By DAYO JOHNSON

Hon Ademola Adegoroye is a lawyer and an Akure prince who showed interest in the vacant stool of the Deji of Akure in 2010 but lost out. He was a  lawmaker representing Akure South Constituency 1 on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy AD in the House of Assembly in Ondo State.

Adegoroye, who, in 2007, contested the governorship election under the  Action Congress (AC) now Action Congress of Nigeria, CAN, lost the election to Dr Olusegun Agagu who was seeking a second term. He was suspected of accusing the leaders of the AC  then of abandoning him to support  incumbent Governor Olusegun Mimiko who they believed would win the election, an action that  earned him a suspension from the party. He speaks, in this interview, on the truth and lies of the 2007 governorship election and the fate of the troubled PDP in the state.

In 2007, you were the candidate of the Action Congress (AC) for the governorship election but later jumped ship to the PDP. What informed your decision?

There have been a lot of misinformation and misgivings regarding my leaving the AC at that time for the  PDP. There were a lot of allegations levelled against me particularly in the last three years concerning how  and why I moved. I want to say that most of these allegations are not true. It is true that I was the governorship candidate of the AC in 2007 in Ondo State. I did my best at that time alongside others to build the AC and to ensure that we make it an election-winning platform.

Unfortunately, things did not go the way we had planned and, after the election, there were  crises and confusion that we had to manage. After the election, we observed certain things had happened which, in my own estimation, were not good for the party and which I regarded as mistakes by some of our leaders. Specifically, our leaders took certain decisions on funding which were wrong. When we started building the party in Ondo State, our leaders, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Baba Akande, were very excited.

I can remember that shortly after I became the governorship candidate of the AC, at a meeting in Lagos, Asiwaju told us that after Lagos State, another state that was of prime importance to him was Ondo. This was because of the loyalty and commitment we showed to their group during the time Afenifere and AD crises broke out. He promised then to assist us in terms of funding so as to win the governorship election.

Did he fulfill his promise of funding the party?
To a large extent, he gave us support. When we had the primary and crisis broke out, a group which came in from the PDP wanted a different governorship candidate for the AC in Ondo State and they did everything possible to thwart my own aspiration because I had already won the primary. Our leaders, Asiwaju Tinubu and Baba Akande, did very well by playing active roles to protect our mandate. They stood with us and ensured that that candidature was mine and nobody, no matter highly placed, was able to change it. That is why till today, I  appreciate that active responsibility they showed to us.

But, at some point, between January and April of 2007 when election eventually took place, certain things happened. I suppose there were some moves by some people so that the leadership of our party could support Dr Olusegun Mimiko of the Labour Party rather than our own candidate. Somehow, we were denied of the funding which we expected. A lot of people began to carry rumours that Ademola Adegoroye collected  N200m, N400m and some said it was N100m for the elections.

The fund we had for the election was nowhere near N100m. While Mimiko and Agagu started their campaign six months to the election, I did not begin campaign until the second week of March, 2007, barely a month to the election because of the funding issue. We were only able to campaign for three weeks before the election on borrowed funds.

Hon Ademola Adegoroye

Is it true that your complaint led to your suspension from the party?
The funding which we were denied  actually fuelled the crisis within the party. Some of us became frustrated. After the election, some unhappy people within the party bought a page in a national newspaper and placed an advertorial, stating to the whole world what transpired at the election in Ondo State and how the leaders of our party abandoned their own candidate to back another party’s candidate.

We were not happy. We complained and maybe the way we went about the complaint did not go down well with the national leadership of the party. The next thing was to inform the leaders in the state to suspend me without even listening to me or even issuing me any query. I was not one of those who signed that newspaper advertorial. There is no doubt that I knew about it. I knew about the advertorial but I was not a signatory to it. I guess they knew it was my handiwork and they just suspended me and the South-West executive endorsed the suspension.

After that suspension, I was without a party for almost a year. I did not join the PDP until a year after, which was May 2008. On the allegations that  former Governor Olusegun Agagu  sponsored his candidature  in the AC to destabilize the party. What is the sense in Agagu sponsoring me to become AC candidate? Could he have sponsored me or planted me to become the candidate of AC, cause crisis and again withdraw or abandon my candidature to campaign for him to become governor? I never did such a thing.

I campaigned vigorously. I had no money and the party was under funded. I campaigned till the very last day and I went into that election with all the energy and resources I had. Within two weeks that we started the campaign, Dr Agagu started making  very unpleasant remarks  about us because he saw that even within a week we were making a lot of progress. You know politics is about service and self interest.

As it is today, Dr Agagu and I do not share the same political interest. So if I tell lies against him, he should be able to tell the whole world the truth. We were not on talking terms until even after the election that Dr Agagu wanted us to form an alliance. Dr Agagu could not talk to me directly. It was Chief Olu Akinyelure and Professor Olu Agbi who first visited me and talked to me about it. Agagu visited the Deji about the issue and the then Deji of Akure, Oba Oluwadare Adesina, in the presence of some Chiefs, told me that Dr Agagu wanted to work with me.

Dr Agagu later went to Lagos State to meet with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu so that he could talk to me that I should have an alliance with him against Mimiko. That was after the election. If we had an understanding before the election, would he have been begging people all around to reach out to me? If we had had a deal, I could have just withdrawn from the governorship election for him.

Any regret leaving the then AC for PDP now that the party is stronger and is claiming it can unseat the ruling government?

The truth of the matter is that AC was our baby. If they will have to mention three or four people who midwifed  the AC in 2005 and 2006 in this state, Ademola Adegoroye’s name must necessarily be mentioned. ACN is an offshoot of the AC.  I built the AC. I am not a desperate politician and I could not have gone to join the PDP if the leadership of the AC had not suspended me.

If you know Dr Agagu’s style of politics very well, Dr Agagu does not buy politicians or give money but you could have understanding with him. Then, I had people who had worked with me over the years and who were looking forward to participating in governance and serving their state. The reason why I had alliance with Dr Olusegun Agagu in the PDP was because Dr Agagu promised that he would give my followers necessary positions within the state and local government levels.

If fact he did so but what we got was less than what we expected. The ACN later broke into two factions. I was leading one faction and the state chairman Sola Iji was leading another faction. If not for the crisis, all of us would have been part of Agagu’s administration from 2007 to 2009 when Dr Olusegun Mimiko took over. I can tell you categorically that AC was my party.

There is no doubt about the fact that I made certain mistakes regarding certain steps I took and again some issues that destroyed the fortune of the party . After I was suspended, the only option that was left for me was to go and make peace. I didn’t build a house when I was a member of the Ondo State House of Assembly for four years. I forgot that I was making money because I was serving and empowering my people

. The first house that I attempted to build was in 2005. I bought that land in Ijapo Estate in Akure and I started to develop it. When it was two weeks to the primary of AC, I sold the house and I was living in my father’s house. As at the time I contested the governorship election, I was living in my father’s house. It was a sacrifice that I had to make because of the ACN.

Why did you opt for the PDP?
I joined the PDP on May 29, 2008. The PDP was the party in government then and our members were frustrated and went through a lot of deprivation. The suffering and sacrifice that they faced was the reason I decided that my members must get responsible positions to quench their thirst. It was only the PDP that could offer that at that time and moreover there was no any other progressive party in Ondo State. If I was suspended from the AC, the only party I could have gone to was the PDP. Do not forget that we had issues with the LP  at that time. I believed, whether wrongly or rightly, that the LP contributed to the crisis within the AC.

On his next political move?
I am still a member of the PDP. In the PDP,  there are different political interests there. I must tell you that being in the PDP, I am a bit confused. Sincerely speaking, in character and in style, the PDP is alien to me and my political upbringing. That is why since I joined the PDP, my political activities have been drastically brought to the barest minimum. When I was a member of the House, I made myself very popular because of the active roles I played.

Since I joined the PDP, I have been like a fish out of water and when fish is out of water, you can imagine what will happen to it. It will become disorganized and powerless and that has been what has happened to me. The truth of the matter is that Ademola Adegoroye of the PDP is not the very active Ademola Adegoroye you used to know. I am just there hanging.