Circles are interesting figures. Little wonder they attracted some of the brightest minds in human history. Much like most of their geometric relatives, circles are obedient chaps who don’t talk back at you. What is most interesting about circles is that you end up where you begin with them. Such reliable chaps. Fun for kids and adults with engines for brains. Not so fun for Adekunle Akinlade. He has learnt that the ‘back to the beginning’ effect is a double-edged scimitar.
When the Appeal Court in Ibadan dismissed Akinlade’s appeal challenging Governor Dapo Abiodun’s victory, a bleak terrain of a prospect replaced the vistas he expected. Worse yet is the fact that the judge who read the judgment, Justice Muhammed Ambi-Usi Danjuma, declared that the appeal lacked merit. That’s a tenfold failure because the appeal was based on ten counts.
Let’s back-track a bit and give this narrative a good grind. Here comes a just fellow who seeing our man with bruises from eyes and lips swollen beyond recognition promptly asks: How did Adekunle Akinlade end up on the floor? Who beat him?
It is stale news that Akinlade joined the industrious ranks to contest the governorship of Ogun State on the platform of the Allied Progressives Movement (APM). The victory was obviously assured because his political godfather is no other than Senator Ibikunle Amosu.
Having this heft behind, we didn’t much expect that he would get the short end of the stick. But that he did. And by the candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Dapo Abiodun. But that isn’t the cause of his present state. He could have played the hero, the gracious dude who lost. No, he said. He became the crabby dude who sued the gracious dude who won to court.
So, the present day: he lost again. Someone who doesn’t like him very much might go so far as to say that he is finally sticking to a party – one of the defeated. Recall that he defected to APM from APC. This has been reported as the primary reason for his defeat. Both times. APM is not a very popular party.
And that, sir, is why comrade Adekunle Akinlade is sitting dejected – although we hear that he is currently consulting Amosun and planning to appeal the judgment of the election petition tribunal.
