Osun 2018: Adeleke, Ogunbiyi’s Reconciliation Suffers Another Setback

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP may go into the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Osun State with divided house, following the deep-seated animosity between the governorship candidate of the party, Senator Ademola Adeleke and bigwigs of the party, especially Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi.

The leadership of the party had brokered peace between the duo of Ademola and Ogunbiyi but the former reneged, leaving the crisis rocking the party unresolved.

Fresh facts however emerged yesterday on why the Adelekes have continuously shunned reconciliation with Ogunbiyi.

An highly ranked source within the party, disclosed that Deji Adeleke had informed an echelon of the party, Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun of his intention to visit Ogunbiyi to reconcile him and his Ademola and finally laid the crux to rest.

Some leaders of the party including Hon. Segun Odekunmi, Baba Oyelayo Laoye, Alhaji Gani Olaoluwa and others in anticipation of the meeting had gone to Ogunbiyi’s Ile Ogbo country home in order to facilitate the reconciliation. But no member of the Adelekes showed up while the leaders left in utter disappointment.

A source within the Adeleke family who was at Iresi when Deji Adeleke visited Oludaisi Aina yesterday revealed why his boss has found it convenient to visit key members of Ogunbiyi’s camp at home but continue to shun going to reconcile with Ogunbiyi.

According to him, the Adelekes do not want Ogunbiyi to be involved in their campaign as that would strengthen his political base and he may become a stronger threat to their political dominance as Senator Iyiola Omisore was during the last West Senatorial election.

He affirmed further that despite their poor outing at rallies they can not allow Ogunbiyi to take any credit in the event they win the elections, adding the Adelekes are not willing to honour the agreement put together by the National leadership of the party which they believe will be a condition for Ogunbiyi’s full participation and may become a topic for discussion should they visit him.

The source who craved anonymous said in the alternative of going to appeal to Ogunbiyi, they would rather “romance members of his camp and woe them over in order to neutralise him. But this strategy seems to be backfiring as members of Ogunbiyi’s camp continue to insist that divide and rule method will not work on them because their loyalty is absolute.”

Another source within Adeleke’s camp lamented that the defectors’ mobilisation has not produced the desired result while the party leadership are still cold towards the campaign. He noted that this was why funds are not been released to oil the campaign structure.

“This development is already causing disaffection among the inner caucus of the Adeleke’s team. I only hope that the National campaign Committee set up will help boost the fledging performance of the party ahead of the elections to compensate for the non involvement of Rt. Hon Adejare Bello and Dr Ogunbiyi and their supporters,” he remarked.