Details: Adebutu, Akinlade’s Sensational Fall Out… A Crash of Political Alliance
In comments decorated with damning personal attacks, Akinlade labelled Adebutu “incompetent”, lacking capacity to govern
Fallouts are regular in political circles, but the unravelling between Oladipupo “Ladi” Adebutu and his staunch ally, Adekunle Akinlade, has been termed bewildering.
The sensational turning on each other comes with applause over the all-out joint efforts to take control of governance in Ogun State, which has yet to be clear.
They were the ticket holders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 Ogun state gubernatorial election.
After suffering a near-win in the process that had Adebutu as the gubernatorial candidate and Akinlade as his deputy, they were unrelenting in an intense—but futile—effort to overturn Governor Abiodun’s win by less than 14,000 votes.
It appeared they had mustered enough support to enable another push for the guber seat in 2027, until Akinlade’s bombshell that their loss was a ” blessing in disguise” for Ogun state.
In comments decorated with damning personal attacks, Akinlade labelled Adebutu “incompetent”, lacking capacity to govern. His claims have been countered with the release of a video in which he branded Adebutu as “a man with a very clear mind of what he wants to achieve”, that he was privileged to sit with and understudy.
As talks rage over the shocking turn in the relationship of the two Ogun PDP top men, insiders have unveiled the behind the scene.
“It is a handshake agreement gone sour, coated in the push for a regional shift in power and consequence of misrepresented political strength” is the theme of the findings.
Information here and there, hint at non-iron-cast agreement to take turns in contesting for the Ogun state gubernatorial seat.
Before he teamed up with Adebutu for the Ogun 2023 gubernatorial election as running mate, Akinlade was the “political whizkid” former Governor Ibikunle Amosun unveiled and gave a back-breaking push to become his successor in 2019.
Based on his inability to secure the gubernatorial ticket of his political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) for his preferred successor, Amosun sponsored Akinlade’s gubernatorial bid on the platform of another political platform – the Allied People’s Movement (APM).
One of the considerations in Amosun pushing the ambition of Akinlade was to give Yewa – a low votes region – the opportunity to produce the Governor of Ogun state for the first time since its creation in 1976.
Although he didn’t win the election that brought Governor Abiodun of the APC to office – because of a larger collaborative interest at play -, the development turned Akinlade a household name in Ogun state.
The claims are that Akinlade left Amosun – in yet-to-be-established circumstances – to team up with Adebutu in pursuit of his gubernatorial ambition, which aligns with that of his region.
“But they started on shaky grounds because there were talks that Akinlade’s political strength was discovered to be misrepresented after he signed up with Adebutu. The talks were not established and were glossed over because of his political relevance and mutually beneficial agreements struck,” according to the information available.
Those who should know say after the election, and review of the process that resulted in the near-win, the alleged misrepresentation of political strength was wiped up and used as a get-out-of-agreement with Akinlade by the Adebutu camp.
The spiral effect of this development is fingered as the fallout, publicly announced by Akinlade by sensationally turning on Adebutu.
Credit: Society Now NG
