Segun Atanda/
Ogun State governor, Mr Ibikunle Amosun, has made his position clear on who will succeed him, after several visits to Aso Rock to get President Muhammadu Buhari’s backing for his candidate who was rejected by the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Amosun, who pledged his support for Buhari, insisted that his chosen candidate would succeed him as governor and not the man chosen by the party.
He dismissed as mischief the speculations that he had defected from the APC or was planning to dump the party over political developments in the state.
Amosun made his stand known while fielding questions from the State House correspondent of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) after a closed-door meeting with the President at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, today.
Prior to Sunday’s meeting with the president, Amosun had visited the presidential villa for over four times within the past three weeks where he met separately with the president and the vice-president, Yemi Osinbajo.
The APC National Working Committee is believed to have forwarded the name of Prince Dapo Abiodun to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the party’s governorship candidate in the 2019 general elections.
Abiodun was declared the winner of the Ogun State APC governorship primary by the APC NWC panel sent to conduct the primary in the state.
This declaration was against Gov. Amosun’s preferred candidate, Adekunle Akinlade, who was elected as the governorship candidate of the party in another primary conducted by the state’s APC officials.
Amosun had allegedly accused some political interest group of `misinforming’ President Buhari about `political equation’ in Ogun.
But, the governor pledged his political loyalty to the president and vowed to support his political ambition in 2019, insisting, however, that he would hand over the mantle of leadership to his preferred candidate, Adekunle Akinlade, in 2019.
Amosun, who was accompanied on Sunday’s visit to the Presidential Villa by the Alake of Egbaland Oba Adedotun Gbadebo III and a former Minister, Senator Iyabo Anisulowo, renewed his allegiance to the APC.
He said: “We will stick with (President Buhari) him. So, I want them to know that we are not going anywhere.
“I’m going to be with the APC. We are in the APC and even after his second term, which by the grace of God and the support of all Nigerians he will win.’’
Oba Gbadebo, who also spoke after the meeting, said his visit to President Buhari, whom he described as his boss in the army, was a routine one.
Anisulowo, a onetime minister of state for education, said the people of Ogun would vote massively for President Buhari and all APC candidates in 2019.
“Ogun is very peaceful and is a very progressive state. Ogun is Baba Buhari’s state and we cannot allow anything to happen contrary to our wishes for him for his second term in office,’’ she said.