EDITORIAL: Oyo APC, Not Too Late to Unite!

YES, it is over! The quest to fill the vacant position in the Ibarapa East State Constituency have been decided by the electorate who has the power to choose the candidate of their choice through vote.

The Independent Electoral Commission, INEC conducted the bye election in the constituency due to the sudden death of the last occupant, late Rt. Hon Michael Adeyemo, who was the Speaker, Oyo State House of Assembly.

Congratulations to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The Party was smart enough to pick Adebo Ogundoyin, a graduate of Babcock University, Ilisan Remo in Ogun state and the son of late famous industrialist, Chief Adeseun Ogundoyin.

Unlike the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, through its consultation selected Olukunle Adeyemo, the younger brother of late Speaker, Hon Michael Adeyemo.

The election was keenly contested as the exercise enjoyed the presence of INEC federal commissioner, state INEC Resident electoral commissioner, Barrister Mutiu Agboke, Domestic Election Observer and security operatives.

As usual, the tension between the two major towns – Eruwa and Lanlate was high as each town supported its son while political leaders and members going round secretly to canvass for their candidates.

In Eruwa, ‘ Omo-olore’ referring to Adebo Ogundoyin, a brand name aimed at refreshing people’s memory of the positive contributions made by his late father, Ogundoyin, while Lanlate adopted Adeyemo, also to consolidate the late speaker’s efforts.

At the end of voting exercise, Mr Adebo Ogundoyin of PDP polled 6,122 votes and defeated his closest rivalry, Mr Olukunle Adeyemo of APC, who got 4,618 votes followed by Accord Party candidate with 2,818 among other four contestants.

Despite the level of awareness and campaign of the ruling APC, the party could not emerge due to some challenges the party is currently battling with ahead of 2019 general elections.

The just concluded bye election into state house of Assembly seat can best be described as ‘Eruwa versus Lanlate’ and ‘APC versus PDP / APC Unity forum’ who secretly played the ostrich by supporting Accord Party (AP) candidate to foiled the votes of Lanlate and other strongholds of the the ruling Party.

This is the second time in three years that, APC led government in Oyo state, even before its internal crisis will loose bye elections into state Assembly seat.

The first defeat was attributed to failure of APC members and leaders to reach out to people in Oorelope state constituency while the second defeat can be traced to the division in Oyo APC.

In the just concluded bye election in Ibarapa East State Constituency, investigation revealed that members of APC unity forum supported Accord Party candidate, thus blocked the chances of APC.

For instance, Lanlate the strong hold of Opposition has two candidates, that’s Olukunle Adeyemo and Adepoju while only one strong candidate came from Eruwa which is Adebo Ogundoyin.

Out of the 10 wards in Ibarapa East Local Government, Eruwa has 6 wards; while Lanlate housed 4 wards.

The misunderstanding among members of APC was an avenue to capitalise on by the renewed PDP, in Oyo State

To be continued!