By Bilesanmi Abayomi
The precedent laid in 2015 by the lawmaker representing Kosofe Federal Constituency, Hon. Dayo Bush, after losing his third term bid to the outgoing lawmaker, Hon. Rotimi Agunsoye, is currently being sustained by his successor as they distance themselves from the party’s 2023 flag bearer, Kafilat Ogbara Campaign.
In 20215, the APC conducted about 3 primary elections before Dayo Bush could be defeated. However, following the controversial primary election that produced his successor, both Dayo Bush and his supporters campaigned for other candidates of the APC without campaigning for his successor.
Also, 2019—which witnessed another bloody primary election—took on a similar dimension, as was keenly observed. However, the 2023 primary election that purportedly produced Kafilat Ogbara as the party flag bearer for the Kosofe Federal Constituency House of Representatives election was bloodless.
Although the two major candidates, incumbent lawmaker Rotimi Agunsoye and his predecessor, Dayo Bush, who have the most delegates, didn’t participate in the party poll, they were reportedly told not to run against the unaffiliated party candidate, Ogbara, at the eleventh hour.
Other contestants, such as US-based Abiodun Owokoya and Remi Odunsi Oluwalogbon, who are not aware of the party intrigues, fully participated in the exercise, which later prompted protests from some of the contestants.
Agunsoye supporters led a series of massive protests that paralyzed commercial activities at the party secretariat, Acme, while Owokoya headed to APC presidential candidate Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a Bourdilon resident, to register his grievances over the outcomes of the exercise. While the duo of Dayo Bush and Oluwalogbon, who were equally dissatisfied with the outcomes of exercise, maintained their cool and succumbed to the party’s supremacy.
According to the Kosofe Post findings, the incumbent lawmaker Rotimi Agunsoye and supporters, Dayo Bush and supporters, and other contestants have yet to fully throw their weight behind Kafilat Ogbara’s candidature ever since her long protested emergence, unlike the way they are supporting other party candidates such as Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed as president and Babajide Sanwoolu as governor, among others.
Meanwhile, Ogbara has continued to maintain that she has reached out to Agunsoye. According to a report, she further claimed that the lawmaker donated to her campaign. Both claims have since been debunked and described as lies and propaganda by the lawmaker’s senior legislative aide, Segun Apena, and former Agboyi Ketu Lcda SLG, Hon. Gbenga Osobu, respectively.
With the latest development, if the leadership of the party fails to broker true reconciliation between the lawmaker, Agunsoye, and the party flagbearer for Kosofe Federal Constituency, Ogbara, the Dayo Bush administration will sustain precedents that may be inevitable in Kosofe, as in 2015 and 2019. Votes for the progressive party dropped drastically.