BY DAMOLA EMMANUEL
He is known more for entertaining his colleagues in the Senate and wherever the ‘spirit’ leads him with deft dance steps than making any tangible contribution to law making.
Indeed, if there is any competition in ‘shaku-shaku’, the latest rave in Afropop, Ademola Adeleke, the representing Osun West Senatorial District, would emerge the undisputed winner.
However, on Saturday, he proved that he can also make headway in matters as serious as attempting to govern a state, even the State of Osun.
In a keenly contested primary, Senator Ademola Adeleke won the governorship ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the September 22, 2018 Governorship election in Osun State.
Adeleke polled 1, 569 votes to beat his closest rival, Akin Ogunbiyi, who scored 1, 562 votes, a difference of seven votes!
The primary will, perhaps, enter the Guinness World Book of Records as that political process that produced a winner with the slimmest margin ever.
Candidate Fatai Akingbade placed third with 52 votes, while Nathaniel Oke came forth with just three votes.
Before the announcement of the winner, the process turned rancorous as some candidates demanded a recount of the votes. But Seriake Dickson, Governor Bayelsa State, Chairman of the primary election committee, roundly rejected the request and proceeded to announce the results.
Meanwhile, it was jubilation galore in the camp of Adeleke, who didn’t fail to thrill his fans with his usual dance steps. If he wins the governorship in September, his political traducers believe there would be a lot of partying and ‘shaku-shaku’ dance at Osogbo, the capital of the State of the Living Spring.
ADEMOLA ADELEKE’S JOURNEY TO THE TICKET
Politically, not much was known about Ademola Adeleke until the sudden death of his elder brother, and the first Executive Governor of Osun State, Alhaji Isiaka Adeleke, a.k.a Serubawon.
The senior Adeleke, a two-term Senator, died on April 23, 2017 at the age of 62, shortly after being treated by a nurse, Mr. Alfred Aderibigbe, now remanded in Ilesa Prison, awaiting trial for the tragedy. The nurse reportedly administered some drugs on the former governor-turned senator, who, according to insiders, had been suffering from gout.
Adeleke’s demise sparked an uproar, with his fans accusing his political opponents of poisoning him for throwing his hat into the Osun State Governorship ring.
However, the controversy was buried when the Chief Medical Director of the Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, Prof. Akeem Lasisi, told the coroner inquest, set up to investigate the death, that Adeleke died of drug overdose and not poison.
Before his death on April 23, 2017, the senior Adeleke had been rearing to run for governor the second time on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, ahead of the September, 2018 gubernatorial election. But that was not to be.
His younger brother, Ademola Adeleke, swept the senatorial by-election organised to fill the vacuum created by his demise.
Now, he has won the ticket to fly PDP’s flag in the September 22, 2018 governorship election in Osun.
The primary election was held at the GMT Hotel and Event Centre along Ring Road in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.
Curiously, even though Governor Dickson announced the results, he withheld information on the total number of accredited votes for the primary.
In all, 11 aspirants were originally scheduled to contest the primary, but seven of them withdrew in the morning of the exercise. Those who withdrew include: Adeola Durotoye, Adejare Rafiu Bello, Ayoade Adewepo, Jide Ezekiel Adeniji, Senator Ogunwale Felix Kola, Akogune Lere Oyewumi, and Senator Olasunkami Akanbi Abdulrasheed.
Why did they quit? They alleged that primary was a mere academic exercise as the vote had been twisted to favour a particular candidate.
The mass withdrawal left the quartet of Adeleke, Ogunbiyi, Akingbade and Oke to slug it out at the poll.
With this victory, narrow as it is, Senator Ademola Adeleke will now duel with Alhaji Gboyega Isiaka Oyetola, candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the September governorship election.