Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeLatest PostRevealed! Real Reason Apapa LG Boss, Owolabi Adele Lost His Second Term...

Revealed! Real Reason Apapa LG Boss, Owolabi Adele Lost His Second Term Bid!… The Yemi Osinbajo, Tunde Balogun Angle – Naijanewsdirect

 

…”I Prostrated For Tunde Balogun, Yet He Denied Me A Second Term Ticket”- Hon. Adele

The last has definitely not been heard of the inability of Apapa LG Chairman, Hon. Elijah Owolabi Adele’s bid to secure a second term ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to contest Lagos state LG Chairmanship election come July, 2021. Not even the intervention of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo could pave the way for him as he gallantly lost the chance to seek re-election.

 

Impeccable sources divulged to Naija News Direct  that reason behind Hon. Adele’s inability to get APC second term ticket to contest the forthcoming LG election might not be unconnected with the power tussle between him and the Lagos state APC Chairman, Mr Tunde Balogun. The battle for supremacy between Hon. Adele and Mr Tunde Balogun was said to have been on before the emergence of the latter as state chairman of the party.

 

Mr Tunde Balogun, we reliably gathered has always been the apex leader of APC in Apapa even before he became the state Chairman of the party, but he was said to have been neglected and faced stiff competition and challenge from Hon. Adele and former Reps member and one time chairman of Apapa LG, Hon. Ayodeji Joseph. Since 2017 when Hon. Adele became the Chairman of Apapa LG he was said not to have regarded Tunde Balogun as his leader, and also not accorded him the necessary leadership respect.

Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo

We reliably gathered that from inception, Hon. Adele wasn’t Tunde Balogun’s candidate for the chairmanship seat of Apapa LG in 2017. He supported Hon. Egberongbe, the former Lagos State House of Assembly member who represented Apapa Constituency 1 and now House of Representatives member, representing Apapa. Hon. Adele emerged the APC candidate for the 2017 Lagos LG chairmanship election at the controversial primaries held at Teslim Balogun Stadium where Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, the chairman, APC Electoral Committee was beaten black and blue by some irate and aggrieved APC supporters.

 

According to inside sources, Hon. Adele’s name emerged the APC candidate for 2017 LG chairmanship seat election when Sen. Afikuyomi announced him and subsequently made it known that he’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo’s candidate. Being brandished as Vice President’s choice automatically doused tension and agitation from Tunde Balogun’s camp. The dummy worked perfectly as no one could doubt or further question his emergence then. Reason being that Hon. Adele just like Hon. Ayodeji are Redeemed Church Pastors and are widely believed to be very close to Prof. Yemi Osinbajo who’s also a famous Redeemed Church Pastor.

 

More so, the immediate past chairman of the Council, Hon. Ayodeji Joseph gave Hon. Adele all the necessary support, including financial backing. The frosty relationship and supremacy battle between Mr Tunde Balogun and Hon. Adele continued when the latter became the chairman of Apapa and trickled to party structure in the local government as two factions of APC emerged in Apapa. LGA 1 and LGA 2 were more pronounced in Apapa. While one Fatai Akanni heads the first faction of APC loyal to Mr Tunde Balogun, the second faction, ostensibly loyal to Hon. Adele was headed by ‘Oyinbo’. Things remain like this up till the last general elections.

 

After the emergence of Hon. Tunde Balogun as the Lagos state APC chairman and during preparations for the 2019 general elections, at APC Secretariat in Acme, when Gov. Sanwo-Olu and Deputy Governor, Kadiri Hamzat met all party heads from every local government in Lagos state, a mellow drama ensued.

 

Gov. Sanwo-Olu, Dr Hamzat, Tunde Balogun and other party executives in the state were all seated on the podium when Gov. Sanwo-Olu reportedly directed a question to the leadership of the party from Apapa. ‘Oyinbo’ was said to have swiftly raised his hand. When given the chance to talk, he reportedly cast aspersions on Mr. Tunde Balogun, he accused him of running a parallel APC government in Apapa and if the other faction which he heads, was not carried along, it could possibly spell doom for the party election result in Apapa.

Mr Tunde Balogun

The statement got Gov. Sanwo-Olu slightly annoyed but the Governor kept his cool, while someone from the camp of Hon. Tunde Balogun in the hall dealt decisively with Oyinbo, he pounced on him, landed a deadly blow on him in the presence of Hon. Adele who helplessly watched on. Both Oyinbo and Hon. Adele were sent out of the hall.

 

At the corridor of party secretariat building, while humiliated Oyinbo was wiping off his tears and a stain of blood from his mouth, Hon. Adele consoled him and said in both English and Yoruba languages that: “I have always warned you, but you won’t listen, you shouldn’t have said anything, knowingly fully well that we are alone here. And i always told you to always go anywhere with the ‘good boys’ (Area Boys). How much will you pay the ‘good boys’? They would have protected you. You just punished yourself for nothing…”

 

Fast forward, the cat and mouse game between Mr Tunde Balogun and Hon. Adele go on unabated till the just-concluded APC LG chairmanship primaries. It was indeed the battle of wits, popularity and supremacy between both camps before Hon. Kelvin Gabriel emerged the APC candidate for the forthcoming local government election in Apapa LG.

 

Hon. Kelvin is the incumbent Vice Chairman of Apapa LG, loyal to Mr Tunde Balogun. After the party released the official list of its candidates for the July LG elections in the state and Hon. Adele’s name was conspicuously missing, the Apapa LG chairman was said to have practically deployed every means possible to ensure his name return to the list of party candidates for the elections. Reliable sources said apart from making contacts with those that matter within and outside political environment, he also resorted to making a passionate appeal to Mr Tunde Balogun to forgive him that he will turn a new leaf if given a second chance.

Hon. Owolabi Elijah Adele

In fact, sources said his wife, mother-in-law and children are not left out as they had met Mr Tunde Balogun and begged him on behalf of their breadwinner. On his own part, Hon. Adele reportedly contacted Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to intervene in the matter and the VP, we reliably gathered called Mr Tunde Balogun but the VP intervention could not turn back the hand of the clock. Former Commissioners for Agric and Housing and now Oba of Oniru, his royal majesty, Oba Gbolahan Lawal also tried his best but it didn’t materialize. We further gathered that Hon. Adele and his loyalists contemplated two options. Taking Mr Tunde Balogun and APC to court or crossing to another political party to contest the forthcoming elections and return back to APC after, hopefully winning at the polls. These plans were said to have been denied by Hon. Adele’s camp.

Hon. Mufutau Egberongbe

When Hon. Adele was contacted over the phone on Monday, 5th July, 2021, at exactly 3pm to react to the story, Hon Adele said, Mr Tunde Balogun appointed a parallel APC LGA Chairman in Apapa two days after he emerged Lagos state APC Chairman.

 

“Our party congresses were conducted on 5th, 12th and 19th of May, 2018, and results had been sent to APC headquarters in Abuja. Two days after the result had been submitted, Mr Tunde Balogun assumed office as the state Chairman of APC on 21st of May, 2018, he then said he did not recognise the duly elected LGA chairman that his name had been forwarded to Abuja. Baba Ajomale was the state chairman when the election was held. Mr Tunde Balogun subsequently appointed his own parallel LGA chairman. I went to him, I told him that I have no bad intention towards you, if I have any bad intention towards you the bad would be my own. I even prostrated for him that ‘Oga’, this man that emerged LGA chairman is from your ward, allow him to be but he said over his dead body.

Every festive period – ileya festival, Christmas, Easter periods etc, I do my duties towards him. I always respect him. During his 70th birthday, I know my contributions, I did newspaper advert for him and I even supported the birthday committee. In 2019, the person who represents us in House of Representatives in Abuja (Hon. Muftau Egberongbe) did not win the primaries. Hon. Ayodeji Joseph won that primaries but Mr Tunde Balogun manipulated it, the same thing he did for me now. If we do that primaries countless times, with all sense of humility, I will be winning. He now gave it to my Vice Chairman, where do they do that?”

 

Although, Hon. Adele admitted he’s very close to the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, he however, denied Prof. Osinbajo contacted Mr Tunde Balogun over his predicament.
“The Vice President is a Pastor in Redeemed Christian Church of God and I am also a Redeemed Church Pastor. I am very close to the Vice President but he never called Mr Tunde Balogun over my issue. I went to beg Mr Tunde Balogun and my wife also went to appeal to him as well. I am a progressive. I have been a progressive for more than 3 decades.”

Former Apapa LG chairman, Hon. Ayodeji Joseph

When we got in touch with the State APC Caretaker Committee Chairman, Mr Tunde Balogun on Tuesday, 6th July, 2021, at about 8:13 am, he picked holes in Hon. Adele’s claims. He reiterated that the APC LG chairmanship candidate of Apapa emerged through a consensus arrangement.

 

“…That’s a big dream on his part. We failed to hold primaries in all the wards, so we used consensus to determine the candidate for the LG election. The reason is, we have three means through which our candidate emerge for general elections- through either direct primaries, indirect primaries or consensus arrangement. It is a constitutional thing. So, Apapa LG chairmanship candidate emerged through a consensus arrangement which is enshrined in our Constitution.”
Meanwhile, Mr Balogun debunked the existence of a parallel LGA Chairman in Apapa and also denied receiving a call from the Vice President.

 

“No, the Vice President did not call me on his behalf. That’s a figment of someone’s imagination. And there is no parallel APC government in Apapa. The APC Caretaker Committee Chairman of Apapa is Alhaji Fatai.”

Tunde Ogunmola
Tunde Ogunmolahttps://naijanewsdirect.com
'Tunde Ogunmola Executive Editor/CEO (OBAT CONNECTS CONCEPTS) Publishers of Naija News Direct) Tel: 08055102893, 08126439182 (WhatsApp) Email:babs.ogunmola@yahoo.com
RELATED ARTICLES

Most Popular

Recent Comments