Afenifere endorses Akeredolu for Governor

chika ebuzor

November 22, 2016 5:41 AM

The Chairman of the group, Chief Wale Oshun said the APC candidate is the best man for the job.

The Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere has thrown its weight behind the All Progressives Congress (APC) guber candidate in the race to be the Ondo state Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu.

According to Punch, the Chairman of the group, Chief Wale Oshun said the APC candidate is the best man for the job.

Oshun said this after paying a courtesy visit to Akeredolu in Lagos on Monday, November 21, 2016.

The Afenifere boss also said Ondo people deserve the kind of progress going on in other APC run states in the South-West.

He said “Certainly, we are here to endorse him. Akeredolu has been one of us, he is one of us, he is an activist; a tested progressive and he strongly believes in the welfarist principles of the founders of Afenifere.

“What is important at this stage is that he is the one that believes in the ideology of the political philosophy of Yorubaland. He is the one that believes in the principles laid down by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

“He is not just claiming it; we can identify and affirm it. He had been one of us and his party has deemed it fit to allow him to run as the candidate and because he is the best in the circumstance to rule the state. We believe we should give him our open support.

“We have played this critical role in many elections held in the South-West and we believe this should not be an exception. And we wish him well and we are praying for him. He has worked hard and we hope the Almighty God will answer our prayers for him.”

Akeredolu also dismissed reports of cracks in the APC, because its national leader, Bola Tinubu was not at his campaign rally in Akure.

He said “All of us in the APC are working together now. We are all working together as a party. Even Segun Abraham has come out to ask his supporters to come and work for the APC.

“The only person, for instance, who left is Olusola Oke and was never a member of our party. He came after we elected President Muhammadu Buhari. He just rushed in thinking he could capitalise on the use of money to swing people to his side but when he failed, he decided to opt out. And he went to another party.

“Somebody who spent 16 years in the Peoples Democratic Party; 16 years as a conservative cannot wake up one day and become a progressive. It is not possible. So he had to opt out of the progressive group to be on his own. He is the only person that left, no other person joined him.”

According to reports, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Gov Akinwunmi Ambode, Abiola Ajimobi and Rauf Aregbesola, all shunned the APC campaign rally in Akure ahead of the Ondo governorship election.

chika ebuzor