AGAGU'S SENATORIAL AMBITION POLARISES PDP IN ONDO

The failure of the former Governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Agagu to declare his interest in the senatorial ticket in the Southern Senatorial District in the next general elections is causing ripples among members of the party in the area.

Already, this has polarised the party which recently lost a bye-election into Ilaje Constituency 11. Some aspirants who had shown interest in the race were not happy because of the inability of the former governor to make his interest public.

Few weeks ago the posters of the former governor flooded Okitipupa and some other towns in the area carrying the inscription 'Agagu for Senate.'

The posters, which were pasted by a youth group, hasd since sent jitters down the spines of some of the aspirants jostling for the senatorial ticket.

Presently, no fewer than four candidates had shown interest in the senatorial seat. Most of the aspirants were people who benefited immensely from Agagu's government. Some of them have stopped campaigning while some are ready to give the former governor a good fight during the party's primaries.

But the former governor had refused to come out to douse tension raised by his purported interest in the senatorial seat. Dr. Agagu, at a recent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rally at Igbokoda, denied nursing an ambition to contest the senatorial election in 2011for the Ondo South Senatorial District

Though he confessed that he was under intense pressure to contest for the seat, Mr. Agagu said he was yet to make up his mind on whether or not he would succumb to the pressure from different quarters as regards the ambition to represent his people at the Senate.

He said, 'I have no senatorial ambition and that is the truth. If I have a senatorial ambition, I will come out and say I want to contest to go to senate, for this part of the state, it's no gainsaying that if I ask them for anything they will give to me.'

'There is no hiding about it and I am not boasting, it is what God has done, I have represented them well at every bus stop they have sent me. The truth is that people here are agitating, they are pressurizing me to show interest in going into senate and as at now I am saying no.'