Governorship Poll: Aregbesola’s SSG Says APC May Lose Osun

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

Ahead of September 22 governorship election in Osun State, the Secretary to the Osun State Government and one of the governorship aspirants on the platform of ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Moshood Adeoti, has cautioned that his party may lose the poll if it jettisons the conventional rule of zoning.

Adeoti, who hails from Iwo Local government area of Osun West Senatorial District in the state, said this at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja, while fielding questions from journalists about the raging zoning controversy.

Speaking on the speculated endorsement of the Chief of Staff to the governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, by Governor Rauf Aregbesola, the SSG said he wasn’t aware that someone had been anointed, arguing that APC may get it wrong if that happens.

According to him, “Let me tell you, I am hearing that for the first time. I am saying it emphatically that if that one should happen in that state, may God forbid bad thing; we are going to get it wrong. Simply because of the fact that even, when they are saying that there is no zoning in our constitution, I believe that indirectly, we have zoning.

“When we started in 1999; it was Baba Akande that spent four years there from Osun Central Senatorial District and when Oyinlola took over from the same Osun Central Senatorial district, it was because both of them came from different constituencies. Baba Akande came from Ila Federal constituency, Oyinlola came from Ifelodun/Boripe/ Odo-Otin local government.

He said both of them were from central, saying if their terms were put together, they spent 11 and half years. He said the person on board, who is going to step down on November 29 this year after fight years, hails from Osun East Senatorial district.

However, the Chief of Staff, Oyetola in an interview with journalists on Wednesday dismissed insinuations that he had been anointed by Governor Aregbesola, saying he wouldn’t have bothered to campaign if he had truly been endorsed as being speculated.