By Akinwale Kasali
Ogun State Governorship Candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Biyi Otegbeye, has been sacked by a Federal High Court Sitting in Abeokuta, Ogun State Capital.
Otegbeye, the anointed Candidate of former Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, saw his candidature nullified alongside 26 ADC House of Assembly Candidates in the State.
Justice Akintayo Aluko of the Federal High Court held that the primaries which produced Otegbeye and others were not monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, saying this was in violation of the Electoral Act.
The court, therefore, ordered the electoral umpire to remove the names of Otegbeye and the 26 Assembly candidates from its 2023 list of candidates.
The Ogun State Labour Party, LP, had dragged the ADC candidates to court over alleged non-compliance with the Electoral Act in the conduct of their party’s primaries.
This development has demystified Amosun’s popularity and influence in the State and also in the All Progressives Congress, APC, fold which he belongs.
Amosun has not hidden his reservations for the Governor Dapo Abiodun administration, plotting and scheming to remove him from office by not winning his second term bid despite being a member of the ruling APC.
It would be recalled that in the build up to the 2019 Governorship Election in the State, Amosun backed Allied Peoples Mandate, APM, Governorship Candidate, Adekunle Abdulkabir Akinlade to take over from him as the Governor of the State at the expense of Governor Abiodun despite been in the same Party.
He openly declared that he was backing Akinlade and he would work against the ambition of Abiodun which he did.
Though Abiodun triumphed in the election, but he has vowed to see him booted out at the 2023 Polls, throwing his weight behind Otegbeye whose hope has however been dashed with the Federal High Court verdict.
