Oyo 2019: Akanbi may dump APC for ADC this week

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7 years ago

BARRING last-minute change of decision, one of the two remaining All Progressives Congress (APC) Senators in Oyo State, Senator Soji Akanbi, representing Oyo South Senatorial district, may dump APC for the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) this week.

Sunday Tribune was reliably informed that the decision to dump the APC followed the formal entry of Governor Abiola Ajimobi into the senatorial contest for the district being represented by Senator Akanbi.

Ajimobi represented Oyo South in the National Assembly between 2003 and 2007 on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD).

It was learnt that Ajimobi told the Senator during a meeting that he would be nominated a minister to represent the state in the Federal Executive Council as compensation for his second term.

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In response, Akanbi urged the governor to allow him return to the Senate for another four years, while the governor should take the ministerial slot so as to enrich the federal cabinet with his vast experience.

The governor, it was gathered, asked Senator Akanbi if he would leave the APC if he did not get a return ticket to the Senate, a question to which the Senator responded that he would take the appropriate decision “when the time comes.”

Sunday Tribune gathered that the governor might have obtained the nomination and expression of interest forms to contest Oyo South senatorial election.

But Senator Akanbi, who wrote a letter dated August 27 to the governor demanding guidance on his next political move following pressure from his constituents, did not bother to purchase forms from APC for his re-election bid.

Already, the logo of APC was conspicuously missing in the posters and billboards announcing Akanbi’s re-election.

It was further learnt that the senator had been in talks with the collegiate leadership of ADC in the state, including Senator Rashidi Ladoja, Chief Michael Koleoso, D.r Adebisi Busari and Chief Layiwola Olakojo.