Tears as Ex-speaker, Dimeji Bankole loses out in Ogun guber race as incumbent Deputy emerges

 It was all tears for the supporters of the former speaker of the House of Rep­resentatives, Dimeji Bankole may have lost out finally in his bid to contest the February 28 gov­ernorship election in Ogun, as the resuscitated Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the state yesterday publicly presented incumbent Senator Akin Odunsi as its flag bear­er in the forthcoming polls.

This is coming just as the SDP said it was targeting 500,000 out of the over one million votes of the eligible voters in the state in the forth­coming governorship election.

Speculations had been rife that Bankole, who along with eight other aggrieved aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state who had boycotted the December 8 governorship primary election of the PDP, and defected to the SDP, was being favoured to fly its flag in the forthcoming governorship polls.

Series of negotiations be­tween the SDP, led by former governor Olusegun Osoba and Bankole’s group was said to have recently broken down irretrievably when it dawned on the former speaker that the party’s leadership was not ready to concede its governor­ship ticket to him.

But with the public presen­tation of Odunsi as the SDP governorship standard bearer, the hope of the former speaker of the House of Representa­tives to contest the governor­ship poll in the state may have been dashed.

Presenting the SDP gov­ernorship candidate and his running mate, Prince Segun Adesegun, who is also the current deputy governor of the state to party supporters at the Ake Palace Grounds, Ake, Abeokuta, Osoba said Odunsi had met all the qualities that should be possessed by the next governor of the state.

Osoba said: “You told me you want a governor who is level-headed, is that not so? You told me you want a ma­ture governor, is that not so? You told me you want a governor who has extensive administrative experience, a governor who will share the benefits of democracy equal­ly in the entire Ogun State. You told me you want some­body who will be governor of Ogun State; not governor for friends and family members. You told me you want a gov­ernor who is deeply religious in the Islamic way. Is that not so? Have you seen all these qualities in the person of Senator Kamardeen Akin Odunsi or not?”

The crowd of party sup­porters chorused a resound­ing “yes” to Osoba’s ques­tions.