In this interview, the All Progressives Congress Director of Publicity in Ondo State, Steve Otaloro, said the intervention of President Bola Tinubu has resolved all lingering issues affecting the ruling party in the state. He boasted that the APC is heading towards the local government, bye-election and the governorship polls with the determination to win them back to back just as it has been winning under the leadership of its chairman, Ade Adetimehin. Excerpts:
Why is the issue in the Ondo State APC degenerating to a level that it is almost tearing the party apart?
It is quite unfortunate that we find ourselves in such a situation, but this is the handiwork of the People’s Democratic Party that has decided to be used to destabilize our party. They aren’t just destabilizing us as a political party, but the system itself, we believe that some of the interests they are showing concerning this issue have nothing to do with them; they should have concentrated on the upcoming local government election, and the governorship election.
For them to be dabbling into these issues that have nothing to do with them, some of our members are using their platforms to destabilize the state but we thank God and we’re grateful to Mr. President for bringing an amicable settlement to the issue. So, we will be able to settle for once.
When this issue started, we would have solved it ordinarily as a party, but we now realised that some of the agitations were not really by our members but they are using the PDP platform, the initial issue was that the governor was sick, he had to transmit the power to the deputy governor, he did that, he went abroad, they were still putting up all kinds of narratives out there against a governor that is abroad.
They were saying he didn’t transmit fully; the deputy governor was not given full power, what is their own issue with that? They were saying the governor is incapacitated he cannot function effectively, and all these stories are emanating from the PDP. But when someone is sick, we expect the people to be empathetic but they are not, that shows they are just dragging this issue based on politics.
Why are you blaming the PDP for the crisis in your party and what evidence do you have against the PDP?
As I said, I’m blaming the PDP because some of our members are the ones using them to destabilize our system. Also, we have looked at the issue and we discovered that it is beyond an individual, it is beyond a member.
Then after the meeting with the President, how sure are you that the matter will not resurface?
You can see that ever since they came back from the meeting, there has not been any noise since then. As I speak, the local government chairmanship aspirants have been screened, and things have been normal. The most important thing to us is that it has been resolved and there is no violence, and we believe we are together, so no matter what was published in the media, we know what was agreed upon, that the governor is the one in charge and the deputy remains the deputy; that is the most important.
Why is the opposition so interested in our internal affairs? These are our internal affairs. Mr. President has spoken and everyone has to listen; Mr. President has resolved this issue and I want to assure you that nobody is going back to it, and if anyone goes back, that means you are going against the wish of Mr. President and we all know the consequence of that, because he is not just the President of this country, he is equally the national leader of our great party. So, whoever goes against such an order will have himself to blame in the end.
But some people believe all these are happening in your party because of the political ambition of the deputy governor. Do you believe this is the situation?
Everybody has the right to have ambition. I know that there are several people who want to be governor; there cannot be just one person who wants to be governor, and I give it to the deputy governor, he has the right to have ambition, but there is no way he can realise that ambition without the support of his principal. So, I won’t believe we got to that level of creating chaos here and there just because we want to become the governor.
So, a lot of people won’t believe that the deputy governor will be supported by Mr. Governor. Why will people now think that the deputy governor who was supported by the governor will now be the one who will be causing problems? No, the PDP is the real cause of our problem and that is not how to play politics. But we thank God that Mr. President has resolved the issue and we are moving forward. That is the most important thing for the benefit of the people of Ondo State.
“No more crises. The Independent National Electoral Commission has released its timetable. As a party, the only thing we can do is to take directives from the national body; it is the national body that will be responsible for the governorship election. But all the aspirants are aware that they will be having primaries in April 2024”
You have ahead of you the local government election, bye-election, and the governorship poll. Don’t you think this crisis may have an adverse effect on your party’s chances?
This issue can’t affect any of the elections, even when we had a big crisis, an election was held, and we won. Even though there was an issue surrounding the primary, we still won the presidential elections; both the state House of Assembly, House of Representatives, and the Senate. We have more than 25 people from our party alone who want to become the governor, and all of them are at peace. They are not taking sides with anybody on this issue. We are heading into all those elections with determination to win them back to back just as we have been winning under the leadership of our party chairman, Ade Adetimehin.
This is just a small piece of issue but because it involves the executive, that is why it is taking so long. This is just a one-off issue but now, it has been resolved. Twenty-four hours in politics is a long time and now that it is five months to our governorship primary because we’re doing that in April, in another five months after that, we will be preparing for the main election. So, we have a whole lot and immediately we have a candidate, every member will rally around that candidate. It is that candidate that will now be the base for people to support because people will be looking towards the end of the tenure of the incumbent governor and we can always move in peace.
How is the party preparing for all these elections in the light of the ongoing crises?
As I told you, the crises have been resolved. No more crises. The Independent National Electoral Commission has released its timetable. As a party, the only thing we can do is to take directives from the national body; it is the national body that will be responsible for the governorship election. But all the aspirants are aware that they will be having primaries in April 2024, and that is in five months’ time. As a political party, we encourage them to go about this in peace, not to cause problems. They should direct their message to the people why members of the party should vote for them at the primary.
