BEVERLY HILLS, November 21, (THEWILL) – The camp of a national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu failed in their quest to have their preferred candidate emerge as winner of the September 3 governorship primaries in Ondo state because they hedged their bet at the fiercely-contested election, ThisDay reports.

Recall that a former President of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Chief Rotimi Akeredolu SAN, had won the APC governorship primary in Ondo state, defeating Segun Abraham, widely believed to be the favoured candidate of Tinubu.

Shortly after the election, Tinubu accused the APC National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun of sabotaging the will of democracy in Ondo State by overriding the decision of the appeal panel which asked for a fresh governorship primary following investigations that showed that the delegates’ list used for the exercise was tampered with, adding that “There exists a regressive element in the party that cares nothing for the progressive ideas upon which this party was founded”.

But a presidency source told the newspaper that the former Lagos governor had no reason to hold a grudge against the party or Buhari over the primary because Oyegun, at the outset, gave Tinubu his due as the national leader of the APC and its leader in the South-west geopolitical zone by consulting with him and sharing with him the delegates’ list.

Stressing that what came the way of Tinubu’s camp from the primary was self-inflicted, the presidency source said, “Tinubu’s camp tried to hedge its bet by backing three candidates for the primary. Rauf Aregbesola was backing Olusola Oke, Tinubu’s wife, Remi, was pushing for Senator Robert Ajayi Boroffice, while Tinubu was supporting Dr. Olusegun Abraham.

“So Akeredolu who was not given much of a chance came and decimated the field of Tinubu’s contestants in a very close race to win the primary. If you recall, he only beat Abraham who was second by 31 votes while Abraham beat Oke who came third in the primary by 97 votes.

“The reason it was so close was because Tinubu’s camp was hedging its bet and did not want to put all of its eggs in one basket, so it could not make up its mind by backing one candidate against Akeredolu.

“As such, the votes that could have gone to Abraham was split among other candidates that they were backing,” the presidency source said, adding that once Akeredolu emerged the party’s candidate, APC stakeholders and the presidency were in no mood to change the outcome of the primary despite the recommendation of the review panel that it should hold another primary, going by instances such as the Katsina and Adamawa primaries in 2014.

“If Buhari could accept the outcome of the Katsina primary in which his preferred candidate, Hadi Sirika lost to Aminu Masari, and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar accepted his candidate’s loss to Jibrilla Bindow, we would have expected Tinubu to do likewise by embracing Akeredolu as the APC candidate in Ondo.

“However, he has refused to do so, forgetting that the loss of his candidate to Akeredolu was self-inflicted,” the source stated.

Meanwhile, a different source in the presidency was quoted in the report to have stated that the re-election bid in 2019 of President Muhammadu Buhari would be determined by the outcome of Saturday’s governorship election in Ondo State, which would also make a statement in terms of who is in charge of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Recall that although Buhari and a host of party bigwigs graced the APC rally in Akure on Saturday, Tinubu and Governors Akinwumi Ambode, Abiola Ajimobi and Rauf Aregbosola of Lagos, Oyo and Osun States respectively were noticeably absent at the event.

The source was quoted as saying that the president’s camp is out to test its popularity as well as capacity for political strategy ahead of the 2019 elections with the decision to edge out certain players in the APC over the Ondo governorship poll, and the decimation of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The newspaper gathered that inasmuch as Buhari is very keen on a second term in office, he is taking it slowly because of the state of the country, but would not mind taking his chances if the atmosphere is right, adding that if despite all that has been at play in the Ondo theatrics, APC wins, then Buhari would be seeking re-election in 2019.

http://thewillnigeria.com/news/how-tinubus-camp-caused-failure-of-preferred-candidate-to-win-apc-primary-in-ondo/

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