EXCLUSIVE: YORUBA ELDERS GOT N750MILLION TO ENDORSE JONATHAN'S RE-ELECTION BID

...How Governor Mimiko and Yinka Odumakin Brokered the Deal between the Elders and the Presidency

As controversy continues to trail president Goodluck Jonathan's sudden romance with different groups in the South West, fresh facts have emerged that some prominent Yoruba elders got a whopping N750million as bribe in exchange for their support for Jonathan's re-election bid, The ELITES reports

Fresh facts have emerged over why a few Yoruba leaders under the guise of Afenifere socio-political group reportedly endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan’s reelection bid. A whopping N750m is the carrot that was dangled before the elders.

Presenting a common interest under the banner of Afenifere, The ELITES' findings revealed that the elders allegedly involved include former Finance Minister and presidential candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Chief Olu Falae; Chief Reuben Fasoranti, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief Lanihun Ajayi and Senator Femi Okurounmu.
Governor Segun Mimiko of Ondo State and Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, are said to have brokered the deal that got the Yoruba leaders rewarded for coming out in the open to

pledge their support for Jonathan. The President’s popularity has rapidly nose-dived in recent months particularly in the South-West, whose crucial votes are needed to determine who wins the rescheduled presidential election come Saturday March 28.
While General Buhari is believed to be in firm control of the North-East and North-West zones, which have the largest concentration of voters, Presidential Jonathan has the upper hand in the South-South and South-East zones. Both candidates are projected to share the votes from the North-Central leaving the South-West votes as the likely decider of who will emerge as the President.

While Jonathan won the votes from the entire South-West with the exception of Osun State in 2011 under a secret arrangement with the political leadership of the zone then, it is believed that the majority of the votes from the zone this time around will go for General Muammadu Buhari, the APC candidate, who does not only have Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as one of his biggest backers, but also picked Tinubu’s candidate and a respected member of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, as his running mate.
APC currently controls four out of the six states in the South-West, including Lagos, which like Kano, has the highest number of registered voters. Ekiti, which though is currently under PDP, is likely to be shared by the two candidates considering recent revelation that the military was used by the authorities to rig the election in favour of Ayodele Fayose of the PDP.

An impeccable source informed The ELITES that considering the calculations that South-West will be the decider of the presidential votes, the presidency had to reach out to certain Yoruba elders and traditional rulers who are known to be against Tinubu’s political machinery and woo them to his side in order to create the impression that some prominent Yorubas are also with the president.

“The reason the President was very frequent to the South-West in the last few weeks is because he recognized the importance of the zone to his victory. Just like he did in 2011, his style is simply to throw money at the problem with the belief that very few people can resist huge inducement. I can tell you that N750m was budgeted for the elders and it has already been disbursed. The money was not just to curry their favour but to also turn them into the president’s mouthpiece in the zone,” the source informed.
It was also gathered that many of the beneficiaries were delegates during the last national conference and they are already seeing Jonathan as a good source of revenue. “Although they may be lightweights when it comes to delivering votes, they have ‘nuisance’ value in the sense that they wear the toga of Yoruba leaders which they always use to their advantage when it comes to privileges and benefits.
Both governor Babatunde Fashola and Igbo leaders have recently made allusions to the fact that the President’s visit to Lagos and other parts of South-West was to induce as many stakeholders as possible.