When Chief Olusola Oke suddenly left the All Progressives Congress in protest against the alleged manipulation of the party’s governorship primaries in Ondo State in favour of Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, it was assumed it would be a major disaster for the APC. Oke immediately pitched his tent with the Alliance for Democracy, the platform with which he eventually contested last Saturday’s governorship election.
Though Oke came a distant third, polling 126,889 votes as against 244,842 votes garnered by Akeredolu, who eventually won the election, but it has now emerged that the participation of the former National Legal Adviser of the Peoples Democratic Party in the governorship race on another platform seemed a blessing in disguise.
From the look of things, it was a well thought-out strategy to keep Oke in the race. It was a move perceived to be good for the APC and Akeredolu as it was to advance Akeredolu’s fortunes in the election.
Several sources privy to the plan opened up on Tuesday, saying the aim was to use Oke to harvest the votes of Eyitayo Jegede of the Peoples Democratic Party. He was a splinter candidate that was needed to harvest the votes of Jegede and reduce the total votes Governor Olusegun Mimiko’s candidate would have garnered.
Jegede polled 150,380 votes to come next to Akeredolu. He won two local governments like Oke, but unlike Akeredolu who won in 14 local governments.
“Do the maths! If you add Jegede’s 150,380 votes with Oke’s 126,889, you get over 277,000 votes as against Akeredolu’s over 244,000 votes. PDP would have won because most of Oke’s votes would have gone as protest votes not to APC because of the rancour over the primaries but to PDP,” one of the sources privy to the plan pointed out.
“Mimiko and his man would have had a harvest but Oke in the race took care of that,” another of the sources added.
It was learnt that Oke’s camp ran out of funds at the most crucial or critical moment in the campaign when more money was required to give further push and it was nowhere available. A source added: “He lacked the funds to compete and also had little structure. However many knew his grassroots appeal will garner votes. From whichever angle you look at it, Oke in the race worked for APC and not against the party.”
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