By Dayo Johnson

THREE months to the primaries to pick the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC, in Ondo State, internal wranglings within its leadership is threatening the Party. Infact the storm is gathering as intrigues are the order of the day even among the over 50 aspirants jostling for the governorship seat. The in-fighting and intrigues within the party came to the fore last weekend at an unusual place. Before now the party leadership has been polarized.

Some of the state party executives members have reportedly pitched their tents with the leading governorship aspirants of the party. Infact many of them do it openly  with impunity and this had created bad blood within the party.

Governorship aspirants have been at each others throats, taking each other to the cleaners on the social media in a bid to whittle down each others popularity. This had consequently earned them warnings by the state executive of the party.

The choice of Prof Claudius Daramola as the minister representing the state by President Muhamadu Buhari did not go down well with many Chieftains of the party as he was seen as an “ outsider” who was not feasible during the struggle to make the party relevant in the state. His choice was said to have been aided by Senator Ajayi Boroffice who was said to have lobbied “ seriously” for him to be picked for his own selfish interest.

Senator Boroffice calculation was that  if Daramola was picked as the Minister representing the state, his chances of emerging the governorship candidate of the party in the November election would be brighter. Daramola hails from the South Senatorial district while Boroffice is from the North. Also the party state Chairman Hon Isaac Kekemeke is from the South.

For fairness and justice Boroffice opined that the governorship candidate would not emerge from the zone which had produced the two key positions. However, he may have miscalculated as the leadership of the party  insists that it would not zone the governorship position but instead allow the best candidate to emerge democratically  through primaries in August this year.

The choice of Daramola then gave Boroffice an added advantage and this did not go down well with many party leaders who have sympathy for other aspirants aside from Boroffice . To them the choice of Daramola has shot out aspirants from the Southern senatorial areas. Even at that aspirants from the North  are also in disarray as their number is unprecedented. But many of them are jesters.

However, two leading political office holders in the party last week engaged in a face off,  which sent wrong signals across the state that all was not well within the leadership of the party. The minister of state for Niger Delta, Prof. Daramola and the state Chairman Hon Kekemeke were involved in an altercation  that almost degenerated into fisticuffs at the residence of one of the Senators representing the state Chief Tayo Alasoadura who lost his wife.

Reports had it that when the State party Chairman  greeted the minister, his aide took exception to the way and manner “ a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria” was being greeted.

To show that there existed before now some animosity between the two leaders as it was believed that Kekemeke was not in support of the choice of the minister, the aide who is the Special Assistant SA to the minister, Nat Adojutelegan, reportedly shoved the state chairman aside asking him to “ show some respect to the office of the minister and stop playing to the gallery.”

Eyewitness accounts told Vanguard that Adojutelegan also did not like how the chairman  addressed the minister “ Baba” instead of “ Hon Minister” and how he held  the federal officer  as if he was his junior. The SA was said to have shoved the state chairman away in order to maintain a distance and abuses rent the air.

An unconfirmed source said that a minor clash between supporters of the state chairman and that of the minister ensued until common sense prevailed. Vanguard gathered that the minister did not call his aide to order as he seems to enjoy the treatment meted out to the state chairman of the party. It was gathered that the treatment given to the chairman was a script carefully written and played out to ridicule him for not supporting  the minister’s choice.

The state chairman, Hon Kekemeke in a statement he personally  signed said he had “no issue whatsoever with the Honourable Minister of State for the Niger Delta Affairs, Professor Claudius Daramola contrary to speculations in some quarters.

“I am constrained to unusually and personally react to the James Hardley Chase story making the rounds that only desperation that could have made a Party Chairman to utter that false statement in the circumstances. It exhibited the lowest of the low. What a shame. The arguments or altercations occurred in daylight in the presence of some members of the press and about 100 party members. “I invite Mr. Kekemeke to refer the incident to the party national secretariat for investigation.

“I joined active politics in order to contribute to bringing about social change in Nigeria, and Ondo Stae in particular. To this end, I have made substantial financial and other contributions. My parents taught me good manners, which include self-respect, self-regard, and self-restraint.

“ My father used to refer to these ideals as the three “Rs.” The base of self-respect is mutual respect. Also, I reasonably believe that self-respect precludes an individual from engaging in disrespectful comments or jokes about others, especially our elders. “With a sense of modesty, I daresay that my background brought about my intervention to stop the Chairman’s from belittling the honourable minister in public glare.

“I would like to reiterate that Mr. Kekemeke or the State Working Committee should refer this matter to the party national secretariat for a thorough investigation.” Meanwhile, leaders of the party have called for cease fire from all warring party chieftains in the interest of winning the November governorship election. Going into the election as a divided house,  according to them, will spell doom for the party.