APC Crisis in Ogun State Deepens As Lawmaker Dump Amosun for Dapo Abiodun

Prince Harrison Adeyemi

Prince Harrison Adeyemi, a member of  Ogun State House of Assembly (OGHA), represents Ogun Waterside State Constituency at the OGHA, revealed that his six years of unflinching support for Gov. Amosun on the field and in the house as not brought dividends neither to him nor his constituency.

The two term state Legislator who made this known to journalists at Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, in an interview at the weekend, likened his years of support for the Governor as a wasted years.

The former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmaker before his defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC), reveal that there a deal reached with the Governor after 2011 polls as conditions for joining him and APC, The agreement was that Governor will fix about four identified vital roads in Ogun Waterside like Ifire to Ibu community which I had earlier told them. I told him of Togburin and Agodo – Lokula road as well as from Ayila to Itebu Manuwa road. We also discussed the road from Ifire to Imakun. I told him then that my ticket for second term should also be given to me.

Harrison lamented that six years down the line, Amosun has not only failed to honour his own part of the deal, but is also subtly undermining the lawmaker's political career by making him appear as not representing the people of Ogun Waterside State Constituency effectively.

I was elected in 2011 as a member of the state House of assembly on the platform of the. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). So, when I got to Abeokuta here, the Governor invited me and asked me to support them and their party due to one reason or the other, because there was conflict between him and Chief Osoba then.

" And given what we were seeing then in the state, I believe what we needed  then was change and we believe what he (Amosun) was doing what the state needs. So, we joined the party, we had dialogue and came together. Our dialogue was that if I joined the party, the Governor would develop my Local Government.

"We were about four that joined from PDP, he told me to go and get him the support of the others which I did. I did that because I believed what we want from government is the dividends of democracy and that with these, things will be possible.

"I don’t want a situation whereby the government will be hiding under the disguise that ‘the honourable is not doing anything, the honourable did not join me, the honourable is an opposition, and doesn’t do anything,' I had to team up. As the first tenure was going to end, we started contesting, we started campaigning but he did not fulfil his promise of tarring those roads.

"Before these, I built a school, before building that school, I told them that I want to build a school in Ibu community and that I need the government's approval because, it is my time and I was with the government. There are about five primary schools in that community and the nearest secondary school is about five kilometres away.

"So, I felt the school should serve them all. People were very happy when I built the school. I built six classrooms with two offices and two toilets there as a constituency project. Till date, I pay the teachers about Two hundred and eighty thousand Naira (N280,000) monthly for the past four years.

"It is a public school, it is a constituency project. I did it but I am still the one running it, for the fact that we hope the government will approve it in time as a constituency project.

"We went to him, appealed to him, called his friend, Prince Dapo Abiodun and lots of people to him,  even, Odubela who was the Commissioner for education then, we met with him and discussed, yet he turned a deaf ear and didn’t do(approve) it. And before the elections, I went to him in company of the Speaker (Suraj Adekunbi), Mr. Speaker knelt down before him, begged him that he should approve our school.

" He promised that day that he would call the Commissioner for Education to approve that school, but, after we left there, nothing was done about it. That is about three years now, he didn’t do it and he said that after elections, he will attend to rural needs which we agreed. We went into the election, we started campaigning and willingly without anyone forcing him, when we went to campaign at the primary school in Abigi, he told the people that he will tar the roads in three months even before his election (2015 polls) and we believed him.

"As I talk to you, nothing has been done in that regard. So, after our election, at a meeting we told him that ‘Governor, you are not helping the situation, it is as if you stands to destroy the image of the party.’ It is as if I am not competent to represent the people of my Local Government, you shouldn’t abandon that community.

"He told me he would do something but he didn’t do anything. There was a meeting we held last month, suddenly we saw a message from the speaker that there would be an emergency meeting with the Governor,  but, firstly we must assemble in his office before going to the Governor. He said we should all put on white cloths, so I was wondering, from waterside I had to drive down to the office to ask them, ‘why should you ask us to wear white dresses?’ Because, that was the time we had issue with Commissioner for works that was when we suspended him.

"So, we had to get to that place and on getting there, the Commissioner for works was already there with some other Commissioners. So, he was talking about how we suspended the Commissioner, he was even bragging, we just had to exercise patience. We expressed our own side of the matter, he asked the commissioner for works to apologize and he did.

"The Governor appealed to us and we agreed that day that the suspension will be lifted. After the Governor informed us that he is interested in taking loans, that was when my annoyance came up, that was when I separated from him. He called us that we should support this loan, we listened, but, it was a shock for all of us except for those that were formerly aware like the Speaker.

"We asked that ‘why this emergency loan since there are other loans he had been involved in, can he explain how he has spent the other loans?’ He tried to manoeuvre that, he didn’t explain, but, he declared the floor open for questions on his N65.7bn loan. He asked every member to say his mind on the loan and how they feel they will contribute to the loan. When it got to my turn, I told him he was unfair with the people of my Local Government, that since I joined  the party, I have been supporting him but, I see no reason why it is difficult for him to do any capital project, even five km road(in my area). I told him that it is unfair, I told him to his face in his office. I also spoke about the school he refused to approve, he felt bad and he was annoyed with that statement.

"By his response and submission, he said he is not interested in the rural areas now, that he cannot abandon central such as  Ifo and Ota where there are  good votes and go to the rural area to spend his money there and at the same time, the vote from that side does not count. In the presence of us, he said the vote of Ogun East does not count which means a lot to us. That means in his tenure he will not do anything that means my being with him will not fetch us any benefit in my Local Government.

"Then I assessed my journey with him for six years like I am going to market and an armed robber takes away money from me; I was not killed by the armed robber so I decided to go out and arrange myself, then I decided to dump him because he has nothing to offer my Local Government, he doesn’t see the vote from my Local Government as part of his success. So, this is why I decided to just stay away from him and be on my own," Harrison said.

The aggrieved lawmaker however disclosed that he is still in APC but now identified Prince Dapo Abiodun as his leader in the Ogun State chapter of party and not the Governor anymore.

He noted that it is an irony that while Abiodun who was the Ogun East Senatorial candidate of APC in the last general elections helped the Ogun Waterside Local Government with N50m electricity project, the Governor that the area assisted twice to get to power had not done any project for them.

"However, I am still in APC. I don’t want to be a politician that will not be stable in a political party. I am still with Dapo Abiodun in APC. There are lots of propaganda that I belong to Yayi, I belong to this. I have my reasons why I still remain with Dapo Abiodun. He told me that he is ready to contest the gubernatorial election come 2019. Dapo Abiodun did a lot in our Local Government; the Governor we voted for twice cannot do something worth of one million naira while Dapo Abiodun we haven’t voted did electricity worth N50million.

"As at today we still benefit and people are enjoying it in our Local Government. As far as the person is contesting for gubernatorial election as proposed by him, I think the Local Government should support him. Dapo Abiodun was the architect of my success for this second term. If you give me ticket and there is no machinery to run election, it is zero; it is as if you are putting me into problem.

"All things I used during the election were provided by Dapo Abiodun, which means he is up to the task to be a leader. And as am saying, Dapo Abiodun sponsored the entire APC candidate from Ogun East senatorial district," he said.