....Edward Onoja Traded Off Smart Adeyemi To Insure 2023 Guber Hope
It is no longer news that Senator Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) defeated Senator Smart Adeyemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in last Saturday Kogi West senatorial election.
Aside Kogi West, APC won in every other senatorial district in Kogi state and this has raised a lot of suspicions among top chieftains of the ruling party in the state.
While many rightly believe the result of Kogi West election was the true reflection of the wishes of voters, discerning politicians are asking questions as to why the wishes of voters did not reflect in Kogi East and Kogi Central
Edward Onoja, the schemer-in-chief of the APC in Kogi state ensured that all coercive apparatus of government were deployed to Kogi Central and Kogi East to forcefully secure victory for APC but tactically refused to deploy same to Kogi West. Chieftains of the party are well aware of this.
In the East and Central, APC went all out to buy votes, intimidate voters, snatch ballot materials with active collaboration of security agencies. Why did the planners abandon Smart Adeyemi to his fate? Smart Adeyemi became a political orphan on Saturday.
One would wonder why Onoja did this knowing fully well that his action will favour his fierce enemy, Dino Melaye. The answer is not far fetched. Onoja understands the thinking of Governor Yahaya Bello on Kogi governorship seat. Governor Yahaya Bello from Kogi Central believes Kogi state can only move forward by giving a sense of belonging to all tribes across the three senatorial district. Governor Yahaya Bello holds a strong belif that if all senatorial districts is allowed to occupy the number one seat in state, the festering wounds and mutual ethnic distrust that has brought the state to its kneels can be corrected. Edward Onoja is not comfortable with this belief. He sees this as a threat to his ambition to succeed Governor Yahaya Bello in 2023.
Edward Onoja has heard Governor Yahaya Bello reiterating this belief on several occasions and he is bent on truncating the plan. He has always insisted that the senatorial district that pulls more votes for APC in elections will produce next governor after Bello.
To ensure his plans work out, Edward Onoja launched a deliberate attack on Kogi Westerners to make them hate Governor Yahaya Bello. He started by creating enmity between the Senator Dino Melaye and the governor. He went further by ensuring that appointees from Kogi West are not well empowered. Barr. Justina Abanida, Chief Clarence Olafemi and some others from Kogi West were snookered out of the government. He tactically reduced the influence of former Speaker Umar Imam, Asiru Idris, Taofiq Isah, Ayo Emmanuel Arewa and a host of others in the government. He did all these in deliberate plot to weaken the party’s chances of pulling winning votes from Kogi West so he can convince Governor Yahaya Bello to hand over to him instead of his plan to shift power to the West.
During the last campaigns, Edward starved Kogi West of funds. Smart Adeyemi and Ibrahim Adoga had to improvised on several occasions. Close observers noticed that Edward Onoja pumped more resources to Kogi East while leaving Smart Adeyemi to struggle with his campaigns.
Whatever Smart Adeyemi got in Kogi West came from the goodwill he enjoys in the area. He was a victim of a political schemer who traded him off for his planned governorship bid in 2023.
Smart Adeyemi suffered a painful defeat on Saturday but he will rise again. He is a seed that can be buried but will sprout out at the touch of water.
– Abidemi Olalekan, Lokoja
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