APC Congress: Oke Is Conspiring With Florence Ajimobi To Marginalize Ibarapa Zone – Youths. *Insist on Senatorial Ticket

A chieftain of the party, Hon. Jacob Akintola alleged that Chief Akin Oke is conspiring with Mrs  Florence Ajimobi to zone next State Chairman of APC to Ibarapa, a move he described as an attempt to shut door against governorship and senatorial aspirants from the zone.

According to Akintola, “Both Akintola and Florence want to force Alhaji Laide Abass on the party so as to pave way for governorship and senatorial aspirants from Ibadan zone. They want to use Laide Abass from Ibarapa to divide us. Posterity will not forgive Laide Abass if he accepts the bait”.

He alleged that Mrs. Florence’s agenda are to senatorial ticket for his son-in-law, Kola-Daisi and governorship ticket for her business partner, Engr. Joseph Tegbe.

The group recalled how Chief Akin Oke, at the recently held stakeholders meeting, argued that Ogbomoso, Oyo and Oke Ogun zones had produced State Chairman of the progressives party at different times, leaving only Ibadan and Ibarapa as zones that have not produced a Chairman.

Oke noted that he decided to choose Ibarapa so that the party would not shut gubernatorial and senatorial aspirants from Ibadan out of the race. He further explained that Ibarapa is disadvantaged by population, thereby making it difficult to produce the a gubernatorial or Senatorial candidate. According to Oke, State chairmanship of the party will give people of the area a sense of belonging.

Hon. Akintola, however, querried the statement of Chief Akin Oke on the basis of zoning Chairmanship to Ibarapa because of the disadvantage by population to produce a Governor.

Akintola said, “Good politicians must look for winning strategies, marginalizing Ibarapa because of the low population cannot help the party, most especially this time around by using zoning plan to hedge Ibarapa out of senatorial race”.

“We have competent and intelligent governorship and senatorial materials from Ibarapa Zone. Those who are behind all the political manipulation should have a rethink. Eji to fi oju di okan , ko le di eeta lailai. In unity and honesty PDP can’t withstand us come 2023 by God grace”, he added.

Aderoju Philip, coordinator of the youth group called on Chief Akin Oke to withdraw his statement that it would be difficult for Ibarapa people to produce Governor or Senator because of the population.

Aderoju said, “our population should not be a prerequisite to deny us Governorship or Senatorial seats, we should be able to work together as a party irrespective of the size if we want all zones to be carried along. We therefore call on our State Chairman to retract the statement and give all zones equal sense of belonging”.

The group insisted that what Ibarapa people are clamouring for is either governor or senator, not state party chairman.