By Idowu Ayodele
ONE of the governorship aspirants of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), in Oyo State, Engineer Aderemi Oseni, on Saturday insisted that Senator Olufemi Lanlehin was imposed on the other twelve aspirants and other members of the party as its gubernatorial candidate.
Oseni, who stated this in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, while featuring on a private radio station, also maintained that Lanlehin did not emerge as the party’s governorship nominee through popular choice but through an alleged manipulation by the ADC national secretariat in Abuja, describing the process as undemocratic.
It would be recalled that Lanlehin was announced as the candidate of the party by some leaders last week, a decision which has triggered altercation among the supporters of the other twelve (12) gubernatorial aspirants and other members of the ADC.
Speaking on the purported endorsement of Senator Lanlehin by the national secretariat of the party, Oseni maintained that the selection was wrong and undemocratic.
According to him, “Senator Olufemi Lanlehin was imposed on ADC in Oyo state as the governorship candidate. His selection was wrong and undemocratic.
“His candidature was not divine. We only have problem with his nomination, we don’t have problem with Lanlehin as a person”.
The guber aspirant added that Oyo state at this particular period needs a person who is divinely ordained to lead the state in the right way, calling on the citizenry to hold ADC leaders responsible should the party failed at the end of the general elections.
He observed that the emergence of Lanlehin as the ADC governorship candidate completely negated the outcome of the agreement reached by all the 13 governorship aspirants in the party that an election be held among them and that whoever emerges as the winner of the election should become the party’s governorship candidate and as well be supported by other aspirants for the 2019 general elections.
Oseni explained further that at the said election among the aspirants, Dr Nureni Adeniran emerged winner while himself came second with Senator Lanlehin coming fifth, noting that before the election, all the aspirants signed an undertaking that they will all abide by the outcome of the election.
He also added that after the election, all the other 12 aspirants including Lanlehin congratulated Adeniran who later proceeded to the Abuja National Secretariat of the party for other processes of perfecting his emergence as the ADC governorship candidate in Oyo state.
Continuing, the ADC gubernatorial aspirant said he was surprised to see a press release issued by the ADC National Secretariat claiming that Senator Lanlehin emerged as the party’s governorship candidate after a “keenly contested election”.
Oseni unearthed that it was then that he withdrawn his earlier support for Senator Lanlehin’s governorship bid.
While lamenting that it was unfortunate that the party’s national secretariat manipulated Adeniran out of the race by claiming that he did not obtain any nomination form which they themselves know was not true, Oseni, however insisted that he will not dump ADC for any other political party.
