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• Forum removes ex-deputy governor as chairman
• Olanusi dismisses allegations levelled against him
The crisis rocking the factional group of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State, Unity Forum, has aggravated as members rejected Chief Olusola Oke as consensus candidate for the October 10, 2020 governorship election.
They also removed the Chairman of the Forum, Alhaji Ali Olanusi, who is a former Deputy Governor and Board of Trustees (BoT) member of the ruling party, over alleged highhandedness, corruption and gross abuse of office.
This followed a statement yesterday by Olanusi, declaring Oke as the consensus candidate of the faction, claiming that the other nine governorship aspirants agreed to work with him.
But the Secretary of the forum’s screening committee, Prof. Sola Ehindero and two other aspirants: Dapo Adelegan and Mrs. Jumoke Ajasin-Anifowose, as at press time, rejected the purported adoption of the aspirant.
Similarly, the Deputy Senate Leader, Prof. Ajayi Borofice, who is also a major financier of the group, decried the announcement, insisting that all the aspirants should prepare for primaries.
According to him, “The media report suggesting that Unity Forum has adopted a consensus candidate to represent the Forum in Ondo APC governorship primary election is misleading.
While one of the leading aspirants, Dapo Adelegan, said he was not a party to the emergence of any consensus candidate as claimed by Olanusi, Chairman and Secretary of Ondo APC Unity Group Elders Forum, Chief S.A. Idris and Bayo Olafusi, in a statement jointly signed, removed Olanusi as the Chairman of Unity Forum.
They also disbanded the seven-man committee and declared the report declaring Oke as the group’s consensus candidate null and void. Meanwhile, Olanusi has dismissed the allegations levelled against him by the APC Elder’s Forum and claims to have suspended him as the chairman of the group.
He said: “Who elected me, when did they elect me? I’m the one who founded Unity Forum. Those people that called themselves Elders Forum and leaders of the party, who is greater than me there? They are wasting their time.”
He said that the emergence of Oke was the recommendation of the committee, adding: “One of them abstained, he did not take part: that is Amodeni. While four voted for Olusola Oke, one voted for the woman candidate and one voted for the technocrat without mentioning name.”
