•Oluwo was a serial opportunist — APC

By Emmanuel Aziken,

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Lagos State has denied a secret pact with Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to self-destruct the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC in the state.

The assertion by the PDP came as the APC in Lagos State yesterday decried the immediate past commissioner for energy, Mr. Olawale Oluwo as an opportunist who repeatedly sought to use the APC platform to promote his family interests.

The Oluwo caused a stir on Wednesday when he announced his resignation from the Akinwunmi Ambode administration and also defected from the APC to the PDP. His resignation had given vent to speculations of a secret pact between Ambode and the PDP that would see the governor remain in the APC and at the last minute throw support and logistics behind the PDP as revenge against his party for making him the first sitting governor of Lagos State to be denied a return ticket.

Mr. Felix Oboagwina, the director of media of the Jimi Agbaje governorship campaign rebuffing the assertion in an interview with Vanguard said: “Those are conjectures, those are theories, it doesn’t necessarily have to be true, but what can be said is that this was a marriage of convenience and it was bound to collapse and we are seeing the beginning of the end of that edifice that was put together just for a tyrannical purpose.”

Asserting that the APC was built on fraud, he said: “We have always known that his former party is one that does not stand for internal democracy neither does it stand for external democracy as manifested in the primaries that recently held which left a bitter taste in the mouth of members of the party and the public. “So, it didn’t come as a surprise, it was just a matter of time.

It indicates the beginning of the collapse of that marriage of convenience that was put in place just to remove the former government. It is just the beginning and we are expecting more. See what happened in Imo State also “We are expecting more of that to happen. When people come together in tyranny after destroying their common enemy, the next thing is that they begin to destroy one another.

So, anyone who has common sense would now begin to run away from this drowning Titanic.” The APC, however, rebuffed the claim as it accused Oluwo of serial opportunism despite the faithfulness of the party to him. The APC in a statement issued by its publicity secretary, Mr. Joe Igbokwe said: “It is on record that Oluwo first made an attempt to reap from the challenges of internal party democracy in our progressive movement when he teamed up with one of the losers in the 2007 primaries of the Action Congress to stop Babatunde Fashola’s sure victory at the polls. The unfortunate political adventurism failed woefully.

“However, in the conventional demonstration of mercy and forgiveness, Oluwo’s principal, Sen. Tokunbo Afikuyomi was accommodated in the second term cabinet of Governor Babatunde Fashola as the Commissioner for Tourism. “A similar milk of mercy and kindness led to the consideration Of Oluwo as a member of the Lagos State Executive Council under Governor Akinwunmi Ambode in the hope that he has purged himself of opportunism, disloyalty and vaulting desperation for power. “Oluwo had hardly resumed as the Commissioner when he began his plot to use that office to advance his quest for political fiefdom.

The object of his ambition was the positioning of his wife as the chairman of a local government. “However, alert party men and women raised alarm about his anti-party antecedents wondering why someone who recently joined the party would want to use his position as commissioner to impose his wife on the constituency.

“The party rank and file aborted this abuse of power and reckless peddling of influence and everybody thought the lesson had been learnt. He, apparently, had not. As soon as the procedures for the general elections began, Oluwo once again became the only commissioner to seek his wife as the member of House of Assembly for Eti- Osa. “By now the pattern of his ambition had become clear.

The intrigue that enabled him to make his wife the first- term commissioner’s wife to become the chairperson of the committee which organised the annual National Women Conference became clear. It was meant to achieve undeserved visibility. “This obnoxious attempt to deceive party members was again foiled and it is the aggravated frustration that has led to this defection.

It has been necessary to put this in true context so as to dismiss the false and capricious insinuation that his resignation was in principled objection to the party’s last primaries. Far from it. He was only playing true to type, seeking as he had done in 2007 to reap from the primaries.”

Source:- Vanguardngr