Jime,Yaro, barred from Tinubu’s residence as Benue APC begs for intervention at Supreme Court

It was a big show of shame for the leadership of the Benue state chapter of the APC last week when the party’s governorship candidate, Emmanuel Jime, state chairman, Abba Yaro, and four other members of the state executive council were barred from entering the Bourdillon,Lagos state residence of a national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Jime had last week led a delegation of some Benue APC leaders including Abba Yaro,Mark Hanmation and some others to meet Tinubu for his financial and personal supports in order for the Supreme Court to set aside a recent Appeal Court ruling which upheld the victory of Governor Samuel Ortom in the last governorship election in Benue state.

An inside source told our reporter that an appointment had been booked by Emmanuel Jime with Mr. Oja Ojo, husband to Sade Tinubu (Tinubu’s daughter) for them to meet the former Lagos state governor over their request.

But rather than seeing Jime and his entourage on the appointed day, Asiwaju Tinubu ordered his aides to turned them back at his gate on arrival.

Akeem Muri- Okunola who led the aides that barred Jime and his team from entering Tinubu’s house reportedly told them of the APC national leader’s indisposition to meet them for reasons that were not disclosed to them.

According to Okunola who was Tinubu’s Personal Assistant while he was governor of Lagos state, the APC national leader complained about how his N1 billion was wasted on a “futile effort” at the Appeal Court where Ortom’s victory was upheld last month.

Okunola was said to have told the Benue APC governorship candidate and his entourage that Tinubu was not ready to spend his money on a “mere academic exercise” like the case between him (Jime) and Governor Ortom again.

It was gathered from another source that Tinubu’s anger towards Jime was not unconnected to a rumour he got that the Benue APC is part of the lobby for President Muhammadu Buhari’s Third Term Agenda.

The source said: “I can confirm that Asiwaju refused to attend to the delegation from Benue state last week as a result of the information that they are secretly supporting Buhari’s third term bid.

” How can they come here to seek for our help to work on the Supreme Court to sack their democratically elected governor when they are secretly backing one illegal third term bid to frustrate Oga’s (Tinubu) plan to succeed Buhari.

“Asiwaju is already regretting for the N1b he gave them during their failed agenda at the Appeal Court in Abuja, and now they are begging for more help.

” When they (Jime and his entourage) arrived that afternoon, a memo was brought to us from the security post but Asiwaju asked Muri (Hakeem Muri Okunola) to stop them from coming in, and that ended our relationship with them”.

Credit: By Ademola Olusina, Lagos (Nigerian Concord)