Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja, former Oyo State Deputy Governor, has been declared the Deputy National Chairman (South), of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP at the ongoing National Convention of the party in Abuja.
He won with 2,004 votes to defeat his rival, former Governor of
Osun State, Olagunsoye Oyinlola who garnered 705. In total, 3,511 voters were
accredited and 165 votes voided.
He was declared winner of the poll by the chairman of the
National Convention and Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri at about 4 am on
Sunday, 31st of October 2021 at Eagles Square, Abuja
Arapaja, who belongs to the camp of Oyo State Governor, Seyi
Makinde, won his rival, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who was rumoured to have
the backings of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo and former military President,
Ibrahim Babangida.
It’s expected that the new PDP Deputy National Chairman,
Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja resigns his position as the Southwest Zonal Chairman
of the party.
Alhaji Taofeek Oladejo Arapaja, means different things to
different people. While some see him as an articulate man with strong political
history in Oyo State. Some believed he is just a fortunate politician, as a
result of his relationship with the late strongman of Oyo politics, Alhaji Lamidi
Adedibu.
To some, Arapaja is a businessman, having studied Finance and
Marketing at the prestigious University of Wales, United Kingdom. Some see him
as a philanthropist. What many people don’t know about the former deputy
governor of Oyo State, however, is his political antecedents.
Many don’t know that Arapaja was actually born into politics,
and has a rich political C.V. His late father was one of the strong forces in
Oyo politics back in the day. Pa Arapaja was said to have worked closely with
the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the Action Group.
Apart from that, Taofeek Arapaja, having learned under the
tutelage of late Adedibu, has been able to build a political structure of his
own over the years. He is one of those who graduated from Molete school of
politics of Baba Adedibu. It was from Adedibu that Arapaja cut his political teeth.
Arapaja is a former Chairman, Ibadan South East Local Government,
where he served two consecutive terms, between 1999 and 2003. He represented
Ibadan South-West/Ibadan North-West Constituency in the House of
Representatives between 2003 and 2007. It was from there he became deputy
governor to the former governor of Oyo State, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala.
Under former President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration,
Arapaja was appointed as Nigerian Ambassador to two countries; the Kingdom of
Jordan and Iraq. Taofeek Arapaja attended Lagelu Grammer School, Ibadan, Oyo
State. He obtained a degree in Finance and Marketing from the University of Wales.
Of course, his political journey has never been an all smooth
one. He has had his fair share of bad politics, as well as wrong political
moves sometimes. One of such cases is when he dumped PDP for APC in 2017 and
within a few months later joined ADC, before he finally re-joined PDP in 2019.
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