Ondo 2020: Crisis hits APC Unity Forum

From Osagie Otabor, Akure

There is crisis in the Unity Forum, one of the groups within the Ondo State All Progressives Congress (APC) seeking to unseat Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu.

The Ali Olanusi-led forum, in March, set up a seven-man committee headed by Senator Yele Omogunwa, to collate reports on all governorship aspirants in the group. The purpose was to present a single aspirant against Akeredolu at the primaries.

But some members of the forum, who tagged themselves as ‘Unity Group Foot Soldiers’, accused the committee members of collecting money from aspirants. They alleged that some of the committee members were supporters of some aspirants like Olusola Oke and Bukola Adetula.

Other allegations were that Olanusi singlehanded picked all members of the committee to favour a particular aspirant.

They added that Olanusi collected N50 million from a former Senator in Osun State to do the bidding of an aspirant ‘not consistent politically’.

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A member of the ‘Unity Group Foot Soldiers’, Faust Kazeem, said the seven-man committee has failed to submit a coordinated report as directed and so its activities expired on March 31.

He added that the Omogunwa-led committee has been dissolved, and so called for a setting new committee to screen aspirants.

He said: “The newly constituted committee would be set up by leaders of the Unity Forum in the next 72 hours after due consultation with the leaders, members and aspirants. The composition would show an equal spread along local governments, federal constituencies or senatorial districts.”

But Olanusi described the allegations as baseless and untrue. According to him, the names that signed the statement were unknown to the Unity Group.

He said: “They are disgruntled elements. We don’t know them in the Unity Forum. The committee has finished its work but has not submitted it because of Coronavirus. I have not read their report so I will not know what it contains. I have also not seen the N50 million I allegedly collected, so it is not true.”