By Olusegun Eguntola
Friday, November 26, 2021, in the history of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alimosho Federal Constituency will go down as the day a former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, now Senior Special Assistant on Sustainable Development Goals, (SDG) to Mr. President, Hon. Princess Adejoke Adefulire Orelope’s attempt to usurp the chapter’s leadership, by convening a constituency meeting failed.
Hon Princess Adefulire who personally signed the notice of the meeting, dispenses the same via social media channels, as against the established pattern of statutory officers and organs of the party calling esteemed party members to meetings. Many viewed her latest attempt as another of her well-known gambits to wrest power from constituted authorities in the constituency.
The venue of the meeting itself shows how out of touch with reality the convener is and how unpopular, unintelligent, childish and obsolete her foot soldiers and proxies are or are becoming. The industrial “Sewage” venue shows she and her handlers have not only lost touch with the Alimosho of yesterday but that of today also, She is beclouded with her inordinate ambition to foist her leadership on the constituency by fiat.
The meeting that was held on the narrow street did not measure up to the crowd recorded in just one ward out of the 36 Wards in the Alimosho Federal Constituency meeting. Everyone knows the Adejoke Orelope Adefulire convened constituency meeting is a desperate need to convince her backers, that she has the numbers with her in the most populous constituency in Lagos State, but with the motley crowd she gathered, the result fell flat of all her expectations.
So embarrassing was the situation that Hon Adefulire refused to attend this meeting in person, though she had lodged in a hotel in Ikeja, ten minutes drive away from the venue, awaiting a signal from her henchmen, the report of attendance and late commencement of the event demoralized her, she had to jet out of Lagos to Kano.
It is a well-known fact that Hon Princess Adefulire over the years loath interacting with her constituents, directly or indirectly, her argument is two-prong, she maintains she has never had to get the buy-in of constituents before she gets into public offices and that she suffers from enochlophobia (Fear of the crowd) when compelled to put up a showing.
This was one of the reasons why she lost her quest to represent Lagos West in the Senate in 2015. Her constituents were bitter that a woman who served four years as Deputy Governor not only abandon them but acted in complete elitism. They wondered if it is not the same people that brought her to the political limelight. Yoruba ni “Ewure o ni oun o ba aguntan se, aguntan lo ni Iya oun o bi dudu.
Hon Princess Adefulire by virtue of past and present public offices she has occupied is indeed an acknowledged political leader in the constituency and has been allowed to participate robustly in the constituency leadership with rights and privileges, that will shock her followers if her roles were publicized, but she became bitter and a turncoat just because she could not get the senatorial ticket in 2015, she could not have a taste of her own medicine.
Alimosho constituency was the envy of others before Hon Princess Orelope Adefulire brought into the Alimosho political landscape both internal dissidents and external forces, in her bid to eke vengeance by putting a knife to the cord that binds the constituents together, albeit without success to date.
The former Deputy Governor has everything within her reach to lead Alimosho but she mismanaged her opportunities. It started with her political elitism, clannishness, it graduated to the arrogance of not having anything to do with the constituents, failure to attend meetings and abandoning her constituency by having no residency or office in the constituency, bidding Alimosho farewell only to come back like an Olympiad every four years.
As a matter of fact, Hon. Princess Adejoke was and is placed in position(s) to provide empowerment, employment, education, contract, contacts and comforts to constituents pan Alimosho wide, but she has used her positions for the benefit select few and hangers-on. Her family members and siblings are no better off, so much so that they had to let out apartments in their Egbeda family house to opposition political parties, not minding the optics.
The sought-after EFCC customer, who has a series of financial misappropriation questions to answer is trying hard to cover her tracks by way of getting the Lagos West Senatorial ticket she lost in 2015 next year. She must be told that politics is a game of numbers. The wind has blown and the romp of the fowl is now open and there is no hiding place for Adejoke Adefulire Orelope that she has lost touches of reality with her few followers.
The questions begging for answers are what has been her contributions to human development in Alimosho as a board member, assembly member, commissioner, deputy governor and SSA to Mr. President on SDGs. Why does she fail to attend Ward, LGA and Constituency meetings in over 20 years of occupying public offices? Why fight dirty to include her family members, boys and closet associates in government? How does she plan to clear her mess with the EFCC? Why call a factional Constituency meeting knowing well she does not have the crowd, not the authority to do so?
Why involve in Alimosho politics after moving out of Alimosho and having the phobia to face party members? What lies will she tell Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the low turnout of the purported constituency meeting she convened?
https://any.peopleandpowermag.com/untold-story-of-adejoke-adefulire-orelope-failed-factional-constituency-meeting/
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