Hon. Abolaji Abayomi for 2023

It is always a vision of good leader to make life easier for the entire people he will govern regardless of tribe and religion. Because he has witnessed and saw how people are swimming in poverty.

In a bid to alleviate poverty in Oyo state, the gubernatorial candidate of the accord party, Chief Adebayo Waheed Adelabu popularly known as Penkelemesi, has promised to disburse the sum of five million Naira (N5,000,000.00) to the small and medium scale businesses across the state, if elected in the forthcoming 2023 general election.

Adelabu assured the good people of oyo State whose businesses were affected by COVID-19 pandemic and debts, loans which will miraculously rise their businesses to where they ought to be in the international market. This will go a long way to expand the economy of the state.

Adelabu who has been known for this kinda programme without securing anything in return, despite the fact that he doesn’t hold any public office, will ensure that every young adult has a business of his/her own, if emerged as the Governor of Oyo State.

Seeing the good people of the State in wealth and good condition, is his main goal.

I, Hon. Abolaji Aboyomi, really glad to have him as a leader whose paths are worthy to be followed.

Voting him in, as the next Governor of Oyo State in 2023, will make this dream comes alive.

Let’s follow the moving train.
Together, We can.

ACCORD, ONENESS AND PROGRESS.

IRORUN DE!

Dear good people of Ibadan North Constituency 2,

I am glad to announce to you that, I , Hon. Abolaji Abayomi, will be joining other contestants from different political parties on live programme, “GBANGBA LASATA” on Splash 105.5fm , tomorrow by 11pm.

It will be nice, if you join and listen to what I have in bulk for the betterment of our great constituency.

God bless you all.

Representing people requires adequate knowledge, experience and better understanding about the needs of a particular constituency.

I, Hon. Abolaji Abayomi, possess required qualities and knowledge to act on behalf of the good people of Ibadan North Constituency II, due to the fact that I have served them as a Caretaker Chairman of the Local Government, which gives me privilege to know their needs and wants.

There is no better representation than to allow experienced ones lead the populace.

Voting for me into Oyo State House of Assembly in this forthcoming 2023 general election, is like letting the good democracy to come reality.

Oyo 2023: Adelabu’s impressive ‘Accord’ against rival guber candidates

By Abimbola Makinde

OF course, it is no longer news that Chief Adebayo Adelabu, an ex-Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), is certifiably contending for the exalted seat of the Governor of Oyo State come 2023. It is because he was ceremonially affirmed on Wednesday, August 3, 2022, at the Liberty Stadium, Oke Ado, Ibadan, by the Accord Party (AP) as its standard-bearer for the March 11, 2023 governorship election in the state.

Prior to his official affirmation by the party as its governorship candidate, there had been insinuations that his aspiration to contest in 2023 is a sinking ship, due to his loss of the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to Senator Teslim Folarin, the senator representing Oyo Central in the National Assembly, in May, at the same Liberty Stadium.

Adelabu who clocks 52 on Wednesday, September 28, was the broom party’s governorship candidate in the 2019 election, but lost to the incumbent governor of the state, Mr Seyi Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The insinuation that he was ineligible to contest in 2023 further became rife in June, following a brick wall he was confronted with in the Accord Party. Then, a chieftain of the party, Alhaji Saheed Ajadi, had refuted the claim that he had secured the party’s governorship ticket.

The AP chieftain stated that he, and not Adelabu, is the party’s authentic governorship candidate, arguing that his candidacy was duly certified by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

However, contrary to Ajadi’s claim, the AP at the August 3rd affirmation ceremony, had through its Returning Officer, Olayemi Olugbenga, affirmed Adelabu as the party’s 2023 governorship candidate, shortly after Ayodele Oyajide, the party’s former governorship candidate stepped down and relinquished his mandate to him. Present at the event, were the party’s National Chairman, Mohammed Nalado, National Secretary, Alhaja Bukola Ajaja, state Chairman, Ojo Kolade and other party chieftains. INEC officials, led by its state Administrative Secretary, Biodun Amosu were also present to witness the event.


At the event, the AP also affirmed other APC defectors, like Honourable Shina Peller, the federal lawmaker representing Iseyin/Itesiwaju/Kajola/Iwajowa, as the party’s senatorial candidate for Oyo- North, Nurudeen Faozey for Oyo-Central, Kolapo Kola-Daisi for Oyo-South.

Others include, Prince Ayodeji Abass Aleshinloye, an ex-chairman of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) in the state for House of Representatives, Oluyole federal constituency, Chief Rotimi Ajanaku for Ibadan Northwest/Southwest and a number of the state House of Assembly candidates like Abayomi Abolaji for Ibadan North Constituency 2.

In his acceptance speech before a mammoth crowd of party supporters across the 33 council areas of the state, an overjoyed Adelabu had reiterated his resolve to leave no stone unturned in actualizing his dream to govern the state.

Months before Adelabu dumped the APC along with his supporters across the state, keen watchers of political events can attest to the great hue and cry that went up within the party, following its ward, local government and state congresses.

In February this year, he and other chieftains of the party, among whom were Mogaji Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe, now the 2023 candidate of the PDP in the state for Oyo South Senatorial district; Minister for Youths and Sports, Chief Sunday Dare, Senator Adebayo Adeseun, former Minister for Communications, Alhaji Adebayo Sh*ttu; Senator Olufemi Lanlehin, Senator Soji Akanbi, Senator Fatai Buhari representing Oyo North Senatorial District, Chairman of the Nigeria Lotteries Regulatory Commission, Alhaji Fatai Ibikunle, Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Professor Adeolu Akande and Chairman, National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), Wale Olatunji, had in a jointly signed statement accused the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention/Planning Committee (CECPC) of the party under the chairmanship of Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State, of conniving with a minority group within the party in the state to hijack the soul of the party ahead of its national convention.

The group of aggrieved APC chieftains alleged then that the plot behind the Buni-led CECPC was to foist Senator Folarin, on the majority as the governorship candidate of the party in the state. The group further berated the CECPC for its recognition of Isaac Omodewu as the state chairman of the party, and for issuing a certificate of return to him, arguing that the majority of party members overwhelmingly voted for Alhaji Abubakar Adejare Gbadamosi for the position. The return of Omodewu as the state chairman of the party was further referred to as “the climax of a reign of impunity,” with a warning then that such action “would only lead the party to electoral disaster” in the state.

Omodewu served as Commissioner for Lands and Housing for eight years in the immediate-past late Governor Abiola Ajimobi-led APC administration. The congress that produced him in October 2021 as the party’s state chairman caused a leadership tussle among stakeholders of the party on the grounds that a harmonized list of party executives that was submitted to the party’s national secretariat that has Alhaji Gbadamosi as the chairman was doctored.

Nonetheless, all the protest by the aggrieved party chieftains then seemed to fell on deaf ears, for Omodewu held the cards as the state chairman all the way and the same alleged doctored list of party delegates was still used at the governorship primary that produced Folarin as the party’s 2023 governorship candidate.

All the same, some of the aggrieved party members, including Alhaji Gbadamosi, have since buried the hatchet and are presently working for the success of the party to reclaim the state it lost to the PDP in 2019. Perhaps the reason for this was due to a 24-man reconciliatory committee set up by the Omodewu’s leadership in June, which was headed by Senator Lanlehin.

The setting up of the reconciliatory committee which was charged to settle disputes from the party’s congresses and primaries ahead of 2023 general polls, can be seen as the party’s swift compliance with the counsel given to Senator Folarin at the Civic Centre in Ibadan on Thursday, 2nd of June, by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the party’s National Leader and a presidential aspirant of the party then. In his address to delegates and party members in the state, towards the June 6-7 presidential primary of the party which he won with unprecedented landslide, Tinubu had told Folarin that except he quickly see to the pacification of chieftains and members of the party who were aggrieved by the outcome of the primaries held by the party in the state, he will not win the governorship. “You must begin to visit those who contested against you and others who are not happy. Make sure you resolve the crisis. It is very important. If you don’t resolve the crisis and bring everybody together as one, you won’t win.”

But it wouldn’t be illogical if one describe the Lanlehin-led reconciliatory committee with a Danish proverb that says: “Advice after injury is like medicine after death,” mainly because of the movement of Adelabu and other party forces out of the party to the alternative ahead of 2023 polls, based on collective allegation of injustice. Just as Tom Morello, 58, an American musician and political activist once said: “I am not least bit surprised that injustice persists. I’m also not surprised that resistance to injustice persists.”

For instance, Mogaji Tegbe, had in a statement he personally signed in April 2022, revealed why he and his supporters dumped the broom party. “We watched a minority hijack the party structure backed by some powers at the top. We saw congress results, democratically agreed at ward and local government level being altered to favour a minority group. Efforts to make the National Leadership of the party see reasons have yielded no fruits.” He’d stated. He was one of the leading contenders for the party’s governorship ticket in 2019, but was persuaded then to step down for Adelabu.

Shina Peller had in a statement issued in June, by his media aide, Kola Popoola, accused leaders of the party of unfairness. Peller lost the ticket to the incumbent, Senator Fatai Buhari.


According to Prince Abass-Alesinloye in July, during a Fresh 105.9FM programme, ‘Political Circuit’ in Ibadan, he abandoned the APC along with his supporters after some scavengers hijacked the party. “It is unfortunate the party has been hijacked by some scavengers.” He’d said.

The ex-ALGON Chairman was among four out of the five aspirants of the party that alleged that the list of delegates brought by the election committee for the House of Representatives primary election for Oluyole federal constituency, held at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN) was doctored. However, at the rescheduled primary held on May 30 at the same venue, Mrs. Tolulope Akande-Sadipe, the serving lawmaker for the constituency was declared to have won the party’s ticket for another term.

In a statement issued by Faozey’s campaign organization in July, the conduct of the primary for Oyo Central Senatorial district of the party, was not “truly representational of the choice of the people,” pointing out that he’d scored the highest votes of 300 in the primary initially conducted by the party but was not declared as the winner. However, Dr. Yinus Akintunde emerged as the party’s candidate for the senatorial district in a rerun.

Faozey’s grouse with the broom party wasn’t dissimilar to that of KKD. The 43-year old son of an industrialist and a High Chief of Ibadanland, Chief Kola Daisi, had in June, rejected the result of the rerun of the party’s primary for Oyo South senatorial ticket conducted on May 31. He claimed he did not participate in the rescheduled exercise since he’d emerged the winner of the one held on May 29 with 212 votes. The rerun was however, won by Sarafadeen Alli, a former Secretary to the State Government.

It was this very same injustice that Adelabu had alleged for his dumping the broom party. In a statement he issued shortly after losing the party’s governorship ticket, the young tycoon, who has investments in the hospitality, entertainment, agriculture and real estate industries, had accused Senator Folarin of using cronies within the party’s top hierarchy and in the state to manipulate the delegate lists used for voting at the shadow election of the party to emerge the winner. “I, as a leading aspirant decided to stay away from the gathering of Senator Folarin’s court jesters, for the basic fact that I got to know that the delegates list to be used at the governorship primary has been compromised and a new one formulated by the main arbiter who was to superintend and supervise over the primary election in conjunction with their paymaster in the person of the same Senator Ja’agba.” Adelabu was reported to have polled 327 votes in absentia and Folarin 954 votes.

Ja’gba which in English literally means ‘Snatch it’ became a nickname which Sen. Folarin was christened with since last year that the aggrieved stakeholders alleged him and his loyalists in the party of plotting to hijack the party structure for his ulterior motive.

Chief Niyi Akintola (SAN), one of the chieftains of the party, who was also a governorship aspirant would be recalled to have pointed out at a press briefing before the governorship primary that he doesn’t belong to the group of party hijackers.

But it can be stressed that Adelabu and others who defected from the APC to the AP, are well prepared to remove the carpet under the feet of the broom party come 2023 governorship poll in the state; just as Chief Akintola prophesied in his reaction to the Ja’gba machination before the governorship primary that: “If you hijack the party structure you will meet a stone wall with the political structure because those who have the political structure will just remove the carpet under your feet.”

In specific terms, the fortune of the AP in the forthcoming 2023 governorship poll in the Pacesetter state, can be said to have been enlivened through the influx of these APC political gladiators across the state. And this has in no small amount augmented Adelabu’s political prowess to confront what can be referred to as a ‘peculiar mess’ which he and his supporters alleged was perpetrated by the Ja’gba machination to scheme them out of the broom party. From another angle, the Agba-Akin Parakoyi of Ibadanland has also been given the opportunity to re-strategize for victory in the contest for the Agodi Government House with incumbent Governor Makinde of the PDP, who he lost to in the 2019 elections.

Of course, many can attest to his immense contributions to the enhancement of the security architecture of the state and her educational development before he joined the APC and later won the party’s 2019 governorship ticket.

In 2017, as the Chairman, Board of Trustees, Oyo State Security Trust Fund (OYSSF), appointed by the Ajimobi-led administration, the state had received a donation of N50 billion from the apex bank as well as N250 billion from commercial banks to improve security. And as part of the Safe City project of the state government then, Close Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras were installed at some black spots and business districts of Ibadan, the state capital. These cameras are still visible in Sango, Mokola round about, Ojoo and other strategic areas of the metropolis.

Besides this, Adelabu-led OYSSF introduced a project christened, ‘Light Up Ibadan’ through which streetlights would be installed in major roads within the city. In a statement issued in 2018 by the agency’s Executive Secretary, Mr Femi Oyedipe, a large expanse of land was set aside at the Trans Amusement Park in the metropolis for the siting of a solar powering plant for the project. But the ‘Light Up Ibadan’ project was rechristened ‘Light Up Oyo’ by the Makinde-led administration after it came on board in 2019, and rather than follow the prudent plan of the use of solar power for the streetlights, the administration in this new age relied on the use of diesel engine generating sets.

Adelabu’s OYSSF leadership can also be remembered to have initiated the introduction of call centres and toll free lines through which security agencies would be receiving useful security information from members of the public at no cost to them. The agency in addition, carried out regular repairs on the operational vehicles of the various security agencies and the state security outfit codenamed ‘’Operational Burst’’ to enhance their efficiency.

More to this, the young Ibadan Chief would be remembered to have also promised to renovate all the police stations demolished and burnt during the protests. The young Ibadan Chief had given out consolatory monetary gestures and other relief materials to the wives of the policemen killed during the protests.

In addition, the ex-CBN executive, operations, can also beat his chest of being actively involved in the foundation of the first-of-its-kind technical university in Nigeria, the Technical University (Tech-U) Ibadan, established in his state by the Ajimobi-led government and commissioned in 2017.

It was during his tenure that Tech U, Ibadan, founded to produce professionals that are technically competent and imbued with requisite entrepreneurial skills, received donation of lecture halls, offices, library, borehole, a 500KVA Generating set, street lights, CCTV cameras, from the 2013 CBN Intervention Project.

However, so far and so good, the ball is now in Adelabu’s court to prove to all and sundry that his dumping of the APC, as well as his challenge of the ruling PDP administration in the state, is no child’s play.

It is imperative for him to show that he possesses the political wherewithal as well as the radical nationalism like the late Adegoke Adelabu (1915-1958), his political juggernaut grandfather, in turning the tables to the favour of the Oneness-and-Progress party come March 11, 2023 governorship election; like he’d expressed with conviction in June while announcing his defection to the party that: “The man dies in him who keeps silent in the face of blatant injustice and the life of a lie is a matter of little time.”Oyo 2023: Adelabu’s impressive ‘Accord’ against rival guber candidates

By Abimbola Makinde

OF course, it is no longer news that Chief Adebayo Adelabu, an ex-Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), is certifiably contending for the exalted seat of the Governor of Oyo State come 2023. It is because he was ceremonially affirmed on Wednesday, August 3, 2022, at the Liberty Stadium, Oke Ado, Ibadan, by the Accord Party (AP) as its standard-bearer for the March 11, 2023 governorship election in the state.

Prior to his official affirmation by the party as its governorship candidate, there had been insinuations that his aspiration to contest in 2023 is a sinking ship, due to his loss of the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to Senator Teslim Folarin, the senator representing Oyo Central in the National Assembly, in May, at the same Liberty Stadium.

Adelabu who clocks 52 on Wednesday, September 28, was the broom party’s governorship candidate in the 2019 election, but lost to the incumbent governor of the state, Mr Seyi Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The insinuation that he was ineligible to contest in 2023 further became rife in June, following a brick wall he was confronted with in the Accord Party. Then, a chieftain of the party, Alhaji Saheed Ajadi, had refuted the claim that he had secured the party’s governorship ticket.

The AP chieftain stated that he, and not Adelabu, is the party’s authentic governorship candidate, arguing that his candidacy was duly certified by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

However, contrary to Ajadi’s claim, the AP at the August 3rd affirmation ceremony, had through its Returning Officer, Olayemi Olugbenga, affirmed Adelabu as the party’s 2023 governorship candidate, shortly after Ayodele Oyajide, the party’s former governorship candidate stepped down and relinquished his mandate to him. Present at the event, were the party’s National Chairman, Mohammed Nalado, National Secretary, Alhaja Bukola Ajaja, state Chairman, Ojo Kolade and other party chieftains. INEC officials, led by its state Administrative Secretary, Biodun Amosu were also present to witness the event.


At the event, the AP also affirmed other APC defectors, like Honourable Shina Peller, the federal lawmaker representing Iseyin/Itesiwaju/Kajola/Iwajowa, as the party’s senatorial candidate for Oyo- North, Nurudeen Faozey for Oyo-Central, Kolapo Kola-Daisi for Oyo-South.

Others include, Prince Ayodeji Abass Aleshinloye, an ex-chairman of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) in the state for House of Representatives, Oluyole federal constituency, Chief Rotimi Ajanaku for Ibadan Northwest/Southwest and a number of the state House of Assembly candidates like Abayomi Abolaji for Ibadan North Constituency 2.

In his acceptance speech before a mammoth crowd of party supporters across the 33 council areas of the state, an overjoyed Adelabu had reiterated his resolve to leave no stone unturned in actualizing his dream to govern the state.

Months before Adelabu dumped the APC along with his supporters across the state, keen watchers of political events can attest to the great hue and cry that went up within the party, following its ward, local government and state congresses.

In February this year, he and other chieftains of the party, among whom were Mogaji Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe, now the 2023 candidate of the PDP in the state for Oyo South Senatorial district; Minister for Youths and Sports, Chief Sunday Dare, Senator Adebayo Adeseun, former Minister for Communications, Alhaji Adebayo Sh*ttu; Senator Olufemi Lanlehin, Senator Soji Akanbi, Senator Fatai Buhari representing Oyo North Senatorial District, Chairman of the Nigeria Lotteries Regulatory Commission, Alhaji Fatai Ibikunle, Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Professor Adeolu Akande and Chairman, National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), Wale Olatunji, had in a jointly signed statement accused the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention/Planning Committee (CECPC) of the party under the chairmanship of Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State, of conniving with a minority group within the party in the state to hijack the soul of the party ahead of its national convention.

The group of aggrieved APC chieftains alleged then that the plot behind the Buni-led CECPC was to foist Senator Folarin, on the majority as the governorship candidate of the party in the state. The group further berated the CECPC for its recognition of Isaac Omodewu as the state chairman of the party, and for issuing a certificate of return to him, arguing that the majority of party members overwhelmingly voted for Alhaji Abubakar Adejare Gbadamosi for the position. The return of Omodewu as the state chairman of the party was further referred to as “the climax of a reign of impunity,” with a warning then that such action “would only lead the party to electoral disaster” in the state.

Omodewu served as Commissioner for Lands and Housing for eight years in the immediate-past late Governor Abiola Ajimobi-led APC administration. The congress that produced him in October 2021 as the party’s state chairman caused a leadership tussle among stakeholders of the party on the grounds that a harmonized list of party executives that was submitted to the party’s national secretariat that has Alhaji Gbadamosi as the chairman was doctored.

Nonetheless, all the protest by the aggrieved party chieftains then seemed to fell on deaf ears, for Omodewu held the cards as the state chairman all the way and the same alleged doctored list of party delegates was still used at the governorship primary that produced Folarin as the party’s 2023 governorship candidate.

All the same, some of the aggrieved party members, including Alhaji Gbadamosi, have since buried the hatchet and are presently working for the success of the party to reclaim the state it lost to the PDP in 2019. Perhaps the reason for this was due to a 24-man reconciliatory committee set up by the Omodewu’s leadership in June, which was headed by Senator Lanlehin.

The setting up of the reconciliatory committee which was charged to settle disputes from the party’s congresses and primaries ahead of 2023 general polls, can be seen as the party’s swift compliance with the counsel given to Senator Folarin at the Civic Centre in Ibadan on Thursday, 2nd of June, by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the party’s National Leader and a presidential aspirant of the party then. In his address to delegates and party members in the state, towards the June 6-7 presidential primary of the party which he won with unprecedented landslide, Tinubu had told Folarin that except he quickly see to the pacification of chieftains and members of the party who were aggrieved by the outcome of the primaries held by the party in the state, he will not win the governorship. “You must begin to visit those who contested against you and others who are not happy. Make sure you resolve the crisis. It is very important. If you don’t resolve the crisis and bring everybody together as one, you won’t win.”

But it wouldn’t be illogical if one describe the Lanlehin-led reconciliatory committee with a Danish proverb that says: “Advice after injury is like medicine after death,” mainly because of the movement of Adelabu and other party forces out of the party to the alternative ahead of 2023 polls, based on collective allegation of injustice. Just as Tom Morello, 58, an American musician and political activist once said: “I am not least bit surprised that injustice persists. I’m also not surprised that resistance to injustice persists.”

For instance, Mogaji Tegbe, had in a statement he personally signed in April 2022, revealed why he and his supporters dumped the broom party. “We watched a minority hijack the party structure backed by some powers at the top. We saw congress results, democratically agreed at ward and local government level being altered to favour a minority group. Efforts to make the National Leadership of the party see reasons have yielded no fruits.” He’d stated. He was one of the leading contenders for the party’s governorship ticket in 2019, but was persuaded then to step down for Adelabu.

Shina Peller had in a statement issued in June, by his media aide, Kola Popoola, accused leaders of the party of unfairness. Peller lost the ticket to the incumbent, Senator Fatai Buhari.


According to Prince Abass-Alesinloye in July, during a Fresh 105.9FM programme, ‘Political Circuit’ in Ibadan, he abandoned the APC along with his supporters after some scavengers hijacked the party. “It is unfortunate the party has been hijacked by some scavengers.” He’d said.

The ex-ALGON Chairman was among four out of the five aspirants of the party that alleged that the list of delegates brought by the election committee for the House of Representatives primary election for Oluyole federal constituency, held at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN) was doctored. However, at the rescheduled primary held on May 30 at the same venue, Mrs. Tolulope Akande-Sadipe, the serving lawmaker for the constituency was declared to have won the party’s ticket for another term.

In a statement issued by Faozey’s campaign organization in July, the conduct of the primary for Oyo Central Senatorial district of the party, was not “truly representational of the choice of the people,” pointing out that he’d scored the highest votes of 300 in the primary initially conducted by the party but was not declared as the winner. However, Dr. Yinus Akintunde emerged as the party’s candidate for the senatorial district in a rerun.

Faozey’s grouse with the broom party wasn’t dissimilar to that of KKD. The 43-year old son of an industrialist and a High Chief of Ibadanland, Chief Kola Daisi, had in June, rejected the result of the rerun of the party’s primary for Oyo South senatorial ticket conducted on May 31. He claimed he did not participate in the rescheduled exercise since he’d emerged the winner of the one held on May 29 with 212 votes. The rerun was however, won by Sarafadeen Alli, a former Secretary to the State Government.

It was this very same injustice that Adelabu had alleged for his dumping the broom party. In a statement he issued shortly after losing the party’s governorship ticket, the young tycoon, who has investments in the hospitality, entertainment, agriculture and real estate industries, had accused Senator Folarin of using cronies within the party’s top hierarchy and in the state to manipulate the delegate lists used for voting at the shadow election of the party to emerge the winner. “I, as a leading aspirant decided to stay away from the gathering of Senator Folarin’s court jesters, for the basic fact that I got to know that the delegates list to be used at the governorship primary has been compromised and a new one formulated by the main arbiter who was to superintend and supervise over the primary election in conjunction with their paymaster in the person of the same Senator Ja’agba.” Adelabu was reported to have polled 327 votes in absentia and Folarin 954 votes.

Ja’gba which in English literally means ‘Snatch it’ became a nickname which Sen. Folarin was christened with since last year that the aggrieved stakeholders alleged him and his loyalists in the party of plotting to hijack the party structure for his ulterior motive.

Chief Niyi Akintola (SAN), one of the chieftains of the party, who was also a governorship aspirant would be recalled to have pointed out at a press briefing before the governorship primary that he doesn’t belong to the group of party hijackers.

But it can be stressed that Adelabu and others who defected from the APC to the AP, are well prepared to remove the carpet under the feet of the broom party come 2023 governorship poll in the state; just as Chief Akintola prophesied in his reaction to the Ja’gba machination before the governorship primary that: “If you hijack the party structure you will meet a stone wall with the political structure because those who have the political structure will just remove the carpet under your feet.”

In specific terms, the fortune of the AP in the forthcoming 2023 governorship poll in the Pacesetter state, can be said to have been enlivened through the influx of these APC political gladiators across the state. And this has in no small amount augmented Adelabu’s political prowess to confront what can be referred to as a ‘peculiar mess’ which he and his supporters alleged was perpetrated by the Ja’gba machination to scheme them out of the broom party. From another angle, the Agba-Akin Parakoyi of Ibadanland has also been given the opportunity to re-strategize for victory in the contest for the Agodi Government House with incumbent Governor Makinde of the PDP, who he lost to in the 2019 elections.

Of course, many can attest to his immense contributions to the enhancement of the security architecture of the state and her educational development before he joined the APC and later won the party’s 2019 governorship ticket.

In 2017, as the Chairman, Board of Trustees, Oyo State Security Trust Fund (OYSSF), appointed by the Ajimobi-led administration, the state had received a donation of N50 billion from the apex bank as well as N250 billion from commercial banks to improve security. And as part of the Safe City project of the state government then, Close Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras were installed at some black spots and business districts of Ibadan, the state capital. These cameras are still visible in Sango, Mokola round about, Ojoo and other strategic areas of the metropolis.

Besides this, Adelabu-led OYSSF introduced a project christened, ‘Light Up Ibadan’ through which streetlights would be installed in major roads within the city. In a statement issued in 2018 by the agency’s Executive Secretary, Mr Femi Oyedipe, a large expanse of land was set aside at the Trans Amusement Park in the metropolis for the siting of a solar powering plant for the project. But the ‘Light Up Ibadan’ project was rechristened ‘Light Up Oyo’ by the Makinde-led administration after it came on board in 2019, and rather than follow the prudent plan of the use of solar power for the streetlights, the administration in this new age relied on the use of diesel engine generating sets.

Adelabu’s OYSSF leadership can also be remembered to have initiated the introduction of call centres and toll free lines through which security agencies would be receiving useful security information from members of the public at no cost to them. The agency in addition, carried out regular repairs on the operational vehicles of the various security agencies and the state security outfit codenamed ‘’Operational Burst’’ to enhance their efficiency.

More to this, the young Ibadan Chief would be remembered to have also promised to renovate all the police stations demolished and burnt during the protests. The young Ibadan Chief had given out consolatory monetary gestures and other relief materials to the wives of the policemen killed during the protests.

In addition, the ex-CBN executive, operations, can also beat his chest of being actively involved in the foundation of the first-of-its-kind technical university in Nigeria, the Technical University (Tech-U) Ibadan, established in his state by the Ajimobi-led government and commissioned in 2017.

It was during his tenure that Tech U, Ibadan, founded to produce professionals that are technically competent and imbued with requisite entrepreneurial skills, received donation of lecture halls, offices, library, borehole, a 500KVA Generating set, street lights, CCTV cameras, from the 2013 CBN Intervention Project.

However, so far and so good, the ball is now in Adelabu’s court to prove to all and sundry that his dumping of the APC, as well as his challenge of the ruling PDP administration in the state, is no child’s play.

It is imperative for him to show that he possesses the political wherewithal as well as the radical nationalism like the late Adegoke Adelabu (1915-1958), his political juggernaut grandfather, in turning the tables to the favour of the Oneness-and-Progress party come March 11, governorship election; like he’d expressed with conviction in June while announcing his defection to the party that: “The man dies in him who keeps silent in the face of blatant injustice and the life of a lie is a matter of little time.”