"We cried to the national leadership of the party on the anti-party activities of Governor Akeredolu. But they failed to listen to us, and didn't recognise our voice then. For me, I am for the growth and unity of the party and we shall progress. So, we must not allow the monster, who is an ingrate and has no fear of God, including respect for elders and colleagues, to come back and rule us here again."
Alhaji Ali Olanusi, a member of the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has decried the level of anti-party activities of some members of the party in Ondo State in the recently concluded general election.
According to Olanusi, President Muhammadu Buhari lost the election in Ondo State due to the anti-party activities that members of the party engaged in before the general election.
He stated this on Wednesday at a stakeholders’ meeting held in Akure, the Ondo State capital, to appraise the performance of the ruling party in both the presidential and the national assembly election in Ondo State.
The APC chieftain, who was also a Deputy Governor of Ondo State, accused Rotimi Akeredolu, Governor of Ondo State, of “initiating the members of APC in Ondo State into anti-party activities after failing to secure the party's tickets for his preferred candidates in the just concluded national assembly election”.
Olanusi said Akeredolu orchestrated anti-party activities by directing the members of the APC in the state to work for some candidates of Action Alliance (AA) in the 2019 elections. The BOT member noted that though the stalwarts of the party had raised the alarm over the Governor’s anti-party activities, the party leadership failed to quickly act before the election.
"If Buhari had won the presidential election in Ondo State, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu would have gotten the credit despite working against the party in Ondo State. And we had envisaged this problem in Ondo State, and that is why we cried to the national leadership of the party on the anti-party activities of Governor Akeredolu. But they failed to listen to us, and didn't recognise our voice then. For me, I am for the growth and unity of the party and we shall progress.
"So, we must not allow the monster, who is an ingrate and has no fear of God, including respect for elders and colleagues, to come back and rule us here again. Let us not allow ourselves to be monetised by other politicians, but to educate our people while we should vote for the right candidate in the forthcoming governorship election in the state.
"We must learn how to come together and appreciate each other. A divided house cannot stand. We need to work as a team so that our party can move forward. We recorded 54 per cent in the 2015 presidential election when we didn't have APC as the state government. Now, as a state controlled by APC, we performed woefully.”
In his remarks, Isaac Kekemeke, a former APC Chairman in the state, said the funds disbursed to Ondo by the party’s national leadership for the elections were diverted by Akeredolu.
He said Akeredolu was the major financier of AA in Ondo State, and called on the party’s leaders to intervene before the 2020 Ondo governorship election.
"The Governor worked against the party and he really didn't want President Muhammadu Buhari to win the 2019 presidential election. So, they did not work for him in Ondo State, rather they all worked for their Action Alliance party," he said.