New facts
emerged over the weekend revealing that the trio of Nasir El Rufai,
Babatunde Fashola, and Kayode Fayemi forcefully prevailed on the
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, through its national
commissioner and relative to President Muhammadu Buhari, Amina
Zakari and the national chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, to switch the name of
Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, as the flagbearer of the People’s Democratic
Party, PDP, for the November 26 Ondo governorship election.
Our investigations did not provide
clarity as to if President Buhari is privy to the action of his
ministers and the governor, who many said have been exerting more power
and influence than the president since the All Progressives Congress
came to power in 2015.
It would be recalled that INEC had replaced the name of Eyitayo in its final list of candidates
released last Thursday, claiming it was obeying a court order by
Justice Okon Abang despite. The INEC decision suspect because it ignored
two other court rulings of coordinate jurisdiction restraining INEC
from replacing Eyitayo as the PDP candidate.
On Friday, The Trent obtained insider
accounts that confirmed that INEC ignored the advice of its legal
department and a consortium of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SANs,
advising it to obey court orders restraining it from removing
Jegede’s name and replacing it with Jimoh Ibrahim, a billionaire
businessman discovered to be a stooch of the three APC chieftains.
Further findings by our investigative
journalists reveal that that trio of El Rufai, the governor of Kaduna
State, Fashola, the minister of power, housing, and works, and Fayemi,
the minister for mineral resources are the unseen hands tele guiding
INEC in its conduct on the governorship elections in Ondo and that the
tainted politicians are motivated by the 2019 presidential ambitions of
the Kaduna governor.
The 2019 Maneuvering
According to a top source in the ruling
party, El Rufai is building structures across the country with which to
launch his presidential aspiration by pouching like-minds and pulling
down every perceived obstacles using his close relationship with the
president.
One of the regions which the Kaduna
governor is worried about is the South West because of the threat posed
by Bola Tinubu, a co-founder of APC and erstwhile national leaders of the party.
“El Rufai believes that Tinubu will not
support his 2019 presidential ambition, so he is working the usual
Fulani political tactic, to divide and rule,” the APC chieftain told our
reporter on condition of anonymity.
“So he cashed in on the frosty
relationship between Tinubu and his “boys” Fashola and Fayemi. He is
hoping to undercut the South West leader to achieve his aim of becoming
president in 2019 and he sees Governor [Olusegun] Mimiko as his biggest
threat to winning the vote in Ondo State.
“El Rufai knows he doesn’t stand a chance in the South West because of his cantankerous nature, which is made worse by his highly publicised spat with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, so he is pulling out all the cards into the game to undermine Yoruba politicians. But it will not work,” our source concluded.
2019: Fashola (Or Fayemi) As Veepee
According to a reliable source in the
presidency, “What is happening with the Ondo election is also part of
the game plan to clear all obstacles for the emergence of El-Rufai as
the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in
2019, and either Fashola or Fayemi as his running mate.
“Part of the orchestrated plan also led
to the humiliation of the national leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu during
the Ondo APC primaries where his preferred candidate, Dr. Segun Abraham
was rigged out of the race to pave way for Rotimi Akeredolu, who they
believe is one of them and would be loyal to the El-Rufai/Fashola/Fayemi
2019 Presidential ambition,” the source said.
Another source in the APC also disclosed
that “after outsmarting Asiwaju Tinubu in their game of wit, in their
desperate move to capture Ondo for the APC in order to enable smooth
ride for El-Rufai in Ondo State ahead of the 2019 elections, they
believe rigging the election in favour of Akeredolu of the APC against
Jegede the most popular candidate in the race, will not be very easy for
them”.
Fashola is a two-term former governor of Lagos, while Fayemi is a one-term former governor of Ekiti.
The Mimiko Factor
The politician from one of the other
South West states, who declined to be mentioned, continued, “They also
see the big threat in Mimiko a highly experienced and smart politician
whose political sagacity they cannot match, so they sought to use Jimoh
Ibrahim to break the PDP in Ondo and capture the state as part of their
2019 agenda.
“When El-Rufai, Fashola and Fayemi
consulted Jimoh, who had no intention to be governor. The plan was to
use him obtain a court order from the controversial Justice Okon Abang
to displace Jegede as the candidate of the PDP, thereby creating a
smooth ride for the APC.
“Part of the deal was that when APC wins
the Ondo election, the yet to be commissioned Ondo State Power Plant in
Ore and the new International Events Center, The Dome in Akure, would
be sold to Jimoh Ibrahim. While his lingering court battle with the
Asset Management Company (AMCON) would also be settled,” he disclosed to
our reporter.
Mimiko, who is presently fighting what
has been described as one of the greatest political battles of his life,
learning from the humiliation Asiwaju Tinubu suffered in the hands of
El-Rufai, Fashola and Fayemi, seems to have seen the handwriting on the
wall that the trio will leave no stone unturned to ensure he doesn’t
handover to his preferred choice as next Ondo Governor.
The governor has been running from
pillar to pole to ensure his party’s preferred candidate is reinstated
on the INEC list before the November 26 election.
Meanwhile, the Appeal Court as set Tuesday, November 1, 2016 to pass judgement on the applications to set aside the dubiously obtained court order by Justice Okon Abang.
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