2019: Fela Durotoye a mole planted by presidency to destroy ANN - National Chairman

The National Chairman of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), Dr. Jay Osi Samuels, has accused a chieftain and factional presidential candidate of the party, Mr. Fela Durotoye, of being a mole.


He made the allegation during an interview with DAILY POST in Abuja on the crisis that had engulfed the 10-month-old party regarded by pundits as an assembly of technocrats.

Samuels said he had proof that Durotoye was being sponsored by some powerful individuals in the Presidency and a popular Pentecostal church to destroy the party.


He alleged that the presidency was not scared of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar but the youths.

He claimed that the direction the block votes of the youths would go in 2019 was a source of worry to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and the presidency, hence, their moves to sponsor Durotoye, who is considered a popular personality among young Nigerians, to suck and divert the votes from that demography.

Recall that Durotoye emerged a factional presidential candidate from a parallel convention conducted by the expelled former chairman of the party, Mr. Emmanuel Dania.


However, that convention was marred by issues, notably, the absence of a quorum with only seven states in attendance whereas the party has presence in 28 states.

By the regulations of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, a valid convention should have had at least 19 states.

According to Samuels, the way the convention was organised led to a suspicion about a hidden agenda.

He said: “The greatest fear that this government s, is the fear of the youths. It is not afraid of regular politicians.

“They don’t want the youths to come together in one single party. There are two things happening here, one is the ANN matter the other one is the general strategy of this government.

“They encouraged formation of so many of these parties to suck the votes of the youths so that the youths will not come in with one voice, in one platform against them.

“Durotoye is a tool of this government to suck the votes of the youths. That’s why we will not allow him and that’s why they were hell bent on doing that convention they did for him to emerge because they were on assignment they had to deliver.

“But where we are now, we are taking our party back because Emmanuel Dania has been expelled.

“INEC has recognized our convention as the right convention. There are so many sub plots but the grand design was that Durotoye would emerge.

“There were calls from the presidency to some of our people. Some were visited with money. Their message was ‘Let Durotoye win. He is our boy. Let him win. We will handle the rest.'”

Asked to publish evidence of the shady dealings between the Presidency and Durotoye, the ANN chairman said: “I will do so in the course of time, For now, it is enough for the public to be aware tat we have recorded private conversations that back up our claims.”

Speaking also, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Akin Oyebanji, said Durotoye’s emergence could not stand any legal scrutiny.

“It is indeed surprising and strange that Durotoye and Dania are suddenly best of friends when the former had earlier walked out on the August 10 national convention which produced the latter as then National Chairman,” he said.

A close ally of Durotoye, who spoke to DAILY POST under condition of anonymity, said he was unaware of any shady arrangement between the Presidency, the Pentecostal church in question, and Mr. Durotoye.

However, he added that “It would be disappointing and surprising to us, if Fela is telling us one thing and doing another.”

“I am just hearing this allegation for the first time. But, if it turns out to be true, the lesson for us all is that politics is indeed a game of ‘all man for himself’ and nothing else,” the source said.