Olusakin Babalola, Ibadan
Following the disqualification of the Minister of Communications,Barrister Adebayo Shittu from tsking part in the primary election in Ibadan on Sunday and which again produced two Ibadan men as the governorship candidates for both APC as well as PDP and the repeated threat of the entire Oke Ogun people to reject any party that did not pick its governorship candidate from that zone,the All Progressives Congress(APC) and PDP stand the risk of losing the votes from that zone come 2019.
Adebayo Shittu,,the only formidable aspirant from that zone was not cleared to take part in the primary due to his failure to produce NYSC certificate because he did not take part in the scheme which was mandatory for youths within 30 years age bracket.
His excuse of working as a parliamentar ian in the State House of Assembly by then was rejected because that could not be a replacement for the mandatory national service.
The APC will field Adebayo Adelabu,the grandson of late late Adegoke Adelabu alias Penkelemesi while a renown philanthropist,Engineer Oluseyi Makinde is the flagbearer for PDP and an indigene of Ibadan
The remaining councils spread in Ibadan,Ibarapa and Ogbomoso withOke Ogun population always serve as decider of winner in the gubernatorial contest.
The Oke Ogun leaders of thought have declared unequivocally, that the voters from that zone would support only the party that fielded their man or woman.
Recently,the President of Oke Ogun Development Consultative Forum,Dr.Olusegun Ajuwon,OON called on each party ,"to look into the profile of Oke Ogun indigenes who are members of your party with a view to picking a reliable aspirant of Oke Ogun extraction as your candidate,if the votes of our people are important to your party"
He added"We are determined,and have resolved as well, that if none of the political parties fields any of our sons or daughters,we shall not have anything to do with 2019 gubernatorial election in Oyo State.Let the other 23 LG areas go ahead to produce the Oyo State governor without Oke Ogun.
The President of the Forum said that his people would no longer accept the position of deputy Governor.
Governor Abiola Ajimobi in one of his outings, told politicians to persuade their colleagues to vote for aspirants from their area durduring the primary stressing that lobbying was one of the political tools to get power.
Chief S.Adeyemo,an indigene of Oke Ogun who is currently the Deputy Governor in the state and governorship aspirant bowed out of the contest a forthnight ago for an undisclosed reason.
Barrister Adebayo Shittu recently told our reporter that even if he eventually lost in his bid to get the ticket of APC ,he would not defect to another party because of his unalloyed loyalty to President Mohammadu Buhari.
Shittu has established a bogus campaign office for PMB in Vetenary Mokola area of Ibadan.
Meanwhile,out of about 10 governorship aspirants in the African Democratic Congresss(ADC),only two are from the Oke Ogun area of Oyo state.
Observers believe that there is no rigid policy in politics as the two parties that have aleady picked Ibadan indigenes have commenced intensive lobbying with Oke Ogun elders.
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