BETRAYAL!!! Buhari plots Osinbajo's replacement

The newspapers for Monday, November 28, focus on an alleged plot by President Buhari to replace Osinbajo with Kalu and the aftermath of Akeredolu’s election victory in Ondo.

The Point newspaper reports that the camp of President Muhammadu Buhari may be planning to replace vice president Yemi Osinbajo with a politician from the southeast ahead of the 2019 elections.

The paper reports that the presidency plans to woo a former governor of Abia state, Orji Uzor Kalu, as a possible replacement for Osinbajo in the next general elections so as to pacify the southeast.

According to The point, the Buhari camp, sensing a potential loss of support and electoral votes from the south west, in the event of the Tinubu forces pulling out, is tinkering with options to win over the south east and perhaps south south blocs.

“With many gladiators, who joined forces to see APC through to victory during the last elections already fingered in the movement to form a new mega party, there is intense calculation being done to get a crowd-puller from the South East geo-political zone. This is to garner substantial votes from the region to shore up what may be lost should the South West go with Tinubu,” one of the sources said.

Meanwhile, following the win of the candidate of the APC, Rotimi Akeredolu, in the Ondo state governorship poll, the candidates of the PDP, AD, and SDP have neither conceded defeat nor congratulated him.

The Punch reports that candidate of the PDP Jegede, on Sunday, November 27, said that he would soon make his next line of action known to the public.

He said that his reaction about the election would soon be made public.

Similarly, the personal assistant (Media) to Oke, Rotimi Ogunleye, said Oke would meet with the Ondo AD’s stakeholders on Monday to decide on a line of action.

Ogunleye said the results of the election from all the local government areas would be studied with a view to making an official decision.

On his part, Agunloye, who decried the monetisation of the election, said he was awaiting the action that the SDP would take before he took his own line of action.

Vanguard reports the election results have been undermined by Oke and Agunloye, who both said it did not reflect the wishes of Ondo people.

Shortly after the election, Oke had complained of pre-loaded card readers, intimidation and harassment of his party leaders and supporters as well as inducement of voters by the APC and PDP to rig the election.

However, President Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Senate president Bukola Saraki, Governors Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto); House of Representatives speaker, Yakubu Dogara; former governor of Ekiti state, Dr Kayode Fayemi and the APC have saluted Akeredolu on his victory.

Governor-elect Akeredolu, in his acceptance speech, promised to take everybody along . He praised President Muhammadu Buhari, the national chairman of APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) for his victory.

Guardian reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Akeredolu winner after he scored the highest number of votes cast and secured more than the statutory requirement of 25 percent of votes in two-thirds of the 18 local councils.

According to the Chief Returning Officer, Prof. Abdulganiyu Ambali, the APC candidate scored 244,842 votes; Eyitayo Jegede of the PDP scored 150, 380 votes; while Olusola Alexander Oke of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) polled126, 889 votes. Akeredolu won in 14 local councils while Jegede and Oke won in two councils each.

With Akeredolu’s victory, analysts say Tinubu’s grip on the politics of the Southwest may be undermined.

It was learnt that the emergence of a new power bloc in the South West is to work for northern interests in the next presidential election when it is obvious that Tinubu, whose singular efforts made the unprecedented 2015 power shift possible, has publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with the management of both the national economy and the ruling APC.

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