Former Attorney General (A-G) and Commissioner for Justice in Oyo State, Adebayo Ojo, has said most people praising Governor Seyi Makinde are waiting for the appropriate time to dump him, especially as 2027 general election is around the corner.
Adebayo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said by December, many of Makinde’s supporters would come out openly to oppose his anointed governorship candidate, Bimbo Adekanmbi.
Speaking on the latest edition of OpenForum360, a political podcast in Ibadan, Adebayo, who said Makinde’s popularity was his greatest strength and asset, added that the popularity was also his greatest albatross.
He said: ‘So, because the man will inherit both the asset and ability. Bimbo will inherit Makinde’s enemies too because they are Siamese twins. It would have been otherwise if Governor Makinde had allowed the candidate of his party to emerge through a transparent, free and fair primary.’
According to him, unlike in the All Progressives Congress (APC) where people are speaking out about the crisis, a lot of people who are with Makinde are just deceiving the governor and are marking their time.
‘Believe me, by December, you will see what will happen. Most of them will leave him. And they will come out to oppose his candidate openly. You see, in APC, they are talking.
‘They are voicing out their opposition. This is why they’ve set up a committee, which is trying to
reconcile them. It is led by Senator Femi Lanlehin. Former minister Adebayo Adelabu may not be speaking, but they know he’s not happy. Senator Buhari is also there. But nobody in the Allied People’s Movement (APM) and the government is voicing out his/her grievances, except those who are courageous enough to say no, I can’t stand it.
‘Only people like Comrade Bayo Titilola-Sodo, Babs Oduyoye and former police commissioner Fatai Owoseni are few, who have said no, you can’t just write rough results on us and treat us any way you like.
‘But some people will say, no, I will tag along with him. Till the end. And likewise, some people did it in Osun. They tagged along with APC. And we all saw the results.
‘So likewise, a lot of them are in APM today. They are just pretending. When they see their candidate, they say ‘incoming’. But they are deceiving him. Bimbo is my good brother and my friend. They are deceiving him.
‘I can’t be mentioning names. I know them. I know you know what is happening. They are deceiving him. There are lots of intrigues in politics. It’s not a straightforward enterprise. They are not playing. They deceive a lot. They deceive themselves a lot in politics.’