Ondo 2020: Borofice, Oke fight dirty

OSAGIE OTABOR in Bénin reports on the political fight between Chief Olusola Oke and Senator Ajayi Boroffice ahead of the All Progressives Congress’ governorship primaries in Ondo State

Although All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftains in Ondo State, Chief Olusola Oke and Senator Ajayi Boroffice, representing Ondo North Senatorial District, are interested in the replacement of Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu in this year’s governorship election, they are currently on warring path. This is even as they accused each other of working for the second term bid of Akeredolu. The war of words between them followed the emergence of Oke as the consensus aspirant of the Unity Forum.

The Unity Forum, headed by a former Deputy Governor, Alhaji Ali Olanusi, was the platform through which aggrieved APC chieftains in Ondo hoped to stop the second term bid of Akeredolu. Cracks emerged in the forum when Oke was announced the consensus aspirant. Over 10 other aspirants in the forum have vowed to independently pursue their mandate.

Senator Borofice, who doubles as the patron of the Unity Forum, out rightly rejected Oke as the forum’s consensus aspirants and said it was a ploy to give Akeredolu an easy second term in office.

Borofice in a statement urged other aspirants to prepare for the primaries alleging that the plan was for Oke to step down few days to the primaries after getting assurances that Akeredolu would hand over to him in 2024.

According to the statement issued by Borofice media aide, Kayode Fakuyi, “The media report suggesting that Unity Forum has adopted a consensus candidate to represent the Forum in Ondo APC governorship primary election is misleading. The fact is that Unity Forum has no consensus candidate.

But the Unity Mandate Group said Borofice was only playing politics of divide and rule to frustrate successes of the Unity Forum.

According to the Coordinator of the group, Comrade Babatope Abisola, “All along, Senator Borofice has been working underground to cause crisis in order for him to emerge as a neutral candidate to run. We are aware of his moves with the current deputy governor, to undermine us for them to run as candidates. We stand by the mandate given to Chief Olusola Oke”.

Last week, the Unity Mandate Group came harder on Boroffice by accusing him of creating the template of crisis in the Unity Forum so as to either allow Akeredolu go for another term or install a puppet governor in the person of Dapo Adelegan.

In a statement, the group said Senator Boroffice raised the alarm over “illegal” registration of persons into the APC across the 203 wards in the state and those registered were given fake APC membership cards.

Comrade Abisola who named Boroffice as the brain behind the fake APC membership cards’ production said it was part of a broader plan by some APC chieftains to rig if the party adopts the direct mode of primary for the state.

According to Abisola, “It is necessary we call the attention of all our national leaders in APC, including President Muhammadu Buhari, about the ongoing fake membership registration exercise in Ondo State.

““Anyone planning to perform illegality will be resisted; nobody can intimidate us and those having such plan will rig themselves into the water.

Senator Boroffice, who spoke through his media aide, Kayode Fayuki, described the allegation as laughable and described the group as faceless and not credible.

Chief Oke however dissociated himself from activities of the Unity Mandate Agenda, saying it was fictitious group.