Untold Story As Pressure Mounts On Abiodun’s Chief Of Staff To Hand Amosun Senatorial Ticket

Intense pressure is being mounted in the political circle of Ogun State.

Shuaib Afolabi Salisu, the Chief of Staff to Governor Dapo Abiodun is being pressured to hand over the Ogun Central Senatorial ticket to Senator Ibikunle Amosun.

Salisu won the ticket during the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election organized by the Governor Abiodun faction of the party.

Senator Amosun’s camp did not hold a parallel primary election leaving Abiodun’s men to take all the APC tickets to elective positions in Ogun State.

The immediate past Governor of Ogun State ordered his men to “maintain the peace” while he worked out a solution at the national level of the party.

SocietyNow.Ng gathered that the incumbent Senator from Ogun Central got a stronger grip to negotiate a solution by backing the aspiration of the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who emerged as the Presidential candidate of the APC while Abiodun supported Vice President Yemi Osinabjo to the point of open rebuke by Tinubu.

Amosun who was a presidential aspirant – he did not indicate interest in returning to the Senate – stepped down for Tinubu on the day of the APC presidential primary and canvassed others to tow the same path.

The former Governor is leveraging supporting the touted next President of Nigeria and other influences he has within the APC and the presidency to negotiate sharing tickets to elective positions between his loyalists and Abiodun’s men as well as retain his senatorial ticket.

SocietyNow.Ng gathered that ‘stakeholders” are currently fashioning out how to make the ‘arrangement work” while taking into consideration the sentiments of other groups ( Gbenga Daniel and Olusegun Osoba) in the bid to make the party stronger in the state ahead of the 2023 general election.

The Amosun and Abiodun factions have been at war over who controls the party structure in Ogun State.

Amosun was in absolute control while he reigned as the Governor of Ogun State and has struggled with Abiodun for control since the latter took power in 2019.

The former Governor leveraged closeness to the presidency to corner all federal appointments allocated Ogun state since 2019 for his loyalists.

He and remained ahead in the fight for control of the APC in Ogun state until the Governor Abiodun faction was recognized by the National Executive Council of the APC on February 3, 2020.

The Governor, however, lost the opportunity of a thorough win by siding with the “wrong” presidential aspirant, giving Amosun – who teamed up with the winner – the perfect foothold for a comeback.