Ololade Adeyanju/
As preparations hot up for the November 11, 2023 governorship election in Kogi State, more facts have emerged on why a former deputy governor of the state, Mr. Yomi Awoniyi dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
He had cited Governor Yahaya Bello’s “brilliant performance in office” to justify his action.
Awoniyi, who was deputy governor under former Governor Idris Wada of the PDP, dumped the party some weeks to the November 11 governorship election of the state and defected to the APC.
He reportedly became the deputy governor of Kogi State on a platter of gold through no effort of his but on the magnanimity of a friend between 2011 to 2015, a period his constituents said they did not see any tangible development in his village, Mopa, or anywhere in the constituency.
The former deputy governor is the third son of a late founding father of the PDP, Chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and eminent leader of the Okun-Yoruba people in Kogi State, Chief Sunday Awoniyi, who was known and admired for his courage and impeccable integrity in the country.
Awoniyi’s family members, who according to sources were treated with disdain, and followers were reportedly shocked by his decision to dump the PDP so close to the Kogi State gubernatorial election.
Sources point to greed and ingratitude as possible reasons he dumped the party that made him a deputy governor and whom he claimed he owes all he is to today.
A source said, “Despite the fact that he has no electoral value and contributed virtually nothing to the success of the party in the state in the past, the PDP has remained kind to him because of his late father.
“His greed and lack of accountability and transparency in all his dealings in public office are the main reasons he dumped the PDP. Awoniyi claimed that Governor Yahaya Bello begged him to decamp to the PDP for close to three years, but claimed he refused because the party made him what he is today. He always claimed he adores the PDP and would choose the party before anything, including his family. If he loved the party that much as he made us believe, why did he dump it, if not because of his greed?
“We all know that the White Lion of Lugard House in Lokoja, the state capital, would not beg a man with little or no political clout in his constituency nor village like Awoniyi, who could not even deliver Kogi State to the presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, during the last presidential election despite the huge sum of money he collected as the Atiku Campaign DG in the state, which he has not accounted for till date.”
Strangely, a few weeks after the presidential election which Atiku lost, Awoniyi declared his intention to run for governor of Kogi State, but one of the sources querried, “Where did Awoniyi all of a sudden get the money to run his primaries considering how stingy he is?”
The source wondered what the former deputy governor was bringing to the APC, having been rejected in his constituency, “because he never dug a single well or sunk a borehole for the people in his constituency nor initiated a single cottage industry or project that can possibly impact on his people or village in particular throughout his tenure as a deputy governor, the reason they nicknamed him Akagum”.
One of his followers who felt disappointed said: “Of what value is Yomi Awoniyi to the party and our people when he ran aground a striving plastic manufacturing industry, Boja Industries, which Baba Awoniyi left in his hands to run, which provided employment for many of our people. The factory today is completely moribund and he does not care.”
The source recalled that Awoniyi was almost impeached as a deputy governor for mismanaging the “humungous amount of cash and materials” donated to flood victims in the state way back but for the quick intervention of his principal, who reportedly pacified the lawmakers to spare him, adding: “We knew then that 23 out of the 25 members of the state House of Assembly had signed his impeachment notice before his boss, who was indisposed then, saved him. But up till today, he has refused to account for all the donations”.
The source further wondered how Yahaya Bello, whom Awoniyi had consistently accused of incompetence and shallow-mindedness, suddenly became his friend and mentor, extolling his atributes to high heavens, when election is a few weeks away.
According to another source, Awoniyi is also trying to curry the favour of Bello because of the sum of N426milliom he claimed the state owes him after leaving office with the belief that if APC wins the gubernatorial election, Bello would instruct his successor to pay him the money.
While further describing the former deputy governor as “an ingrate who sold his people for a plate of porridge”, the apparently disappointed source said by his action, he worked against everything that his late father stood for.
“Awoniyi had contested the PDP primaries against Senator Dino Melaye, whom he calls ‘Aburo’ and had said he would and can never contest against him. Typical of him never to keep to his promises, he picked the form to contest against this same ‘Aburo’. He was soundly defeated by Melaye who became the governorship candidate of the PDP in the state. He never really recovered from the shame of that crushing defeat. This is also one of the reasons he left the PDP because he had calculated that if APC wins the election, his bread will be well-buttered.
“Most depressing for the peope of Okun though, is the fact that a great opportunity has presented itself for them to produce the next governor of Kogi State, having been sidelined in producing one since the creation of the state in 1991. Currently, there are two sons of Okunland running for election: Dino Melaye of the PDP and Leke Abejide of the ADC. To think Awoniyi can again sell his own people for his selfish greed makes one wonder if any trait of the great man, the late Chief S. B. Awoniyi exists in him,” the source added.
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