Former Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has said that he is supporting the African Democratic Congress (ADC) governorship candidate, Biyi Otegbeye, in next year’s election.
Amosun had zeroed in on Otegbeye after he fell out with Adekunle Akinlade who contested against Abiodun, in 2019, on the platform of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
Findings revealed that Akinlade fell out with Amosun when he dumped the ruling party for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where he was offered deputy governorship slot.
Amosun gave Otegbeye a nod to run on the platform of APM, but Akinlade allegedly blocked the move, leaving the former governor’s men to bargain for the ADC’s governorship ticket.
However, Amosun openly confirmed that he is backing Otegbeye in the next election against Abiodun who is the candidate of APC, the party they both belong to.
Amosun spoke during an exclusive interview with BBC Yoruba, monitored by in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
READ ALSO: Amosun suffering from “political amnesia—Ogun APC
“For the presidential poll, I can assure you, both right, left and centre, we are supporting one person (Tinubu). I believe we are supporting one person. On the governorship poll, that’s a different ball game. I don’t belong there.
“I don’t hide behind one finger to fight. That’s why people say to me ‘don’t say that.’ On governorship, my supporters and I, we don’t belong to that side.”
Asked who is supporting, Amosun responded “Biyi Otegbeye is the person I am supporting and ADC is the party.”
Meanwhile a Deputy Governor to Amosun, Yetunde Onanuga, has joined the incumbent Governor Dapo Abiodun’s camp of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State.
Onanuga was said to have also pledged her support for the second-term ambition of the Abiodun administration.
The former Deputy Governor was first seen with Abiodun during the celebration of the nation’s independence on October 1, fueling speculations that she had left the Ogun Central Senator.
On Sunday, Abiodun formally announced that the woman and her husband, Abiodun Onanuga, were accepted into the APC mainstream in Ogun State.
The APC in Ogun is divided between Abiodun and Amosun factions.
But for the 2023 general elections, those in the Abiodun camp were nominated as candidates of the party in all the 40 elective positions in the state.
Members of the Amosun political family who obtained the APC forms said they were schemed out in arranging things.
According to them, the governor did not implement a sharing formula recommended by the party’s national reconciliation committee to unite both camps.
Today, supporters of the former governor are behind the governorship candidate of Barrister Biyi Otegbeye of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Otegbeye, is an indigene of Ogun West, a zone that has not produced a governor since the creation of Ogun State in 1976.