Young politician beaten almost to death, betrayed by party members

It is not a secret that politics is a tough game that has a lot of intrigues. As a matter of fact, politics is so tough that violence, deception, betrayal are just a few of the many ways politics is played worldwide. And right now, Comrade Megbowon Omolere has been deceived, betrayed and beaten almost to the point of death simply for having political aspirations.

A native of Erekiti in Okitipupa Local Government of Ondo State, Omolere has suffered the above-mentioned tribulations simply because he dared to aspire to represent Ondo South Senatorial District (OSSD) as its youth senator at Nigeria Youths Parliament (NYP), the youth arm of the Federal House of Senate.

Like most politicians, Omolere, a 2011 industrial chemistry graduate of the Federal University of technology, Akure (FUTA), has been long in the political landscape. “I was one of those who campaigned for the incumbent Ondo Governor, Segun Mimiko, during his campaigns for governorship. Because of my support of him, I couldn’t go home for a very long time as the main opposition party targeted me. It was only when Mimiko became Governor that I eventually returned home.”

Mimiko is not the only office holder that Omolere has supported. “When I was at FUTA, I supported the current Special Assistant to the Ondo State Governor on Youth and Student Affairs, Olumide George, in his bid to become the national president of the National Association of Ondo State Students (NAOSS). I also supported the current senator representing Ondo South Senatorial District, Senator Boluwaji Kunlere.”

Needless to say, Omolere must have supported all these office holders so they could support him in return. However, he infers that they have all combined to betray him now at the most critical period of his political career.

“As I was supporting all these people, I kept my own dreams alive. I founded Voice of the Youths, an NGO, and through it, I kept empowering Okitipupa youths by organising seminars to acquit them with skills of how to produce soap, cream shampoo and also rear rabbits, snails and run small scale industries. I organized quiz competitions for high schools and also distributed notebooks to them with the assistance of the LG.”

In 2010, having felt he had endeared himself to Okitipupa indigenes, Omolere began his campaign to represent Okiitpupa LG as youth senator. “Since new youth senators were to be chosen in December 2011, I began my campaign two years before the elections so I could make a good impression on those who would elect me.

“The youth senate is attained by either election or nomination and I held my campaigns in higher institutions all over the South West and even in the South South state, Edo. I also presented my case to all the relevant stakeholders, youth and student leaders, who have the power to nominate the youth senator to the state government.

“And all my hard work and antecedent as someone who had been contributing to the lives of my people paid off. Each state is supposed to present three youth senators for a four year term. OSSD has six LGs under it so it was decided that each LG would represent the district one after the other.

“Already, Ile Oluji, Ilaje, Odigbo and Ese LGs had represented the district so it was left to Okitipupa and Irele LGs to produce the next youth senator. So when I began my campaign, we were five contestants from these two LGs contesting but in December 2011, I was finally chosen by the stakeholders to represent the district.

“And they asked me to return the money the other contestants had expended on their campaigns. Thus, I compensated one of them with N120,000 out of N250,000 he said he spent and they helped me beg him to accept it. I gave another N80,000, another one got N75,000. I was happy at my victory but I didn’t know my elation wouldn’t last for long.”

On the day he was chosen as the NYP senator for OSSD, he was attacked by five thugs. “They surrounded me at about 7.40pm in early December 2011, I think it was on December 5^th, and beat me almost to the point of death. I spent three days in the hospital and only survived by the grace of God.”

But the worst was to come. “On December 23^rd, 2011, I was in Abeokuta when I got a call that my name had been removed as the OSSD youth senator. The caller told me that during a secret interview, George had chosen someone else whom I later found out to be Akin Kunlere, a junior blood brother of Senator Kunlere.”

Not ready to take his ‘removal’ lying down, he made enquiries and was told that he was ‘removed’ because he was liaising with the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). “When I heard that was the reason for my removal, I was very bitter. Here I was a staunch member of the ruling administration’s Labour Party, yet they said I was liaising with the opposition so in January 2012, I moved over to ACN rather than continue to suffer injustice for allegedly liaising with a party that I wasn’t.”

The removal of his name also made Omolere recall many incidences that shouldn’t have made the eventual removal surprise him. “When my name was sent to George that I was the one chosen to be OSSD’s youth senator, he asked who I was and denied knowing me even though we both went to FUTA and I campaigned for him to become NAOSS National President. But he eventually accepted my name as the nominee.

“Senator Kunlere was also very close to me, we lived in the same building, I campaigned for him during his successful senatorial bid, but when I told him I wanted to go into the NYP, he said he couldn’t support me as he didn’t want to involve himself in the youth senator campaign.”

The elder Kunlere has told Omolere that he knows nothing of how his junior brother came to be the OSSD youth senator and has even been sworn in on January 16^th, 2012, a claim Omolere finds hard to believe.

However, during a phone call with Oseyiza Oogbodo Blog, George denied that Omolere has been cheated. “I’m not aware of this Omolere,” he said. “The state Ministry of Youth conducted an open screening of possible candidates for the NYP positions and Akin Kunlere was chosen for OSSD based on his performance. There has been no wrongdoing anywhere”