•Governor Dapo Abiodun presenting Senator Shuaib Afolabi Salisu as consensus candidate, yesterday
Four aspirants for the Ogun Central Senatorial seat on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have rejected the endorsement of the current senator representing the district, Shuaib Afolabi Salisu, as the consensus candidate ahead of the next election in Ogun State.
Governor Dapo Abiodun had announced Senator Salisu as the consensus candidate at a stakeholders’ meeting of the Ogun Central APC in Abeokuta yesterday, reports Daily Trust.
The Ogun Central Stakeholders’ Meeting, held at the MKO Abiola Sports Arena in Abeokuta, the state capital, had in attendance, the Deputy Governor, Engr Noimot Salako-Oyedele; APC consensus candidate for governorship, Senator Solomon Adeola; the party chairman, Yemi Sanusi and other party leaders and loyalists.
There were reports that some stakeholders in attendance had opposed Salisu’s re-election bid but Abiodun still went ahead to make the announcement.
Speaking shortly after the meeting, four aspirants — Senator Lanre Tejuoso, Senator Olugbenga Obadara, the immediate past Commissioner for Commerce, Trade and Investment, Emmanuel Sofela, and business mogul, Otunba Muriana Banjoko— rejected the endorsement of Senator Salisu.
Tejuoso, who represented Ogun Central between 2015 and 2019, described the endorsement as unacceptable.
He insisted that Ogun APC members should be allowed to decide their candidate in the next election.
On his part, Obadara, who represented Ogun Central between 2011 and 2015, described the endorsement as immoral.
He said, “It’s not in any way supported by us. It’s against morality and against our discussion at the last meeting.
“We are totally rejecting the decision to endorse Senator Salisu. That’s the decision of the four of us.”
Also speaking, Sofela said: “We are practising democracy. As aspirants, we are expressing our desire to serve our people. If the people who are currently being served in the constituency, the preponderance of them, are saying no, what more evidence do you want?
“If four people who are aspirants and the preponderance of the people of Ogun Central are saying we don’t want somebody who’s representing us to go back and represent us, what more evidence is needed?”
Also responding, Otunba Muraina Banjoko said: “I align with the position of the three other aspirants. I was in a meeting yesterday night around 1:30 to 2 o’clock, and the meeting was inconclusive. Our people wondered why they went ahead to endorse someone today and raise his hand up.”
Former Governor Senator Ibikunle Amosun, was one of the APC aspirants who obtained nomination forms for Ogun Central race.
Amosun is yet to respond to the endorsement of Senator Salisu by the governor.
Last month, party leaders and aspirants met at the residence of former Governor Chief Olusegun Osoba in Abeokuta over the consensus arrangement.
During the meeting, Amosun reportedly told the gathering that he had the support of President Bola Tinubu to emerge as the consensus candidate of the party.
The claim was allegedly rebuffed by other aspirants, including the current occupant, Senator Shuaibu Salisu.
The meeting eventually ended in a stalemate.
But Amosun later clarified what transpired in a statement.
“Many of the accounts of the meeting were complete misrepresentations of the proceedings. The meeting was convened at my instance when there were insinuations about my candidature for the election,” he said.
According to him, at the meeting, he recalled that three senatorial aspirants from the district had visited him to seek his support for their candidacies and that each of them volunteered that, if he was interested in contesting for the office, they would withdraw their candidacies.
“Nowhere throughout the meeting did I request anyone to withdraw from the race for me because that would be undemocratic and unacceptable.
“I wish to reiterate that I am not only a democrat, I have contested and won elections twice to the office of Governor of Ogun State and twice as a Senator of the Federal Republic.
“What I said at the meeting, which I reiterate, is that I would not be part of a primary election whose result is predetermined,” Amosun said.
