have called me to say that, and we have done everything possible to right the wrong but they are ready in destroying the party.
“God will punish me if I stop Akinlade, all of you who are supporting Akinlade, you have my support and blessing. They are talking about party supremacy, what happens to party supremacy at the local levels?”
Amosun who vowed to resist any rigging plan in the State further assured that he would not disturb any other candidate from campaigning but would not allow anyone to introduce violence to the electoral process in the State.
Earlier in a press conference, 26 aggrieved aspirants vying for Ogun State House of Assembly seats have defected to APM.
In a similar development, all the 26 candidates for the 2019 election elected through a parallel primary which were not recognised by the party's leadership yesterday announced their mass movement to the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
Their reason was that all their several attempts to get the party's approval had been ignored by the party's national leadership.
Their spokesman Mr Lamidi Musafiu Olatunji who addressed journalists in Abeokuta in the presence of his colleagues directed their supporters and admirers to decamp en-mass to APM.
Olatunji said "We are determined to prevent this grand design to install a government that would be answerable to foreign forces outside Ogun state".
According to him they took the decision after due consultations with "elders, stakeholders and other admirers".
We are going to work tirelessly for the election of Hon Adekunle Akinlade, (Amosun's preferred candidate), he affirmed.
They however pledged to work hard towards the re-election bid of President Muhammad Buhari who they praised for "his efforts to sustain democracy, fairness and equity in resolving the crisis within the party."
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