How Ajimobi won 2011 Oyo gov poll – Tokyo

Embattled Chairman, National Union of Road Transport Workers in Oyo State, Alhaji Lateef Akinsola (a.k.a Tokyo), on Monday, said the Action Congress of Nigeria in the state would not have won the April 2011 governorship election in the state if he had no disagreement with former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala.

He also claimed that the victory would not have been possible if Senator Rashidi Ladoja had not left the Peoples Democratic Party.

A statement by the state Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Dauda Kolawole, had asked him (Tokyo) to justify his claim that he assisted the party (ACN) and Governor Abiola Ajimobi to win the election.

The statement described Tokyo as “a frustrated man who is attempting to clutch at straw and reap where he did not sow.”

Tokyo, in a statement by one of his aides, Hammid Yusuff, on Monday, said, “But for the break-away of Ladoja and the formation of Accord Party, which aligned with the ACN to form the present government, Ajimobi’s hope of becoming Oyo State governor would have been a pipe-dream.”

The statement added that Tokyo, during electioneering, rescued Ajimobi and the late ACN leader, Alhaji Lam Adesina, from thugs’ attack at Oluyole Local Government Area of the state.

It reads, “The statement credited to Dauda Kolawole is larger than his mouth and a larger load for him to carry.

“The best thing he should have done before uttering such ill-advised statement is for him to have gone to the elders of the party to learn the history instead of writing derogatory statement against Alhaji Lateef Akinsola, who everybody in the state knows the extent of his sacrifice and energy to assist Ajimobi to win at the poll.”

The statement described Kolawole as “a political opportunist, who knew very little about the evolution of the ACN in the state.”

It added that Ajimobi could not tell the world that his (Tokyo) contribution and support were inconsequential to his emergence as the governor of the state.

The ACN in the state had challenged the former Chairman of NURTW to tell the world, in specific terms, how he contributed to the success of ACN in the state in the 2011 elections.

Punch Nigeria