Exclusive: AbdulRazaq’s Commissioner, Oshatimehin-Afolabi Loses Base To SDP
By Adedayo Said
Investigations revealed that, the government of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara has more liabilities than assets in its cabinet.
The APC led administration in the State of Harmony should by now have plotted her graph to know where its appointees would add value and/or otherwise.
Adenike Harriet Oshatimehin-Afolabi is AbdulRazaq’s commissioner from Ifelodun local government area. Though she has been enmeshed in myriad of controversies since her appointment, the Governor manages to keep her.
Oshatimehin-Afolabi hails from Oke-Ayo, a village in Ora district of Ifelodun local government area with one polling unit. The whole of Ora district as a ward has 10 polling units, namely, ECWA School, Ora, Open Space Araromi-Oke, Community School Oke-Ayo and Market Square Ora. Others are Community School Manasara, Community School Adigun, Open Space Balogun, Community School Aireke, Community Schools Deseni and Magbon.
It is no longer news that the Social Democratic Party (SDP) picked its Gubernatorial running mate from Oke-Ayo same place as Osatimehin-Afolabi’s place of origin.
Moreso, the commissioner who has been transferred to almost half of the existing government ministries in Kwara State has never voted in the village before now because she only had her voter’s card moved to Oke-Ayo after 2019 election.
We gathered that villages around Ora community usually meet under an umbrella known as “Agbegbs Ora” and such had been used in the past to pile support for any direction the bloc chose. They will likely throw their support around Joshua Olakunle the gubernatorial running mate of SDP’s Hakeem Lawal.
The choice of Olakunle an ECWA clergy, one of the largest denominations with its spread in Igbomina land is strategic and will dwarf the support and votes of AbdulRazaq in the surrounding communities of Ora district or ward.
Our source stated that more worrisome is the fact that the commissioner’s father, a former Director in one of the federal agencies remain a close ally of the estranged political friend of the Governor.
The nomination of Harriet Oshatimehin-Afolabi was made possible by Senator Makanjuola Ajadi who single handedly brought her from Ibadan where she runs a money lending outfit to be a cabinet member in Kwara State.
Ajadi left APC after the last primaries of the party where he came third to pick the ticket of ADC not without taking the Governor to the cleaners, anyways. He had one hour explosive interview on the radio where he exposed some allegedly inner dealings he had with the Governor. No two-way to it, Ajadi is bitter and Harriet’s father, Dr. Afolabi remains his very good friend.
It has been equally argued that the non-performance of Harriet in the about half a dozen ministries and she has been posted and inability to attract anything “home” will be a minus to the government she currently serves.
The tall cabinet member of AbdulRazaq according to a source had done a few empowerment programs where clothing materials and household items like Tv were shared. She was praised for using her salary to hire a grader to work on all roads in the district.
But another source argued that the tarring of Ora township road like the one in Ile-Ire axis was a direct response by the Governor to the request of Ora Development. A document wherein Ora community appreciates the State government was sighted by this medium. The community equally made its voice loud on the issue of its epileptic power supply owing to a faulty transformer. Ora community contributed to get herself connected to the National Grid many years back.
Harriet like many other appointees of AbdulRazaq may not be an asset to his re-election bid and gives an edge to the opposition that are leaving no stone unturned.
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