The leadership of the South West Agenda for Asiwaju 2023 (SWAGA), has put a lie to the claim of any alliance between the group and former Ekiti State governor, Chief Segun Oni, saying ‘there can be no contact between two parallel lines’.
Oni who was defeated recently at the recent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary in Ekiti State was quoted as saying he was defecting into the Social Democratic Party (SDP), to pursue his ambition, alongside SWAGA.
Reacting, Coordinator of SWAGA in the State, Prince Bamgboye Adegoroye, said there was no such alliance, noting that, “Oni’s political pursuit is laced with naked desperation and cannot found a place in the realms of selfless and visionary leadership Ekiti State is in dire need of, at this point.”
The Ekiti State SWAGA Coordinator stated that even as he would not mince words that his group would support one of the emerging candidates for the state’s governorship, Oni and the taunted candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Biodun Oyebanji, are out of consideration.
“We have a situation on our hands where we need to be.critical in picking who to support, so we don’t derail with the system being ran aground by past selfish, myopic leaders, who put us in the terrible socio-economic tight-corner we today found ourselves.
“We need to here clearly dissociate ourselves from the statement of a man who was once a benefactor of corruption, but is now crying wolf when the same system that forced him on our state few years ago, is working against him. It becomes laughable when a Oni, who came third in a PDP primary of 2014 but was forced on his party to run as governor, is today crying persecution, after failing, expectedly in a 2022 primary of a party he dumped mid-stream to join APC, only to come back to wanting to pick it’s governorship ticket.
“It is sad, even as it is laughable, that Oni, whose political reputation and phantom clout have dissolved with his exit from APC, where he hibernated as Deputy Chairman, South West with no impact for many years, will not go to bed even at the exhaustion of his political relevance.
“We know that his claim of having alliance with SWAGA, may not be unconnected with his recent alliance with his ilk and fair weather friend, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, who was given the opportunity to lead the SWAGA at the national level, but sacrificed it on the alta of greed and inordinate pursuit of Ekiti governorship he had lost even before contemplation.
“Ekiti people of today are wiser and have been able to identify real leaders out of the array of political jobbers whose only interest is in their pocket to tummy and who have been playing ding dong with their lives over the years in bellied desperation.
“For clarity purpose, Ekiti SWAGA, with Senator Tony Adeniyi as the Chairman and I, Prince Bamgboye Adegoroye, as Coordinator say a capital no to Oni’s aimless bid. The two of us have no path with Chief Oni, on his current political journey to nowhere and will never have anything to do with him. Very soon, and at the appropriate time, Ekiti people shall see us boldly behind who we support and where the leadership of our dear state would go in the coming governorship election,” Adegoroye stated