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12 Ondo ACN aspirants jostle for gov's ticket

Written by Sunday Aborisade, Akure

TWELVE politicians, including the Chairman of the Ondo State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Mrs. Jumoke Anifowose, are warming up to contest the 2013 governorship election in the state.

Ondo state governor, Olusegun Mimiko advertisement

Our correspondent learnt that apart from the daughter of former Ondo State Governor Michael Ajasin, some politicians who defected from the Labour Party and the Peoples Democratic Party to the ACN recently were also out to wrest power from Governor Olusegun Mimiko.

According to sources, eight of the aspirants are from the northern senatorial district of the state while two each are from the central and southern senatorial districts.

The aspirants, who have formally declared their intention are Dr. Olu Agunloye, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, Chief Tayo Alasoadura, Mr. Joseph Ajatta, Chief Segun Ojo, Dr. Tunji Abayomi, Mr. Wale Akinterinwa, Mr. Sola Iji and Mr. Olayato Aribo.

Other top politicians in the state are said to be planning to defect from the LP to the ACN to contest the poll.

Two LP members in the National Assembly, Mr. Sunday Abegunde and Prof. Ajayi Boroffice, are allegedly set to ditch the party for the ACN to contest the poll.

Efforts to get the reaction of Boroffice, an LP senator representing Ondo North and Abegunde, popularly known as Abena, were not successful as calls made to their mobile phones indicated that.

Boroffice’s decision to join the governorship race, according to sources, is in line with the aspiration of the people of Akokoland to produce the governor in 2013

The development, one of the sources added, accounted for why five out of the aspirants so far are Akoko indigenes.

Declaring his ambition on Monday, Ajatta, an indigene of Ikaram-Akoko, who represented the people of Oshodi-Isolo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives between 2003 and 2011, lamented the state of roads in Akokoland.

Ajatta noted that many of the roads in the northern senatorial district were in a deplorable state. He alleged that the state government did not pay any attention to the situation.

Alasoadura, a former Commissioner for Finance in the Olusegun Agagu administration, argued that many of them decided to join the ACN, because principled and progressive politics were part of the Yoruba heritage.

He said, “It is our belief that there is an urgent need to join our brothers and sisters in other South-West states who are enjoying the ACN in protecting this much cherished legacy.”

The National Leader of the ACN, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, had at a rally in Ikorodu, Lagos State last week, said the party would take over Ondo State in the 2013 governorship poll.

But the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Kayode Akinmade, said, “The people of the state will elect their own leader when the time comes and no Ondo man or woman will worship on the altar of any foreign god.”