By Ayo Kehinde
Having established his political power in Abuja by securing Ministerial and Board appointments for his aides from Ogun state, ex-Governor Amosun has ordered members of the political party he sponsored for the governorship to return to the All Progressives Congress, APC. That party is the Allied Peoples’ Movement, whose governorship candidate, Adekunle Akinlade led Amosun’s loyalist back into the APC in the state on Monday. That is the first step to his plot to take over control of the party currently held by supporters of his predecessor, Segun Osoba.
Akinlade and other loyalists of Amosun had left the APC for APM after losing their tickets to the incumbent, Dapo Abiodun and the other APC candidates.
Akinlade who was the preferred candidate of Amosun in the last election, on Monday, announced that he and other members of the APM have resolved to return to the APC, 15 months after they dumped the party.
Speaking with newsmen at the APM secretariat in Leme, Abeokuta, Akinlade insisted that they remain the legitimate owners of the APC.
On his party, Amosu who was suspended by the NEC of the party was recently pardoned alongside his counterparts in Imo state, Senator Rocahs Okorocha, incumbent Ondo governor, Amechi Akleredolu and DG of Voice of Nigeria, Okechuwku.
While his suspension lasted and he remained estranged from his Ogun state branch of the party, Amosun wielded power in Abuja that made his rivals back home, such as former governor Segun Osoba, green with envy.
He got President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint his former Special Adviser for Rural Developmen, Adewale Ogunyomade, into the new board of the Federal Inland Revenue Service to represent the South-West.
The former governor who represents Ogun Central in the Senate had Federal political appointments into his camp, without any recourse to the incumbent Gov. Dapo Abiodun.
Amosun’s former Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Olamilekan Adegbite, was appointed as the Minister of Mines and Steel Development.
He also succeeded in pushing his former Commissioner for Special Duties and InterGovernmental Affairs, Adeleke Adewolu, to be appointed as the executive commissioner, Stakeholder Engagement, at the Nigeria Communications Commission.
In the same vein, Amosun’s former Commissioner, Urban and Physical Planning, Mrs Ronke Sokefun, was appointed as the chairman of the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Also, Bisi Adegbuyi became the Postmaster-General/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Postal Services through Amosun’s influence.
Amosun’s directive on Akinlade to move the rump of the APM, into APC on Monday, was a clear move to regain control of the party machinery in the state, having asserted his influence in Abuja. The not too cozy relationship of another Ogun citizen, VP Yemi Osinbajo with the Presidency and the shaky hold of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the party, if the recent anti-establishment posture of his newspaper, The Nation,is anything to go by, has given Amosun the leverage to get back at his rivals who supported the incumbent governor Abiodun to power and take control of the party machinery where many of his loyalist remained during the movement of a faction to APM.
