Interview: Why Agunloye lost ACN Governorship ticket-Ajanaku

Mr. Idowu Ajanaku, who is the Media Director of Akeredolu Campaign Organization [ACO], in an interview with LEKE AKEREDOLU , Akure recently, explained why Dr. Olu Agunloye, a former governorship aspirant of the Action Congress of Nigeria [ACN] lost the governorship ticket for the October 20, gubernatorial poll in Ondo State: Excepts
 Q: Dr. Olu Agunloye, recently claimed that he left ACN because the leadership of the party betrayed him. How can you react to this?

A: That statement is not a surprise because it coming from a political traitor, like Agunloye, you know very well that Agunloye’s stock in trade is to betray and seek political office for political gain. You will recall that Agunloye, when late Adebayo Adebayo Adefarati was about to be picked as the Governorship candidate for the Ondo State by the Alliance for Democracy in 1999, despite the fact that everybody agreed that Adefarati should be picked because of the role he played in the National Democratic Coalition [NDC] to free the Yoruba nation from the strangulation of late Gen. Sani Abacha, Agunloye who was not known who did not participate in the exercise came out to challenge Adebayo Adefarati but he was defected. He did not stop at that, he went ahead to collude with the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] to make sure that they rigged out the late Adefarati who is mentally is from the same Akoko like him. He joined hand with the former Governor Olusegun Agagu to rig him out in 2003. The romance between him and Agagu did not last long before he continues in his stock in trade with Mimiko. He started planting all manners of stories in the pages of newspapers to discredit Agagu’s government and eventually Mimiko came into power. Besides, his romance with Mimiko did not last long because Mimiko and he, Agunloye are master of betrayers. Mimiko decided to scheme him out from the senatorial ticket of the party and Prof Ajayi Boroffice was picked as the senatorial candidate of Labour Party [LP] from the Ondo North senatorial district for the last 2011 general election. This was what angered Agunloye because he believed that he has lost out in his politics of stock again. Following this Agunloye crawled back to the national leadership of ACN, particularly Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu who he came to meet in Lagos and with sympathy because we have several aspirants for that ticket then, but they were begged to withdraw from the race and the ticket was given to Agunloye. That election was funded by Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu and many leaders of the party including Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, but he performed woefully. He did not only lose his ward to Boroffice, but also lost his ward to Senator Bode Olajumoke of PDP who is not from Akoko but from Imeri in Ose local government area of the state. That shown that Agunloye is not on ground in his home town.

Not only this, Agunloye betrayed the progressive leaders by joining President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government. Agunloye was the personal Assistant to late Bola Ige when he was shot and brutally murdered in Ibadan; it was one of the greatest tragedies that befell this nation then. We know the irrational forces that killed the late Ige, we know them, and some of them were arrested, but later released. Incidentally Agunloye, refused to listen to the voice of the late Ige’s family and the leadership of the Yoruba but joined the PDP’s government. You will recall that late Bola Ige before he was shot dead, he has written to President Olusegun Obasanjo that he wanted to leave his government in order to come home and rebuild the Alliance for Democracy ahead of the 2007 governorship elections in the south west. But Agunloye joined that government and he was appointed as the Minister of State for Navy and later became the Minister for Power and Steel. The questions will should ask Agunloye is that with such position, what development has he lured to the state particularly his community, did he bring a PHCN power station to the area, did he bring a Naval base to Ondo State even as minister of state for navy? Just like the way Dr. Bode Olajumoke now has brought a Navy School to his home town in Imeri. He did not do any of those things, but he crawled back that he wanted to use the ACN as a leader to become the governor of Ondo State. I want to ask Agunloye if he knows how ACN was formed, what was his contribution to the formation of ACN, how many people did he bring before he joined ACN? He came to ACN like a general without foots. And another to ask Agunloye is that when will gave him the ticket in 2011, why didn’t he complain that there was no internal democracy in ACN, why didn’t he complain that Asiwaju Tinubu and others are the proprietors of ACN and because the party has refused to pick him as their flagbearer, the former Minister is now complaining.

Another reason why Agunloye lost the ticket was because Chief Bisi Akande, the National Chairman of the party knew from day one that he was a mole planted in ACN by Mimiko and others to come and destroy the party. He pretended as if he was one of us by rolling his campaign in line with that of Omoluabi of Aregbesola in Osun in order to use it to deceive us, but ACN is the master of political strategy when he comes to politics procedures in choosing their candidate and go and check it from all the governors produced by the party, the quality of leadership is always in them. Starting from Governor Babatunde Fashola who has now become an iconic governor for progressive ideas,who has transformed Lagos by building the Lagos Badagry Expressways of eight lanes road, the first of its kind in the sub-Sahara west Africa like how Obafemi Awolowo brought the first Television station to Africa, building the first Cocoa storey building and many other things. We have Dr. Kayode Fayemi, an iconic political activist of international repute, transformation the Ekiti State, as I am talking to you know there are about 56 kiliometer dualization projects in Ekiti and this has been regarded as one of the best in the South West. Talking about Rauf Aregbesola, a evolutional is in government, turning Osun round, you can see Osogbo that is very dirty but today has been transformed to a glittery city, ditto, Oyo, Ogun and we also have Adams Oshiomhole, an iconic labour activist who is now regarded as one of the best governors in the acountry, you can that we always give our ticket to the best ones to become our candidate and if you look at these things you will believed that Akeredolu is another sound person with a sound mind that will come back to Ondo to come and replicate what we are being doing in South West. Agunloye and Akeredolu they are not in the same category. Akeredolu was the former President of the Nigeria Bar Association [NBA], the first Nigeria to head that position twice in the history of this country, Akeredolu was also the former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of this state, Agunloye has never held any position in this state before. So Akeredolu a legal icon, man of note a man who has fought again injustice deserves the ticket.

Q: Agunloye alleged that Justice Ayo Isa Salami influenced the candidature of Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu [SAN], is it true?
A: It is only not true but a pure a fallacy by Agunloy. Justice Salami has always stood on the path of the people, on the path of justice. I hope he was aware that Justice Nabaruma nullified the election of Ondo State because Mike Tyson, late Ayo Babalola and others all came to vote during the election in 2007. Was it Ayo Salami who asked the PDP to rig in Osun, Ekiti and Edo. And another question for Agunloye is, was it Salami who won the election for ACN in Ogun and Oyo where the incumbent governors were still in power? ACN defected Alao Akala, who had the federal government power. was it Ayo Salami who influenced the results that defected the candidate of Gbenga Daniel, Gboyega Isiaka and others? The answer is that ACN has won the election legitimately in the South West. As am talking to you now nobody has ever made any allegation that is tangible to knock out Justice Salami. So Agunloye is just a blackmailer, founding fault where there is none. Perhaps if he has been given the ticket of ACN, will he be shouting about? If there is anybody that supposed to use connections to get the ticket, it is him because he is very close to Prof. Wole Soyinka, a close associate of Asiwaju Tinubu of ACN and Agunloye is very close to Chief Bisi Akande because Akande and late Chief Bola Ige are close friends because the love between them is very deep, so perhaps, with these connections ACN ticket would have been given to him. In ACN, will choose our candidates base on merits, integrities, and ideas. For this reasons, Akeredolu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria is fit for that position.

Q: Will Agunloye structures which he claimed left along with him to the Labour Party jeopardize the chance of ACN in winning the governorship election?

Agunloye is not a threat to us, like I told you before that if a man contested an election and lost in his ward, what gave the impression that such man will win in the 18 local governments in the state all these structures will are talking about were the existing structures of the ACN that was on ground before he came. How many people follow Agunloye to ACN? as Agunloye contested any election before except the last 2011 general elections where he lost woefully, is Agunloye a philanthropist, how many people has he given scholarship that make us to believe he has structures in the state? They were existing structures of ACN he met on ground by using the platform of Omoluabi in line with Aregbesola’s agenda to be propagating that idea.

Is departure from ACN is a relieve because he is a mole as Chief Bisi Akande has said. Let me tell you that all the people he claimed to be his followers are still in ACN, it will interest you that Femi Johnson, who is the back bone of Agunloye’s campaign, is now the Deputy Director General of Akeredolu’s Campaign in the entire Southern senatorial district, “Oluti” who is also the back bone of the Agunloye’s Omoluabi platform is today the youth coordinator of Akeredolu’s campaign team and we still have more of them with us. All the existing structures he met on ground have already collapsed for Akeredolu’s campaign. If Agunloye has existing structures, Mimiko should have appointed him his Director General of his campaign. He should have been picked as the running mate of governor Mimiko which was is target and parts of the things he negotiated with the governor before he finally decamped. We are also aware that the man [Agunloye] has been given all manners of money and we even got a reliable source that those cheques are in bounce. But, Agunloye is now saying is just to justify what he want to collect from Mimiko because this is the man who told the whole world that Mimiko is the worst governor in the history of the state, he was the one who called Mimiko a market builder governor, he was the one who told us that Mimiko has been using the State money to purchase all manners of awards, he was the same man who told the people that Mimiko has abandoned the Akure township stadium, the Ile-Oluji stadium, the Dome and in the entire Akoko land there is no a single road already completed by this administration. He even asked the people to visit Ondo town, the home town of the governor where he called a war ravage zone, he also directed the people to go to Owo, the cradle of the progressive politics in Nigeria because Owo was where the late Awolowo established the Action Group. And after saying all those things about Mimiko do you think Mimiko can even trust Agunloye? Agunloye is only in LP hanging and seeking for political relevant

Q: Agunloye alleged that members of NBA across the country are not happy that ACN picked Akeredolu as its party flagbearer because he defrauded the Association, what is your reaction to this?

 

That is the most incredible statement from anybody, but we are not surprise is coming from Agunloye, a desperate and frustrated politicians. It is on record that Akeredolu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria was the only Nigerian who was two terms President of Nigeria Bar Association, if he was indicted for fraud today the lawyers would have come out about a month ago before the NBA came out to name their National Secretariat in Abuja after Barrister Akerereolu. If he was indicted as alleged by the frustrated political traitor, will that honour be given to him? Will are challenging him to come out and prove to us where he was indicted for fraud, the NBA recently held their conferences nobody made such statement and these are can of lies Agunloye cooked around. He thought Akeredolu is like him, who is a political charlatan, a political harlot who is jumping from one party to another because of money he was looking for, so as far I am concern, that statement is not only fallacious, but it is a pure lie. In the first instance, they claimed that Akeredolu has no voter’s card, but we have been able to produce Akeredolu’s voter card, they claimed that Akeredolu did not summit is form, today INEC has cleared Akeredolu, all the lies cooked by Agunloye and his mentor has no effect on our programmes because Ondo State people are very intelligent and highly principled. The people have decided to pith their tents with the ACN and I can assure you that Mimiko, agunloye and Segun Ojo who is another another political harlot, the man who misled Adefarati, the political fugitive who ran away from the EFCC even to the extent that he could not come home during the late Adefarati’s burial because he was in political exile, will all become a history in the state and the people will give them Omoboriowo’s treatment.